In 1965, a scruffy rocker’s dream riff became an anthem for a rebellious generation dealing with an establishment they found oppressive and antiquated. Add a dose of sexual frustration, back it with amenacing, sinister fuzz-toned riff and an in-your-face vocal perfectly suited for its flamboyant lead singer’s strutting and pouting as he delivered his over the top rant, and you had a number one single.
Mick Jagger /Keith Richards’ “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” turned 50 on July 10, and to commemorate the event, abko Records has re-released the single on 12 inch vinyl.
It’s stood up well. Charlie Watts’ punch to the gut percussion punctuates Richard’s industrial strength buzzing and clanging, the tempo stomping along like a platoon of storm troopers on parade. Even back then, that song bored holes in the competition. The Cash Box top 100 Chart of that week in ’65 featured Herman and the Hermits’ “I’m Henry the 8th I Am,” and Tom Jones’“What’s New Pussycat.” There were a few noteworthy entries including Sam the Sham and his Pharaohs belting out Tex-Mex flavored bar rock with “Woolly Bully,” Otis Redding baring his battered soul and battered bloody heart on “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” and the Four Tops’ Motown soul of “I Can’t Help Myself.” But there was nothing like the barbed wire sting of the Stones’ entry.
The A side was backed by another anti-establishment rant, and this time it was personal. Featured only on the American version of the release, “Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man” was aimed at London Records’ George Sherlock, who accompanied the Stones on their first tour. Jagger and Richards found him ludicrous, poking fun at his toupee and seesucker suit, portraying him sitting on a bus stop in L.A. searching his pockets for the 10 cent bus fare while thinking how sharp he is: “I ‘m a necessary talent behind every rock and roll band/I sure do earn my pay, sitting on the beach every day.”
For the British market, the band put “The Spider and the Fly” on the B side. It’s a nasty, bluesy confession about a sleazy affair with a groupie he meets at a bar. Despite the fact that “She was common, flirty, she looked about thirty,” Jagger hits on the rinsed out blond who said she liked the way he held the microphone: “I said “My, my” like the spider to a fly/Jump right ahead in my web.”
If you weren’t around the first time it came out, here’s your chance to take in a rock classic with its power and glory sounding as good as it did back in the day, preserved in vinyl grooves that make the highs and lows sound as good as they did the day it was recorded.
If you were there, here’s a memory boost that’ll touch your crusty old rock and roll heart as well. And once again, if only for a moment. you can be a rock star too, at least in front of the mirror.
Grant Britt
