The Rolling Stones’ song “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” was at one time a real breakthrough for the band. It was the band’s first single to top the charts outside the UK.
Later this track made its authors really famous and allowed them to surpass, if not eclipse, then certainly the undisputed idols of rock-n-roll – The Beatles.
Besides, it is considered that this song of The Rolling Stones gave the most serious impulse to the development of rock music as a genre, and occupied its place in the history of rock music with the note “classic”.
“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” is a song born in a semi-dream
On the day of this song’s creation, things were not going well for the band. The concert in Clearwater, Florida, on the band’s third U.S. tour was canceled: drunken fans started a brawl, as a result of which the musicians managed to play only four songs.
When Keith Richards returned to the hotel, devoid of energy, almost falling asleep, he began to improvise on the guitar. As a result, he had a riff for a future hit and almost immediately the key phrase of the lyrics – “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” came to mind.
Keith recorded the sketches of the song on a tape recorder and fell asleep. In the morning it turned out that he forgot to turn off the recording on the device. Therefore, the first version of the track contains not only the two-minute melody of the future hit, but also Richards’ 40-minute snore.
In the morning, Keith showed the sketches to the band’s lead singer, Mick Jagger. He grabbed the main line and wrote the rest of the lyrics around it. In fact, Richards is the author of only one line in the song.
The Case That Started a Musical Revolution
The first version of The Rolling Stones “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”, with its harmonica and folk sound, was recorded at Chess studios in Chicago on May 10th, 1965, and then re-recorded at RCA in Hollywood.
Then in June of 1965 the track was released as a single in the USA. In July of 1965 the composition was included in the American version of the album “Out of Our Heads”, which later became “platinum”.
Initially, Keith Richards wanted to include the wind instruments in the introduction. He turned the amplifiers up to maximum and distorted the sound, but nothing worked. Then Ian Stewart, the band’s keyboard player, brought in the first Gibson fuzz.
Everyone liked the new weighted sound of the song, except Keith. He still insisted on brass. But other musicians and managers of the band changed his mind and insisted on recording the song with a fuzz, a slower riff and a different drum part. That was the reason why the band got a lot of fans who were fed up with the light Beatles sound and wanted something heavier.