Backstreet Girl Lyrics
I don't want you to be down
Don't want to tell you no lie
Just want you to be around
You will be able to hear what I say
Just you be my backstreet girl
Please keep yourself to yourself
Please don't you bother my wife
That way you won't get no hell
You're rather common and coarse anyway
Just you be my backstreet girl
Please don't come knocking at night
Please never ring on the phone
Your manners are never quite right
Curtsy and look nonchalant as can be
Just you be my backstreet girl
Please. It's Backstreet GIRL, maybe the most underrated Stones tune ever. Great accordion thing going on during a devastating commentary about having a girlfriend on the side.
I agree with your assessment. It's a very beautiful song about a subject that would not be popular with women. However as Mick and Keith are British males, they describe perfectly the upper class' opinion of s girl on the side. I personally love the song and used to sing it to my daughter when she was a baby. I changed the lyrics to "I love my hiney girl" which I sang over and over to the tune of the music. Ha ha!
I agree with your assessment. It's a very beautiful song about a subject that would not be popular with women. However as Mick and Keith are British males, they describe perfectly the upper class' opinion of s girl on the side. I personally love the song and used to sing it to my daughter when she was a baby. I changed the lyrics to "I love my hiney girl" which I sang over and over to the tune of the music. Ha ha!
it means like, you don't have to make this real and difficult . dont get no sympathy from my wife or anyone i know for that matter. don't do anything, you don't do it right. just be normal and take my favors. backstreet girl=hidden mistress. only exist because i can't have you any other way. in a more gruesome manner he could have said "cut off your hands!"
A good example (along with Under My Thumb) about how the Stones have the balls to write a song about a subject that is not very popular. They are not going to get any pats on the back for doing this song, but they don't care. The kick is that they make it a very easy song to listen to.
Beautiful music...but less than beautiful lyrics, which are deeply troubling.
However, I'm not convinced the words are written from Jagger's perspective. A line that leaps out is "Please don't you bother my wife" but Jagger wasn't married then (1967)!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_Jagger#Personal_life
So it's likely he was just using creative license and portraying/critiquing a certain type of character - a misogynistic rich rotter.
“Don't try to ride on my horse. You're rather common and coarse anyway". This song is about a member of the British upper class having an on-the-side low-class girl (“Back street Girl") to satisfy his secret sexual desires. Of course she should not bother his wife or even be seen out in the open at all. An embarrassment for a gentleman such as he.
@Dannyboy512 Of course we’ll never really know the true motivation, but I too like to think it was written as a negative commentary on the British Aristocracy, of which he was not a member. Judie
@Dannyboy512 Of course we’ll never really know the true motivation, but I too like to think it was written as a negative commentary on the British Aristocracy, of which he was not a member. Judie
Love this song... Not just the beautiful melody, but the sincerity in it. It's what StreetSense wrote: not many people have the guts to write the truth about subjects like that.
Superb song, as already noted. Have been to many Stones concerts over the years and my only disappointment was to never have heard this live. Its beautifully haunting music and the daring social commentary that one can read into the lyrics qualify this as bona fide art, rather than simple entertainment.
So deceiving...lovely music with such a wicked undertone! Pure Stones!!
I think the most important lines are at the beginning and the end.
I don't want you to be high I don't want you to be down
Don't want you part of my world Just you be my backstreet girl
Jagger wants to greet and maybe meet her. He wants to see her out in the street through the window. He doen´t want her to take part with his sex, drugs and rock´n roll - hell. She´s the one who is not guilty.
So I have an opposite opinion of the meaning. Not wicked, not bothering any wife. He doesn´t want her to do that, even not to knock on his door.
By the way, my father was searching the song for a decade and wanted me to do it. He heard it about 100 times on a lost record. He told me, german radio played the song when the three-mounth pope died. Think I´ve noticed some Christmas bells ;-)
@Listeningparty Hey, I should read the whole lines. Maybe he wants her to be an Idol. Like a child, who´s playing in the backyard and making noises. And not going on his nuts. ;)
@Listeningparty Hey, I should read the whole lines. Maybe he wants her to be an Idol. Like a child, who´s playing in the backyard and making noises. And not going on his nuts. ;)
Great song. Jagger’s description of social classes in UK and how a rich man doesn’t want his mistress to be seen because she’s not from the upper class. So she should stay his backstreet girl. I’m almost certain that it’s not about his own life. And it’s beautifully written btw