(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction Introduction
In a Nutshell
As the age-old saying goes, "A rolling stone gathers no moss." And with the wrap-up of a 50 and Counting anniversary tour, the Rolling Stones proved half a century later that while they had gathered a few more wrinkles, they weren't gathering no moss.Don't mind our double negative. It flies in rock and roll.
"(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction" was the first Rolling Stones song to reach #1 in America, and with the 1965 hit, the band broke through a barrier and became, in Mick Jagger’s own words, "a monster band" (source). Rolling Stone magazine went even further in praising the song, declaring "Satisfaction" the second greatest song of all time. According to the magazine, the song "turned rock and roll into rock," and voiced the edgy discontent of a generation "impatient to inherit the earth." (Source)
A song this important begs some questions. What inspired it, aside from a groggy Keith Richards punching record in the middle of the night to lay down a riff and a grammatically-incorrect grievance?
Well, the song introduced a more hard-edged music for a generation with an edge of its own. It's the embodiment of angst and critiques America's shallow obsession with consumerism. We have to ask, what happened to the generation it came to represent? Did the "alienation" (source) that Jagger said informed the song ever morph into a more fulfilling social philosophy? And did Richards, Jagger, and the fans who embraced the song ever get their satisfaction? When asked this question during a '69 press conference, Jagger's response was, "Sexually satisfied. Financially satisfied. Philosophically trying" (source).
Well, as the Rolling Stones also say, you can't always get what you want.
About the Song
| Artist | The Rolling Stones | Musician(s) | Mick Jagger (lead vocals), Keith Richards (guitar, vocals), Brian Jones (guitar), Charlie Watts (drums), Bill Wyman (bass guitar), Jack Nitzche (tambourine, piano) |
| Album | Out of Our Heads | ||
| Year | 1965 | ||
| Label | Decca | ||
| Writer(s) | Keith Richards, Mick Jagger | ||
| Producer(s) | Andrew Loog Oldham | ||
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Learn to play: Tablature Buy this song: Amazon iTunes |
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Shmoop Connections
According to Rolling Stone, with "Satisfaction," rock and roll became rock—just rock. A genre that first encapsulated freedom and sex, remembered for its hoards of shrieking fans, became a more angsty one. Rock took an even more uncensored approach to freedom and sex, but took an uncensored stance on political and social change as well. In fact, after years of rock music being banned in Cuba, the Stones became the first international rock band to play a free Havana concert to over a million in 2016. And they were far from being the most political musicians (hello, Bob Dylan).According to some critics, "Satisfaction" was too sexually explicit for airplay and should be suppressed, so the song has a place in the history of censorship and the First Amendment, along with a role in the history of rock and roll. Mick Jagger said the song was successful because it captured the "alienation" of a generation and a time, a.k.a. those that didn't fit the mold during the 1960s.
And then, of course, there's the fact that it's just a great song. But you already knew that.
On the Charts
"Satisfaction" reached #1 in both the U.S. and Great Britain.Rolling Stone put the song at #2 on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time."