Thursday, August 15, 2019

You Can't Always Get What You Want by The Rolling Stones

I saw her today at the reception
A glass of wine in her hand
I knew she would meet her connection
At her feet was her footloose man
No, you can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometime you find
You get what you need
I saw her today at the reception
A glass of wine in her hand
I knew she was gonna meet her connection
At her feet was her footloose man
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, well, you might find
You get what you need
And I went down to the demonstration
To get my fair share of abuse
Singing, "We're gonna vent our frustration
If we don't we're gonna blow a fifty-amp fuse"
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, well, you just might find
You get what you need
I went down to the Chelsea drugstore
To get your prescription filled
I was standing in line with Mr. Jimmy
And man, did he look pretty ill
We decided that we would have a soda
My favorite flavor, cherry red
I sung my song to Mr. Jimmy
Yeah, and he said one word to me, and that was "dead"
I said to him
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You get what you need
You get what you need, yeah, oh baby
I saw her today at the reception
In her glass was a bleeding man
She was practiced at the art of deception
Well, I could tell by her blood-stained hands
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You just might find
You get what you need
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You just might find
You get what you need, oh yeah

3 comments:

Aaron said...

I wonder what it would be like to perform the same songs over and over for 300 years. There is something kinda sad about seeing old skeletons dressed as teenagers and still rockin it out. On one hand it’s awesome that they are still doing concerts. On the other hand it is the definition of the word retarded. But who am I to judge. I suppose if I had become a famous rock star in my early 20’s I wouldn’t know what else to do. And if people are still interested in buying tickets. Why not.
Also it’s true. You definitely can’t always get what you want. In fact I rarely do. But if you live in America you will always have what you need. Even if you are homeless and living in LA. You want a toilet to take a shit but you at least have the sidewalk.

Dan Tschirhart said...

Now this is one of the first Stones songs I can remember as a wee lad

The reason is because whenever my cousins Carol, Laura, and I would ask for something we couldn't have

My Mom and Aunt Ginger would sing this song to us

"Mom! Aunt Ginger! Can we go to Uncle Cliffs?!"

"No, no you cannot."

"Oh c'mon, that's not fair!"

"...You Can't Always Get What You Want..."

They did this a lot and got a kick out of it

We were not amused

~ And it's probably the reason I didn't like the Stones until the 8th grade

In that 8th grade summer, all my skateboarding friends and I, plus a girl I had a crush on, listened to 'Hot Rocks' incessantly

There are so many great songs on that collection

I love the line, "In her glass was a bleeding man.." - we've all been there

Uncle Cliffs, by the way, was an amusement park in Albuquerque

Oh don't worry,, it was horrible too, but you did what you could when you lived in the armpit of the Midwest

Anywho, great song, and it's one of the best songs on Let It Bleed, which is a brilliant album

Tig Notaro has a funny bit about this song

I saw the Stones back in 2006, and they were surprisingly really good, I was impressed

They played this tune and it was fun to sing it along with the Stones - cool concert moment

Plus Jagger is insane, he's bouncing around out there like he's in his 30's

Pirate Aggro said...

To negative nelly, The Stones don't tour because they have to. They tour because they want to. And they aint playing county fairs like so many burnt out has beens. They are selling out stadiums. And I hope that at 73 I can move even a little bit like Mick. I sing this song to my kids quite frequently and it pisses them off. Ziah seemed surprised to discover it is a real song.

I have to say that this song is kind of how I live my life. I got most of what I really tried for. The stuff I didn't get... well it ended up okay and once or twice it ended up much better than what I wanted.