The Angel and the One

"The Angel and the One"
Album track by Weezer
Album	Weezer (The Red Album)
Released	June 3, 2008
Recorded	Spring 2007
Length	6:46
Label	Geffen
Writer(s)	Rivers Cuomo
Producer(s)	Rick Rubin
Status	Officially released
Live debut	January 17, 2013 in Melbourne, Australia
Last played	April 29, 2024 in Santa Ana, CA
Stream	Spotify
	Apple Music
Weezer (The Red Album) track listing
Weezer (The Red Album) (Deluxe Edition) track listing
Weezer (The Red Album) (International Version) track listing
Deliverance at Hand! track listing
This song is part of the "The Angel and the One" lineage of songs "You Think You're Bad" (2006); "Bad Girl" (?); "Come to Stay" (?); "The Angel and the One" (2008);

"The Angel and the One" is the tenth track off of The Red Album. It is reworked from a Rivers Cuomo song titled "Bad Girl".

Appearances

Weezer (The Red Album) (2008)
Alone X: The Red-Raditude-Hurley Years (2020)

Overview

"The Angel and the One" was, according to Rivers Cuomo, reworked from a song titled "Bad Girl". Said Cuomo in the album's liner notes:

Rivers: That song it started out as a really standard pop song called bad girl and had a verse and a chorus and a bridge and all that stuff. And I just wasn't satisfied with it. It wasn't moving me spiritually enough. It was too normal. So one day I sat down with my acoustic guitar and I just played that song over and over on basically looping it. My fingers hurt so much, but I just kept playing it. And over the hour that I was playing it, the song slowly evolved and it smoothed over and the sections blurred into each other. And it turned into this spiritual reverie that is really just one long development with out any distinctions between sections. Every line in this rhymes and the melody just gradually gets higher and higher and the music gets louder and more powerful... There isn't any study of music in that song. It was just the desire to breakaway and not write a standard three minute pop song.

— Weezer (The Red Album) liner notes

The spreadsheet The 4 and 5 Star Demos of Rivers Cuomo originally listed "Bad Girl" as a potential inclusion on Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo, but the song did not appear on the final album.

Many Weezer fans have noted that "The Angel and the One" is one of their favorite tracks on The Red Album. Drummer Patrick Wilson has stated that is his favorite song from the album as well. The song was performed at the Palais Theatre in Melbourne, Australia in January 2013, and then in April 2024 at the Constellation Room in Santa Ana, California.

Known recordings

Performer(s)	Title	Filename	Date of recording	Length	Appeared on
Rivers Cuomo	You Think You're Bad	`you think you're bad 2.mp3`	2006	4:18	Alone X: The Red-Raditude-Hurley Years
Rivers Cuomo	Bad Girl	`bad girl.mp3`	2006	4:14	Alone X: The Red-Raditude-Hurley Years
Rivers Cuomo	Bad Girl	`bad girl (with overdubs).mp3`	2006	4:19	Alone X: The Red-Raditude-Hurley Years
Rivers Cuomo	Bad Girl	`Bad Girl (2008 edit).mp3`	2008	3:33	Alone X: The Red-Raditude-Hurley Years
Rivers Cuomo	Come to Stay	`Come to Stay aka Angel and the One.mp3`	?	3:50	Alone X: The Red-Raditude-Hurley Years
Rivers Cuomo	The Angel and the One	`18 The Angel and the One 2.mp3`	2007	5:20	Deliverance at Hand! Alone X: The Red-Raditude-Hurley Years
Weezer	The Angel and the One		2008	6:46	Weezer (The Red Album)

Personnel

Rivers Cuomo – lead guitar, lead vocals
Patrick Wilson – percussion
Brian Bell – rhythm guitar, keyboard, synth, backing vocals
Scott Shriner - bass guitar
Geralyn Fennelly - organ
Rick Rubin - producer

Audio

YouTube (North America)
YouTube (International)

Lyrics

Red Lyric sheet
Lyric sheet from the Deliverance at Hand! booklet.
Lyric sheet from the Deliverance at Hand! booklet.

It's not my destiny to be the one that you will lay with
So many reasons why I have to go but want to stay here
Sometimes I want to taste but then I don't know what I'm saying
You are the angel and I am the one that is praying

There is another love that I would rather be obeying
I see the ecstasy and already I'm anticipating
I feel a deeper peace and that deeper peace is penetrating
I got the magic in me, I am complete is what I'm saying

I'm flying up so high, my purple majesty displaying
I've reached a higher place that no one else can make a claim in

I'll take you there my friend
I'm reaching out my hand, so take it
We are the angels, and we are the ones that are praying

Peace, shalom, peace, shalom
Peace, peace
Peace, shalom, peace, shalom
Peace, peace