“There’s just no place for a street fighting man”: The Rolling Stones song too radical for US radio
When thinking about protest music, The Rolling Stones are not a band that comes to mind. In the 1960s and ‘70s, there was a lot to be angry about and a lot to say about it. Countless artists turned their pen to issues of war, social inequality, racism, and all manner of injustices that seemed to be hitting a boiling point. But largely, the Stones stayed out of it—until this song.
Protest music has simply never been the band’s realm. Born out of the London live music scene where they were busy playing jazz bars and hedonistic clubs, they were disciples of pure rock and roll and were always seemingly on a singular mission: to bring their music to the world. While their peers often used their music to make clear political statements, such as Bob Dylan’s early years as a protest writer or even The Beatles allowing the topic to float into their later work, the Stones largely stayed in their lane.
It could be argued that the band have always cared too much about money-making to ever truly make a statement. On the rare times when their music seems to stand for something, the clarity of the message is almost always buried under layers of interpretation to protect the track and its success. ‘Gimme Shelter’ is a great example as the song became a kind of unofficial anthem, or a warning siren, for the darkness taking hold at the end of the 1960s. “War, children, it’s just a shot away,” they sing about the growing unrest they were seeing. Keith Richards claimed this was about the Vietnam War as he said, “The Vietnam War. Violence on the screens, pillage and burning… It was a real nasty war, and people didn’t like it.” But beyond showing face amidst the crowd of a protest in 1968, the band never explicitly made any statement and always remained largely neutral or quiet on tricky topics.
But even their middling stance couldn’t save them from backlash regarding another semi-political song. It couldn’t stop ‘Street Fighting Man’ from being shunned by radio DJs who feared the inciting nature of the lyrics.
Similar to ‘Gimme Shelter’, the track deals with the unrest the band were seeing around them. Specifically, this one was inspired by the scenes of peaceful protests breaking out into riots as students took to the streets and authorities responded with force. In the track, the band turn this into a kind of high-octane marching song, with the music sounding exactly like a person running through the streets trying to evade trouble. “Everywhere I hear the sound / Of marching, charging feet, boy,” Jagger begins with his voice sounding booming as if it’s an announcement yelled across a city, which is exactly what DJs feared.
As the lyrics call for “a palace revolution” with the narrator, called “disturbance”, threatening to kill the king – people feared that the song could promote and even prompt violence. In the US, the track was released just a few days after the Democratic National Convention. That year, the event was marred with violence as the police clashed with protesters in the streets of Chicago. So, as tensions were high, DJs refused to play the track, fearing it would only incite more violence.
However, even in this track, which appears as the band’s most outright call for action, there is a placidity or an annoyance at its core. Clearly, the group were witnessing these scenes and was outraged, but as they themselves sang, “What can a poor boy do / Except to sing for a rock and roll band?” Grounded by this sentiment of resignation, the song’s call for revolution is curtailed in every chorus as Jagger throws his arms in the air and seems to accept that he can make no difference. “It’s stupid to think you can start a revolution with a record. I wish you could!” Jagger said, clearly holding that view in real life as in his lyrics.
