Lyrics and Music
The song's lyrics are an examination of a sexual power struggle, in which Jagger's lyrics celebrate the satisfaction of finally having controlled and gained leverage over a previously pushy, dominating woman. Jagger later reflected on the track in a 1995 interview: "It's a bit of a jokey number, really. It's not really an anti-feminist song any more than any of the others... Yes, it's a caricature, and it's in reply to a girl who was a very pushy woman".
Starting with the 1981 tour, Jagger changed most of the references of "girl" in the song to "woman".
Like many of the songs from the Aftermath period, "Under My Thumb" uses more novel instrumentation than that featured on previous Stones records, including fuzz bass lines (played by Bill Wyman), and marimba riffs played by Brian Jones, which provide the song's most prominent hook.
The lyrics, which savour the successful 'taming of the shrew' and compare the woman in question to a "pet", a "cat" and a "squirming dog" provoked some negative reactions, especially amongst feminists, who objected to what they took as the suppressive sexual politics of the male narrator. American humanities professor Camille Paglia, for example, reports that her admiration and defence of "Under My Thumb" marked the beginning of a rift between her and the radical feminists of the late 1960s.
Read more about this topic: Under My Thumb
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