(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - 50th Anniversary

“The Beatles and The Stones” - you often hear these two bands referenced together. They’re penned as the good boys and bad boys of the 60s, but whether this was a managerial decision is hard to confirm. Mods vs Rockers, Blur vs Oasis, every decade has them, but what’s one thing that separates The Beatles and The Rolling Stones? In a word, longevity. Despite all the odds and obstacles thrown at them since they formed in 1962 (drugs, arrests, falling from coconut trees, that kind of thing...), they're still going strong. 

Some of you may be shocked when I point out that The Beatles were only active as a band for 10 years. But today, as their biggest hit turns 50 years old, The Stones have just got back from touring the States, and are preparing for their retrospective show Exhibitionism next spring. Individually, Mick’s producing TV series Vinyl with Martin Scorsese, Keith’s about to release another solo album, Ronnie’s set to reunite with The Faces for a charity gig (as well as continuing with his work as a fine artist) and Charlie… well, he’s probably still contemplating leaving, like he threatened to in 1975. 

I’ve seen The Rolling Stones live twice now, once at Twickenham in 2002 and again in 2013 at their Hyde Park gig. Each time it’s been their energy that’s brought the music to life, and encouraged strangers of all generations to dance and sing together (even after the concert, in the crush to get on the train, you’re bound to get an “Ooh oooooh” of Sympathy for the Devil, and then the whole carriage is off again). I often hear The Rolling Stones referred to as “old men” or “aaaancient”. “Aren’t they dead yet?” is another classic. Well, they may have a combined age of 285, but by God, that ain’t gonna stop ‘em. They’re here to stay, not fade away (Ah, I do love a pun, me).

In his autobiography Life, Keith Richards describes (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction as “the track that launched [The Rolling Stones] into global fame”. To this day, despite recording nearly 200 songs and among them more hits than Jagger can shake his hips at, it remains their most well-known and most popular. It’s a hit most artists would dream of… which is funny, because that’s exactly where the song began...

There are all kind of myths and fudged truths flying around the origins of the song, but this is my favourite, so I’m sticking to it. According to Keith, “I wrote Satisfaction in my sleep.” After a row with his girlfriend in her St John’s Wood flat, he went to bed, as was his ritual, with his guitar. When he woke up the next day, Keith glanced over to his cassette player and realised it was at the end of the tape. He wound it back and there it was - the bare bones of Satisfaction. Fantastical, perhaps, but as legend has it, this was how Jagger/Richards songs often came about. Keith would present the initial idea (the riff, the chords, maybe a line or two) and then Mick would flesh it out with lyrics and turn it into a recordable track. Gibson had also just sent Keith their first fuzztone box, which gave the song its famous distortion.

Satisfaction was actually released in the US in June 1965, two months before it came out in the UK, but once it hit the charts it made No. 1 on both sides of the pond, as well as in Austria, The Netherlands, France and Germany. 

In a 1995 interview, Jagger made the following observation: 

“…It captures a spirit of the times… 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.” 

I agree though, that there is more to it than simple alienation. There’s frustration, irritation, a sense of rebellion, and a wanting to belong but at the same time, a wanting to be your own person. Of course it’s predominantly about sexual satisfaction, but I think it relates to many more of the struggles of teenage life too.

There have been several interesting covers of Satifaction. Putting Devo and Britney aside, it’s the soul covers that I enjoy the most, and that I turned to when making my own version (Aretha, for example, really gives it a spark). Despite changing some of the words, the soul covers are far livelier with horns and trills, and it is in fact Otis Redding’s version that the Stones listened to for inspiration when reproducing Satisfaction for their own stage shows (it had previously been left off set lists).

But whether it’s Aretha or the boys, it’s that riff, “the five notes that shook the world”, and that classic double negative that will live on for generations. Happy 50th, and here’s to 50 more.