The song Neil Young thinks defines The Rolling Stones: “It’s not that good of a song”
It’s one of the most notorious rock songs of all time, and when the first chords of ‘Satisfaction’ ring out through your speakers, you can feel comfortable that a good time is about to be had. The Rolling Stones may have their detractors, but it is hard not to acknowledge their ability to deliver party-driven, riff-heavy rock and roll. However, for Neil Young, there is a song far superior that perhaps deserves more credit.
Young has long been a fan of The Rolling Stones, once telling Jimmy McDonough that the band, alongside Bob Dylan and Randy Bachman, were his ultimate influences when he started making music. Young once noted: “What I really liked about The Rolling Stones was Brian Jones and Keith Richards playin’ together. Even though Brian Jones was just kind of a bratty, sub-blues kind of guy. He still had the exuberance.”
When looking through the run of songs the band made over the years, ‘Satisfaction’ may well stand out as the moment The Rolling Stones no longer existed as dark and dangerous but began to swerve into the middle of the road. Since its 1965 release, the song’s infectious chords and lyrics have taken over everyone who hears it. At the same time, Mick Jagger would write the lyrics for the now iconic rock and roll record in the relative comfort of a hotel in Florida four days before the band recorded it. Yet Keith Richards can boast the legendary feat of writing the riffs for the music in his sleep.
The story goes that Richards recorded a rough version of the riff on a cassette player while in the middle of a groggy sleep. When he woke up in the morning the guitarist had no idea he had even written the song, he said when he listened to the recording in the morning there was the iconic riff followed by Richards dropping a pick and “then me snoring for the next 40 minutes”.
But, for Young, it pales in comparison to ‘Get Off My Cloud’, the songwriter explained: “‘Satisfaction’ was a great record. ‘Get Off My Cloud,’ even better record. Looser, less of a hit. More of a reckless abandon.” For most, the roles would be reversed for the respective tracks.
While he prefers the track, he doesn’t necessarily think its typically a better song: “‘Get Off My Cloud’ – I know it’s not as good of a song, and I know the performance is probably not as good as the ‘Satisfaction’ performance, maybe it is – but the thing about it is it’s obviously just such a throw-together song that they came up with on the way to the studio or the night before, y’know? That’s what I liked about it. It really sounded like The Rolling Stones.”
‘Get Off My Cloud’ will likely not feature in many devotees of the band’s top 20 list. The somewhat cheesy track is often left on the cutting room floor in that respect. But for Young, himself a competent fan, the tune embodies everything that makes The Rolling Stones great.
