The Rolling Stones: Honky Tonk Women Meaning

Song Released: 1969

Honky Tonk Women Lyrics

I met a gin soaked, bar-room queen in Memphis,
She tried to take me upstairs for a ride.
She had to heave me right across her shoulder
'Cause I just can't seem to drink you off my mind.

It's a honky tonk women
Gimme, gimme, gimme the...

1. anonymous

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   Aug 31st 2021 !⃝

   Forgot to say RIP Charlie Watts.
   
   This track has been played to showcase his contribution to the band.
   
2. anonymous

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   Aug 31st 2021 !⃝

   I thought it was a hooker who was giving him a preparatory wank and he was boasting that his member was so large that it was resting on her shoulder.
3. anonymous

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   Dec 13th 2020 !⃝

   I don't think it is a very serious piece of lyrics, but to me it is about being on the road with a troubled (or even ex-) love relationship back home. "I just can't seem to drink YOU off my mind." (referring to his (ex-)woman back home.
   
   So the protagonist hits a drunken stupor, going for casual sexual acquaintances along the road.
   
   I particularly think the first verse is funny and I don't think Jagger(/Richards) is referencing a hooker. The gin-soaked bar-room QUEEN could just as well be some guy in drag, strong enough to throw the alcohol marinated protagonist across the shoulder, trying to carry him upstairs. Not sure if it ended in sex though.
4. anonymous

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   Oct 5th 2019 !⃝

   What about the early television recording with Mick singing a third verse about a sailor in Paris?
   
   I saw it on a boulevard by Paris
   As naked as the day that I will die
   The sailors they're so charming there in Paris
   ButI just can't seem to sail it off my mind
   
5. anonymous

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   Mar 7th 2015 !⃝

   I always thought the lyrics "she blew my nose and then she blew my mind" were about getting a blowjob. Southern women like to do that because of their strict upbringing against which they are rebelling.
6. anonymous

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   Jun 14th 2011 !⃝

   I think this first interpretation is a bit off. "In that part in particular he was talking about even being too tired for sex until she gave him some cocaine but altogether i think it conveys his love for southern belles". Not quite. The lyrics say: "She had to heave me right across her shoulder/'Cause I just can't seem to drink you off my mind". He wasn't too tired for sex, he was too drunk to make it upstairs with her on his own strength - and he was too drunk because he was drinking to forget another woman (to whom he is addressing the song). This song isn't at all about "missing the fast lane of the deep south". It's about missing the woman he left behind while on tour, or broke up with or whatever. The fact that he only mentions one southern woman and one woman in New York should make it clear that, while the chorus says Honky-Tonk Women, it's really about missing someone else. The Honky Tonk Women are just a distraction from that that makes him sad.
7. suicideblonde

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   Feb 26th 2010 !⃝

   It starts out,"I met a gin-soaked barroom queen in Memphis" NOT a bar-hop whatever....
8. anonymous

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   Oct 29th 2009 !⃝

   Mick was in the South area when this song was inspired. "I met a bar hop queen in memphis, she tried to take me upstairs for a ride,she had to heave me right across her shoulder, she blew my nose and then she blew my mind."
   Its about a few afairs in the south with honkey tonk women
   in that part in particular he was talking about even being too tired for sex until she gave him some cocaine but altogher i think it conveys his love for southern belles, we do have quite a reputation for being crazy and when he left the U.S. he was probably missing the fast lane of the deep south and the coke "its the honky tonk women that give me gimme the honky tonk blues."

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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