Rolling Stones – "You Can't Always Get What You Want" (1969)

We’re gonna vent our frustration

If we don’t, we’re gonna blow a 50-amp fuse

Are first-class oboe players scarcer then first-class flutists?  (If you say “flautist” instead of “flutist,” you’re either a Brit or a showoff.)

The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s management says it pays its best oboist $70,000 more annually than its principal flutist because the oboe is more difficult to play, and that topnotch oboists are scarcer than hen’s teeth.  

Flutist Elizabeth Rowe

But Elizabeth Rowe, the BSO’s top flutist, thinks she’s paid less than principal oboist John Ferrillo because she’s a woman and he’s a man.  So she’s filed a sex discrimination lawsuit against the orchestra.

Most symphony orchestras are unionized, and they pay their musicians the base salary specified in the collective bargaining agreement.  But the best musicians can negotiate an “overscale” wage – the base salary plus a certain percentage – in the same way that star professional athletes can negotiate a higher salary than lesser-paid than lesser players.

I don’t know much about whether the oboe is tougher to master than the flute, or vice versa.  (I’m a pianist, and we all know that those who play the “king of instruments” deserve to be paid more than those who play lesser instruments.)  But I’m not sure why the BSO chose that as its defense to Rowe’s allegations.  

Rowe’s lawsuit alleges that there are five BSO principals who are paid more than she is – all of whom just so happen to be men.  That does sound suspicious.

Oboist John Ferrillo

But what her lawsuit doesn’t tell you is that there are nine other principals who are paid less than Rowe is – and that eight of those nine musicians are men.  That fact would seem to throw cold water on Rowe’s discrimination complaint.  

By the way, Rowe is paid over $250,000 a year.  That ain’t hay.

But if she thinks she’s being underpaid, she’s free to find an orchestra willing to pay her more – just like a free-agent athlete is free to move to a team that offers to pay him more than his current team will fork over.

But Ms. Rowe doesn’t want to leave Boston and take her talents to another orchestra.  She wants to have her cake and eat it, too.  

I don’t blame her.  But you can’t always get what you want – right?

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“You Can’t Always Get What You Want” doesn’t feature the flute or the oboe, but it does have a French horn solo by the multitalented Al Kooper.  (I wonder how much the BSO’s prinicipal horn player makes?)

For some reason, Stones drummer Charlie Watts – one of the truly great rock drummers – couldn’t handle the drum part on “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” so Stones producer Jimmy Miller did the drumming on that track instead.

“You Can’t Always Get What You Want” was the first song recorded for Let It Bleed, the Stones’ best album and arguably the greatest classic rock album of all time.  (I personally would give the nod to the first Led Zeppelin album.)

Click here to listen to “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

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