| The Rolling Stones – You Can't Always Get What You Want Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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One of the more cryptic of stones lyrics (in terms of what they "mean"). But I sometimes wonder if there really isn't much below the surface of this song. Keith's book "Life" lends some great perspective on the jagger/richards songwriting process. Many times the songs weren't dedicated to one particular subject matter, but consisted of a collection of verses that were sometimes inter-related and sometimes not. Many times the first lines of the song were contributed by Keith and the rest by Jagger, so right there the original intent of the song becomes somewhat disjointed. Heavy emphasis is placed on vowel-ing (selecting words or phrases based on how they contribute to the song's sound or feel). Keith talks about the song governing the musicians, not vice-versa. So in the interest of getting the right sound or feeling for a song, it might be necessary to stray yet again from the intended topic of the song. Even more amazing than all of this, is the short of amount of time it takes them to come up with lyrics. Shortly after YCAGWYW is recorded they will work on a new piece that will become "Brown Sugar" (based on a sequence of chords that Mick showed Keith). According to spectators at Muscle Shoals studios, it takes Jagger a mere 45 minutes to create these lyrics! He spends 45 minutes writing them, we spend decades over-analyzing them! So in light of their song writing style, I now tend to not place too much emphasis on any subtle underlying song meaning. What I hear is a song of four verses loosely connected to each other by feelings of "want" and "need". I see content that consists of Jagger/Richards drawing from past experiences of "want" and "need". Could very well be the case that Jagger's experience in Excelsior led to the Mr. Jimmy verse (I doubt he would admit to it and risk having to concede royalty rights to the poor guy). And do not overlook the feel of the song. Looking beyond the song content, the song always leaves me with this feeling of melancholy, almost regret. I, too, tend to lean towards the song being about the drug culture of the sixties. Don't forget, it was at this time when his close circle of friends (Keith, Marianne, Anita, Brian, Jimmy M to name a few) are becoming afflicted with these debilitating heroin habits (Jagger was astute enough to stay away from the stuff). So it is a sorrowful Jagger that I hear, lamenting (and in the case of Marianne, more like grieving) over their slow but sure descent into heroin oblivion. |
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| The Rolling Stones – She Was Hot Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I was 13 when I got the Undercover album for christmas. Not a bad album really, and this song grabbed my attention straight away. The guitar style (chuck berry) was the hook for me, and I did enjoy the lyrics (what 13 y.o. wouldnt). However, I could never quite figure out what the lyrics were in the last verse. it sounded like some fancy french to me.. figured he was quoting some famous foreign poetry, or trying to sneak in some adult themed lyric under the guise of another language. But looking at the real lyrics to the last verse now, I am pleasantly surprised with the imagery: Down the avenue Into the lost bayou Into the tall bamboo Into the human zoo I wish you all the best I hope we meet again In a cold Chicago night Very appropriate wrap-up of a song dripping with animalistic primal behavior. |
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| The Rolling Stones – Off The Hook Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| closely watch the video (youtube) for She Was Hot and you will hear this song being played in the background at the very end of the video. | |
| The Rolling Stones – She Was Hot Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This was my fave off of Undercover, love the chuck berry style guitar, chord progressions (esp how the last verse throws in an extra few measures). The vocal stylings are kinda cool too (again, last verse when vocals are doubled over, one vocal is almost spoken, while at the same time the other is more typical jagger yellin). I thought it was good for its time, and is still fun to listen to now and then. Remember the mtv video?? Watch the video on you tube, at the very end you will hear an early stones classic 'off the hook' being played in the background. I didn't tune into this back in '83, maybe you didn't either?? |
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| The Rolling Stones – All The Way Down Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Liked this one when it came out in 83/84 but I could never understand what the words were (it's played really fast). Years later I now see how telling they lyrics are of jagger in that period of his life. |
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| The Rolling Stones – Coming Down Again Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| wow, just broke out this cd today for the first time in a while... it is such a well done tune, i love taylor's background wah. to me the lyrics are mainly about drug use with romantic overtones of richard's woo-ing anita pallenberg from jones. the lyrics go "he turned green..", NOT "she", and i believe "he"=brian jones. | |
| Chuck Berry – My Ding-A-Ling Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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with respect to teerbigear... this song, which was later in his career is actually reminiscent of his original song writing style from his early Cosmopolitan Club days, when he went from playing standard blues songs to upbeat, lyrically light-hearted, hillbilly-esque, and race-friendly creations; the response he got from the audience from those early days motivated him to continue in that style, with some songs being a little more silly (ala ding-a-ling) than others. |
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