This is going to seem like an over-the-top statement, but if you are reading a blog about pop music then you should be accepting of over-the-top statements.
My statement is this. If we ever make contact with an alien civilization I want Robbie Williams’ “Angels” to be the first thing they hear from this planet. Not just any version, but either the Live from Knebworth, England version or the live version on the UK “Angels” single.
Some people were upset that this song was voted into the UK’s top 10 songs of all-time a few years back, which struck me as pretentious at best. When he stops singing and 300,000 people sing back at him at Knebworth... I mean holy shit, what else do you want from a song(and people wander why the man has an ego). That is the dream of anyone who has ever written a song.
In fact, sometimes when I start to question the humanity of this world we live in I pop in the aforementioned single that has one of the best live versions I’ve heard of the song... and I’ve heard a lot. On this version Robbie Williams dedicates the song to his mom and then proceeds to pour his heart out on the stage except for the second verse; when over 100,000 people do it for him. That is almost more moving in some ways.
As someone who has always wanted to make his mom proud, I find it to be a goose-bump inducing moment of triumph for Mr. Williams, who ironically, was someone I had a hard time “getting” early in his career. I thought his “band” Take That was a joke and his going solo to be, well, unneeded.
But after I heard "Angels" I gave him a free pass into my world of four chord pop music and I have been a pretty big fan of him since. It helps that he is from England, as I tend to give people from that great place a free pass anyway, but the reality is that he is consistent talent and has a huge ego that makes for interesting press. Like I said when 300,000 people sing your song (Guy Chamber's song actually) back at you... you are bound to get a little ego. As well you should.
There is an early live version of this song where Robbie sings it in Berlin, Germany. Freakin’ Berlin. I mean keep in mind that we are only 50 years removed from WWII and this Brit is standing on stage singing a song about angels and the entire audience sings back at him. To me that is what music is about and that is why this song is amazing, dare say it, healing. It reminds a little bit of "Imagine" by John Lennon which could also be a contender for the first thing I want aliens to hear from us, but there is not a video of 300,000 people singing "Imagine". Sorry John.
So, in the end it doesn’t seem strange to me at all that this is the song I want to be statement of our planet. It’s a song of hope that is not corny. It’s a song of love that is not mooshy. And it’s a about angles that isn’t religious. It just feels nice. Which is why 300,000 people sing along.
Because in a world of war, AIDS, famine, etc--- it’d be nice to show another planet that hundreds of thousands of people can occasionally come together and just sing.
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