Rolling Stones
I primi 50 anni di Satisfaction

In that year, Keith Richards had something revolving around in his head. He thought about it. He made reflection the main theme of his days as an original guitarist – he's the one who came up with the idea of removing the sixth string (the thickest one, after all) from the instrument, as he often loves to play with five strings – then, all of a sudden, one day in 1965, bang: that lethal riff came out of him! It might have happened that way. But it could also have gone differently. Indeed, another thesis suggests that Keith Richards, in a post-drunken state, picked up the guitar, recorded a couple of minutes, and found the killer riff on the reel-to-reel recorder the next morning. However it happened, whoever wanted, suggested, hoped for, or ordered it, that intro became Satisfaction, one of the most famous rock songs ever composed. It doesn't matter at all whether its creation came about through reflection or the influence of alcohol: not to mention the possibility of the third way, the drunk who reflects! But that's splitting hairs just to pass the time. What truly matters is that the music and the words found fortune and reached more than one generation of boys and girls. It really is surprising to note how time cannot rust or dust over that sequence of notes and words that form the song. When Keith presented the first cries of Satisfaction to Mick Jagger and company, he used a fuzzbox – one of the first distortion pedals – and when Mick asked the reason for that exaggerated sound, Keith explained that it was the only way to imitate the sound of horns. Not only that, in hindsight, one can certainly say that it was a way to make such a riff truly original: indeed, if it had been realized by horns, it would have only resulted in a nice sax phrase. Instead, it became something new. At the time, many, upon first hearing the song, would say, "Hey, what the devil is that sound?" It was really a great stroke of luck for the Rolling Stones to intuit that the fuzzbox, and not real brass instruments, would capture attention. But its fortune initially met with resistance. In Europe, its radio transmission was banned because its lyrics were explicitly, in some passages, inspired by sexuality. Its first airings came through private English and Scandinavian radios: some of these radios, it seems, were anchored in the North Seas! Then, when it began to be cleared, it gained the top spot on the charts in every nation except the current land of Hollande, revolutionary France, which awarded the Stones a diplomatic third place. This song holds particular value for the Rolling Stones, as it is never absent from their live setlist. Moreover, several covers have been made of it. Many artists have been passionate about its notes; among them are the American band Devo, Britney Spears, Baustelle, singer-songwriter Mimmo Parisi, the legendary Aretha Franklin, and Otis Redding. Well, then, happy 50th anniversary to Satisfaction and see you in the next 50.