You know what I’d rather forget? Donald Trump.
I’d like to forget that he currently sits in the Oval Office, guzzling Diet Cokes, downing McDonalds cheeseburgers, drooling over Fox & Friends, and firing off barely-literate tweets. I’d like to forget the circus he manufactured leading up to his 2016 election, and the dumpster fire he’s been fueling since. I’d like to forget how he’s emboldened the very worst of this country’s citizenry– sexists, racists, ableists, nationalists, xenophobes, homophobes and transphobes, Islamophobes— lending the veneer of respectability to their hatred and lies. I’d like to forget his intemperate attacks on the Fourth Estate, his reckless dismantling of the rule of law, his laissez faire relationship with Truth. I’d like to forget he ever existed.
And although there are legions of worse offenses, to be sure, I’d also like to forget that he commandeered this– one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands– and made it the theme song for his 2016 Presidential campaign. Here’s my pick for today, The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”:
Ruining somebody’s favorite song ranks very high on my list of Shitty Things Humans Do That Do Not Involve Someone Actually Dying. So it really, really hurt way down deep in my soul when I saw Trump lumber onto the stage to deliver his victory speech, which ended with the Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Leave aside for the moment the bizarro choice of that song in particular, Trump never got the Stones’ permission to use it and, in fact, they repeatedly asked him to stop using it throughout his campaign. What an ass.
“You Can’t Always Get What You Want” was initially released as the B-side to another of my favorite Stones’ tracks, “Honky Tonk Woman,” and although I’m sure I heard it before this, my first memory of really being impacted by the song was when I saw the 1983 film The Big Chill. In the film, one of the characters (who had already committed suicide before the story begins) chose “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” as the song to be played at his funeral. I appreciated the gallows humor of that choice and I liked the idea of poking one last jab at your friends from beyond the grave. Funerals should be funnier.
Anyway, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” remains a much-beloved song for me, even if it does remind me of something I’d rather forget. I’m hoping that over time the stank of Trump will eventually wear off the song and I’ll be able to return to my prelapsarian enjoyment of it. If that doesn’t happen naturally, I’ll just take Jagger’s advice from “Sweet Virginia” and scrape that shit right off myself.