# The Stones: You Can't Always Get What You Want **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 12, 2010, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877 "2010-06-12T02:00:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/1 "2010-06-12T02:00:52Z")
What is it about? I’ve thought it was about not being able to have the woman he wanted and accepting gay sex. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/2 "2010-06-12T02:25:04Z")
But you just might find you get what you need… I think it’s like all rock songs–it’s about whatever you want it to be about. It doesn’t really matter what Mick and the boys intended it to be about, does it? ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/3 "2010-06-12T02:39:10Z")
The story of how it came about comes from when The Stones played the Excelsior Amusement Park in Excelsior, Minnesota. Supposedly Mr. Jagger was attempting to coax a pharmacist in a nearby drugstore to supply him with some, um, medicine he wanted and the pharmacist’s reply provided the lyric. Apocryphal? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/4 "2010-06-12T02:41:33Z")
> [@](#): > > What is it about? I’ve thought it was about not being able to have the woman he wanted and accepting gay sex. Was she the last woman on Earth? If he couldn’t get the woman he wanted, why wouldn’t he have moved on to a different woman rather than turning gay? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/5 "2010-06-12T02:46:36Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Was she the last woman on Earth? If he couldn’t get the woman he wanted, why wouldn’t he have moved on to a different woman rather than turning gay? Hell if I know. Remember the line from _Hair?_ “I’m not gay, but I wouldn’t kick Mick Jagger out of bed.” ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/6 "2010-06-12T04:55:04Z")
> [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > The story of how it came about comes from when The Stones played the Excelsior Amusement Park in Excelsior, Minnesota. > > Supposedly Mr. Jagger was attempting to coax a pharmacist in a nearby drugstore to supply him with some, um, medicine he wanted and the pharmacist’s reply provided the lyric. > > Apocryphal? Heh, that’s what I always thought the song was about. Pretty much Drugs and Addiction. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/7 "2010-06-12T06:08:00Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > What is it about? I’ve thought it was about not being able to have the woman he wanted and accepting gay sex. It’s a very vague lyric, I admit, but how does one exactly come to this reading? ---
**Author:** ![MMcgrath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@MMcgrath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MMcgrath)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/8 "2010-06-12T08:42:47Z")
> [@ToeJam](#): > > Heh, that’s what I always thought the song was about. > Pretty much Drugs and Addiction. No question in my mind: Drugs. But it applies to almost all our WANTS. Remember in “What About Bob”: He says, “I _want_, I _want_, I _want_. I _need_, I _need_, I _need_.” Its the human condition. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/9 "2010-06-12T08:51:36Z")
Next in the series. **The Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup.** What was THAT all about? ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/10 "2010-06-12T10:58:10Z")
If Mick Jagger ever had gay sex it would have been by choice, not just because he couldn’t find a woman willing to sleep with him. The Stones weren’t exactly losers with the ladies. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/11 "2010-06-12T13:09:20Z")
Note that “The Chelsea Drugstore” was near his Edith Grove flat of the 60’s in London. The MN origin story is questionable. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/12 "2010-06-12T13:51:55Z")
I don’t know how you arrived at that conclusion unless you have gay sex on the brain for some reason. (The lyrics are pretty ambiguous, but there are many applications. ‘You can’t always get what you want’- for example, a fling with a married woman who tells you to bug off. ‘You get what you need’ - you go back home to your own wife who is the one who is going to be with you at the end of your life.) And they always seem to be playing it in the background on “House”. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/13 "2010-06-12T20:39:31Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > And they always seem to be playing it in the background on “House”. I don’t watch “House.” 🙂 My ignorance does seem to have been fought, however. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/14 "2010-06-12T20:42:49Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > And they always seem to be playing it in the background on “House”. House once referred to “the great philosopher Jagger.” ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/15 "2010-06-13T00:27:50Z")
If you want to figure out what the song means, you might start by listening to the entire song’s lyrics, not just a couple lines of it. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/16 "2010-06-13T00:29:56Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > If you want to figure out what the song means, you might start by listening to the entire song’s lyrics, not just a couple lines of it. That doesn’t always help in rock songs… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/17 "2010-06-13T00:37:53Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > If you want to figure out what the song means, you might start by listening to the entire song’s lyrics, not just a couple lines of it. I’ve listened to the whole song for years. Thanks for your input! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/18 "2010-06-13T00:53:26Z")
So in terms of the entire song’s lyrics, tell me how it’s supposed to be about deciding to settle for gay sex. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/19 "2010-06-13T06:20:49Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Note that “The Chelsea Drugstore” was near his Edith Grove flat of the 60’s in London. The MN origin story is questionable. It would make sense that the location was changed for artistic purposes (“Chelsea” fits the rhythm, “Minnesota” doesn’t), so that detail alone doesn’t negate the veracity of the story. But I do think the gay sex interpretation is reading waaay too much into it. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/20 "2010-06-13T06:57:48Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > Next in the series. **The Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup.** > > What was THAT all about? Seems obvious to me. [Girl lies about how much he means to her](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iol0B-clFFM), he gets it (the lying) but hangs on still all the while pleading for her to not lead him on. BTW, the note at 2:43 is one of the sexiest in pop rock. Back on topic; Doesn’t [Mick always seem to think he can’t get laid](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXcNQTa3zgs&feature=related)? No girlie action? Right, Jaggster. Now, off topic again… [Ronnie Hawkins - Who Do You Love?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQebygSuxgg) _“I walked forty-seven miles of barbed wire, I got a cobra snake for a necktie A brand new house on the road side, and it’s a-made out of rattlesnake hide Got a band new chimney put on top, and it’s a-made out of human skull Come on take a little walk with me baby, and tell me who do you love? Who do you love?”_ What the motherfuck does cobra neckties have to do with professing your love? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877.md?page=2)