It was this week in 1965 that Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards woke up in a hotel room in Florida and listened back to a cassette he’d recorded the night before – though one he didn’t remember recording.
What he heard was a guitar riff and an opening line that would soon become iconic: “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.”
He said he then heard a half hour or so of snoring, which he thankfully left out of the final version.
Richards took what he had to his songwriting partner, Mick Jagger, and the two put a full song together.
Initially Keith thought of his guitar riff as a placeholder.
He wanted the song to be full of horns, like in Motown records like “Dancing In The Streets” by Martha and the Vandellas.
When he found out that the record had been released with his fuzzy guitar standing in for actual horns he wasn’t too happy, at least until “Satisfaction” became an enormous hit, the biggest the band had up to that point.
Jagger even called it “the song that made the Stones.”
And eventually, it did get those horns Richards always wanted, on a powerhouse cover version by soul great Otis Redding.
It’s also been remade by Aretha Franklin, Cat Power, Devo, Britney Spears and more.
And it’s still played by the Stones themselves, more than 50 years since a drowsy Keith Richards turned on a tape player and played that riff.
If the last year has stressed you out, WIRED just wrote about a game that some players have said has helped them find a bit of calm in their day.
It’s Literally Just Mowing is the title of the game and also its premise.
There are no villains, no real obstacles, just digital grass and a virtual lawn mower to cut it.
I feel calmer already!
Keith Richards Wrote One of the Rolling Stones’ Biggest Hits In His Sleep (Biography)
Satisfaction: The song that made the Stones (BBC)
I Battle My Panic Disorder by ‘Mowing’ Virtual Lawns (WIRED)
