THE ROLLING STONES – “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
That riff – we have to start with that riff – sounds like Morse code. A harsh nonsense message, transmitted on a loop. Too much information, too much communication. Ten thousand whisperin’, nobody listenin’. “Satisfaction” is a song where people jabber at Jagger and he’s too bored or too savvy to care, but then when he tries to speak it doesn’t work either. It has a plot. In fact it’s a sitcom, Jagger’s Bad Day. The Rolling Stones were often a very funny band – the “same cigarettes” gag is sharp, smart and spiteful. And you have to smile at the way Mick Jagger starts off sounding so very polite before the comedy of irritation gets going. The band plays straight man, making sure the timing is right (and it is – those delicious seconds before “Hey hey hey”).
The jokes still ring mostly true, and the situations linger, which (oh yeah plus the riff) is why “Satisfaction” 2005 is startling even if the venom in it has long since diffused throughout pop/culture/everything. The third verse punchline – stardom equals hucksterism – may or may not have been new in 1965, I’m siding with ‘not’, but it’s the way he tells it, short words chopped shorter, stresses heaped up, “can’tcha SEE-I’M-ON”, a vocal analogue of the riff, and then the exploding, “GET NO!” The partial solution to the satisfaction problem: make your own.
9
That unending proscenium arch of a bassline does it for me, symbolic of an ambitious car grounded by a stuck wheel, spinning in some leftover mud. Easy to underestimate Wyman’s contributions, but this must have seemed the equivalent of, say, “TV Eye” by the Stooges getting to number one (and of course no Stooges/”TV Eye” without “Satisfaction” to inspire them/give them something to react against).
-2–2~~—2-4-5~~—-5-5^4-4^2—
It was just a riff. I didn’t think… I didn’t think of it as… I woke up in the middle of the night, put it down on a cassette. I thought it was great then. Went to sleep and when I woke up, it appeared to be as useful as another album track. It was the same with Mick too at the time, you know. It goes da-da, da-da-da… and the words I’d written for that riff were I can’t get no satisfaction. But it could just as well have been ‘Auntie Millie’s Caught Her Left Tit in the Mangle’.
I don’t have the Cat Power version to hand: does she omit that riff as well as the chorus?
Resurrection Watch:
Packed with peanuts
Marathon really satisfies
(The first time I really thought about the life of a session singer)
Then there’s these:
0. Otis Redding – (i can’t get no) Satisfaction
1. cat power – (i can’t get no) satisfaction
2. rolling stones – (i can’t get no) satisfaction
3. devo – (i can’t get no) satisfaction
4. bjork an pj harvey – (i can’t get no) satisfaction
5. guitar wolf – (i can’t get no) satisfaction
6. Britney Spears – (I can’t get no) Satisfaction
7. The Residents – (I can’t get no) Satisfaction
8. Television – (I can’t get no) Satisfaction
9. Fushitsusha: (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
10. The Masked Marauders: (I Can’t Get No) Nookie
11. Samantha Fox: (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
12. los apsons – satisfaccion (no soy nada)
13. blue cheer – satisfaction
14. trad, gras och stenar – satisfaction
15. Sandie Shaw-I can’t get no Satisfaction
16. Phyllis Diller-(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
17. Jonathan King: (I can’t get no) Satisfaction
18. Jimi Hendrix – (I can’t get no) Satisfaction
19. Rolf Harris – Satisfaction
20. The Vienna Symphony Orchestra – (I can’t get no) Satisfaction
21. Paul Revere & the Raiders – Satisfaction
22. Nicky Hopkins – (I can’t get no) Satisfaction
23. Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra & Chorus – (I can’t get no) Satisfaction
24. Sam & Dave – (I can’t get no) Satisfaction
25. Space Cowboys – Satisfaction
26. Eddie & the Hot Rods: (I can’t get no) Satisfaction
27. Alien Sex Fiend – Satisfaction
28. The Troggs – Satisfaction
29. Aretha Franklin: (I can’t get no) Satisfaction (live)
30. Manfred Mann – Satisfaction
31. The Grateful Dead – Satisfaction
32. Tight Fit – (I can’t get no) Satisfaction
33. The Thirteenth Floor Elevators – Satisfaction
34. ? & the Mysterians – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
35 justine bateman [from the movie]
36 del rubio triplets
37 incredible bongo band
38 phyllis diller [from golden throats]
39 Vanilla Ice – (I can’t get no) Satisfaction
Not to mention (riff only) Buffalo Springfield’s “Mr. Soul” and Fatboy Slim’s “Satisfaction Skank”.
haha alien sex fiend!!
Ah yes, Jonathan King’s Bubblerock project, which cruel souls might dismiss as the skint man’s version of Bryan Ferry’s These Foolish Things, but not me.
Another sound-alike riff: “Valleri” by the Monkees, a U.S. #1.
But it could just as well have been ‘Auntie Millie’s Caught Her Left Tit in the Mangle’.
But wouldn’t this just been a variation on a Muddy Waters title the Stones covered early on, “My Left Breast Mangled Millie’s Mom”?
I forget where I read it, but isn’t there some kind of ‘reference’ to menstruation in the song? Or is that just some received wisdom about the ‘better come back/maybe next week’ lyric?
Also, “Couldn’t Get Ahead” by The Fall is the 80s version, for me anyway.
There was a bit of a scandal when the Stones were on Ed Sullivan about the lyrics – or was it ” Let’s Spend Some Time Together “, whatever…..
Judged by Mick’s run of luck in this song ( “can’t you see I’m on a loosing streak”, ), I’d say , and I’ve always thought the lyric suggested his inability to perform in the Viagra sense of the word.
But, yea, either way it’s sexual missconnect.
Brian C
From what I understand it, Mick definitely mumbled “Let’s Spend The Night Together” on that show, and the understood re-title is “Let’s Spend Some Time Together”.
Which makes Mick reminiscent of Ned Flanders’ Valentines Day serenading of Maude in the music-tastic “I Love Lisa”:
“If you think I’m cuddly
And you want my company
Come on wifey, let me know.”
I also recall that the shock value of ” Satisfaction” was increased when reports came out saying that the lyric was ” And I’m trying to make some girl” pause “pregnant” pause” maybe better come back maybe next week”
whereas I’ve always heard “pregnant” as ” tells me “.
I haven’t got big enough ears to confirm either.
Remember Whoopi Goldberg in ” Jumpin’ Jack Flash ” ? ” Mick, Mick, what the hell are you saying , Mick ?
Brian C
Mick always says that he “mumbled” the title of “Let’s Spend the Night Together” on the Ed Sullivan Show, but I’ve got it on tape and he very clearly sings, “Let’s spend some time together.” Each time he does, it’s accompanied by an extremely fey rolling of his eyes, in an attempt to make light of the bowdlerizing, but it’s there without a doubt.
That unending proscenium arch of a bassline
Which is a variation of Keef’s riff, except that Bill’s hitting the two-AND on the second note, whereas Keef’s hitting the TWO, which puts them into counterrhythm for the measure (Keef playing in three against Bill’s two).
Hope that makes sense; it’s one of the things that makes the song move (and made Stones better than Beatles).
What’s it take to get a 10 around here?
i prefer cat powers.
Another sound-alike riff: “Valleri” by the Monkees, a U.S. #1.
God, I’m listening to this for the first time now — pointless “quality” solos, and all. Alternative Title, Your Auntie Grizelda and I’m Gonna Buy Me A Dog are disgraced by being in the company of this tossed-off toss toss.
Sometimes, with these historical monuments (Beatles, Dylan, Pistols et al – the usual Mojo/ Uncut canon), I do feel that I have to squint my ears to get the significance and greatness of the record. These things are unquestionably great, but you are better able to get them with the benefit of the footnotes of quite a lot of historical knowledge. The appeal of the sixties Stones is always immediate, though, and rich and strange new notes always surprise me when I listen to them. A few reflections about this single;
The absolute confidence of Keef. That riff might seem like a trope when you think about it, but when you actually hear it – especially on headphones – it is quite relentless, locked-on. I think that it’s placing the song within three separate types of music; the repetition of the same guitar motif to support the mood of the singer is a Kentish blues, of course, but also the way that its treated and works as a fanfare is aping soul, and the fuzz and distortion are inventing this thing that we know as rock music. And he’s pretty much inventing this – Visionary!
And then the interplay of the band beside Keef both deepens and complicates this sense of relentlessness. The bassline is like a shadow of the guitar, and the drums both fump menacingly and add little jaunty touches of finesse. There’s an organic quality to how the Stones function as a real group that I rarely hear in more recent music where the parts have all been put together separately.
We tend to neglect Mick Jagger’s voice, but it is one of the most extraordinary in all pop, always shifting, always creating a character… but WHERE is he coming from? You never can tell… Sometimes the deep south, sometimes the deep South of London, sometimes rough, often fey and fruity, sometimes yelping like a puppy, sometimes world-weary and as old as the hills – and all within the same song. And he’s pretty much inventing this – Visionary!
Listen to the lyrics and two things always strike me about the early Stones. The first one, which can’t be said too much, is how funny they were, like Chuck Berry adjusting to being dropped into Knightsbridge or Stepney;
When I’m drivin’ in my car
And that man comes on the radio.
He’s tellin’ me more and more
about some YEWSLESS info’mation
supposed to FIRE! my imagination!
(resigned tone) I can’t get no…
(Are you listening, Moyles?)
The other thing is that, for a man who was living like, and feted as, a prince at the time, how utterly fed-up Jagger often sounds in these songs, wanting to get some sleep, away from these tiresome people, uncertain of what he wants instead. People are wrong when they condemn Sir Mick as some kind of betrayal of his young self, this fustian Mail On Sunday character hanging out with Sir John Major at Lords, when it was there right from the start. The Jagger-character that leads us through the songs both experiences and observes with disdain. Its what makes him so compelling to listen to.
The Achilles heel of this character is here as in almost every other song – “I can’t get no – girl reaction!”;
And I’m tryin’ to MAKE! some girl
Who tells me baby
“Better come back later next week…”
There’s always a woman at the bottom of a Stones song, and she pretty much never come out of it well. For me, its what makes these songs so particularly unsettling, even when they’re 44 years old.
thanks billy for giving this some new attention – it is a wonderful piece of music – its lyrical mood of disdain and musical energy still stands out as a template for so much that was to follow later – you’re absolutely right about Jagger – he doesn’t always get the appreciation he gets for the irony of his lyrics combined with his performance which allow him to both inhabit and stand outside the character singing the song – he sees both the attraction and the repulsion
Hungry Freaks by Zappa and The Mothers another appropriation of this riff, right? “Mr America, walk on by…”
I’m sure I’ve read somewhere that the riff is based on ‘Dancing in the streets’ by Martha and the Vandellas – later covered by Jagger and Bowie – no doubt there’s an earlier precedent…
I guess you had to be there…18 years old, drinking legal beer, and on the dance floor. Whatever he was singing about was immaterial, because you sort of knew you weren’t going to get any satisfaction from that equally astounded by life freshman coed with whom you were dancing. But you know you would try, try, try! With your sweaty intoxicated frat brothers you yelled out the chorus. By the way great idea, and thanks for the opportunity to go down the list.
the song makes an appropriate appearance in Season 4 of Mad Men and sounds even more urgent and alert in that context
@Lonepilg. That Mad Men use of Satisfaction (i.e., for a scene set in Spring/Summer 1965)was interesting in that it suggested that the Stones unlike the Beatles as we’ve heard from them so far in the show aren’t even principally a teens thing in the US, rather they’re plugged into exactly the racial- and sexual- and (Vietnam-she’s-a-comin’) energies and tensions that are eating up the middle-aged characters in the show as much as (and even more so than) the young characters. Additionally, Mad Men’s used Satisfaction as transition music (as Don Draper strides back into the office)and this too felt portentous. It reminds a lot of us of Scorsese’s use of the Stones in his ’70s films (and Mean Streets esp.). All told, then, Sat. entering like that on MM felt truly pregnant with the show’s future, and to be signaling that the Hitchcock/Wilder early ’60s where the show began are truly long gone (me: Damn it). It must have cost MM an arm and a leg to get to use the song. Of course that just figures knowing the Stones, but also for the first time there was no outro/credits music on that episode, presumably because the budget had been blown.
DESERT ISLAND DISCS WATCH:
Andrew Lloyd Webber, composer(1973)
Elia Kazan, director(1979)
Bob Champion, jockey(1988)
Raymond Blanc, Chef(1992)
Nicolas Grimshaw, architect(2003)
Karin Bilimoria, businessman(2004).
TOTPWatch: The Rolling Stones performed Satisfaction on Top Of The Pops on 19 August 1965. Also in the studio that week were; Hermans Hermits, The Headliners and The Kinks. Jimmy Savile was the host. No copy survives.
This was also Number one in the USA – as noted here:
http://nohardchords.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/140-the-rolling-stones-i-cant-get-no-satisfaction/