I am a big fan of the classics and The Rolling Stones are one of the greats. With all this talk of self care and positivity, we can forget that the past has some advice for us too. I think music is one of the better ones, with songs that reach generations. One of these songs is Rolling Stones’s You Can’t Always Get What You Want.

Lyrics are here:

[Verse 1]

I saw her today at the reception

A glass of wine in her hand

I knew she was gonna meet her connection

At her feet was a footloose man

 

[Chorus]

You can’t always get what you want

You can’t always get what you want

You can’t always get what you want

But if you try sometimes

Well, you might find

You get what you need

 

[Verse 2]

And I went down to the demonstration

To get my fair share of abuse

Singing, “We’re going to vent our frustration

If we don’t, we’re going to blow a 50-amp fuse”

 

[Chorus]

You can’t always get what you want

You can’t always get what you want

You can’t always get what you want

But if you try sometimes

Well, you just might find

You get what you need

 

[Verse 3]

I went down to the Chelsea drugstore

To get your prescription filled

I was standing in line with Mr. Jimmy

And man, did he look pretty ill

We decided that we would have a soda

My favorite flavor, cherry red

I sung my song to Mr. Jimmy

Yeah, and he said one word to me, and that was “dead”

I said to him:

 

[Chorus]

You can’t always get what you want

You can’t always get what you want

You can’t always get what you want

But if you try sometimes

Well, you just might find

You get what you need

 

[Verse 4]

You get what you need, yeah, oh baby

I saw her today at the reception

In her glass was a bleeding man

She was practiced at the art of deception

Well I could tell by her blood-stained hands

 

[Outro]

You can’t always get what you want, yeah

You can’t always get what you want, ooh yeah

You can’t always get what you want

But if you try sometimes, you just might find

You just might find you get what you need, ah yeah

Ah yeah

Wooh!

Ah you can’t always get what you want (no no)

You can’t always get what you want (you can’t no no)

You can’t always get what you want

…mmm but if you try sometimes, you just might find

You just might find you get what you need

Ah yeah!

Ah yeah! Yeah

People more religious will say, “When God closes a door he opens a window”, and for a lot of non-religious folks, it makes it hard to listen, but when the Stones say “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need”. So the next time you face a disappointment, or face something you view as a failure, it may lead you to something that actually makes better sense.

Listen this humpday Wednesday to a song about moving forward and accepting things may not be what you thought it’d be, but it works out.