Lyrics to
When The Whip Comes Down

This version of When The Whip Comes Down was released by The Rolling Stones in 1978.

Our About The Rolling Stones page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for When The Whip Comes Down from 1978 as well as all of the other lyrics from The Rolling Stones that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to The Rolling Stones or about the 1970s in general.

Yeah, mama and papa told me
I was crazy to stay
I was gay in New York
Which is a fag in L.A.
So I saved my money
And I took a plane
Wherever I go they treat me the same
When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down
I’m going down fifty-third street
And they’re spitting in my face
I’m learning the ropes
Yeah I’m learning a trade
The east river truckers
Is churning with trash
I’ve got so much money
That I’m spending so fast
When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down
When the shit hits the fan
I’ll be sitting on the can
When the whip comes down
Yeah, some called me garbage
While I was sleeping on the street
I never roll
And I never cheat
I’m filling a need
I’m plugging a hole
My mama’s so glad
I ain’t on the dole
When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down
When the whip comes down
(Yeah, go ahead check it out)
Yeah, baby, when the whip comes down
When the whip comes down
(I’ll be running this town, I’ll tell you)
When the shit hits the fan
I’ll be sittin on the can

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The Rolling Stones has released many songs over the years besides When The Whip Comes Down. The Rolling Stones released songs from 1964 to 2005 spanning across albums like 12x5, The Rolling Stones, Out Of Our Heads, December's Children (And Everybody's), The Rolling Stones, Now!, Aftermath, Their Satanic Majesties Request, Between The Buttons, Flowers, Beggar's Banquet, Let It Bleed, Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out, Sticky Fingers, Exile On Main St., Goats Head Soup, It's Only Rock 'N' Roll, Black And Blue, Some Girls, Emotional Rescue, Tattoo You, Undercover, Dirty Work, Steel Wheels, Voodoo Lounge, Stripped, Bridges To Babylon, Forty Licks, Rarities 1971-2003, and A Bigger Bang. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Rolling Stones.

If you're a fan of the music of the 1970s looking for more songs from 1978 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and When The Whip Comes Down by The Rolling Stones

The lyrics for When The Whip Comes Down are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1978 song by The Rolling Stones. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to When The Whip Comes Down have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for When The Whip Comes Down - The Rolling Stones and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to When The Whip Comes Down by The Rolling Stones in multiple ways. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to When The Whip Comes Down" means the words set to the music of When The Whip Comes Down, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by The Rolling Stones. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to When The Whip Comes Down and the lyrics to When The Whip Comes Down are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of The Rolling Stones who came here looking just for the lyrics to When The Whip Comes Down, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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