The Rolling Stones: Get Off of My Cloud

SONG Get Off of My Cloud


WRITTEN BY Mick Jagger, Keith Richard

PERFORMED BY The Rolling Stones

APPEARS ON  December's Children (And Everybody's) (1965); Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass (1966); Hot Rocks, 1964-1971 (1972); Forty Licks (2002); others.

NOTE 1 "Get Off of My Cloud" is an essential Stones song. If you are only buying one Stones anthology, get one that includes "Cloud."  2 Stupid and Contagious has more about "Get Off of My Cloud" here.

'Ere I am sittin' in me apartment lookin' out the window and finkin' about fings. Big fings, important fings. When wot 'appens but a bloke comes on the telly actin' like I'm no' a bloody Englishman if I don't use 'is detergent to wash me dishes! Wash me dishes? That's wot I've got a maid for, innit? Anyway, leave me alone, mate. You go your way and I'll go mine. Know wot I mean? Bloody 'ell.

So I'm 'avin' some of me mates over and we're all 'avin a good time talkin' 'bout important fings and there's some girls too and we're all drinkin' and smokin' and mindin' our own biz when the phone rings. It's a bloke from maybe the 'undredth floor or some place who says we're makin' too much noise, know wot I mean? 'E just wants me to invite him down so 'e can be part of the 'ole 60s party, but I ain't 'avin' it. Leave me alone, mate, I tell him. You go your bloody way and I'll go mine. Know wot I mean?

The party's gettin' to be a bit much wif the phone calls and the music and the boys and the girls and all, so I go out for a drive. The girls will be there when I get back, y'know? So I drive and drive and drive and find a car park and kick back and relax and fink about fings and it's so nice and no one's there. No one sellin' me dishwashin' soap or bovverin' me wif phone calls or wantin' to know wot I fink. It's all nice and peaceful like so I doze off and when I wake up me Bentley is covered wif parking tickets.

They won't leave you be, know wot I mean? Like Phil and Don sang, all I want to do is dream, right? But no, no one, not the telly, not your neighbors, not your friends, not the Establishment, no one will leave you to yer cloud so you can just fink. Why is that? Well, all I have to say is, "Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!" 'Coz two's a crowd, know wot I mean?

LYRICS
I live in an apartment on the 99th 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 said, Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!
Don't hang around 'cause two's a crowd
On my cloud, baby

The telephone is ringing
I say, "Hi, it's me, who is there on the line."
A voice says, "Hi, hello, how are you?"
"Well, I guess I'm doin' fine."
He says, "It's 3 a.m., there's too much noise
Don't you people ever want to go to bed?
Just 'cause you feel so good, do you
Have to drive me out of my head?"

I said, Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!
Don't hang around 'cause two's a crowd
On my cloud, baby

I was sick and tired, fed up with this
And decided to take a drive downtown
It was so very quiet and peaceful, not a soul around
I laid myself out, I was so tired, I started to dream
In the morning the parking tickets were just like
A flag stuck on my screen

I said, Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!
Don't hang around 'cause two's a crowd
On my cloud, baby

Mick looks to be checking out the girls at about 1:20--

The Rolling Stones: Salt of the Earth

SONG Salt of the Earth

SONGWRITERS Mick Jagger, Keith Richard

PERFORMER The Rolling Stones

APPEARS ON Beggar's Banquet (1968)

The Rolling Stones classic "Salt Of The Earth" wraps up our fanfare for the common man. The song almost certainly reflects the upbringing of Keith Richard, born into a working family with socialist grandparents. "Salt" begins as an upliftinh tribute to the working class ("Let's drink to the hard working people") and risks a patronizing tone.

However, at the top of their game as songwriters, Mick Jagger and Keith Richard were nothing if not risk takers. "Salt Of The Earth" builds in anger over the choices faced by the "uncounted heads" ("cancer or polio") while it castigates their leaders as "gamblers" and "grafters."At this level, the song is a salute to the "humble of birth" who persevere in spite of it all. Its country blues slide guitar serves as a critical grounding link between the subjects of the song and its anthemic melody.

At the same time, Richard worries that his success has isolated him from his treasured roots: The "wavering millions" have become a "faceless crowd" that "look so strange." At the same time, he admits that "we all look too strange" to the "swirling mass of gray and blue and white." The video below becomes a poignant testament to this concern, as the Stones pull hats low on their brow and attempt camouflage themselves among their fans. But this is impossible by this time in their career: The Stones are stars; the salt of the earth are not. What the Stones can do is elevate their audience and show them respect by recognizing the distancing of success. They pull this off brilliantly with "Salt Of The Earth," one of their best songs.

LYRICS

Let's drink to the hard working people
Let's drink to the lowly of birth
Raise your glass to the good and the evil
Let's drink to the salt of the earth

Say a prayer for the common foot soldier
Spare a thought for his back breaking work
Spare a thought for his wife and his children
Who burn the fires and who still till the earth

And when I look into this faceless crowd
A swirling mass of gray, blue,
Black and white
They don't look real to me
In fact, they look so strange

Raise your glass to the hard working people
Let's drink to the uncounted heads
Let's think of the wavering millions
Who need leading but get gamblers instead

Spare a thought for the stay-at-home voter
His empty eyes gaze at strange beauty shows
And a parade of the gray suited grafters
A choice of cancer or polio

And when I look into this faceless crowd
A swirling mass of grays and
Black and white
Do we all look real to you
Or do we all look too strange?

Let's drink to the hard working people
Let's think of the lowly of birth
Spare a thought for the rag taggy people
Let's drink to the salt of the earth

Let's drink to the hard working people
Let's drink to the salt of the earth
Let's drink to the two thousand million
Let's think of the humble of birth