(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

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

Artist: DEVO (cover song)

Appears On: Satisfaction b/w Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Gettin'), B Stiff EP, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO!, E-Z Listening, Now It Can Be Told, Hardcore DEVO Volume 1, Greatest Hits, Greatest Misses, DEVO Live: The Mongoloid Years , Best Of DEVO Vol. 1, Live In Central Park, DEVO Live 1980, Hot Potatoes, Pioneers Who Got Scalped, this is the DEVO box, Live at Max's Kansas City - November 15, 1977,
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)

Alternate Versions: Hardcore (Live) Version, "Booji Boy" (Records) Version, E-Z Listening Version, TechnoDEVO Version

Demo Versions: None known

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

• At least one pressing of the Satisfaction single swaps the song credits, 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

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 - (album version releases) MusicBrainz

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

Internal Links

Satisfaction (outfits+gear)

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