Lyrics (Over)Analysis – You Can’t Always Get What You Want by The Rolling Stones

To me “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” is one of the best songs of all time (in my top 10 songs) and one of the most positively emotionally resonant rock songs ever made. In fact in my opinion this song approaches a spiritual and religious experience that no other song I’ve heard in rock music has ever captured.

I know people may baulk with the idea of The Rolling Stones writing “spiritual” and “emotionally resonant” songs during this period and there are people who even believe “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” to be a pessimistic song reflecting the end of the idealism of flower power at the end of the 60’s. So I have to give some context why I feel that way about this song.

I'll mention I do come from a family with a Buddhist background. One of the key tenants of that religion is the idea that happiness can't be fulfilled by external forces and the environment as it is out of your control. The idea is that our desires or “attachment” is the root cause of unhappiness.  People desires and want can never be fully satisfied and the only way to reach happiness is by accepting that "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and that you’ll have to be happy despite whatever you face in life. For someone to be truly happy, there happiness has to be unconditional. As long as you put conditions to your happiness then the person is destined to be unhappy and dissatisfied with life. Whether Jagger/Richards intended it or not, I believe this song captures that message perfectly. Who knows maybe they did intend it as Mick Jagger is a practising Buddhist.

So after the choir intro (that I always felt a bit tacked on), the song starts off with just plain acoustic guitar strumming with Jagger painting a bleak picture of a women drinking her sorrows with wine about her relationship with a man who display no commitment or responsibilities. Then Jagger starts singing in a mournful way "You can't always get what you want" however the organ appears with some chords and there is this gorgeous descending and ascending piano line (one of the best keyboard moment in rock music IMO). To me that combination of the piano and organ signifies a religious epiphany where the protagonist discovered “the truth" and he sings “But if you try sometime you find” and then the female gospel singer joins in and sings “You get what you need" which explodes into music that is filled with joy. You see the protagonist realized the basic truth “that you get what you need” (which is happiness) when you accept that “you can't get what you want” and the song explodes into one of the most joyful and soulful music you can ever hear signifying the wave of happiness out of discovering that “truth”. 

Also notice that throughout the following verses, the music still remain joyful despite the lyrics about the various disappointments various characters experience in life which signifies that the person is remaining happy despite the troubles in life. Also notice how the chorus throughout the song differs to the chorus at the beginning as the first chorus sounds sad and desperate with the sparse arrangement and the absence of the female backing vocalist until the “epiphany” but in later chorus the female backing vocalist sings at the beginning of the chorus signifying that the character of the song is embracing the joyfulness of not getting what he wants.

For a person who is raised in a Buddhist family but grew up in a Western culture, this song resonated with me especially as it is in my opinion a perfect synthesis of Eastern Buddhist philosophy with Western music. Gospel music is a western music that is associated with spiritual joy with Christianity and it is an ingenious arrangement choice to mesh that spiritual joy with the line that is superficially pessimistic “You can’t always get what you want” to bring out the message that spiritual joy is derived by realizing that message.  The female gospel backing vocalist that jumped in throughout the song did the perfect job in delivering that message.  This song is a perfect example of how the arrangement can be used to craft the message of the song

Should the DRS system use sound to dismiss batsman?

This article has been publish on “The Roar” as well

This has been a controversial issue throughout the Ashes. There is a caught behind decision that is referred to the DRS system. Hotspot shows nothing, but there is audio and the batsman are given out. Every time this has occurred there has been controversy with many people arguing that if hotspot shows nothing then the batsman shouldn’t be given out.

However, I disagree with that argument and I support the use of audio in the DRS system.

The reason is that throughout the history of Test cricket, on-field umpires have used a combination of sound and watching any deviation as a guide to dismissed batsman for caught behind decisions. There are many times throughout history where we see batsman being dismissed by on-field umpires based on sound alone for thin edges without any controversy.  Long before hotspot was invented, commentators would often judge the accuracy of the umpire’s decision on whether they can hear a sound during the replay.  

Considering that hotspot is known to have ‘false negatives’, audio should be used to assess whether the batsman has edge or not.  If we used the argument that decision needs a mark to show on hotspot to dismissed the batsman, then we might as well tell the on-field umpire not to used sound of an edge to dismiss batsman as well.  That they should only give a batsman out if they see deviation caused by an edge and therefore only thick edges would ever be given out in cricket.  I doubt many people would accept that umpiring standard in cricket especially when people argue that cricket is too batsman friendly already. It’s a bit hypocritical to demand on-field umpires to hear edges when making a decision whilst at the same time demanding third umpires to ignore sound.

There are a few people who argued that audio can be unreliable as it can hear sound unrelated to the edge like the squeaking of the glove.  However, I’ll argue that same standard could be applied to ignore any sound of the edge by the on-field umpire and hence ignore any audible edge as the audio in the DRS just shows what the umpire hears in the stump microphone. The stump microphones picks up what is going on the field and the chance that out of all the time the glove squeaks just at the moment the ball passes the bat is unlikely. We have to say that on the basis on probability it is far more likely the sound is caused by an edge if the bat is far away from the pad or the ground.  Also umpires can listen to the audio and make the judgment call on whether the audio sounds like a nick.

Now people may wonder that if audio of a nick is given a greater weighting than a blank hotspot then what’s the point of hotspot?

The issue with audio is that it has ‘false positives’ especially when there are issue of bat on pad or ball on pad or bat on ground and it’s difficult to determine what is the source of the sound in the audio.  Hotspot can be used to help determine whether there was a ball on bat impact in those scenarios where audio is unreliable.

I’m hoping that snickometer will eventually be incorporated into DRS. The reason why snickometer is not used in DRS is not necessarily due to inaccuracy but the slowness of the process of getting snicko available to the umpire in a timely manner. Right now snickometer requires a technician to manually sync up the audio from the stump microphone with the video footage and this can take minutes to prepare and since the synchronisation is done manually by a technician it is possible that human error and inconsistency could occur if the technician makes a mistake.

A timely review system requires information in a few seconds and also requires consistent synchronization of audio and video and that isn’t good enough.  However reports are that Alan Plaskett has developed a system called ‘Real Time Snicko’ or RTS, which is an automated system that could produce a snicko-type result within 5-10 seconds which will solve that issue.

There have been calls to introduce RTS to be incorporated in the DRS system and hopefully it will be ready for the Ashes in the Australian summer.  The combination of RTS and Hotspot will assist the umpire in making the correct decision for thin edges and in my opinion would improve the game.

Lyrics (Over)Analysis – Dreadlock Holiday by 10cc

This reggae song with the line “I don’t like cricket, oh no, I love it” has immortalized this song as a cricket song. It has appeared in compilations of songs about cricket such as “Stumped! Songs We Love About Cricket” and is an obligatory entry in best cricket songs list. In particular this song has been associated with West Indies cricket where in the past this song has been used in montages of West Indies cricket players highlights. Unfortunately this is one of those moments where you take one line out of context and  suddenly decide to make the entire song to mean about it similar to how people treat One by U2 as a sweet love song or The One I Love by REM as a love song dedication.  There’s something ironic that a bunch of white English musician playing reggae music about getting mugged in Jamaica (that some people have even argued to be potentially racist) has now been twisted to be the ultimate celebration of cricket in West Indies.

Verse 1

“I was walkin' down the street
Concentratin' on truckin' right
I heard a dark voice beside of me
And I looked round in a state of fright”

So the song sets up the theme of the protagonist walking in the street of Jamaica however the protagonist hears a dark voice (aka a black person) which scared him

“I saw four faces one mad
A brother from the gutter
They looked me up and down a bit
And turned to each other”

So he surrounded by 4 gangster (as those four faces are “from the gutter”) and they look at the protagonist and try to size him up. Also note how he referred to those criminals as his “brother” which is part of the joke of the song

Chorus 1

“I say
I don't like cricket oh no
I love it
I don't like cricket no no
I love it”

The whole parody of this song is that we have a white person trying to prevent being mugged by the criminals by pretending to be a “brother” of those by stating they share the same interest. So when the protagonist is singing “I don’t like cricket, I love it” he is basically saying to those criminals”Don’t mug me, I love you Jamaican people. See I love cricket just as much as you do” . That if he shared the same interest as the gangster (remembers that he doesn’t know the gangster love cricket but just assumed it) they won’t rob him. Essentially the equivalent would be if Asian gangs tried to mug a tourist and the tourist responding “I love table tennis and kung fu, please don’t mug me”.  Some people may accuse this of being racist but to me it’s clearly tongue in cheek and it’s clear that the song is mocking the protagonist.

Funny enough this part of the song reminds me of a story my father once told me that he was mugged once in Vietnam and he tried to get his stuff (which were actually plans to escape from communist Vietnam) returned to him by approaching the criminal gang and pretended that he was from a gang in another city of Vietnam and appealed to the “honor amongst thieves” mentality and that they are essentially “brothers” that have to look after each other. He was actually successful and manages to get his stuff returned from the thieves. So it turns out it is possible to charm gangster if you are smart and charismatic enough. However I doubt a person who clearly looks like a British tourist and saying stereotypical platitudes would be successful attempting this.

“Don't you walk thru' my words
You got to show some respect
Don't you walk thru' my words
'Cause you ain't heard me out yet.”

This is probably the most controversial part of the song where we have Gouldman and Stewart singing in a faux Jamaican accent which has been accused of racism. For one thing imitating and mocking accent is very common and people have no problem mocking English, American, French, German, Spanish etc accents so I don’t personally have a problem with that even if I understand other people do. However even ignoring that issue this line usually is interpreted to be imitating the black gangster telling the protagonist to show some respect and that Gouldman and Stewart were mocking black people.

However I like to interpret that these lines to be actually from the protagonist talking tough to the gangster in a faux Jamaican accent demanding the gangster to hear him out and to give him respect. After all the whole theme of this song is mocking a tourist using stereotypes in a bad attempt to develop rapport with the gangster. When people cringe and were offended when they heard Gouldman and Stewart singing in a bad Jamaican accent, maybe they should think that is the point and they are bringing this phenomenon to a caricature levels. That the protagonist of the song is imitating the Jamaican accent attempting to be their “brothers” and acting macho in telling them off and demanding respect. This interpretation also works structurally as this is part of the chorus of the song and in the same section as “I don’t like cricket, I love it” which was clearly from the protagonist point of view so there is no reason why it should shift perspective when it is continuing the same section of the song.

Verse 2

“Well he looked down at my silver chain
He said I'll give you one dollar
I said You've got to be jokin' man
It was a present from me Mother
He said I like it I want it
I'll take it off your hands
And you'll be sorry you crossed me
You'd better understand that you're alone
A long way from home”

This continues the story where the gangster is humoring the protagonist (probably amused by his faux accent) and wants to “buy” the silver chain the protagonist is wearing for a single dollar. However the protagonist refuses due to the sentimental value of the silver chain. The gangster then goes serious and tells him that he is a tourist long way from home and he better accept his demands or he will cut off his hands so I guess the tourist isn't his "brother".

Chorus 2

“And I say
I don't like reggae no no
I love it
I don't like reggae oh no
I love it

Don't you cramp me style
Don't you queer me pitch
Don't you walk thru my words
'Cause you ain't heard me out yet”

In an amusing situation knowing that the “loving cricket” line didn’t work and that the gangster still consider him to be a tourist instead of a “brother”. The protagonist tries to change tactics and now switch to another stereotype of Jamaican culture and saying he love reggae in an attempt to bond with the gangster. He then put on his faux accent and now is mixing with “Jamaican” lingo such as “cramping my style” and acting tough with him.

Verse 3

“I hurried back to the swimming pool
Sinkin' pina colada
I heard a dark voice beside me say
Would you like something harder
She said I've got it you want it
My harvest is the best
And if you try it you'll like it
And wallow in a dreadlock holiday”

So the protagonist runs away from the gangster after the failed attempt to bond with them back to the hotel. He goes and drinks some pina colada until he heard a girl trying to sell him some weed (as it is “harder” then alcohol and she promotes that her “harvest is the best”).

Chorus 3

“And I say
Don't like Jamaica oh no
I love her
Don't like Jamaica oh no
I love her oh yea
Don't you walk through her words
You got to show some respect
Don't you walk thru her words
'Cause you ain't heard her out yet”

The protagonist hilariously declares how much he loves Jamaica and his reasoning is because this is the country where marijuana is legal and people can openly obtain and purchase it. That it only takes a bit of weed to overcome the trauma of attempted mugging by a gangster. He puts on his faux accent defending her from criticism from people who judge her for being a drug dealer.

Chorus 4

“I don't like cricket oh no
I love it (Dreadlock holiday)
I don't like reggae oh no
I love it (Dreadlock holiday)
I don't like Jamaica oh no
I love her (Dreadlock holiday)’

The final chorus summarises the whole song where it reveals the protagonist superficial appreciation of Jamaican culture. He “loves” Jamaica and feels kinship with the Jamaican people simply because he loves cricket and he loves reggae and he loves weed.

Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of this song because I’m not a fan of reggae music but I find the lyrics hilarious even if I can understand why some people may be offended by it.  For people who are offended, just think what would happen if you see a person in real life behaving like the character in this story? Are you sure you wouldn’t laugh? It's just a funny story. Hell this is no different to some of the humour from David Brent in The Office (Sidney Poitier).

The idea that someone could snip out a single line of the song “I don’t like cricket oh no, I love it” from this really politically incorrect song and be reinterpreted into a song that celebrates cricket in the Caribbean just adds to the hilarity.  

Lyrics (Over)Analysis – Growing On Me By The Darkness

Despite Justin Hawkins claim that this song is about "A sweet lady woman that you will never fully fathom or understand, but you love her so much that after a while it doesn't matter." In my opinion this song is about genital herpes or another sexually transmitted infection. Simply just read the lyrics and can you really seriously say STI isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. I guess he should have been clearer about his lyrics if he really wanted this song to mean something else.

Verse 1

 “I can't get rid of you’

Genital herpes caused by the Herpes Simplex virus is a viral infection that there is no cure for. Whilst antiviral treatment is available to reduce the symptoms and sometimes even make the person asymptomatic. However due to viral latency he will always have the disease and he could still spread it to another person and there’s always a chance that a symptomatic outbreak can occur in the future especially if the person becomes immunocompromised.

“I don't know what to do”

The protagonist is feeling powerless that could potentially be depression which is often the natural psychological reaction of having a chronic disease.

“I don't even know who is growing on who”

The protagonist also doesn’t know who was the source of the infection. Was it he the one that spread it to her or the other way around or perhaps the source infection came from another partner. After all tracing the source of STI is a tricky business that often involves detail sexual history. However disease such as herpes simplex are common enough and less severe STI that it is a non-notifiable disease and this type of contact tracing (identification and diagnosis of persons who may have come into contact with an infected person) is seldomly done with herpes simplex.

“'Cos everywhere I go you're there
Can't get you out of my hair”

The idea that the protagonist is always having her around because a part of her is always with him in the terms of genital warts. The person is frustrated that there he has difficulties with treatment removing genital wars from his pubic hair region.

“Can't pretend that I don't care - it's not fair”

This seems to be in the Anger phase of the Kübler-Ross model or more popularly known five stages of grief model blaming the unfairness of the situation.

 “I'm being punished for all my offences”

Continuing the anger phase of grief where he is blaming himself for the disease due to his sexual promiscuity.

“I wanna touch you but I'm afraid of the consequences”

This is the personification of the disease calling the disease “you”, He once to scratch the genital herpes but is afraid that this will cause greater inflammation around the area.

“I wanna banish you from whence you came

But you're part of me now
And I've only got myself to blame”

He once to get rid of the disease but the virus is permanently part of him and he is blaming himself for it.

Chorus

“You're really growing on me”

Continuation of the personification of the virus. The virus from his partner is growing on him.

“(Or am I growing on you?)”

The backing vocals however put some doubt that perhaps it is him being the source of the virus and it’s growing on her.

“Any fool can see”

Any person who is foolish enough to want to have sex with him (a bit of self loathing) can see what is growing on him

Verse 2

“Sleeping in an empty bed”

The protagonist is abstaining from sex

“Can't get you off my head”

He keeps on dwelling on the disease and thinking about it.

“I won't have a life until you're dead
Yes, you heard what I said”

He is withdrawing in social isolation due to chronic illness and won’t have a (sex) life until the infection is cured.

“I wanna shake you off but you just won't go”

He wants this infection to go away but it is not going to as there is no cure and it’s possible that the infection is treatment resistance and the blisters and sores won’t go away

“And you're all over me but I don't want anyone to know”

It’s possible that the blisters and sores are spreading to other areas of his body. Touching the blisters and sores (so he seems like he didn’t follow his own advice of not touching “you”) can transfer the herpes virus to another location of the body. This could therefore be present in an area that is visible explaining his social isolation in previous lines because he doesn’t want anyone to see it.

“That you're attached to me, that's how you've grown”

The virus has entered into his cells in his body and is now replicating (see viral life cycle).

“Won't you leave me, leave me alone”

He wants the virus to go away.

The song than repeats the chorus where he wonders whether his sexual partner was the source of his infection or was it him that spread it to her and the song ends.