Saturday, September 05, 2009

I went down to the Chelsea drugstore to get your prescription filled

As anyone who cares already knows, this is a line from the Rolling Stones.

But why do they call it a drugstore? Wouldn't "chemist" be more idiomatic in their dialect?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Idiomatic for whom? Sure, the Stones are English, but could Chelsea here refer to Chelsea on the west wide of Manhattan? No chemists there.

impudent strumpet said...

I just assumed people would write songs in their own dialect, and they'd be referring to the Chelsea in London. Occam's Razor of songwriting.

laura k said...

I think they are referring to going to a drug dealer, rather than a chemist. The line means "I went to see a guy on the corner about getting you the kind of drugs you need". And maybe "drugstore" conjures that more than "chemist".

impudent strumpet said...

That's true, "chemist" is completely irrelevant to that meaning of "drug". Can't believe I didn't think of that.

Anonymous said...

The chelsea drug store was a record shop/pub on the kings road in Chelsea, london. It is now a macdonalds.