Factory Girl

Album: Beggars Banquet (1968)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song is a great example of Mick Jagger taking on a persona, which he often did in his lyrics. Here, he sings from the perspective of a guy who is waiting for his girlfriend - a destitute, disheveled sort - to get out of work at the factory. It's quite a contrast to Jagger's reality: a glamorous rock star who often dated models.
  • Dave Mason, who did some session work for Jimi Hendrix and was a member of the band Traffic, played the mandolin on this song.
  • Ric Grech was brought in to play fiddle on this track. Grech was a violinist and bass player who was a member of the band Family in the '60s and went on to play in Blind Faith with Eric Clapton. He also played on Gram Parsons' solo albums in the '70s, and he appears on Ron Wood and Ronnie Lane's 1976 Mahoney's Last Stand project.
  • Drummer Charlie Watts: "On Factory Girl, I was doing something you shouldn't do, which is playing the tabla with sticks instead of trying to get that sound using your hand, which Indian tabla players do, though it's an extremely difficult technique and painful if you're not trained."
  • Guitarist Keith Richards: "To me 'Factory Girl' felt something like Molly Malone, an Irish jig; one of those ancient Celtic things that emerge from time to time, or an Appalachian song. In those days I would just come up and play something, sitting around the room. I still do that today." >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Bertrand - Paris, France, for above 3

Comments: 13

  • Dan from Royal OakSteve - I never caught that interesting

    Bill - Great story! That is living and experiencing life brother!
  • Zero from Nowhere, NjThese lyrics are seriously considred serious?
  • Steve from Phoenix, AzI really love Jagger's play on words on this song

    "Waiting for a girl and she gets me into fights
    Waiting for a girl we get drunk on Friday night
    She's a sight for sore eyes"

    What a tag at the end of that phrase a guy
    probably having black eyes from his mouthy
    trouble making broad.
  • Kait from Somewhere, OhThis is most likely about Edie Sedgwick because Mick Jagger was really good friends with Andy Warhol and Edie was one of Andy's muses at one point in time
  • Kevin from Brooklyn, Nhedie sedgwick was known as "the factory girl" she was a women who moved to new york to persue an acting career and starting to hang out in andy warhols factory, and staring in his movies.
  • Glen from Kent, NeFor Calvin, Waynesboro, VA.

    You're correct. Brian was alive and well still a band member when sessions for what became 'Beggar's Banquet' started. He was, however, mostly out of his head (pun intended!) by this time and was not really in a position to contribute anything to the band. On the odd occasions that he did turn up at Olympic he was mostly too far gone to be of any use to anybody.
    Pretty much his final contribution the Rolling Stones was his slide guitar playing on 'No Expectations'.
  • Brian from Montgomery, NjBill, those vomit-inducing images and memories are generally something one would keep to himself...and then try and forget after years of heavy drinking.
  • Bill from Los Angeles, CaThis song reminds me of when i was living in Ravenswood West Virginia and I was dating an unemployed woman who was living off of Welfare. She was about 150 pounds overweight and she wore clothes that looked like they were made from old curtains. She was disgusting but also very sexy in a sickening way. We used to sit in her dilapidated house and drink cheap whiskey out of jelly jars, get roaring drunk and bang it out on her couch. Once we actually broke the couch, due to her extreme obesity and the ferocity of our love making. It was vicious actually. But she used to stagger into town drunk with curlers in her hair, which reminded me of the song. "She gets me into fights" was also apropos, because she and I would sometimes argue to the point that we broke furniture, threw bottles and jelly jars at each other, punch each other, etc then crash through the back door onto the back porch where we'd rip each other's clothes off and mate like beasts in front of the neighbors. Good times. I left there in 1988 and never heard from her again. Still love the song though!

    Bill in LA
  • Charley from San Francisco, CaThis song was a staple in the repetoire of learning acoustic guitarists at the time. It was simple ? mostly played in one chord position ? and a good exercise for the the fingers, and it sounded great, lke you really knew what you were doing!
    ? Charley, Bath
  • Lorelei from San Diego, CaI think this might be about Brian Jones's girlfriend at the time. I think she was in a number of Andy Warhol factory movies.
  • Johnny from Los Angeles, CaThis is a very good song. I really like the combination of the beach boys sound, the Mick Jagger voice, and the serious lyrics. Pretty nice. Of course, I'm listening to the live version and it might differ slightly from the album version.
  • Calvin from Waynesboro, VaQuestion of the day: Why was brian Jones not on the song Factory Girl on the Beggers Banquet album? He was then alive and a Stone....?????
  • Claire from St. Louis, MoThis song is so amazing. One of my favourites from Beggers Banquet. It has so much feeling to it, percussion is magnificent. Mick's vocals are too cool and the guitar work is so impressive. In my top 50 favourite songs of all time and one I never get tired of.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In Songs

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In SongsSong Writing

Songs where something goes horribly wrong (literally or metaphorically), and help is needed right away.

Kelly Keagy of Night Ranger

Kelly Keagy of Night RangerSongwriter Interviews

Kelly Keagy of Night Ranger tells the "Sister Christian" story and explains why he started sweating when he saw it in Boogie Nights.

The Untold Story Of Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine

The Untold Story Of Fiona Apple's Extraordinary MachineSong Writing

Fiona's highly-anticipated third album almost didn't make it. Here's how it finally came together after two years and a leak.

Matt Sorum

Matt SorumSongwriter Interviews

When he joined Guns N' Roses in 1990, Matt helped them craft an orchestral sound; his mezzo fortes and pianissimos are all over "November Rain."

Yacht Rock!

Yacht Rock!Song Writing

A scholarly analysis of yacht rock favorites ("Steal Away," "Baker Street"...) with a member of the leading YR cover band.

Dick Wagner (Alice Cooper/Lou Reed)

Dick Wagner (Alice Cooper/Lou Reed)Songwriter Interviews

The co-writer/guitarist on many Alice Cooper hits, Dick was also Lou Reed's axeman on the Rock n' Roll Animal album.