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

Artist: DEVO (cover song)

Appears On: Satisfaction b/w Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Gettin'), Be 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, The Essentials, Whip It And Other Hits, this is the DEVO box, Live at Max's Kansas City - November 15, 1977

Year: 1976

Performed: [1] 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 / Inf[]

  • 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 Devo 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. [2]

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)

References

External Links

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


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DEVO
Mark Mothersbaugh | Gerry Casale | Bob Mothersbaugh
Bob Lewis | Bob Casale | Jim Mothersbaugh | Alan Myers
David Kendrick | Josh Freese
Jeff Friedl | Josh Hager
Record Labels / Publishers
Booji Boy Records | Warner Brothers | Enigma | Devo, Inc. 
Stiff | Virgin | Rykodisk | Infinite Zero | Restless | Discovery | Rhino 
MVD Audio | The Orchard | Superior Viaduct | Futurismo
Production
Brian Eno | Ken Scott | Robert Margouleff | Roy Thomas Baker | DEVO 
The Teddybears | Greg Kurstin | Santi White | John King | John Hill | Mark Nishita 
Official Studio Albums
Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (1978) | Duty Now For The Future (1979) | Freedom of Choice (1980) | New Traditionalists (1981) | oh, no! it's Devo (1982) | Shout (1984) | Total Devo (1988) | SmoothNoodleMaps (1990) | Something for Everybody   (2010)
Other Albums
Be Stiff EP (1978) | E-Z Listening Disc (1987) | Now It Can Be Told: DEVO at the Palace (1989) | Hardcore DEVO Vol. 1 74-77 (1990) | Hardcore DEVO Vol. 2 1974-1977 (1991) | DEVO Live: The Mongoloid Years (1992) | DEV-O Live (1999) | Recombo DNA (2000) | Live In Central Park (2004) | DEVO Live 1980 (2005) | New Traditionalists: Live 1981 Seattle (2012) | Something ELSE for Everybody  (2013) | Miracle Witness Hour  (2014) | Live at Max's Kansas City - November 15, 1977  (2014) | Butch Devo and the Sundance Gig  (2014) | Hardcore DEVO Live!  (2015) | Art Devo 1973-1977  (2023)
Filmography
In The Beginning Was The End: The Truth About De-Evolution (1976) | The Men Who Make The Music (1981) | Human Highway (1982) | We're All DEVO (1984) | The Complete Truth About De-Evolution (1993) | DEVO Live (2004) | DEVO Live In The Land Of The Rising Sun (2004) | DEVO Live 1980 (2005) | Butch Devo and the Sundance Gig  (2014) | Hardcore DEVO Live!  (2015)
Related Articles
History | Bootlegs | Booji Boy | Devolution | Influence | The Wipeouters | Jihad Jerry & The Evildoers | Devo 2.0 | Akron, Ohio | Kent, Ohio | Music Videos | Cover Versions | Outfits

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