Over the years, various writers and polls have listed the top rock ‘n roll songs of all time. Most of the time, this song is in the Top 10: “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones.
Fifty years ago, on May 12, 1965, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Brian Jones, and Bill Wyman went into RCA Studios in Hollywood and recorded their most enduring hit.
A week earlier, 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. The tape contained the soon-to-be-famous guitar riff followed by the sounds of him snoring. Mick wrote the rest of the song. Keith is responsible for the title, double negative and all. Having been a Chuck Berry fan, it’s possible that he may have heard an early Berry song called “Thirty Days,” in which Berry sings, “I don’t get no satisfaction from the judge.” Who knows what Keith was dreaming about in those days?
In those early days, the band was very much a democracy. They took a vote on whether “Satisfaction” should be released as a single. Mick and Keith voted no. They felt it was unfinished, too raw. They wanted to add a horn section. The other band members outvoted them. I guess Mick and Keith weren’t always right, huh?
Fifty years later, Mick is a 71-year-old great-grandfather, and will be complaining about his lack of satisfaction during yet another sold-out concert tour later this year. The tour includes stops in Atlanta (June 9) and Nashville (June 17). 1965 was an incredible year for music, with the Beatles, Beach Boys, Motown artists, Bob Dylan and many others at their creative peak. This Rolling Stones song still sounds good today:
On May 7th 1965 just five days before that the Stones recorded Satisfaction they played Legion Field in Birmingham in a show sponsored by WVOK the sister station of WFLI. On that show with the Stones was The Beach Boys, The Richteous Brothers and get this Marty Robbins and Sony James. You got the whole show for a five dollar ticket. I think I heard where scalpers were getting six dollars and seventy five cents. Times have changed.