Song by Song: "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" Quiz

Answer: Keith Richards

Steven Van Zandt, a guitarist for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, called it "the riff heard round the world." Rolling Stone magazine reports that the riff that defines this song came to Keith Richards "in a dream one night" while the Rolling Stones were on their third tour in the U.S. in May of 1965.

The Rolling Stones guitarist and songwriter "woke up and grabbed a guitar and a cassette machine" before falling right back to sleep. That riff, Rolling Stone magazine avers, "transformed the rickety jump and puppy love of early rock & roll into rock."

Answer: Mick Jagger

The song was a collaboration between Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards, with Mick Jagger writing the lyrics. Jagger and Richards collaborated on many songs. The first of their collaborations to be released was "Tell Me (You're Coming Back)" in 1964.

Rolling Stone magazine quotes Mick Jagger as saying the lyrics encapsulated his "view of the world" and his "frustration with everything" and that he wrote them in "ten minutes, by the motel pool, the day after Richards' dream."

Answer: Out of Our Heads

"Out of Our Heads" was the Rolling Stones' third studio album in the U.K. and their fourth in the U.S. The song was not included on the U.K. version of the album, though it was released as a single in the U.K. on August 20, 1965.

"Bare Trees" was a 1972 Fleetwood Mac album while "Blonde on Blonde" (1966) was Bob Dylan's seventh studio album. "Sticky Fingers" was the eleventh American studio album release of the Rolling Stones, in 1971.

Answer: true

Although it was the band's fourth number one hit in the U.K., it was their first in the U.S. At one point, the song peaked at number one on singles charts in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, and West Germany.

Answer: imagination

This song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and in 2006 it was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. The official music video for the song features a live performance in Hampton Roads, Virginia in 1981. The B-Side of the "Satisfaction" single released in the U.S. was "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man." In the U.K., however, "The Spider and the Fly" was on the B-Side.

Answer: white

Rolling Stone magazine writes that this song displays Jagger's "litany of disgust with 'America, its advertising syndrome, the constant barrage.'" The song paints a picture of an endless stream of information from the radio and television that is only meant to sell the listener on products that lack meaning.

Answer: smoke the same cigarettes as me

Here the barrage of commercialism continues, in which advertisements try to convince the watcher that if only he would buy the products in question, he would be happier, sexier, or manlier. But this empty commercialism in the end supplies nothing:

"I can't get no, oh, no, no, no, hey, hey, hey
That's what I say.
I can't get no satisfaction..."

Answer: streak

In addition to expressing frustration with commercialism, the song also expresses sexual frustration: "I can't get no girl reaction." This rejection by the woman leads right in to the "I can't get no satisfaction" chorus.

This song was initially recorded on May 10, 1965 at Chess Studios in Chicago, Illinois with Brian Jones on harmonica as well as acoustic guitar. Bill Wyman supplied bass guitar.

Answer: Otis Redding

Otis Redding, known as the King of Soul, the Madman from Macon, and the Big O, died in a plane crash on Sunday, December 10, 1967. He is perhaps best known for his songs "Respect" and "Dock of the Bay." His cover of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" was rated number two on VH1's list "Ranking the Top 50 Covers of The Rolling Stones' 'Satisfaction'." Number one was Devo's 1977 new wave cover of the song.

Other musicians to cover this Rolling Stones' song include Blue Cheer, Buddy Guy, Aretha Franklin, Sam & Dave, Grateful Dead, Tom Jones, and many others.

Answer: Horns

In the studio, a Gibson Maestro fuzzbox was used to sustain the sound of the guitar riff. Ian McPherson, in "Track Talk: Satisfaction," quotes Keith Richards: "This was just a little sketch, because, to my mind, the fuzz tone was really there to denote what the horns would be doing." But producer Andrew Loog Oldham "spotted the spirit of the track and we were already back on the road before we heard that they'd decided that Satisfaction was going to be the single. We had thought we were going to cut a better version."