The Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What You Want

Delicious irony: this is a sneaky U2 post.

I was 14 years old when U2’s ZooTV tour began in Lakeland, Florida. I had held my breath and scrimped allowance for months in anticipation. Dates were announced and there was no show close enough for me to figure out a 14 year old way to attend. I was miserable, overdramatic; throwing myself around on furniture, crying, like I do. This only fueled more angsty candlelit poetry. (One day I will dig out the box with all this mess in it and transcribe some for you, as much as I talk about it. writing on my hand right now, in fact.) MTV was blown up with footage and chatter and News Breaks about the tour. I was wild with desperation to see them. To just be in the same room. Anything!

The now country, then local classic rock radio station, 106.1, announced a contest. Be the 16th caller and you would win tickets to see the boys in Hampton, Virginia on March 7th. This prize also included transportation to and from the show. Was this a sign from God? My only problem, a way to get there, could be rectified. It was 5 days before the show, which was on a Saturday. Somehow I either convinced my parents that I had to be home that day to try and win or I faked sick, I don’t remember. All I know is on Monday I stayed home sick from school and sat in the bed with my phone on one side and my radio on the other. I don’t really remember walking to the bathroom, eating, anything; just waiting.

The “game” was that the station would play the first little “Yeaaaah!” from the Man at the beginning of Desire. After you heard this, you called. If you were caller 16, you win the tickets and the trip. I remember calling the station at least 3 times during the day asking if it was going to be soon. They of course offered no hints. So I waited.

Sometime around 7pm, while I was sitting on the floor in front of my bookcase, phone on the right, radio on the left. After every song finished, I laid my hand on the phone and waited. Suddenly there it was. The “Yeeeahhhh!” ...My hand went right to the phone and started hitting redial. My heart was pounding out of my chest. The song they played right after was The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” I could hear it vaguely in the background; mostly I was only hearing my own heartbeat in my ears and the constant fast beep of the busy signal. I just remember hitting redial, hanging up, hitting redial, hanging up. It seemed like forever. There came a point where I decided there was just literally no way it could go on this long and I thought “Oh God, just one more time. PLEASE.” and I hit redial. It rang. I jumped to my feet. I started pacing. This was the conversation:

“106.1!”
“WHATCALLERAMI?”
“I’m sorry?”
“WHATCALLERAMI? WHATCALLERAMI?”
“Oh, I’m sorry babe. ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’, you know…”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”
“Hey, Hey, ‘But if you try sometimes, you just might get what you need. YOU’RE CALLER 16!!!!!!!”
*Falls on knees to the floor, hyperventilating.* “R-r-r-really?”
“YEAH! You got it!”
*says nothing because is crying and hyperventilating.*
“You ok over there? should we send an ambulance??”
“YOU CAN SEND THE BUS TO SEE U2 RIGHT NOW OH MY GOD AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
“HELL YES!!!”


So, yes. I won. It was the very first time I got to see the boys. My dad drove my friend Brian (who was my main U2 influence,) to the radio station that Saturday morning to get on the bus. I was 14, Brian was 15. In retrospect, my parents are kinda super-awesome to let me go that far, unchaperoned with a boy, to a rock show. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. I bought a tour program that I’ve re-read more than any stupid piece of literature in the world. I kept the ticket stub and stickers and other paraphernalia in the tour program. That night (sometime after 3 in the morning!) after we got home I took out a sheet of notebook paper and wrote out a list. I entitled it “THINGS I WILL NEVER EVER FORGET ABOUT THIS NIGHT.” I will find this list. I will scan it. also being written on the hand right now. This list included such things as "BP Fallon sitting in the Trabant", "Black Francis Screaming", "Guy dressed like the fly wandering around the coliseum freaking me out", "Drunk guy on the bus singing the 'hoo hooooo!'s from BAD over and over again on the way home."

I’ve never in the past almost 20 years heard this song without thinking of this story and the magic it stirs in my heart. it reminds me of good luck.