The Angels' Share

anyone else feeling that the demo version (available at TedLeo.com!) of this song is better than the album version?

the album version fails miserably in capturing the grizzly badassitude of the beat in this song. dang, is it fresh.

I agree 100% The album version tries to mess with the formula too much by bringing the melodies in and out. It's a pretty simple song and the album version tries to make it into something more. The demo just charges in harder and harder keeps building, so damn cool. The driving force in the demo works better with the claustrophobic lyrics.

For anyone (like me) who is looking for a little clarification:

an·gel's share n. Informal The quantity of an alcoholic liquor lost to evaporation during the distilling process.

Although it's obvious that this song is not about liquor, the definition did help me grasp the meaning of this song better.

Is it just me, or is this song very... Republican? It seems to be anti-welfare, and all that kind of thing. At least that's how I interpreted it.

I'm pretty sure this song is about taxes. I'm probably being horribly obvious, but oh well. However, I can't see how most of the second verse plays into taxes. I've never been very good at devining the meanings of songs though. No matter what it's about, I still adore this song.

Does anyone still have the demo version? It's not on the official site anymore.

I can't help but feel this song is about destroying and taking from the environment.

"Oh, lonely day, oh, led astray, oh, burden on the land"

How we are taking from the land and causing more harm than good.

"Oh always same, oh, nothing changed, oh, urge to bite the hand"

We haven't changed our ways and it is still aways tempting to hurt the Earth which feeds us.

"Withholding on your promise to the air Will only lead to something bad, I swear"

How we are hurting the air quality. In the end it will end up being bad as a whole.

"You can't escape the Angels' Share."

This damage to the planet will get us in the end.

"Down again -- it seems a losing fight Yet, down again, I sit, to try to write An open letter to a President Or melodies to help a girl pay rent (We saved and saved, only to find them spent)."

He tries to tell the government to do something aobut any problem but it seems futile.

Honestly, about he rest I don't feel too sure about what it means. I feel like it has the same themes though.

i like the above theory.... if you combine that with the guy's definition... "You can't escape the Angels' Share." could mean that we're adding global warming to the mix, and evaporating the oceans, our drink... much like the lost booze?

I was also confused by the seemingly anti-tax lyrics (bc it’s Ted Leo), but I’ve come up an interpretation that I think makes a lot of sense. Notice that the “angels’ ” in “Angels’ Share” is plural, unlike the usual expression “angel’s share,” referring to the amount of liquor that is lost to evaporation.

Like most of the rest of Shake the Streets, it’s about the war in Iraq. The “angels’ share” (alluding to the loss of life in 9/11) is the high portion of tax money that goes to the US military. His “letter to the president [Bush]… to help a girl pay rent” is pleading to use the money to help struggling Americans instead of wasting tax dollars on a war driven by hysteria. Still, he finds the money “we saved” has been “spent” on the military once again. After 9/11, Bush made “a promise to the air,” which is a promise to the “angels” who lost their lives in 9/11. He didn’t have enough information to make a specific promise about how to ensure the safety of Americans, so he began what was basically a war for revenge that turned out to be against the wrong group. The war is a “burden on the land,” a financial burden on the US and the cause of destruction and death in Iraq. In the end, Leo says, “I’m not sure [the angels],” perhaps now referring to the American lives lost in 9/11 and the war thus far, “care.” Why would the dead want in an unnecessary war to continue, causing more unnecessary loss of life? People still acted like we needed to finish the war for them, but it doesn’t actually matter. Instead, we should have stopped the war for their sake so that more people didn’t share their fate.