Misplaced Love

Breaking from the standard of recording in a studio, the Cowboy Junkies arranged to record in a church on a November day in 1987.  The came prepared, got everything on tape (it was an analog age), and the Session album was released the next year.  The Trinity Session was a huge hit, and it's for those songs that the band is most known for today.  In this post, I'm going to choose one of the big singles from the Trinity track list.

Like the 10,000 Maniacs' "What's the Matter Here," the Cowboy Junkies' "Misguided Angel" is a story about abuse.  Differences are that it's particularly about spousal abuse, and that the song is written from the victim's perspective (not someone wanting to intervene).  This song (written together by siblings Margot and Michael Timmins) is just as important a message.  When the time came to record a Trinity Revisited in the same church 19 years later, Natalie Merchant (formerly of the 10,000 Maniacs) joined them in recording the new version of "Misguided Angel."

In each of the verses, the singer's character tells her family members (her mother, father, sister, and brother) that despite her husband's faults, there are many positive qualities to him.  Privately, she opens up, calling her husband a "misguided angel".  She picks two angels that she sees in her husband.  Gabriel (the messenger) and Lucifer.  Given modern culture, you probably know who Lucifer is referring to.  Dating back to chapter 14 from the Book of Isaiah, Lucifer had led a revolt against God, and was stricken into the ground.  Margot's character describes his heart to Gabriel, associating ivory tone of white with purity.  In contrast, the husband's soul is like Lucifer's.  "Black and cold like a piece of lead."  While coal is usually associated with the color black, I think that means more when lead is being compared with ivory.  While ivory and coal are carbon based (coming from life), lead is a raw metallic element.  

Metaphors aside, the most important part of the message, is that the character has fallen into a horrible mindset.  The husband convinced her that childhood's over and that she's his wife until death.  In many examples of loving relationships, pertaining to that part of the marital vows is perfectly heathy, but this isn't a loving relationship.  There's a beauty to the music and songwriting, but definitely a deep sadness as well.  Just as with "What's the Matter Here" (recorded 8 months earlier in Los Angeles), the track ends with us not knowing how the story ends.  The relationships that we learn about in these songs are left open ended, and I imagine that it's to show how society must change it's patterns.  I trust that we've come far as a people in the past 29 years, but however the miles behind us, we've got many more to go.