Hey let him follow you down
Way underground wind and he's bound
Bound to follow you down
Just a dead beat right off the street
Bound to follow you down

Well the ballrooms and smelly bordellos
And dressing rooms filled with parasites
On stage the band has got problems
They're a bag of nerves on first nights
He ain't tied down to no home town
Yeah, and he thought he was wreckless
You think he's bad, he thinks you're mad
Yeah, and the guitar player gets restless

And his coat is torn and frayed
It's seen much better days
Just as long as the guitar plays
Let it steal your heart away
Let it steal your heart away

And his coat is torn and frayed
It's seen much better days
Just as long as the guitar plays
Let it steal your heart away

Joe's got a cough, sounds kind a rough
Yeah, and the codeine to fix it
Doctor prescribes, drug store supplies
Who's gonna help him to kick it

And his coat is torn and frayed
It's seen much better days
Just as long as the guitar plays
Let it steal your heart away
Let it steal your heart away

And his coat is torn and frayed
It's seen much better days
Just as long as the guitar plays
Just as long as the guitar plays
Just as long as the guitar plays
Just as long as the guitar plays


Lyrics submitted by deathwish

Torn and Frayed Lyrics as written by Mick Jagger Keith Richards

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Torn and Frayed song meanings
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18 Comments

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  • +2
    General Comment

    That sounds pretty accurate, especially since Keith was known for wearing his favorite jackets and shirts until they literally fell off his body. I love the verse about Joe. How very true those words are.

    JumpyJackon January 10, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Keith Vs. Mick is all opinion.

    Mick held the band together for a good part of the 70's and always wrote a bulk of the lyrics.....the best musician was Mick Taylor (check out the up grade on Ya-ya's on the old material)

    Boot leg stuff from 73 shows even more so how Taylor was By FAR the best musican.....and that's why the stones will never release cock sucker blues and other live material from 70-73.

    O the song? I though it said his "arm" is torn and Frayed. i.e. junkie's shot up arm.....if in fact that is the line, it's pretty sick.

    either way a hell of a song on the greatest album ever.

    pton January 13, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    i think mick wrote this about keith. i think he is basically saying: 'things are going to get worse, but until they do, just enjoy things.'

    kingmikekingon July 03, 2003   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    That's not right. Mick and Bianca have tried to take credit for helping Keith kick heroin but in truth they did very little. In fact, after Keith got his act together, he says that Mick privately wished he was a junkie again because Mick had gotten used to being the sole leader of the band and resented Keith's new input. And why wouldn't he resent it? After all he knows deep down that Keith is a much better pure musician than himself. Keith has more emotion and "realness" in his pinky toe than Mick has in his entire body.

    JumpyJackon July 24, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Definitely about Keef.

    willia05on September 14, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    pt? are you Mick Taylor in disguise?? If you are youre an ace guitarist. Maybe its just a bluesy made up lyric?

    hipshoton January 21, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    How can there be no comment on this? A beautiful song, down-home, bar-room give-me-the-beat-boy type stuff talking about a torn and frayed musician. The stones don't have any of those, do they?

    just12on November 30, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    beautiful song, definately my favorite on the album, it sounds so holy and graceful.

    jackerscrackerson April 11, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    yeah a very nice song.love jaggers wierd accent.this album is their best for sure!as for song meaning...uh, i think its maybe how the stones saw themselves at the time - sort of outlaws or whatever

    pacman_133on July 26, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    this song makes a lot of sense if you watch the movie Cocksucker Blues. You see them dealing with lots of drugs and dressing rooms filles with parasites.

    i think most of the takes on it are spot-on. i always too the line "Just as long as the guitar plays" to mean that Mick was hoping that Keith wouldn't die or eel over in the middle of a performance.

    pthalomarieon August 05, 2008   Link

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