Angels Would Fall

The song was written by Melissa Etheridge with the main guitar loop contributed by John Shanks. It is one of her darkest songs as the singer says herself on the bonus DVD of her album Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled:[1]

Breakdown was such a dark period in my life that all the songs were turning out so dark that I even had to go to John Shanks who was producing this album, which was one of his first producing projects [...] but it was a very artistic time and the songs were very moody, very dark, and I finally said: “Look, do you have any pieces of music maybe I can write to? Because I am scraping on the bottom of my soul.”

"Angels Would Fall" is about a desperate crush Etheridge had on someone else's girlfriend during her shattered relationship with Julie Cypher.[2] In the verses, she describes the pain she feels because she can tell nobody about her feelings (“The rope that's wrapped around me is cutting through my skin...”), while in the chorus she is singing the desired person's praises (“Angels never came down [...] but if they knew, if they knew you at all, angels would fall...”).

Etheridge in the music video.

The music video was shot in 1999, and showed Melissa Etheridge playing her song in a dark, empty, saloon-styled bar where the furniture is destroyed like after a fight. In retrospective scenes, nebulous images of people in white dresses come down from the ceiling symbolising the fallen angels. While they fall down, they cause the damage described above. These angels find love in each other, both homosexual and heterosexual couples are formed. Towards the end, the door of the bar opens and the angels go into the light.[3]

"Angels Would Fall" was the most successful single of Breakdown. It reached the US Billboard Hot 100, was Etheridge's third consecutive single peaking at #9 on the Adult Top 40 and her fourth consecutive top 10 hit in the Canadian single charts.

1. "Angels Would Fall" (Melissa Etheridge, John Shanks) - 4:39
2. "Into the Dark" (Etheridge) - 4:59
3. "Beloved" (Etheridge) - 7:54

• Melissa Etheridge - acoustic guitar, vocals
• Kenny Aronoff - drums, marimba, shaker
• Jon Brion - guitar
• Mark Browne - bass
• Matt Chamberlain - drums
• Steve Ferrone - percussion, drums
• Rami Jaffee - keyboard
• Jim Keltner - drums
• Greg Leisz - guitar, mandolin, lap steel guitar, pedals
• Brian MacLeod - percussion, drum loop
• Pino Palladino - bass
• John Shanks - dulcimer, guitar, harp, marimba, background vocals
• Patrick Warren - keyboard
• Gota Yashiki - drum loop

• Melissa Etheridge and Laura Morton: The truth is..., Random House 2002
• Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled bonus DVD
• Lyrics

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics