(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

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History

Phish casually whipped out one of the greatest rock songs ever written during the second half of Friday night’s first set from their 2022 Mexico run. After a slight return to the second “Say It to Me S.A.N.T.O.S.” (itself born from the trailing jam of “Halley’s Comet”), which had opened the show, Trey used the similar chord structure to then effortlessly slide into the song that launched The Rolling Stones into super-stardom and that was named the second greatest song ever by Rolling Stone magazine.

Video by Bruno Recifense

Keith Richards has famously said that he wrote this song in his sleep. While (probably) sleeping one off at a hotel in Clearwater, FL, he supposedly woke up, grabbed his tape recorder and guitar, and taped himself strumming about 40 seconds of the guitar riff. He then went promptly back to bed. He brought the recording (and the titular line) to Mick who wrote the rest of the lyrics, and the band recorded it in early May of 1965, with it eventually being released in the US on their Out of Our Heads album. Despite Mick’s early misgivings about the tune, this anthem to not getting enough sex and too many commercials, has transcended the rock genre and become something bigger than itself, with important cover versions by Otis Redding and Devo among so many others.

Phish has only played this anthem once so far (and in a truncated, “unifinished” form), but it has the feeling that it could be dusted off anywhere and when you least expect it. Will it?  Maybe next week…

Last significant update: 12/3/25

 

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