The Rolling Stones
British rock band
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. The Rolling Stones were in the vanguard of the British Invasion of bands that became popular in the US in 1964–65. At first noted for their longish hair as much as their music, the band are identified with the youthful and rebellious w:counterculture of the 1960s. They were instrumental in making blues a major part of rock and roll and of changing the international focus of blues culture, to the less sophisticated blues typified by Chess Records artists such as Muddy Waters, writer of "Rollin' Stone", after which the band is named. The Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004. Rolling Stone magazine ranked them fourth on the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" list, and their estimated album sales are above 250 million. They have released twenty-nine studio albums, eighteen live albums and numerous compilations.
Song lyrics
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All songs written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, unless noted
Here comes your nineteenth nervous breakdown.
- You're the kind of person
You meet at certain dismal dull affairs.
Center of a crowd, talking much too loud,
Running up and down the stairs.
Well, it seems to me that you have seen too much in too few years.
And though you've tried you just can't hide,
Your eyes are edged with tears.You better stop,
Look around.
Here it comes, here it comes, here it comes, here it comes.
Here comes your nineteenth nervous breakdown.- 19th Nervous Breakdown (1966)
- Prince or pauper, beggar man or thing,
Play the game with ev'ry flow'r you bring.
Dandelion don't tell no lies,
Dandelion will make you wise.
Tell me if she laughs or cries.
Blow away dandelion.- Dandelion (1967)
- I was born in a cross-fire hurricane
And I howled at my ma in the driving rain
But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas!
But it's all right now, I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash
It's a gas! Gas! Gas!- Jumpin' Jack Flash (1968)
- I met a gin-soaked, bar-room queen in Memphis
She tried to take me upstairs for a ride
She had to heave me right across her shoulder
'Cause I just can't seem to drink you off my mind.It's the honky tonk women.
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues- Honky Tonk Women (1969)
Out of Our Heads (1965)
edit- Well, I told you once and I told you twice,
But ya never listen to my advice
You don't try very hard to please me,
With what you know it should be easy.
- I can't get no satisfaction, I can't get no satisfaction
'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can't get no, I can't get no.
- When I'm watchin' my TV and a man comes on and tell me
How white my shirts can be.
But, he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke
The same cigarettes as me.- (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
- Well, you've got your diamonds and you've got your pretty clothes
And the chauffeur drives your car.
You let everybody know
But don't play with me, 'cause you're playing with fire.- Play With Fire, written by Nanker Phelge (a pseudonym for the entire band)
December's Children (1965)
edit- I live in an apartment on the ninety-ninth floor of my block.
And I sit at home looking out the window,
Imagining the world has stopped.
Then in flies a guy who's all dressed up like a Union Jack
And says, I've won five pounds if I have his kind of detergent pack.I says, Hey! You! Get off of my cloud.
- My riches can't buy everything.
I want to hear the children sing.
All I hear is the sound of rain falling on the ground.
I sit and watch as tears go by.
- Kids are different today, I hear ev'ry mother say.
Mother needs something today to calm her down.
And though she's not really ill, there's a little yellow pill.
She goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper.
And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day.
- And if you take more of those
You will get an overdose.
No more running for the shelter of a mother's little helper.
They just helped you on your way
Through your busy dying day.- Mother's Little Helper
- Under my thumb
The girl who once had me down
Under my thumb
The girl who once pushed me around.
It's down to me.
The difference in the clothes she wears
Down to me, the change has come,
She's under my thumb.
No colors anymore, I want them to turn back.
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes.
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes.
- I see a red door and I want it painted black.
No colors anymore, I want them to turn back.
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes.
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes.
Between the Buttons (1967)
edit- Let's spend the night together.
Now I need you more than ever.
Let's spend the night together now.
- Don't question why she needs to be so free,
She'll tell you it's the only way to be.
She just can't be chained
To a life where nothing's gained
And nothing's lost
At such a cost.
Goodbye Ruby Tuesday, who could hang a name on you?
When you change with ev'ry new day?
Still I'm gonna miss you.
Beggars Banquet (1968)
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I'm a man of wealth and taste.
I've been around for a long long year stolen many man's soul and faith.
I was around when Jesus Christ had His moment of doubt and pain.
Made damn sure that Pilate washed his hands and sealed His fate.
Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name.
But what's puzzling you is the nature of my game.
- Please allow me to introduce myself.
I'm a man of wealth and taste.
I've been around for a long long year stolen many man's soul and faith.
I was around when Jesus Christ had His moment of doubt and pain.
Made damn sure that Pilate washed his hands and sealed His fate.
Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name.
But what's puzzling you is the nature of my game.
- I watched with glee while your kings and queens
Fought for ten decades for the Gods they'd made
I shouted out "Who killed the Kennedys?" when after all it was you and me.
Let me please introduce myself; I'm a man of wealth and taste.
And I lay traps for troubadours who get killed before they reach Bombay.- Sympathy for the Devil
- Just as every cop is a criminal and all the sinners, Saints
As heads is tails, just call me Lucifer 'cause I'm in need of some restraint
So if you meet me, have some courtesy have some sympathy and some taste
Use all your well learned politesse or I'll lay your soul to waste.- Sympathy for the Devil
- Ev'rywhere I hear the sound of marching, charging feet, boy
'Cause summer's here and the time is right for fighting in the street, boy.
But what can a poor boy do except to sing for a Rock'N'Roll Band
'Cause in sleepy London Town there's just no place for Street Fighting Man! No!
Let It Bleed (1969)
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- War, children, it's just a shot away, it's just a shot away.
War, children, it's just a shot away, it's just a shot away.
See the fire sweepin' out every street today,
Burns like a red coal carpet, mad bull lost its way.
- Well, we all need someone we can lean on.
And if you want it, you can lean on me.
Yeah, we all need someone we can lean on.
And if you want it, you can lean on me.
- Talkin' 'bout the Midnight Rambler,
the one you never seen before.
Talkin' 'bout the midnight gambler
Did you see him jump the garden wall?
But if you try sometime, yeah,
You just might find, you get what you need!
- You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometime, yeah,
You just might find, you get what you need!
- I saw her today at the reception.
In her glass was a bleeding man.
She was practiced at the art of deception;
I could tell by her blood-stained hands.- You Can't Always Get What You Want
Sticky Fingers (1971)
edit- Brown sugar, how come you taste so good?
Brown sugar, just like a young girl should.
- Did you ever wake up to find
A day that broke up your mind?
Destroyed your notion of circular time?
It's just that demon life has got you in its sway.
- Childhood living is easy to do
The things you wanted, I bought them for you
Graceless lady, you know who I am
You know I can't let you slide through my hands
Wild horses couldn't drag me away
Wild, wild horses, couldn't drag me away.
- I know I've dreamed you a sin and a lie
I have my freedom but I don't have much time
Faith has been broken, tears must be cried
Let's do some living after we die.
Wild horses, couldn't drag me away
Wild wild horses we'll ride them someday.
- Take me down little Susie, take me down.
I know you think you're the queen of the underground.
And you can send me dead flowers every morning.
Send me dead flowers by the mail.
Send me dead flowers to my wedding.
And I won't forget to put roses on your grave.
- The sound of strangers sending nothing to my mind,
Just another mad mad day on the road.
I am just living to be lying by your side,
But I'm just about a moonlight mile on down the road.
Exile on Main St. (1972)
edit- I'm always hearing voices on the street,
I want to shout, but I can't hardly speak.
I was making love last night
To a dancer friend of mine.
I can't seem to stay in step,
'Cause she come ev'ry time that she pirouettes over me.And I only get my rocks off while I'm dreaming,
I only get my rocks off while I'm sleeping.
- Mister President, Mister Immigration Man,
Let me in, sweetie, to your fair land.
I'm Tampa bound and Memphis too,
Short Fat Fanny is on the loose.
- Women think I'm tasty, but they're always tryin' to waste me,
Make me burn the candle right down.
But baby, baby, I don't need no jewels in my crown.
'Cause all you women is low down gamblers,
Cheatin' like I don't know how,
But baby, baby, there's fever in the funk house now.
- Wadin' through the waste stormy winter,
And there's not a friend to help you through.
Tryin' to stop the waves behind your eyeballs,
Drop your reds, drop your greens and blues.
- 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 reckless.
You think he's bad, he thinks you're mad,
Yeah, and the guitar player gets restless.
- Give me little drink from your loving cup.
Just one drink and I'll fall down drunk.
- Always took candy from strangers
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss ev'ry night and day.
- When your spine is cracking and your hands, they shake,
Heart is bursting and you butt's gonna break.
Your woman's cussing, you can hear her scream,
You feel like murder in the first degree.- Ventilator Blues, written by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Mick Taylor
- Who's that woman on your arm, all dressed up to do you harm?
And I'm hip to what she'll do, give her just about a month or two.
Bit off more than I can chew, and I knew what it was leading to.
Some things, well, I can't refuse,
One of them, one of them the bedroom blues.
- May the good Lord shine a light on you,
Make every song (you sing) your favorite tune.
May the good Lord shine a light on you,
Warm like the evening sun.
Goats Head Soup (1973)
edit- Down in the graveyard where we have our tryst,
The air smells sweet, the air smells sick;
He never smiles, his mouth merely twists,
The breath in my lungs feels clinging and thick;
But I know his name, he's called Mr. D,
And one of these days, he's going to set you free.
- Now all my friends are wearing worried smiles,
Living out a dream of what they was.
Don't you think it's sometimes wise not to grow up?Went out walkin' through the wood the other day.
Can't you see the furrows in my forehead?
What tender days, we had no secrets hid away.
Now it seems about a hundred years ago.
- Slipped my tongue in someone else's pie,
Tasting better ev'ry time.
She turned green and tried to make me cry.
Being hungry, it ain't no crime.
- Heart breaker, heart breaker,
You stole the love right out of my heart.
Heart breaker, heart breaker,
I wanna tear your world apart.
- Oh, Angie, Oh, Angie, when will those dark clouds disappear?
Angie, Angie, where will it lead us from here?
With no loving in our souls and no money in our coats.
You can't say we're satisfied.
But Angie, Angie, you can't say we never tried.
- It sure been a hard, hard winter.
My feet been draggin' 'cross the ground.
And I hope it's gonna be a long, hot summer,
And a lotta love will be burnin' bright.
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (1974)
edit- If I could stick my pen in my heart,
I would spill it all over the stage.
Would it satisfy ya, would it slide on by ya,
Would you think the boy is strange? Ain't he strange?
If I could win ya, if I could sing ya
A love song so divine,
Would it be enough for your cheating heart
If I broke down and cried? If I cried?
I said I know it's only rock 'n roll but I like it.
I know it's only rock'n roll but I like it, like it, yes, I do.
- Yeah, a movie house on Forty-Second Street
Ain't a very likely place for you and I to meet.
Watching the snow swirl around your hair and around your feet,
And I'm thinking to myself she surely looks a treat.
Till the next time we say goodbye,
Till the next time we say goodbye,
Till the next time that we kiss goodnight,
I'll be thinking of you,
I'll be thinking of you.
- Yes, star crossed in pleasure the stream flows on by,
Yes, as we're sated in leisure, we watch it fly.And time waits for no one, and it won't wait for me.
And time waits for no one, and it won't wait for me.
Black and Blue (1976)
edit- Everybody on the dance floor
You know what I'm talking about
Music make you forget all your troubles
Make you sing and make it tell the whole wide world
So what, hot stuff, shake it up.
- You're just a memory of a love
That used to be.
You're just a memory of a love
That used to mean so much to me.
- When I come home baby
And I've been working all night long,
I put my daughter on my knee, and she say
"Daddy what's wrong?"
I put my head on her shoulder.
She whispers in my ear so sweet.
You know what she says?
"Daddy you're a fool to cry.
You're a fool to cry
And it makes me wonder why."
Some Girls (1978)
edit- Well, I've been haunted in my sleep,
You've been starring in my dreams.
Lord I miss you.
I've been waiting in the hall,
Been waiting on your call.
When the phone rings,
It's just some friends of mine that say,
"Hey, what's the matter man?
We're gonna come around at twelve
With some Puerto Rican girls that are just dyin' to meet you.
We're gonna bring a case of wine.
Hey, let's go mess and fool around
You know, like we used to."
- Well now you're a pillar of society
You don't worry about the things that you used to be
You're a rag-trade girl, you're the queen of porn
You're the easiest lay on the White House lawn.
- I'll never be your beast of burden.
My back is broad but it's a hurting.
All I want is for you to make love to me.
I'll never be your beast of burden.
I've walked for miles my feet are hurting.
All I want is for you to make love to me.
- Pride and joy and greed and sex
That's what makes our town the best
Pride and joy and dirty dreams and still surviving on the street
And look at me, I'm in tatters, yeah.
I've been battered, what does it matter?
Emotional Rescue (1980)
edit- Don't you know promises were never made to keep?
Just like the night, dissolve in sleep.
I'll be your savior, steadfast and true.
I'll come to your emotional rescue.
- Who would believe you were a beauty indeed?
When the days get shorter and the nights get long
Lie awake when the rain comes
Nobody will know, when you're old
When you're old, nobody will know
That you was a beauty, a sweet sweet beauty
A sweet sweet beauty, but stone stone cold.
Tattoo You (1981)
edit- You make a grown man cry
Ride like the wind at double speed
I'll take you places that you've never, never seen.
Start it up.
Love the day when we will never stop, never stop.
- In the sweet old country where I come from
Nobody ever works
Yeah nothing gets done
We hang fire, we hang fire.You know marrying money is a full time job
I don't need the aggravation
I'm a lazy slob.
I hang fire, I hang fire.
- Don't need a whore
I don't need no booze
Don't need a virgin priest
But I need someone I can cry to
I need someone to protect
Making love and breaking hearts
It is a game for youth
But I'm not waiting on a lady
I'm just waiting on a friend.
Undercover (1983)
edit- All the young men they've been rounded up
And sent to camps back in the jungle.
And people whisper people double-talk,
And once proud fathers act so humble.
Dirty Work (1986)
edit- Oh, your love is a sweet addiction, I can't clean you out of my veins
It's a life long addiction that has damaged my brain
It took just one hit to the body to tear my defenses apart
One hit to the body, sure went straight to the mark
One hit to the body and it comes straight from the heart.
Steel Wheels (1989)
edit- You're not the only one
With mixed emotions.
You're not the only ship
Adrift on this ocean.
- The fields of Eden
Are full of trash.
And if we beg and we borrow and steal,
We'll never get it back.
People are hungry,
They crowd around.
And the city gets bigger as the country comes begging to town.
- This talk of freedom
And human rights
Means bullying and private wars and chucking all the dust into our eyes.
And peasant people,
Poorer than dirt,
Who are caught in the crossfire with nothing to lose but their shirts.- Rock and a Hard Place
- Guess it's just another dream
That's slipping away.
Each time I fall asleep,
It seems I'm just drifting away.
Just as you have touched my heart,
Babe I wake and we're apart.
Yeah and it's slipping away.
Voodoo Lounge (1994)
edit- Love is strong and you're so sweet;
You make me hard, you make me weak.
Love is strong and you're so sweet;
And some day, babe we got to meet.
A Bigger Bang (2005)
edit- One time you were my baby chicken,
Now you've grown into a fox.
And once upon a time I was your little rooster.
Now I'm just one of your cocks?It's rough justice, oh yeah!
You're gonna have to trust me.
It's rough justice,
But you know I'll never break your heart.
See also
editAbout The Rolling Stones
edit
- So we see that although age-denial is appealing, it can generally make a person look ridiculous. Oh, some people try to get away with it, the best example being the Rolling Stones. As I write these words, the remaining non-deceased Stones, some of whom were born during the Hundred Years War, are still out there on tour, still rockin' and rollin' and putting on an electrifying act that reaches its exciting climax during "Satisfaction," when drummer Charlie Watts hurls his dentures into the crowd. But is this really working, even for the Stones? To find out, I went to see them when they came to Miami. I'd seen them once before, when were all a lot younger, back in the sixties. That was one of those classic sixties concerts, the kind where even the police dogs are stoned, and where the show would be scheduled to start at 9:00P.M., but nothing would happen until maybe 11:30, when one of the promoters would get up on stage and announce that there would be a slight delay because the band was still at the airport in New Zealand.
- Dave Barry, Dave Barry Turns 40 (1990). New York: Crown Publishers, p. 172-173
- The concert I saw in Miami was very different. For one thing, it started on time, because if it hadn't, one of the estimated 13,000 attorneys in the audience would have filed a lawsuit. Also it was a much older crowd, a lot of middle-aged soft-rockers like myself, stylishly decked out in our casual-wear beepers, taking bold swigs of Diet Pepsi. Sure, some of us were high, but it was not so much the high of ingesting hallucinogenic substances as the high of knowing you had a babysitter on a weekday night.
But the most striking difference, for me, was in the Stones themselves. I had remembered them as awesome, larger-than-life, near-mystical figures, so I was filled with anticipation when, two decades later, I took my seat high in the upper deck of the Orange Bowl in Miami. My excitement mounted as the stadium darkened, and the giant speakers started playing dramatic buildup music, and clouds of smoke poured out onto the stage. And then, when the crowd was about to explode with excitement, there was a blinding flash of light, and we heard the slashing, driving opening guitar riff of "Start Me Up," and suddenly, out of the darkness, came... these little teeny Rolling Stones. Maybe 14 inches tall. Talk about your comical letdowns. They looked like the Decadent Rock Band Action Figure Set from Toys "R" Us.
I realize that this impression was partly due to the altitude of my seat, but it also had something to do with getting older. It's one thing when you're 19 and unemployed and mad at the world, and the Stones are these godlike outlaw rebels; but it's a whole different thing when you have a family and a mortgage and disability insurance, and the Stones have become essentially a corporation whose members are the same average age as the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.- Dave Barry, Dave Barry Turns 40 (1990). New York: Crown Publishers, p. 173-174
- I still enjoyed their music, but watching them strut around down there, smallish, aging men preening in their pants purchased at the Rock-n'-Roll Superstar Extremely Tight Clothing Outlet, I couldn't help but think they looked a little bit- this is difficult for me to write, about the Stones- silly. Of course, I'd act silly too, if somebody was paying me millions of dollars. But nobody is, which is exactly my point. There's still a market demand for Mick and the boys to act the way they acted twenty-five years ago. But there is zero demand for the rest of us to do this, and if we try, we look silly, and we don't get paid for it. So I'm recommending against trying to deny the aging process, unless you're a Certified Rolling Stone. If you're a Certified Public Accountant, you have to accept the fact that you're not going to suddenly transform yourself into the vibrant, youthful person you once were by getting a snake tattooed on your butt. You're going to transform yourself into a Certified Public Accountant with a snake on his butt, and you're going to feel stupid when you visit your proctologist.
- Dave Barry, Dave Barry Turns 40 (1990). New York: Crown Publishers, p. 174
- But it's left to "Tumbling Dice" to not just place a cherry on the first side, but to also provide one of the album's only real moves towards a classic. As the guitar figure slowly falls into Charlie's inevitable smack, the song builds to the kind of majesty the Stones at their best have always provided. Nothing is out of place here. Keith's simple guitar figure providing the nicest of bridges, the chorus touching the upper levels of heaven and spurring on Jagger, set up by an arrangement that is both unique and imaginative. It's definitely the cut that deserved the single, and the fact that it's not likely to touch number one shows we've perhaps come a little further than we originally intended.
- Lenny Kaye "Tumbling Dice" Puts the Cherry on the First Side of "Main Street", Rolling Stone magazine (1972)
