I'm No Angel (Gregg Allman Band song)

"I'm No Angel"
Single by The Gregg Allman Band
from the album I'm No Angel
B-side	"Lead Me On"
Released	March 1987 (1987-03)
Format	7"
Genre	Southern rock pop rock
Length	3:43
Label	Epic
Writer(s)	Tony Colton Phil Palmer
Producer(s)	Rodney Mills
The Gregg Allman Band singles chronology
"Cryin' Shame" (1977) "I'm No Angel" (1980) "Can't Keep Running" (1987)

"I'm No Angel" is a song by the American rock band the Gregg Allman Band. It was the lead single from their studio album of the same name, released on Epic Records.

The song was an unexpected hit, gaining heavy album-oriented rock airplay and reaching number one on Billboard's Album Rock Tracks chart.

Background

A C-B flat-F progression, the song's lyrics were inspired by a T-shirt Palmer saw an infant wearing which said "Daddy's No. 1 Angel". Due to a fold in the shirt, Palmer initially read it as "Daddy's No Angel". Frequently interpreted to be semi-autobiographical, "I'm No Angel" featured Allman's gruff vocals in a Bruce Springsteen sound-alike way, New Orleans music-based^[1] statement of boasting yet acknowledging of fault-strewn purpose:

No, I'm no angel, no I'm no stranger to the street

I`ve got my label, so I won't crumble at your feet

And I know baby, so I've got scars upon my cheek

And I'm half crazy, come on and love me baby ...

Laden with 1980s production touches from Rodney Mills such as heavy keyboards and drums, the record helped revive Allman's image to the pop and rock world, and may have even indirectly contributed to The Allman Brothers Band's successful reformation two years later.

Allman's former wife Cher identified with the song as well, and performed it in the high-profile opening slot of her 1989-1990 Heart of Stone Tour.^[2]

In subsequent years, "I'm No Angel" has been part of Allman's solo concert repertoire, and has also been played by The Allman Brothers Band, with most of the pop gloss of the original recording eliminated.

Charts

References