‘It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels’ by Ella Langley - Lyrics & Meaning

Ella Langley has just released her highly anticipated sophomore album, ‘Dandelion’. The 18 track project has already been a resounding success through the singles, ‘Dandelion’, ‘Be Her’, ‘Loving Life Again', and the Hot 100 char- topping ‘Choosin’ Texas’. ‘It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels’ is the only cover on the album (discounting the traditional folk intro/outro) and sits at Track 12.

Originally recorded by Kitty Wells, ‘It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels’ feels like an apt inclusion on ‘Dandelion’. The popularity of its original recording made Wells the first female solo artist to top the Billboard Country charts, spending six weeks at number one. 70 years on, Langley has smashed the ceilings of the Billboard Hot 100, spending five weeks at No. 1 on the all-genre charts and 16 weeks at number one on the Billboard Country Chart. The inclusion of this song serves as a nod to the women who paved the way in country music - and music as a whole - and passed the baton on to our current hitmakers like Langley.

‘It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels’ was originally written as a 1950s clapback to Hank Thompson’s ‘The Wild Side Of Life,’ who resents his bride-to-be for leaving him, unable to resist the sparkle of the honky tonk nightlife. Fed up of women being blamed, Wells worked with writer J.D. Miller to mimic the melody and shift the fault of women’s delinquency onto the men that led them there.

In a time, post-war, where the US was seeing more divorces than ever, the blame was put heavily on the lack of women in the home. ‘It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels’ was outspoken for its time and was a bold move to release. It was banned from NBC’s radio network for being ‘suggestive’, The Grand Ole Opry forbade Wells from performing it live and even the BBC in the UK stopped playing it.

However, the song still received a roaring reception and went on to outsell Thompson’s ‘The Wild Side Of Life’, making history in Billboard figures. In 1998, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame and Rolling Stone ranked it No. 11 on its 200 Greatest Country Songs Of All Time feature.

Joined by Jake Worthington and Carter Faith on backing vocals, Langley creates a beautifully updated version of Well’s classic. ‘It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels’ is full band, full sound and evokes that familiar image of neon lights, smokey rooms and sawdust floors. The pedal steel adds the perfect twang to the track, while the drums create an instant two-steppable beat.

“As I sit here tonight the jukebox playing

A tune about the wilder side of life

As I listen to the words you are saying

Brings memories of when I was a trusting wife”

Immediately we are brought into the honky tonk, where Wells is listening to the song that inspired the response she’s singing. It takes her back to a time when she was naively waiting at home while her husband played away.

“It wasn’t God who made honky tonk angels

Like you said in the words of your song

Too many times married men think they're still single

That has caused many a good girl to go wrong”

Wells calls out Thompson directly here, telling him he is wrong. The honky tonk angels are not made by God, but by the actions of the men they once blindly trusted. Wells stands up for the women who are shunned for the behaviour while men exhibiting the same infidelities mosey on unscathed.

“It's a shame that all the blame is on us women

It's not true that only you men feel the same

From the start most every heart that's ever broken

Was because there always was a man to blame”

Rounding off her argument, Wells makes her point clear; broken hearts mostly come from men’s actions. The honky tonk angels have not come from Him, but from him. Wells is holding men accountable for their own debauchery and asking them to look inwards rather than perpetually scapegoating women.

“As I sit here tonight the jukebox playing
A tune about the wilder side of life
As I listen to the words you are saying
Brings memories of when I was a trusting wife
-
It wasn’t God who made honky tonk angels
Like you said in the words of your song
Too many times married men think they're still single
That has caused many a good girl to go wrong
-
It's a shame that all the blame is on us women
It's not true that only you men feel the same
From the start most every heart that's ever broken
Was because there always was a man to blame
-
It wasn’t God who made honky tonk angels
Like you said in the words of your song
Too many times married men think they're still single
And has caused many a good girl to go wrong
-
All right now
-
It wasn’t God who made honky tonk angels
Like you said in the words of your song
Too many times married men think they're still single
That has caused many a good girl to go wrong
-
Yeah that has caused many a good girl to go wrong”

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Ella Langley

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