Songfacts (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones
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On May 6, 1965, The Rolling Stones played to about 3,000 people at Jack Russell Stadium in Clearwater, Florida while on their first US tour. According to an article in the St. Petersburg Times, about 200 young fans got in an altercation with a line of police officers at the show, and The Stones made it through just four songs as chaos ensued. That night, Keith Richards woke up in his hotel room with the guitar riff and lyric "can't get no satisfaction" in his head. He recorded it on a portable tape deck, went back to sleep, and brought it to the studio that week. The tape contained his guitar riff followed by the sounds of him snoring.
Richards was staying at the Fort Harrison Hotel (known at the time as the Jack Tar Harrison Hotel) when he rolled out of bed with the idea for this song. In 1975, it was bought by the Church of Scientology and often used for religious retreats.
Mick Jagger wrote all the lyrics except the line "can't get no satisfaction." The lyrics deal with what Jagger saw as the two sides of America: the real and phony. The song is about a man looking for authenticity but not being able to find it through the haze of marketing. Jagger experienced the vast commercialism of America in a big way on their tours and later learned to exploit it, as The Rolling Stones made truckloads of money through sponsorships and merchandising in the US.
"Satisfaction" was released in the United States on June 6, 1965, just a month after Keith Richards woke up with the guitar riff in his head. It went to #1 on July 10, where it stayed for four weeks.
In the UK, it wasn't issued until August 20, 1965, because The Stones wanted to be there to support it. It went to #1 there on September 15, and stayed for two weeks.
The Stones' next single, "Get Off of My Cloud," went to #1 in both countries.
Keith Richards was worried that his guitar riff wasn't entirely original, as it sounds a bit like the 1964 Motown hit "Dancing in the Street" by Martha & the Vandellas, but he became satisfied that his riff was distinct.
Keith Richards ran his guitar through a Gibson Fuzz Box to create the distortion effect. He had no intention of using the sound on the record, but Gibson had just sent him the device, and he thought the Fuzz Box would create sustained notes to help sketch out the horn section. The band thought it sounded great and wanted to use the sound because it would be very unusual for a rock record. Richards thought it sounded gimmicky and did not like the result, but the rest of the band convinced him to ditch the horn section and use the distorted guitar sound.
This wasn't the first song to use fuzz guitar. Link Wray had been using it since the late '50s, including on his hit "Rumble." Ann-Margret's 1961 song "I Just Don't Understand" has the fuzz courtesy of guitarist Billy Strange. He also applied it to "Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah" by Bob B. Soxx And The Blue Jeans in 1962. Other artists that preceded Keith Richards with the fuzz effect include The Ventures (specifically their 1962 single "The 2000 Pound Bee") and Big Jim Sullivan on P.J. Proby's "Hold Me."
The Stones performed this on their third Ed Sullivan Show appearance, which took place February 13, 1966. The line, "Trying to make some girl," was bleeped out by Sullivan's censors, as it was a family show. Sullivan was perhaps the only host that could get away with this, as he helped launch the band in America. On The Stones' fifth appearance, Jagger agreed to sing "Let's Spend The Night Together" as "Let's Spend Some Time Together."
"Satisfaction" was included on the US version of the Out Of Our Heads album, but not the British. Putting singles on albums was considered ripping people off in the UK.
This one is fun to hear with headphones: the stereo mix has electric instruments on one channel and acoustics on the other.
Jack Nitzsche played piano on this track and helped produce it. He also played the tambourine part because he thought Jagger's attempt lacked soul. Nitzsche was a successful producer who worked on many early hits for The Stones, including "Get Off My Cloud" and "Paint It Black." He died in 2000 at age 63.
Otis Redding covered the song in 1966 at the behest of Steve Cropper and Booker T. Jones, who were part of his backing band at Stax Records. Otis hadn't heard the song, and he didn't like it, so he did a radically different version of the song, using horns and changing many of the words. Using horns was what Keith Richards originally had in mind for the song, and he lauded Redding's take. His version was one of the first British songs covered by a Black artist; usually it was the other way around. Redding's version went to #31 in the US.
The phrase, "I Can't Get No Satisfaction," is grammatically incorrect. It's a double negative and really means, "I Can Get Satisfaction."
The final take was recorded just five days after Richards first came up with the idea. Three weeks later, it was released as a single in the US. An instant hit, it made The Stones stars in America; it helped that they were already touring the US to support it.
There is a song by Chuck Berry called "Thirty Days" with the line, "I can't get no satisfaction from the judge." Richards is a huge Chuck Berry fan and it's possible that's where he got the idea for the title.
The Stones debuted "Satisfaction" on the ABC variety show Shindig! May 20, 1965, a few weeks before it was released in America. Months earlier, they had a UK #1 with "Little Red Rooster," a song originally recorded by Howlin' Wolf, an American bluesman who wasn't well known in his home country. The Stones insisted that Wolf appear on the show, and they helped introduce his performance of How Many More Years.
There was a TV series called Satisfaction that ran on the USA network for two seasons, starting in 2014. In eight episodes, a cover of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by an indie group called In The Valley Below was used as the theme song.
There was also a 1988 movie called Satisfaction starring Justine Bateman of Family Ties fame as the frontwoman in a rock band. In the film, she performs the song, which is also included on the soundtrack, credited to Justine Bateman & The Mystery. Julia Roberts plays one of her band members in the movie.
Mick Jagger said in a 1995 promotional interview: "People get very blasé about their big hit. It was the song that really made The Rolling Stones, changed us from just another band into a huge, monster band. You always need one song. We weren't American, and America was a big thing and we always wanted to make it here. It was very impressive the way that song and the popularity of the band became a worldwide thing. It's a signature tune, really, rather than a great, classic painting, 'cause it's only like one thing - a kind of signature that everyone knows. 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. Or it's a bit more than that, maybe, but a kind of sexual alienation. Alienation's not quite the right word, but it's one word that would do."
Sesame Street did a version called "(I Can't Get No) Cooperation," which is about a kid at school having trouble to finding someone to play jump rope or ride the seesaw.
In addition to Otis Redding, hundreds of artists have covered "Satisfaction." Some that are notable:
Jimmy McGriff did an instrumental, organ-led version that went to #130 in American in 1967.
Devo's second single (following "Mongoloid") was their punky new-wave rendition, released in 1977. In the bridge, lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh does a rapid-fire "baby-baby-baby-baby..."
Britney Spears included the song on her second album, Oops!... I Did It Again, released in 2000. She sang it at the MTV Video Music Awards.
The Stones don't own the publishing rights to this song. In 1965, they signed a deal with an American lawyer named Allen Klein and let him make some creative accounting maneuvers to avoid steep British taxes. He ended up controlling most of their money, and in order to get out of their contract, The Stones signed over the publishing rights to all the songs they wrote up to 1969. Klein, who died in 2009, still had to pay royalties to the songwriters, but controlled how the songs were used.
This was featured in the 1984 film Starman, starring Jeff Bridges. The movie is set on a deep space probe in the '70s. Other movies to use the song include:
TV shows to use "Satisfaction" include:
The Rolling Stones have played this live maybe 1000 times over the years. How do they keep it fresh? Well, Keith Richards insists he never plays it the same way twice.
In 2006, The Rolling Stones included "Satisfaction" in their sat at halftime of Superbowl XL. The NFL was still reeling from Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" two years earlier, so they were using artists less likely to offend sensitive viewers. Paul McCartney did the show in 2005.
Speaking about the fuzztone box he used on this song, Keith Richards said in 1992: "It was the first one Gibson made. I was screaming for more distortion: This riff's really gotta hang hard and long, and we burnt the amps up and turned the s--t up, and it still wasn't right. And then Ian Stewart went around the corner to Eli Wallach's Music City or something and came around with a distortion box. Try this. It was as off-hand as that. It was just from nowhere. I never got into the thing after that, either. It had a very limited use, but it was just the right time for that song."
Read more: Songfacts Paint It Black
Keith Richards used his fuzzbox, but he also played clean guitar during the song, with Brian Jones strumming an acoustic throughout. This meant Keith had to switch between his two tones during the song, as multiple tracks were sparse back then and overdubs rare. If you listen to the song at :36 you will hear Keith switching on his fuzz with an audible click, just between Jagger's "get" and "no." At about 1:35, Keith is stomping his fuzz too late, slightly missing his cue, ending up playing the riff a little behind. At his next cue (2:33) he probably wants to be sure that his fuzz is on, so you can hear a short but audible fuzz note (accidentally?) played before the actual riff and slightly before Jagger's "I can't get."
Despite the dig at TV advertising in this song ("When I'm watchin' my TV, and that man comes on to tell me how white my shirts can be..."), Snickers wanted it badly for their "Snickers Satisfies" campaign, and got it for a price of $4 million, according to Allen Klein of the song's publishing company, ABKCO. Klein said $2.8 million of that went to Jagger and Richards as writers of the song.
Further, Snickers didn't even get the original song for their money. The commercial, which aired in 1991 used a version performed by studio musicians.
In America, the song was knocked off the top spot by Herman's Hermits' "I'm Henry The VIII, I Am." In the UK, it was displaced by The Walker Brothers' "Make It Easy on Yourself."
In 1991, near the peak of his popularity, Vanilla Ice reworked "Satisfaction" in his New Jack Swing style in the same way he lifted "Under Pressure" for his hit "Ice Ice Baby." His version uses the famous guitar riff and chorus lyrics, but with Ice rapping about his adventures at the club with the ladies. The song got a music video and went to #69 on Billboard's Airplay chart. His version is credited to Jagger/Richards, so they got all the royalties.
Dolly Parton recorded a girl power version of "Satisfaction" for her 2023 rock album Rockstar. Her rendition, featuring Pink and Brandi Carlile, takes the song about worldly frustrations and commercialism from a male perspective and flips it on its head.
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