anonymous January 11th, 2008 01:16PM  
I think the song refers to different ways of feeling disattisfied with life and how we cope with that with other things.

'I knew she would meet her connection
At her feet was her footloose man'

It sounds like the women compensated for her unfaithful
husband (Footloose man) by buying drugs.

'You can't always get what you want
And if you try sometime you find
You get what you need'

The rest of the song seems to follow other ways
of being diasapointed with life in general.

'And I went down to the demonstration
To get my fair share of abuse
Singing, "We're gonna vent our frustration
If we don't we're gonna blow a 50-amp fuse"
Sing it to me now...'

anonymous May 8th, 2008 04:21PM  
Actually Mr. Jimmy refers to the song's producer (Jimmy something, I forget his last name), who filled in on drums after the drummer couldn't master the beat.

anonymous March 15th, 2009 05:18PM  
It also had alot to do with Marianne Faithfull, at this time she was sinking into a much heavier drug use and this was Mick's plea to her to slow down.

housecat June 30th, 2009 04:24PM  
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

He's referring to methadone (OBVIOUSLY) which is something that heroine users take if they're trying to quit heroine. If you go off heroine you get really sick, so methadone basically keeps you from getting sick without making you stoned. They mix it with juice because it tastes like shit, and you can get it in all kinds of flavors, one being cherry red. Mr. Jimmy looked pretty ill because he hadn't had his heroine lately and was trying to get some methadone, but he didn't have a prescription. Hence Mcjagger singing "I sung my song to Mr. Jimmy
Yeah, and he said one word to me, and that was dead
I said to him You can't always get what you want"

"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"


'her' is either two things. A heroine dealer, or death. It could be a heroine dealer in that heroine dealers usually shoot up their customers for them, and in doing so might get some blood on their hands. Or it could be referring to death in that she has taken another victim who died of a heroine overdose.

anonymous November 21st, 2009 06:57PM  
I am a methadone maintenance patient and I think HouseCat got it 100% right. I also think it's about how in general in life you can't always get what you want, like you might want someone you care about to stop using drugs. The "Chelsea Drugstore" is definitely a drug dispensary, and I think a MMTP is a very good guess. The opening of the song after the choir stops, when its just the guitar and the french horn, is so beautiful. I just imagine walking out into the sun across a field and seeing an old friend of mine whos gone now. You can't always get what you want.

CPR December 4th, 2009 09:37PM  
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


Mick Jagger had almost finished his song when Jimmy Miller (producer) asked Mick to go down to the drugstore to buy some medicines. So he meant what is written.(at least in the last strophe)