‘Satisfaction’ and ‘Day Tripper’: What is the best 1960s British invasion guitar riff?
At the beginning of the British invasion, fans were only beginning to understand the concept of the guitar riff. Whereas most people would be bashing away at chords for most of their time in the spotlight before, the art of having a clever guitar line to tie everything together was something that Chuck Berry had only begun to trademark when starting his career in the 1950s. Once The Beatles and The Rolling Stones started trading licks back and forth, though, there was some question as to what band had the better guitar line.
For any casual music fan, it would be easy for anyone to pick The Beatles over The Stones in this scenario. The blues rockers had always looked to the Fab Four for inspiration, and when looking at their career trajectories through the ‘Summer of Love’, it’s easy to see Mick Jagger and Keith Richards looking at what John Lennon and Paul McCartney were doing and then doing the exact same thing on records like Between The Buttons and Their Satanic Majesties Request.
When discussing both bands’ early years, two licks are considered their definitive compositions: ‘Day Tripper’ and ‘Satisfaction’. Both riffs rely heavily on the blues tradition and have become mandatory for any novice guitar player to learn, but it’s hard to narrow down the choices in a debate on which one is better.
While there’s no definitive answer to this kind of question, I prefer to look at it in terms of its impact, catchiness, and how it is incorporated into the rest of the song. So, let’s work through each category real quick and review the tune as if we were hearing them for the very first time.
In terms of catchiness, both of them have sections that are instantly recognisable. The fuzz box on Richards’ guitar certainly helps on ‘Satisfaction’, and while The Beatles’ was a welcome change of pace from their teeny-bopper sound, it does get bogged down with one too many notes to keep everything engaging for too long.
So, while that’s a point in The Stones’s favour, ‘Day Tripper’ embodies the entire idea of a riff driving a song from the first note. ‘Satisfaction’ holds the distinction of being one of the first major riffs in rock and roll, but since Richards wrote the tune to emulate a horn line, it sounds like its more of an arrangement detail rather than something that drives the song. Both are recognisable, but if you take the riff out of ‘Day Tripper’, it would be the most boring blues tune ever outside of the chorus.
Now that just leaves impact, and usually, this honour should be given to The Beatles with no contest. The Fab Four have been one of the most celebrated innovators in music history, so it’s a no-brainer for them to take this for impact on music, right? Well, not necessarily when you think about the context of the rest of their career.
Compared to what Lennon and McCartney wrote together, ‘Satisfaction’ has had more of a hand in turning people into guitar players in those early days. There had already been a few Beatles songs focused on the guitar chops, but in the first five notes, Richards single-handedly made every single kid understand the power of what the instrument could do when it had the right attitude behind it.
Even by the metric of Beatles songs, ‘Day Tripper’ could be a footnote when looking at the millions of other innovations they did. It’s still a phenomenal tune, and few have surpassed it at the time, but is it really as off-the-wall and crazy as something like ‘A Day In the Life’ from a few months later or even ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’?
So while The Beatles have made bold experiments in practically every realm of popular music, ‘Satisfaction’ does earn its spot as the true victor in the battle of British invasion guitar riffs. It might not be the most complicated thing in the world, but the minute that anyone hears it, they not only understand the context but also can’t help but play along with it.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Beatles Newsletter
All the latest stories about The Beatles from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.