(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

Song Name: (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

Artist:  DEVO  (cover song)

Appears On:

◦ (I Cån't Gèt Mé Nö) Såtisfactiön b/w Slöppy (I Såw My Baby Gétting),  B Stiff EP,  Greatest Misses, (Booji Boy Records Version)

◦ Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO!,  Greatest Hits,  Best Of DEVO Vol. 1,  Hot Potatoes,  Pioneers Who Got Scalped,  this is the DEVO box, (Album Version)  

◦ E-Z Listening, (EZ Version)  

◦ Now It Can Be Told,  DEVO Live: The Mongoloid Years,  Live In Central Park,  DEVO Live 1980,  Live at Max's Kansas City - November 15, 1977, (Live Versions)  

◦ Hardcore DEVO Volume 1, (Hardcore Version)  

and other compilations^Discogs

Year:  1976

Performed: 1976-1980, 1982 (once), 1988-2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021-present ^{setlist.fm stats}

Run Time:  2:38  (Album Version)

Writing Credits:  Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

Sung By:  Mark Mothersbaugh (lead), Gerald Casale and Bob Mothersbaugh (backing)

Versions:

∘ Hardcore (Live) Version

∘ "Booji Boy" (Records) Version

∘ "The Bunny" (Records) Version

∘ E-Z Listening Version

∘ TechnoDEVO Version

Song Connections:  Booji's Beautiful World  (uses riff from original version)

Trivia / Info:

• Developed during a jam session in DEVO's Akron, Ohio bunker studio, the song began as a cover of "Paint it Black", but the lyrics to Satisfaction worked better

• While the lyrics are the same, the music was so drastically different as to require approval by Mick Jagger before Warner Brothers would release the track on Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO!. Jagger reportedly enjoyed the performance

• In live concerts, Mark typically changes some lyrics of the song: "How white my shirts could be" becomes "How wide my shit could be", and "girly action" becomes "girl with suction"

• Early versions of Satisfaction (pre-1977) featured a much slower tempo performance than the album version

• On at least one pressing of the independently released Satisfaction single, the credits were swapped, and attributes Satisfaction to Mark Mothersbaugh, Bob Mothersbaugh, Gerald V. Casale, and Gary Jackett

• The EZ-Listening Version of Satisfaction uses the guitar riff from the original version, the only EZ version to do so

• Restored film released July 18, 2025 at DEVOvision:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhJwSsUGb04

Onstage Behavior:

• Live performances feature stage choreography similar to the music video.
• Mark repeats "baby baby" more live. Jerry said the most Mark got up to was 32, at a 1977 performance.

Video:

Short film / music video

 On an Akron, Ohio theater stage, DEVO performs “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” synced to audio playback of the WB/Virgin distributed album track.

 Colored lights shine on the movie screen backdrop.

 DEVO’s theatrically repeated jerking motions highlight the precise robot rhythms of the tightly played music.

 In the backseat of a large moving car, “Bad” Mark is trying to get to second base with a DEVA.
“Disapproving Dad” - played by General Boy – notices them in the rear view mirror and quickly interrupts the young couple from doing this and trying that.

 On a brightly lit backdrop of patterned green carpet, Spazz Attack executes a standing forward flip onto a hard floor.
After the somersault onto his back, he gets up and continues his spazzy dancing and twitchy movements.

 On a couch in a darkened living room, Mark puts his arm around his date and he rubs her knee.
As they smile at each other, Disapproving Mom loudly interrupts them, vocalizing while beating on the television set with a rolling pin.

 Mark sings with a mouthful of cigarettes. A film edit cuts from the black and white TV screen to full-color reality as Mark puts his hand to his pounding head during the drum break.

 In a playpen situated in a suburban home kitchen, an unsupervised man-child tries to pry his toast from an operational toaster with a fork.
Throughout Booji’s failure, Mark repeatedly vocalizes the lyric “baby.”
Rapid film cuts reveal that Booji Boy’s electrocution resembles the spasmodic movements of a talented punk dancer.

 DEVO punctuate the end of the song by simultaneously jumping in place and the film cuts to the yellow neon “DEVO.”

Lyrics: (transcription of album / video version)

I can't get no satisfaction

I can't get me no satisfaction

And I try and I try and I try, t-t-t-try, try, try

I can't no, I can't get me no

When I'm riding in my car

And a man comes on the radio

He's tellin' me more and more

About some useless information

Supposed to fire my imagination

I can't get no

No, no, no

Hey, hey, hey

That's what I say

I can't get no satisfaction

I can't get me no girl reaction

And I try and I try and I try, t-t-t-try, try, try

I can't no, I can't get me no

When I'm watchin' my TV

And a man comes on to tell me

How white my shirts could be

But he can't be a man 'cause he does not smoke

The same cigarettes as me

I can't get no

No, no, no

Hey, hey, hey

That's what I say

And when I'm flying 'round the world

And I'm doin' this and I'm tryin' to do that

And I'm trying to make some girl

Who tells me

Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby

Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby

Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby

Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby

Baby, baby

Better come back later next week

Can't you see I'm on a losing streak?

I can't get no

No, no, no

Hey, hey, hey

That's what I say

I can't get no (satisfaction)

I can't get me no (satisfaction)

I can't get no (satisfaction)

I can't get me no (satisfaction)

A-no, no, no, I can't get no (satisfaction)

A-no, no, no, I can't get me no (satisfaction)

A-no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no (satisfaction)

A-n-n-n-n-n-n-no, no (satisfaction)

A-n-n-n-n-n-n-no, no (satisfaction)

A-n-n-no, I can't get me no (satisfaction)

Well, I can't get no (satisfaction)

Links:

External Links

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction - (Booji Boy Records single version) Discogs

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction - (album version releases) MusicBrainz

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction - (overview) AllMusic

Internal Links

Satisfaction (outfits+gear)

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Satisfaction was a classic song. It was one of our all-time favorites.

- Mark (1988)

Jesse Nash, "Mark Mothersbaugh: After Kent State Everything Is DEVO". Interview. Indie Report. East Coast Rocker, (1988, October 26).