Robbie Robertson - Fallen Angel Lyrics

Native heart, beat....

man I've been trying to find this song for decades, it was played during the turmoil over the Ben Johnson scandal it was very memorable in the emotions it conveyed at the time, beautiful vocals and instrumentals 😏

It's a really moving tribute to Richard Manuel.

Class of 90. Very rich songs on this album.

Amazing

Lanois is all over this one. Sounds almost like a lost track from So, even without Peter's backing vocals. Really powerful song.

I agree. I also feel the Gabriel touch here as well.

It's in the sins we Humans do...the following consequences

One pf the best performances ever by a spectacular artist.

Such a great album, Robbie with members of U2, Bodeans, Lone Justice, and in this case Peter Gabriel. Side to side, track for track, it doesn’t get any better than this, from the first note to the last, Perfection!

Gabriel x

It is so powerful a song that it is a eulogy to a loved one of mine.

I read the lyrics to this song at my brother Billy's funeral. It was and is so fitting to send him off with this. Billy I love you brother. Lay that flower in the snow. We will meet again. Thank you Robbie. Your artistry and soul helped me get through one of the saddest days of my life.

There’s no piano. Was that a choice?

Garth Hudson is all over this. No piano but a lot of Garth.

Pat Brennan
As the song is about Richard Manuel, one might think it would contain a Richard motif.

Pow Wow Highway brought me here. Fell in love with this song the moment I heard it. Made me ball my eyes out..

I fell in love with it as well from Powwow Highway. Honestly, I just discovered what the song was just not! It brought me to this link. 30 years later, I finally figured out what this song was! I heard in a couple movies back then and never found it until just now!

@Scott Thomas Bless you brother.

My dad skip from the northern Cheyenne tribe out in lame deer has a part in the film.

one of my absolute favorite films, and where i first heard the song too.

I still remember buying Robertson's debut solo album back in '87. This track was the opener and I just felt breathless at how it soared. 30 years on and I still just love it.

The album starts magnificently and just continues in that same magnificence. Hard to pick favourites, but I think mine by a whisker is 'Broken Arrow', but the whole album is exceptional.

mrdainase - You realize this guy is singing a song to satan/lucifer/the devil (a fallen angel) who got kicked out of Heaven by The Almighty Father, right?

@Barb N @mrdainase Satan needs love too. Lmao. But seriously, I could give two fucks who it's about. The song is a masterpiece. It fills my very soul. If the subject matter is offensive to you, you don't have to listen to it. And, if the idea is to get people to discount it, you really need to get a fucking life. Religious zealots ruin everything. They are the devils of this earthly existence.

I remember it well too. This song brought me to tears then and still does. Absolutely magnificent songwriting and the cast of musicians here is incredible. Heartfelt, pure, honest. These kinds of albums are very few and far between.

@Barb N: You couldn't be more wrong. It's about his former bandmate (from "The Band") Richard Manuel, who unfortunately committed suicide in 1986. It's one of the most gorgeous tributes to a fallen friend that I've ever heard. I'm sure the "Angel" in it refers to Manuel, who had the voice of an angel. Not sure why I bother telling you this because your blind zealotry will probably lead to you replying that suicide is a mortal sin or some such nonsense. Just enjoy the beauty and spirituality of the song, and get off your God pedestal FFS. Oops, now I've probably triggered the "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do" response. ROFLMAO

Robbie is so good. just love his licks and words.

Another Beautiful piece of work from Robbie Robertson. I fell in love the first time I heard. Really powerful and appealing.

I lov the BAND and Robbie Robertson music this is one of my fav.

an incredibly powerful song - a masterpiece for me...a new favorite artist! I'm grateful to a friend posting this on my Peter Gabriel page - never knew of this genius before...

He use to play for the BAND in the 60s he was at woodstock also 1967

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbie_Robertson

If you mean the music festival (which they were there), that was in 1969.

Robbie began playing in bands in the late 1950s, was in the legendary The Band (Bob Dylan's backing band which went on to record a bunch of critically and commercially successful albums in their own name), and has produced a bunch of other people's records. But quite late in releasing his first solo album - 1987. It's a magnificent album.

It sounds like Peter Gabriel may have wrote the song, I think.

this is one of the greatest albums of that decade...flawless...

+NATURAL SPIRIT oh yes. And I learned of that song incredibly on MTV, back when they played music. That video he did featured a very sultry Maria McKee in a visual role only because she doesn't sing on it. I fell hard for her because that was the same year of her group Lone Justice & their hit "Shelter", where she's dancing around a bonfire.

Yes, and Fallen Angel takes me back to when I was a 20 year old kid confused about the world, Robbie's music took me to a place far far away, that place was my saviour, I am so touched to hear it again.

Agree. I still have no idea how I came to buy this album way back when, but loved it then. Takes me back now. I wish the sun was shining and I was driving. Just a perfect album.

Beautiful.
Gorgeous work.

LINDO......

This is just so beautiful, this is beauty we're talkin' about! Thank you.

Absolutely

Need some images of Richard Manuel in your vid, since the song is about him.

Oh yes.

The song is about a spiritual journey with your soulmate

Not really.

About Richard, I meant ...