'Angel of the Morning’ was originally offered to Connie Francis, but she turned it down because she thought that it was too risqué for her image, as the song's narrator describes her feelings about a ‘one-night stand’: "If morning's echo says we've sinned, well, it was what I wanted now."
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When I worked in a Brighouse mill between the ages of 27-30 years, before I entered to train as a Probation Officer, the workers always had a tale to tell when we held our tea breaks. One of the men whose stories always attracted an audience was a man called Albert who was approaching retirement years. In brief, prior to his 24th year when he wed, Albert had lived a life of licentiousness, wickedness, drunkenness, gambling and debauchery. He lived hard and played hard, as we say in Yorkshire, but once he married, he no longer played at all and lived harder than ever before.
Albert, like many a man, was swayed by the attractive features of a woman who seemed to offer him everything he ever wanted were he to settle down into married life. Within a year, he had converted to Methodism and all its inherent disciplines. His life had changed more than he could have ever imagined. I’ll never forget the time he told a group of us, “She will only do it once a week and the rest of the nights are spent by me looking at her asleep, afraid to touch and disturb her. My bed has become a prison where I look but can’t touch. It’s the mornings I hate most of all, though. At night she looks angelic as she sleeps with her hands clasped in constant prayer, but when I look at her first thing in the morning before I get up and make her a cupper, I don’t see any bargain marriage brought me; I can’t see no angel at my side for the life left in me!” (some are my remembered words given the long passage of time that has lapsed but is accurately representative of Albert’s message).
Whenever I hear this song, it reminds me of Albert, the ex-cricketer who would often play the field between Bradford, Brighouse and Halifax and who never missed an easy catch but caught a googly when he married his wife.
I dedicate today’s song to the daughter of my brother Patrick; my niece Clare. Clare is one of my nieces who keeps very much to herself and I cannot remember how long it has been now since we have seen each other ( caused more by my absence of any effective immune system which has largely stopped me attending large family gatherings for the past four years). Have a nice birthday, Clare, with your family and loved ones. Love and peace Uncle Billy and Sheila.
Love and peace Bill xxx