‘Cause in the pipe, she’ll fly to the motherland
And sell love to another man

“The A Team” is a tragic song about the life of a prostitute who is addicted to meth, and who sells her body to barely afford rent. This has been her way of life since she was young. She isn’t young anymore.

The description of the woman’s addiction is pretty detailed. Not in the mechanics—but the song describes the behaviors of the woman well: she “sells love to another man”. The woman wants to feel love and to have good experiences, but it is so much easier to get the feeling of happiness from her pipe than it is from real life.

“The A Team” was written by Ed Sheeran. His version was well received but Birdy’s version of “The A-Team” transforms the song into an all-time great.  Perhaps the biggest peculiarity about this song is that they were both so young when they performed this song. Sheeran was eighteen when he wrote it; Birdy was fourteen when she recorded! This is one of the more intense subject matters.

Must a person experience an emotion to properly convey the feelings behind it? Usually I’d answer ‘absolutely yes’. However, I don’t think Birdy was hanging out with many drug addicts at 14. Maybe faking the emotion and understand is sufficient to make great music (like a good actor might.) Or, perhaps one can understand the tragedy of another person’s story without experiencing it directly.

Birdy’s vocal performance and instrumental is delicate and compassionate.  She handles the lower register especially well. This usually separates the average female singers from the great ones. Her voice and the nuance with which she sings makes her sound 10 years older.

It fits the story of a tragic prostitute perfectly. Birdy is especially adept at covering songs from male singer-songwriters and turning them into classics. The piano on “A-team” is understated but especially good. Some of the patterns are somewhat novel.

For another song about the same theme, check out Same Girl by Randy Newman.

The A-team Lyrics

White lips, pale face
Breathing in snowflakes
Burnt lungs, sour taste
Light’s gone, day’s end
Struggling to pay rent
Long nights, strange men

And they say
She’s in the class A Team
She’s stuck in her daydream
Been this way since eighteen
But lately her face seems
Slowly sinking, wasting
Crumbling like pastries
And they scream
The worst things in life come free to her

‘Cause she’s just under the upper-hand
And goes mad for a couple grams
And she don’t want to go outside tonight
‘Cause in a pipe, she’ll fly to the motherland
And sell love to another man
It’s too cold outside
Angels to fly
Angels to fly, mm

Ripped gloves, raincoat
Tried to swim and stay afloat
Dry house, wet clothes
Loose change, bank notes
Weary-eyed and dry throat
Call girl, no phone

They say
She’s in the class A Team
She’s stuck in her daydream
Been this way since eighteen
But lately her face seems
Slowly sinking, wasting
Crumbling like pastries
And they scream
The worst things in life come free to us

‘Cause she’s just under the upper-hand
And goes mad for a couple grams
And she don’t want to go outside tonight
‘Cause in the pipe, she’ll fly to the motherland
And sell love to another man
It’s too cold outside
Angels to fly

Now an angel will die
Covered in white
Closed eyes and hoping for a better life
This time, now we’ll fade out tonight
Straight down the line
Just straight down the line, oh, mm

Now they say
She’s in the class A Team
She’s stuck in her daydream
Been this way since eighteen
But lately her face seems
Slowly sinking, wasting
Crumbling like pastries
And they scream
The worst things in life come free to us

When we’re all under the upper-hand
And go mad for a couple grams
And we don’t want to go outside tonight
‘Cause in the pipe we’ll fly to the motherland
And sell love to another man
It’s too cold outside
Angels to fly
Angels to fly
Fly, fly
Angels to fly, to fly, to fly
Angels to die

Songwriters: Ed Sheeran