“19th Nervous Breakdown” is a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, recorded in late 1965 and released as a single in early 1966, it reached number 2 on both the US and UK charts, while topping the NME charts. (More from Wikipedia)
“19th Nervous Breakdown” is one of the Rolling Stones’ songs that illustrated to me just how dense and colorful their lyrics could be – the very concept just amazes me to this day (not that I was really clear on what a nervous breakdown was at age 15). The verses tell the story of a mixed-up girl with all sorts of problems; the first two verses go:
You’re the kind of person you meet at certain dismal, dull affairs
Center of a crowd, talking much too loud, running up and down the stairs
Well, it seems to me that you have seen too much in too few years
And though you've tried you just can't hide your eyes are edged with tears
When you were a child you were treated kind
But you were never brought up right
You were always spoiled with a thousand toys but still you cried all night
Your mother who neglected you owes a million dollars tax
And your father's still perfecting ways of making sealing wax
Adding to my puzzlement of figuring out the meaning of these words from the sheet music at Reznick’s Records was the British spelling at the end, “ceiling wax”. I know that I had seen sealing wax used in several movies (though I doubt I knew what it was called back then), but I couldn't imagine what you would do with wax on a ceiling!
And naturally, I completely missed the drug reference in the last verse (I guess I figured it was some sort of vacation):
On our first trip I tried so hard to rearrange your mind
But after awhile I realized you were disarranging mine
(May 2015)
