Rolling Stones – Get Off Of My Cloud

I love this era of the Stones. This song was about the record company putting pressure on the Stones to follow up their biggest to date…and their biggest hit ever, Satisfaction.

The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, Canada, and the UK in 1965.

It was on the US album December’s Children (And Everybody’s) released in 1965 and it peaked at #4 in the Billboard Album Charts.

Keith Richards: “‘Get Off My Cloud’ was basically a response to people knocking on our door asking us for the follow up to ‘Satisfaction,’ which was such an enormous hit worldwide. This, to us, was mind-blowing. I mean not only was it a #1 record but, boom! We thought, ‘At last. We can sit back and maybe think about events.’ Suddenly there’s the knock at the door and of course what came out of that was ‘Get Off Of My Cloud.’ Because within three weeks, in those days hey, they want another single. And we weren’t quite ready for that. So it was our response to the knock at the door: Get off of my cloud. And I’m surprised that it did so well. I mean it has a certain charm but I really remember it as a knee-jerk reaction. And it came out better than I thought.”

Mick Jagger: “That was Keith’s melody and my lyrics. It’s a stop-bugging-me, post-teenage-alienation song. The grown-up world was a very ordered society in the ’60s, and I was coming out of it. America was even more ordered than anywhere else. I found it was a very restrictive society in thought and behavior and dress.” 

From Songfacts

There was a bit of controversy over this song, as it sounded like it could be about drugs. Some radio stations shied away from the song.

Stones manager Andrew Long Oldham produced this.

Ian Stewart played piano on this track. Keith Richards explained: “That was just one of those things you could do in those days – shadow a guitar with a piano. As long as you didn’t make it obvious, it would add some different air to a track.” 

The B-side of this single was “I’m Free,” which remained obscure until it was revived by The Soup Dragons in 1990.

In 1973 The Dramatics scored an R&B hit with “Hey You! Get Off My Mountain,” which also contained the chorus lyrics, “Hey You! Get Off My Cloud.”

Get Off Of My Cloud

I live in an apartment on the ninety-ninth floor of my block
And I sit at home looking out the window
Imagining the world has stopped
Then in flies a guy who’s all dressed up just like a Union Jack
And says, “I’ve won five pounds if I have his kind of detergent pack”

I says, “hey, you, get off of my cloud
Hey, you, get off of my cloud
Hey, you, get off of my cloud
Don’t hang around ’cause two’s a crowd
On my cloud, baby”

The telephone is ringing
I say, “hi, it’s me, who is there on the line?”
A voice says, “hi, hello, how are you?”
“Well, I guess I’m doin’ fine”
He says, “it’s three a.m., there’s too much noise
Don’t you people ever want to go to bed?
Just ’cause you feel so good
Do you have to drive me out of my head?”

I says, “hey, you, get off of my cloud
Hey, you, get off of my cloud
Hey, you, get off of my cloud
Don’t hang around ’cause two’s a crowd
On my cloud, baby, yeah”

I was sick and tired, fed up with this
And decided to take a drive downtown
It was so very quiet and peaceful
There was nobody, not a soul around
I laid myself out, I was so tired
And I started to dream
In the morning the parking tickets were just
Like a flag stuck on my window screen

I says, “hey, you, get off of my cloud
Hey, you, get off of my cloud
Hey, you, get off of my cloud
Don’t hang around ’cause two’s a crowd
On my cloud, baby”

“Hey, you, get off of my cloud
Hey, you, get off of my cloud
Hey, you, get off of my cloud
Don’t hang around ’cause two’s a crowd
On my cloud, hey, you

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

26 thoughts on “Rolling Stones – Get Off Of My Cloud”

  5. one of their fine early works. I never knew it had anything to do with the record company…interesting story. Imagine that, back then, having to churn out a new single in about three weeks. Back when anything less than two albums a year was considered slacking off! Remarkable so much good music was made in that time.

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    1. Didn’t Otis Redding do Satisfaction with horns? That was a great version. I believe that was the way Keith envisioned it to begin with.
      I do like this song though.

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  9. While it’s tough to follow “Satisfaction”, which undoubtedly is an iconic tune, “Get Off My Cloud” is a great song as well. In fact, I just took a glance at “December’s Children (And Everybody’s)”, and there are a bunch of other tracks I really like as well, such as “You Better Move On”, “Route 66” and “As Tears Go By.”

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      1. It’s funny. Even though I really dig The Stones, unlike The Beatles, I only got a few of their records on CD: “Steel Wheels”, “Voodoo Lounge”, “Flashpoint”, as well as the samplers “Hot Rocks I” and “Hot Rocks II.” I also have “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!” on vinyl.

        Notably, I don’t have “Sticky Fingers,” even though I think it’s their best album. Of course, I can access it via my streaming music provider. Still, it’s weird! šŸ™‚

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      2. The second album I got was Beggars Banquet…those stretch of 5 albums are great from the late sixties to Goats Head Soup

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  13. Good record. I love The Soup Dragons version of I’m Free even more though, so hippie trippie. Satisfaction set the bar high, and they didn’t come close again till Paint It Black, but this was a good effort.

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    1. Yes! That was when they were talking about having barbecues…I forgot all about that. I think that was when the Stones appeared to play Shattered and some more.

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