Angie Baby

my mom used to play this all the time i think it is about a crazy girl who doesn't have any friends and just dances and talks to voices and songs on the radio. her parents hoped she would get better but they have to take her out of school.then the neighbor boy was planning on taking advantage over Angie but she killed him and nobody could really find out what happened because she is insane and nobody asked her about it

This song was screaming for it to be made into a sci-fi show episode. Twilight Zone anyone?

I heard this song today for the first time in a long time, and it struck me how much fun the songwriter had with the premise. It's purposely never made clear if the neighbor boy really exists or not. The majority of the evidence ("Lovers' appear in your room each night", "Toward the radio he's bound") points to him being made up by the crazy girl. However, the chorus hits you with "Living in a world of make believe ... well, maybe," which leaves the door open to him being real. And that ambiguity was the songwriter's intent.

Angie is an evil witch-like woman. Everyone thinks she's insane, because that's the way she wants it. The events in the song are not "all in her mind" as many people state. The song is like a (very nasty) fairy tale. Angie has the ability to cast evil spells, and that's what she does to this wretched neighbor boy.

Wow, what a weird song!!! Any thoughts? (Does anyone even remember this song??

I remember this song when I was little my mom always played it, I am not sure what it means though lol I was hopeing people would know but there was only 1 comment! hmmm Yeah I would share my thoughts but I don't really know how to put them in words, Sorry!!

You know how in the movies whenever someone is psychic or does something else involving the supernatural (something which they can't proove) ordinary people wind up trying to lock them in the loony bin?

Well basically I think that is whats happened with Angie (Folks hoping you'd turn out cool/ But they had to take you out of school/ You're a little touched you know)

People assume she must be crazy because shes not even trying to make friends, the only friends she seems to want are the "imaginary" ones conjured; I don't think shes actually crazy for two reasons. The first is that theres a nuanced sarcasm to the lyrics that imply that she's aware of her situation, and people who are self aware are rarely crazy enough to get pulled out of school permanently.

The second reason is this part of the song: "The headlines read, that a boy dissappeared, and everyone thinks he died, 'cept a crazy girl and her secret lover, who keeps her Satisfied" Okay so obviously its not all in her head if someone really went missing is it?

To explain the weird thing about the radio shrinking and capturing the neighborboy, and it only letting him out when the music plays, i think you should look to fairy tales. In the movie Moulan Rouge theres a citar that has a spirit that always tells the truth when the citarplayer plays the instrument. I know a similar story where one of the bones of a murdered girl is used to make a string instrument and when the musician plays that instrument in front of her killer her spirit is finally able to come out and accuse her killer. So maybe the radio is magic and lovers really were whirring across the floor but only when the music was on.

Personally I think the neighborboy was pretty brazen. I mean, if I was in his shoes I know I'd think twice before going into the house of a mysterious crazy girl. He must have nerved himself to do it after peeking through her window blinds he undoubtably convinced himself that she was harmlessly dancing with herself.

I like the imagery of him getting smaller in stature when the volume goes down. (Honey I Shrunk the peeping Tom!)

Anyway thats my interpretation of the song. I think the theme of this song is that the truth is hidden.

There IS NO actual guy, and therefore no one actually dies. Angie is a loner who constantly listens to the radio in her bedroom, increasing the volume on her favorite songs and dancing with fantasy lovers at will. In one particular fantasy, she has herself dancing with a boy who (in her mind) has spent time spying through her bedroom window before he gets up the courage one night to knock on the front door and offer to be her dance partner. Once a song comes on the radio that she won't dance to, she turns the volume back down as part of her routine, not needing anyone until the next danceable tune gets played.

Songwriter Alan O'Day devotes an entire verse to the effects on the boy when she does this, but those lines are nothing more than typical song development, utilizing multiple rhymes, sound-a-likes, and imagery. Since the boy isn't real, none of the effects described are actually happening, The line "toward the radio he's bound" describes his sudden awareness that the dancing has ended as quickly as it began, and that the radio is more important to Angie than he is. In Angie's mind, he vaporizes into nothing as quickly as he appeared. That's the way it is with all of her dance 'lovers.'

There are no actual newspaper headlines either. This is referring to the fact that she goes to her (alternative) school the next day, creating her own verbal 'headlines' by telling friends about a peeping Tom who 'came over' to dance with her 'while her parents were gone.' Since Angie has a reputation for making up wild, far-fetched stories, her school mates often play along by asking probing questions, just to see what she'll say. When they ask what happened to the boy, she says "he's dead," implying that she killed him when done with him, but without explicitly admitting it. "I'm like a black widow spider," she tells them, enforcing everyone's opinion that she's a nutcase with a vivid imagination who likes to toy with people's heads.

Heard this song on the radio when I was really young; always thought it was cool. As I got older & life started to present more problems got so I began to identify with the line, "Its so nice to be insane, noone asks you to explain". And ya know what? It is.