You Can't Always Get What You Want
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (April 2008) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
| “You Can't Always Get What You Want” | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||
| Song by The Rolling Stones | |||||
| Album | Let It Bleed | ||||
| Released | December 5, 1969 | ||||
| Recorded | November 16-17, 1968 | ||||
| Genre | Psychedelic Rock | ||||
| Length | 7:31 | ||||
| Label | Decca Records/ABKCO | ||||
| Writer | Jagger/Richards | ||||
| Producer | Jimmy Miller | ||||
| Let It Bleed track listing | |||||
|
|||||
- This article is about the song by the Rolling Stones. For the Grounded for Life episode, see You Can't Always Get What You Want (Grounded for Life episode).
"You Can't Always Get What You Want" is a song by the Rolling Stones released on their 1969 album Let It Bleed. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it was named as the 100th greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone in its 2004 list of "500 Greatest Songs of All Time."
Contents |
[edit] The song
"You Can't Always Get What You Want" was recorded on November 16 and November 17, 1968 at London's Olympic Sound Studios. It features the London Bach Choir powerfully opening the song under the stewardship of Javier Sanchez Broto, highlighting throughout, and bringing it to an uproarious conclusion. Jimmy Miller, the Rolling Stones' producer at the time, plays drums on this song instead of Charlie Watts. Al Kooper plays piano, organ and horn while Rocky Dijon plays congas and maracas. Nanette Workman sings backup vocals, but she is credited as "Nanette Newman".
Of the song, Jagger said in 2003, "'You Can't Always Get What You Want' was something I just played on the acoustic guitar - one of those bedroom songs. It proved to be quite difficult to record because Charlie couldn't play the groove and so Jimmy Miller had to play the drums. I'd also had this idea of having a choir, probably a gospel choir, on the track, but there wasn't one around at that point. Jack Nitzsche, or somebody, said that we could get the London Bach Choir and we said, 'That will be a laugh.'"[1]
In his review of the song, Richie Unterberger says, "If you buy John Lennon's observation that the Rolling Stones were apt to copy the Beatles' innovations within a few months or so, "You Can't Always Get What You Want" is the Rolling Stones' counterpart to 'Hey Jude.'" Jagger said in 1969, "I liked the way the Beatles did that with 'Hey Jude'. The orchestra was not just to cover everything up - it was something extra. We may do something like that on the next album."[2]
The three verses (along with the varied theme in the 4th verse) address the major topics of the 1960s: love, politics, and drugs. Each verse captures the essence of the initial optimism and eventual disillusion, followed by the resigned pragmatism in the chorus.
Unterberger concludes of the song, "Much has been made of the lyrics reflecting the end of the overlong party that was the 1960s, as a snapshot of Swinging London burning out. That's a valid interpretation, but it should also be pointed out that there's also an uplifting and reassuring quality to the melody and performance. This is particularly true of the key lyrical hook, when we are reminded that we can't always get what we want, but we'll get what we need."
[edit] Release and aftermath
Though popular on modern classic rock radio stations, "You Can't Always Get What You Want" was not released as a single, but rather as the B-Side to "Honky Tonk Women", albeit in an edited form. One of the Stones' most popular recordings, it has since appeared on the compilations Hot Rocks, Singles Collection and Forty Licks.
"You Can't Always Get What You Want" is very popular at Stones shows due to the sing-along chorus, and is played at almost every show (where it is custom for Jagger to change the lyrics from "my favourite flavour, cherry red" to the question "What's your favourite flavour?" to which the audience replies "Cherry red"). Live recordings appear on the albums Love You Live, Flashpoint, Live Licks, and The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus.
An urban legend developed concerning the origin of the song was that it was the result of Jagger's chance meeting with a schizophrenic named Jimmy Hutmaker after a concert in 1964. As the story goes, while Jagger was having a prescription filled at the Bacon Drugstore in Excelsior, Minnesota, the outgoing but off-balanced Mr. Hutmaker complained to him that he had ordered a Cherry Coke but received a regular Coca Cola instead. Hutmaker supposedly concluded that "You can't always get what you want." But considering that this alleged meeting took place in June of 1964 and the song was not recorded until almost five years later, it is of dubious validity. At the time of this supposed encounter, the Stones had released just one album with only one original song on it and were largely unknown in the US at the time.
It is far more likely that the "Jimmy" referred to in the song was actually Jimmy Miller, the producer of the recording, and not an anonymous schizophrenic from Minnesota, though another interpretation says that "Mr Jimmy" is Jimi Hendrix, as part of the on-and-off feud between the two over Hendrix's girlfriend Devon Wilson that partly inspired Hendrix's Dolly Dagger
A plausible theory is that the song was inspired by the drug addiction of Jagger's partner at the time, Marianne Faithfull.
[edit] Covers and tributes
- In 1971, jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi released a cover version of the song on his album Oaxaca.
- In 1981, an Aretha Franklin cover followed, released on her album Love All the Hurt Away.
- In 1990, George Michael used the song's chorus in his hit "Waiting For That Day". Jagger and Richards received shared songwriting credit.
- In 1992, Def Leppard released an acoustic cover of the song as a B-side to their single "Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad". (This version has never been officially released in the United States.)
- Blues musician Luther Allison covered the song for the 1997 tribute album Paint it Blue: Songs of the Rolling Stones.
- In 1998, the jam band Rusted Root included a version on their self-titled fourth album.
- Perhaps the most unusual cover was also released in 2001, when the reggae band Steel Pulse recorded it for the Paint It Black: A Reggae Tribute to the Rolling Stones.
- Band from TV covered it for the soundtrack of House.
- In 2008, Belgian outfit Soulwax released a remix of the song. Listen
[edit] Soundtrack appearances
[edit] In film
- The song is used during the opening funeral scene in the 1983 Academy Award-nominated film The Big Chill. The use of the song in the film has been copied and pastiched in several other dramas.
- Used to underscore the failed endeavour in the closing scenes of the 2006 film The Hoax after Clifford Irving's (Richard Gere) deception (in his bogus "autobiography" of Howard Hughes) revealed to the world.
- The song is played during the final scene at Harvard Medical School in the 2008 film 21.
[edit] In television
- The track has been featured in at least four episodes of the FOX television medical drama series House. In the pilot episode, Gregory House tries to avoid work imposed by his boss Dr. Cuddy, and quotes the title of the song an opinion of "the philosopher Jagger." Cuddy later claims to looked up "that philosopher you mentioned" and to have learned that "if you try sometimes, you get what you need." The introduction of the song was played at the end of the episode. In the Season 1 finale, the song plays as House attempts to walk without the support of his cane, but to no avail. The scene ends dramatically with him tossing a vicodin pill in the air, and catching it in his mouth. The song was heard for a third time at the end of the Season 3 premiere. Its last use was in the Season 4 finale when it is quoted to House by Amber in the form of a hallucination.
- The song was featured in an episode of the NBC television comedy My Name Is Earl. In "Born a Gamblin' Man", the song plays at the end of the episode over a montage of the multiple storyline conclusions for the episode.
- The song was featured in an episode of the FX television medical drama Nip/Tuck, and during ESPN's coverage of the 2007 NFL Draft.
- The song was featured in the pilot episode of Showtime's dramedy Californication in 2007. The song was used during the opening scene, in a manner parodying its use in The Big Chill. The song then finished episode 12, bringing the first season to a close.
- The song was featured in the finale episode of the British ITV2 drama Secret Diary of a Call Girl in 2007.
[edit] In advertising
- The song was used prominently in U.S. TV commercials for Coca-Cola's "low-carb" C2 cola in 2004.
- The song is used in advertisements for Simon mall gift cards around the holidays. It portrays people opening their presents, but the presents weren't what they wanted. The tagline is to get people to give gifts the receiver will want.
[edit] References
- ^ Loewenstein, Dora; Philip Dodd (2003). According to the Rolling Stones. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 0-8118-4060-3.
- ^ The Database "You Can't Always Get What You Want". Time Is On Our Side. 2007 (accessed 29 September 2007).
