# 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:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**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, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/21 "2010-06-13T07:10:41Z")
Missed the edit (by that much): [Wiki link.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can%27t_Always_Get_What_You_Want) ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/22 "2010-06-13T08:26:13Z")
> [@PlainJain](#): > > What the motherfuck does cobra neckties have to do with professing your love? Nothing. The song isn’t about professing love, it’s about professing how bad-ass he is. Also, it’s a Bo Diddley song. ---
**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 14, 2010, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/23 "2010-06-14T01:18:33Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > So in terms of the entire song’s lyrics, tell me how it’s supposed to be about deciding to settle for gay sex. Just wondering who Mr. Jimmy is, and getting a cherry red soda. Given the response to the thread, I am obviously mistaken. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/24 "2010-06-14T04:20:40Z")
First verse is about love/women. Second verse, politics. Third verse, drugs. In each case, the singer is reminding us we can’t always get what we want. That’s about all I think there is to it. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/25 "2010-06-14T04:43:35Z")
The meaning of the song is that you can’t always get what you want, but if yiu try sometimes, you might just find you get what you need. I really think that’s it. It’s not symbolic. Drugs, specific women, etc. are just examples, not what the somg is about. The song is about _accepting_ that what you want is not necessarily waht you need. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/26 "2010-06-14T06:43:41Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Just wondering who Mr. Jimmy is, and getting a cherry red soda. [Jimmy Miller](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Miller). Can’t help you with the cherry red soda, though. The thing is, songwriters don’t construct elaborate puzzles in lyrics that are meant to be figured out. Songs aren’t detective novels. The best lyrics are often **deliberately ambiguous** so that listeners can, in a way, interact with the song. If the lyrics evoke something for the listener, then it’s a successful song. Compare songs to paintings: some paintings are obviously “about” something. Consider a straight landscape or portrait - the subject is clear and obvious. Now, consider a non-figurative abstract painting - what’s it **about**? It’s about a mood, a feeling. It doesn’t “tell a story”, it evokes an emotion. It isn’t a picture of something that exists in the real world, it doesn’t take you by the hand and lead you to a definite conclusion. That’s why some people _hate_ abstract art: thinking outside the box is painful and threatening for a lot of people. Well, songs (and poems) can often be just as abstract as paintings. Just because an artwork contains words, expecting those words to “tell a straight story” is naive and simplistic. The truth of a song like this is in the emotion, the feelings evoked in the listener. If you’re trying to figure out what Jagger meant in a literal sense, you’re doing it wrong. The song is about the mood of the times. The lyrics are about Mick Jagger’s emotional reaction to the things in his life and in the wider world he lived in at that time and in that place. He’s not describing literal people and events (he did namecheck Jimmy Miller in the lyrics, but it’s just a throwaway in-joke). It’s a good song. It evokes its time and place in a way that people can respond to without having personally experienced that particular time and place, which makes it universal. It sounds cool. _That_’s what it means. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877/27 "2010-06-14T07:22:41Z")
> [@](#): > > The thing is, songwriters don’t construct elaborate puzzles in lyrics that are meant to be figured out. Songs aren’t detective novels. Exactly. Is t"The Bear Went Over the Mountain" more likely to be about Russian expansionism or–_gasp_– a bear going over the mountain? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stones-you-cant-always-get-what-you-want/542877.md?page=1)