I was surprised to find that I haven’t yet played this song here on my music posts, in fact have played very few Rolling Stones — one, to be exact, Get Off Of My Cloud, which I played back in August 2019.  Back in the day … and I do mean way back in the day, I was a fan of the Stones, but as I grew older I leaned toward more … mellow, for lack of a better word … music.  At any rate, for no reason in particular, this one popped into my head today … it was later chased out by a song Clive played on his blog, which I shan’t divulge, for I am hoping that he will allow me to re-blog his post in the coming few days … but as I sat staring at the laptop tonight, wondering if there was any song to be had, this one returned to my consciousness.

There’s some interesting history regarding the writing of this song.  According to one story, Keith Richards wrote this in his sleep on the night of May 6th after the Stones’ concert at Jack Russell Stadium in Clearwater, Florida.  He claimed to have written it while sleeping in his hotel room and recording it on a cassette player, still sleeping, and then lapsing into snores which were heard on the recording when he took it to a studio a few days later.  But, according to his latest autobiography, he was in his flat in Carlton Hill, St. John’s Wood. He specifies that Mick Jagger wrote the lyrics by the pool in Clearwater, four days before they went into the studio.  So, who knows?  It doesn’t really matter … just makes for an interesting tidbit of trivia.

The song was released in the U.S. on June 5th, 1965 and made it into the top 100 in the U.S. the following week.  It was in the top 10 by July and ultimately hit #1.  Interestingly, Satisfaction was not released in the UK until late August.  Why?  Well, I’ve heard two versions.  One said they didn’t want to release it in the UK until they returned there from their U.S. tour, but another, I think the more credible explanation, is that it was initially was played only on pirate radio stations, because its lyrics were considered too sexually suggestive!  Oh how times have changed, eh?

According to The Conversation …

The scandal surrounding the lyrics has to be understood in the context of two issues. First, Andrew Loog Oldham had worked hard to establish the Stones as the anti-Beatles. Already, the Stones had been promoted as the bad boys of pop in the UK, though in the US the worst anybody had been able to say is that they were shaggy and, perhaps, rude.

Second, just before the release of Satisfaction, the Kingsmen’s Louie, Louie had created a stir with lyrics that were purported to be obscene. The FBI was even called in to investigate the track (though a cursory listen to the Richard Berry 1957 original or the Rockin’ Robin Roberts 1961 cover makes it clear that the lyrics are far from obscene).

In the case of Louie, Louie, the seriousness of the charge significantly outweighed the validity of the evidence, at least in the popular imagination. The idea that a rock song could be dirty, after all, was not too far removed from the swiveling hips of Elvis Presley a few years earlier, or hokum blues tracks like Big Joe Turner’s Shake, Rattle, and Roll (1954). The Rolling Stones were simply the most recent example of the of rock music troublemakers.

Ultimately the scandal was forgotten and it later became the Rolling Stones’ fourth #1 hit in the United Kingdom.

It is one of the world’s most popular songs, and is second on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and it is the 10th best ranked song on critics’ all-time lists according to Acclaimed Music. The song was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2006.

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
The Rolling Stones

I can’t get no satisfaction, I can’t get no satisfaction
‘Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can’t get no, I can’t get no

When I’m drivin’ in my car, and the man come on the radio
He’s tellin’ me more and more about some useless information
Supposed to fire my imagination

I can’t get no, oh, no, no, no, hey, hey, hey
That’s what I say
I can’t get no satisfaction, I can’t get no satisfaction
‘Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can’t get no, I can’t get no

When I’m watchin’ my TV and a man comes on and tells me
How white my shirts can be
But, he can’t be a man ’cause he doesn’t smoke
The same cigarettes as me

I can’t get no, oh, no, no, no, hey, hey, hey
That’s what I say
I can’t get no satisfaction, I can’t get no girl reaction
‘Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can’t get no, I can’t get no

When I’m ridin’ ’round the world
And I’m doin’ this and I’m signin’ that
And I’m tryin’ to make some girl, who tells me
Baby, better come back maybe next week
Can’t you see I’m on a losing streak?
I can’t get no, oh, no, no, no, hey, hey, hey
That’s what I say, I can’t get no, I can’t get no
I can’t get no satisfaction, no satisfaction
No satisfaction, no satisfaction
I can’t get no

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Keith (gb) Richards / Mick Jagger / Gary Barlow / Author Unknown Composer
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction lyrics © Abkco Music, Inc, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC