"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" is a song by English rock band The Rolling Stones released in 1965. It was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and produced by Andrew Loog Oldham. The number is noted for Richards's three-note guitar riff which opens and drives the song, and for the lyrics, which include references to sexual intercourse and a theme of anti-commercialism. The latter in particular caused the song to be "perceived as an attack on the status quo".[1]
The song was first released as a single in the United States in June 1965 and also featured on the American version of Out of Our Heads, released that July. "Satisfaction" was a hit, giving the Stones their first number one in the United States. In Europe, the song initially played only on pirate radio stations because its lyrics were considered too sexually suggestive.[citation needed] In Britain the single was released in August 1965; it became the Rolling Stones' fourth UK number one. The song is considered to be one of the all-time great rock songs. In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine placed "Satisfaction" in the second spot on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, while in 2006 it was added to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.
Inspiration
Keith Richards states that he came up with the guitar riff for the song in his sleep, waking up in the middle of the night, recording the riff and the words "I can't get no satisfaction" on a cassette recorder and promptly falling back to sleep.[2] He would later describe the tape as: "two minutes of 'Satisfaction' and 40 minutes of me snoring."[3] He and Jagger finished writing the song at the Jack Tar Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, Florida, in May 1965.[4][5] Jagger wrote most of the lyrics - a statement about the rampant commercialism that the Rolling Stones had seen in America.[1][6]
Richards was concerned that the riff sounded too much like Martha and the Vandellas' "Dancing in the Street".[1] Jagger later said: "It sounded like a folk song when we first started working on it and Keith didn't like it much, he didn't want it to be a single, he didn't think it would do very well... I think Keith thought it was a bit basic. I don't think he really listened to it properly. He was too close to it and just felt it was a silly kind of riff."[7] Jagger has also pointed out that the title lyrics closely resemble a line from Chuck Berry's "30 Days".[7] (Berry's lyric is "If I don't get no satisfaction from the judge".)[6][8]
Recording
The Rolling Stones first recorded the track on 10 May 1965 at Chess Studios in Chicago[9] - a version featuring Brian Jones on harmonica. The group minus Brian Jones re-recorded it two days later at RCA Studios in Hollywood, with a different beat and the Gibson Maestro fuzzbox adding sustain to the sound of the guitar riff.[7][10] Richards envisioned redoing the track later with a horn section playing the riff: "this was just a little sketch, because, to my mind, the fuzz tone was really there to denote what the horns would be doing."[7] The other Rolling Stones, as well as manager Andrew Loog Oldham and sound engineer Dave Hassinger eventually outvoted Richards and the track was selected for release as a single.[6][10] The song's success boosted sales of the Gibson fuzzbox so that the entire available stock sold out by the end of 1965.[1]
Like most of the Stones' pre-1966 recordings, "Satisfaction" was originally released in mono only. In the mid-1980s, a true stereo version of the song was released on German and Japanese editions of the CD reissue of Hot Rocks 1964-1971. The stereo mix features a piano (played by session player Jack Nitzsche) and acoustic guitar that are barely audible in the original mono release (both instruments are also audible on a bootleg recording of the instrumental track). This stereo mix of "Satisfaction" also appeared on a radio-promo CD of rare stereo tracks provided to US radio stations in the mid-1980s, but has not yet been featured on a worldwide commercial CD; even later pressings of the German and Japanese Hot Rocks CDs feature the mono mix, making the earlier releases with the stereo mix collectors' items. For the worldwide 2002 reissue of Hot Rocks, an alternate quasi-stereo mix was used featuring the lead guitar, bass, drums, and vocals in the center channel and the acoustic guitar and piano "split" left and right via a delay effect.[11]
Release and success
"Satisfaction" was released as a single in the US by London Records on 6 June 1965, with "The Under-Assistant West Coast Promotion Man" as its B-side.[12] The single made its way through the American charts, reaching the top on 10 July, displacing The Four Tops' "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)". "Satisfaction" held on for a full four weeks, being knocked off on 7 August by "I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am" from Herman's Hermits.[13] The song entered the Billboard Hot 100 charts in America in the week ending 12 June 1965, remaining there for 14 weeks; it was #1 for four straight weeks. While in its eighth week on the American charts, the single was certified a gold record award by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for selling more than half a million copies in the United States,[citation needed] giving the band their first of many gold disc awards in America. Later the song was also released by London Records on Out of Our Heads in America.[6] According to "Joel Whitburn Presents, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942–2004", the song also reached #19 on the Top Selling Rhythm and Blues Singles.
"Satisfaction" was not immediately released by Decca Records in Great Britain. Decca was already in the process of preparing a live Rolling Stones EP for release, so the new single didn't come out in Britain until 20 August,[12] with "The Spider and the Fly" on the B-Side. The song peaked at number one for two weeks, replacing Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe", between 11 September and 25 September, before being toppled by The Walker Brothers' "Make It Easy on Yourself".[13]
In the decades since its release, "Satisfaction" has repeatedly been acclaimed by the music industry. In 1976, Britain's New Musical Express listed "Satisfaction" 7th among the top 100 singles of all time. There was a resurgence of interest in the song after it was prominently featured in the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now. In 1991, Vox listed "Satisfaction" among "100 records that shook the world".[citation needed] In 1999, BMI named "Satisfaction" as the 91st-most performed song of the 20th century. In 2000, VH1 listed "Satisfaction" first among its "Top 100 Greatest Rock Songs";[14] the same year, "Satisfaction" also finished runner-up to "Yesterday" in a list jointly compiled by Rolling Stone and MTV.[citation needed] In 2003, Q placed the song 68th out of its "1001 Best Songs Ever". In 2004, Rolling Stone's panel of judges named "Satisfaction" as the second-greatest song of all time, coming in second to Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone".[15] Newsweek has called the opening riff "five notes that shook the world".[16]
Jagger has said of "Satisfaction": "It was the song that really made The Rolling Stones, changed us from just another band into a huge, monster band... It has a very catchy title. It has a very catchy guitar riff. It has a great guitar sound, which was original at that time. And it captures a spirit of the times, which is very important in those kinds of songs... Which was alienation."[6] Richards claimed that the song's riff could be heard in half of the songs that The Rolling Stones had produced, saying that "there is only one song — it's just the variations you come up with."[1]
The song has become a staple at Rolling Stones shows. They have performed it on nearly every tour since its release, and concert renditions have been included on the albums Got Live if You Want It!, Still Life (American Concert 1981), Flashpoint, Live Licks and Shine a Light. One unusual rendition is included in Robert Frank's film Cocksucker Blues from the 1972 tour, when the song was performed by both the Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder's band as the second half of a medley with Wonder's "Uptight".
Lyrics and melody
Guitar riff from "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"
The song opens with the guitar riff, which is joined by the bass halfway through. It is repeated three times with the drums and acoustic guitar before the vocal enters with the line: "I can't get no satisfaction". The title line is an example of a double negative resolving to a negative, a common usage in colloquial English. Jagger sings the verses in a tone hovering between cynical commentary and frustrated protest, and then leaps half singing and half yelling into the chorus, where the guitar riff reappears. The lyrics outline the singer's irritation with the increasing commercialism of the modern world, where the radio broadcasts "useless information" and a man on television tells him "how white my shirts can be - but he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke the same cigarettes as me." Jagger also describes the stress of being a celebrity, and the tensions of touring. The reference in the verse to not getting any "girl reaction" was fairly controversial in its day, interpreted by some listeners (and radio programmers) as meaning a girl willing to have sex. Particularly shocking to some people was a reference to a girl having her period (being "on a losing streak").[17] The song closes with a fairly subdued repetition of the song's title, followed suddenly by a full shout of the line, with the final words repeated into the fade-out.[18]
In its day the song was perceived as disturbing because of both its sexual connotations and the negative view of commercialism and other aspects of modern culture; critic Paul Gambaccini stated: "The lyrics to this were truly threatening to an older audience. This song was perceived as an attack on the status quo".[1] When the Rolling Stones performed the song on Shindig! in 1965, the line "trying to make some girl" was censored.[19] Forty years later, when the band performed three songs during the February 2006 Super Bowl XL halftime show, "Satisfaction" was the only one of the three songs not censored as it was broadcast.[20]
* Mick Jagger – lead vocals, backing vocals
* Keith Richards – electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals
* Charlie Watts – drums
* Bill Wyman - bass guitar
* Jack Nitzsche - piano, tambourine
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