This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Watching girls passing by, it ain't the latest thing
I'm just standing in a doorway
I'm just trying to make some sense
Out of these girls passing by, the tales they tell of men
I'm not waiting on a lady
I'm just waiting on a friend
A smile relieves a heart that grieves, remember what I said
I'm not waiting on a lady
I'm just waiting on a friend
I'm just waiting on a friend
Just waiting on a friend
I'm just waiting on a friend
I'm just waiting on a friend
I'm just waiting on a friend
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, yeah
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, yeah
Don't need a whore
I don't need no booze
Don't need a virgin priest
But I need some one I can cry to
I need someone to protect
Ooh, making love and breaking hearts, it is a game for youth
But I'm not waiting on a lady
I'm just waiting on a friend
I'm just waiting on a friend
Just waiting on a friend
Waiting on a friend
I'm just waiting on a friend
I'm just waiting on a friend, waiting on a friend
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, yeah
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, yeah
I'm just standing in a doorway
I'm just trying to make some sense
Out of these girls passing by, the tales they tell of men
I'm not waiting on a lady
I'm just waiting on a friend
A smile relieves a heart that grieves, remember what I said
I'm not waiting on a lady
I'm just waiting on a friend
I'm just waiting on a friend
Just waiting on a friend
I'm just waiting on a friend
I'm just waiting on a friend
I'm just waiting on a friend
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, yeah
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, yeah
Don't need a whore
I don't need no booze
Don't need a virgin priest
But I need some one I can cry to
I need someone to protect
Ooh, making love and breaking hearts, it is a game for youth
But I'm not waiting on a lady
I'm just waiting on a friend
I'm just waiting on a friend
Just waiting on a friend
Waiting on a friend
I'm just waiting on a friend
I'm just waiting on a friend, waiting on a friend
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, yeah
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, yeah
Lyrics submitted by spliphstar
Waiting On A Friend Lyrics as written by Mick Jagger Keith Richards
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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To me there's always been two ways of interpreting this song.
I always thought it was about a couple who broke up and they were meeting somewere and he is not over her yet. he's trying to convince himself they are just friends now
This song says it all...sometimes after many relationships, the hurt and pain, the arguments...it's just nice to be waiting on a friend, be it a female or a male.
He's not looking for a woman, you know a whore, a girlfriend, etc. He just feels better sometimes to be with a friend that will listen to his problems.
Only 2 posts for this song? This song is absolutely beautiful. The sax part of the song is phenominal, does anyone know of any other Stones songs where there is a lot of sax. I'm thinking Can't You Hear me Knocking does as well.
Not your typical Stones song for sure. Very vulnerable and honest words from the weary singer of the song.
That is Sonny Rollins playing the great saxaphone at the end.
This is a great song, and I completely disagree with kfe2.
For fuck's sake kfe2, not all songs are about smack, you know...
this song is pure fucking great. the sax really inspires it to pull of different tricks and then when that falsetto voice comes in (doo doo doo...etc.) that's what the song is right there yeah right there definately
Sounds like me right now. Brilliant song.