Mick Jagger was a world-famous Lothario figure in the 60s and early 70s, however his lyrics with the Rolling Stones from that period often betray a pronounced misogyny. Most Rolling Stones songs are credited: Jagger/Richards, and in practice Jagger wrote most of the lyrics, and Keith Richards provided the musical basis, with exceptions.
The Last Time
The first Rolling Stones single written by the Jagger/Richards team was 1965’s “The Last Time”, whose lyric is based around an ominous warning from the narrator to a girlfriend. “I’ve told you once and I’ve told you twice”, runs the first line, and the song shows the narrator has grown frustrated with the girls refusal to pay attention to his needs: “You don’t try very hard to please me.” In the final verse, the opening line is reprised, but now followed by the veiled threat: “Someone’ll have to pay the price.”
Play With Fire
The b-side of that single was “Play with Fire”, an uncharacteristic production with arpeggiated guitar and harpsichord, and a coldly menacing lyric from Jagger directed at, apparently, some rich society girl who he advises, “Don’t play with me ‘cos you’re playing with fire.” The Beatles often sang about diamond rings in their early love songs, and here the Stones bring in diamonds, but the tone is rather different: “Now you’ve got your diamonds, and you will have some others, but you’d better watch your step, girl, or start living with your mother.” As in “The Last Time”, the narrative persona in the song has feelings of anger and resentment towards the subject.