Thank You My Angel
words and music: Detweiler, MacDonald, and Powell

thank you my angel
for blessing me
with these words and for giving me
what i was hungry for
taste of dirt
from the floor of heaven

thank you my angel
for cutting off my hands
forbidding me
to trace the lines of this miracle
across the great divide
for making love a foreign language

thank you my angel
for fluttering
out my window for telling me
all those lies about myself
it was your way of bandaging the bleeding

thank you my angel
for the clutter of my life
for dragging me
to the edge of the wilderness
to lie here by myself
just outside the land of promise


This song is so beautiful and has always left me wondering what it's saying at it's core. Sometimes I think it's sad, other times sardonic, mostly both. Again, a song where the emotion in Karin's voice is so heavy. It has such a questioning sound to it, so much "why?". Even after saying that, once in a while I wonder and almost believe it is genuinely thankful.

What do you think?

I would have to hear it I think.

Funny you say that...

Thank You My Angel - OtR mp3 Attic

I will get to it when I get home from church tonight.

This song has never been one of my favorites, I think because the melody and chord progression strike me as kinda boring compared to many other OtR songs. No argument on Karin's performance though, and the lyrics are typically complex and ironic Linford. I think there is definitely real gratitude in them, but also an acknowledgment that real (as opposed to imagined) love entails uncertainty and sacrifice along with growth.

Sometimes I sing this one to my non-Rhinelander wife just to annoy her.

May I suggest (either as a starting point or as a supplement, take your pick) checking out this THREAD from the list. It was a discussion of TYMA started on Dec. 2, 1997 by none other than Mr. Dusty Volume himself. As I recall, there were some very interesting discussion re: that song. The contributions of Don Smith and Joel Smith were particularly noteworthy, IIRC.

I remember reading this thread! Thanks, Steve! For those who've never wandered around the list archives, click [Thread Next] at the top of the page when you're done reading and it'll string you along in order. About 4 responses in is where the discussion kicks in. It's a great example of the depth I love reading in song analysis yet seem to fumble on when I try to do myself. I'm a great observer so I tend to stick to that usually.

If you follow the archives, I just found that the discussion picks up again under a new title, again by Mark/dustyvolume, here: tyma

and again, here: opinions

and... again: queries and clarifications

I think I got 'em all.

And fumble is what some of the rest of us do too! Sheesh, I can't believe I wrote some of that stuff. That one post where I compare over the rhine to neutrogena is atrocious. And I wasn't even suffering from short term memory loss--not that I know of anyway--

Baby, 7 years is a long time.** As far as what you had to say about the song though, how does that stand up over time? I always feel a constant push-pull everytime I hear it.



** I got to hang out w/ Don for a handfull of days a couple years ago, in talking about the list and the archives, he had similar things to say regarding his own posts in the archives along the lines of your, "I can't believe I wrote some of that stuff". The world keeps turnin' and we all keep gettin' older, y'know?

hmmm. Wise words, and you're right, re-reading all that really brought back the song for me. It used to be my fave on DNotY (It Came Upon a Midnight Clear is now). And although that thread is full of typos, silliness and a little stupidity on my part, the basic ideas about the song are what I really meant to convey.

And the list is full of different song explications. A little before my time, there was a great discussion on Rhapsodie, which included some interesting discussion by none other than Molly Smith (Aka Molly Detweiler--aka Puppyhead Mom). Granted it is shorter than I seem to remember, but hey, there weren't thread trails back then, so I didn't search too far into that title, but for a start, see this.


And although it's not necessary, it is interesting to note that the list was not all harmony and happy discussions. Just shows how good we have it here.

Speaking of "I can't believe I wrote that"--back in my list days I was quite obnoxious about my upcoming status as a Detweiler. Agh.

Although it is wonderful to be a part of this beautiful family, I was just over the top in my excitement about it. Ah...I was young and silly.

As for Thank you, My Angel, I guess I always looked at it in the light of our brother-in-law's battle with cancer at the time (He's the Chris who the album is dedicated to) and how it brought out the best in him in spite of it all--and how circumstances that are rather evil on the surface can be seen as "dark angels" if they bring out the beauty in a person.

[Side note: Chris has been cancer free for several years and just became the father of his second child, Lauren Grace.)

Hey Molly, unfair advantage!

Makes very good sense though, and that's wonderful news about Chris. Thanks for the insight.

Naw...frankly most of the time we family members try to egotistically connect OtR songs to us we later hear from Linford that we were way off.