This, That, and the Other

My theme for this year’s A to Z Blogging Challenge is classic rock songs. Each day during the month (except for the first four Sundays, I will post a classic rock song: a video from YouTube, along with a brief bit of background about the song and the recording artist(s).

This is much more difficult than I thought it would be. For every letter of the alphabet there are dozens of fantastic classic rock songs to choose from and picking just one song for each letter is maddening. But this is what I signed up for.

My Y song is “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” from The Rolling Stones.

“You Can’t Always Get What You Want” was a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones on their 1969 album Let It Bleed. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it peaked at number 42 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973. It was named as the 100th greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone magazine in its 2004 list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”

The Stones first recorded this in 1968 as part of the Beggars Banquet sessions. It didn’t make the cut for that album, so it was revived for Let It Bleed. The chorus of children in the recording is the London Bach Choir. Their 60 voices were double-tracked to make it sound like there were even more of them. The London Bach Choir tried to have its name removed from the album credits when it found out it was called Let It Bleed and contained “Midnight Rambler,” a song about a serial killer.

The lyrics are about how hard it is to find happiness. No matter what you have, you always want more. Although Marrianne Faithful, who was Mick Jagger’s girlfriend, claimed that her drug use was the inspiration for this song.

Part of the folklore around the lyrics are that Mick Jagger went into a local (Chelsea) drugstore to get a Cherry Coke. Back then a cherry coke was a coke with real cherries in it, and drug store soda fountains were the place you usually found them. The store didn’t have cherry cokes and Mr. Jimmy, the man standing in line behind Jagger, commented, “Well, you can’t always get what you want.”

Donald Trump used this song throughout his campaign when we ran for (and won) the Republican nomination in 2016. The Stones issued a statement asking him to stop using their music, but not only did Trump ignore the request, he used the song as the capper to the Republican National Convention, having it played after his acceptance speech amidst the balloons and confetti.

Here are the lyrics to “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

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'll 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
Ah, yeah
Oh

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"
Sing it to me, honey

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
Ah baby, yeah
Ah

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, well no
You can't always get what you want. I tell you, baby
You can't always get what you want, no
But if you try sometimes you just might find, uh, mm
You get what you need, oh yeah, woo!

Ah, woo!

You get what you need, yeah, oh baby
Ah yeah

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, sing it

You can't always get what you want, yeah
You can't always get what you want, ooh yeah, child
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, ah yeah
Ah baby, woo!

Ah, you can't always get what you want, no, no, baby
You can't always get what you want, you can't now, now
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You just might find that you
You get what you need, oh yeah
Ah yeah, do that

And here’s a bonus for you. I very early live recording of the song. Look how young Mick Jagger looks.

---

Previous 2023 A to Z posts: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X