With plenty of hits to choose from, The Rolling Stones‘ Keith Richards says one surprising song is “the best thing we ever did.”
While the band has established one of the most impressive legacies in rock and roll history, their slow rise through the 1960s was not without trouble. The Rolling Stones’ hits would peak for a time with Paint it, Black. The chart-topping success was not repeated as rapidly as the group would have hoped, and in-fighting, as well as a reliance on drugs, began. But it was during this period that The Stones found some of their works, and one is Richards’ favourite from the period of working with producer Jimmy Miller. The studio veteran would produce Beggars Banquet, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main St. for the group, as well as Goats Head Soup. But one moment still sticks out for Richards, who says the song is an “explosion” of quality.
Jumpin’ Jack Flash is the song Richards considers the one to bring The Rolling Stones back from the brink. In a two-song set at an NME show in 1968, which also featured (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, the band would get back to their roots, and to the top of the charts.
Richards shared: “It was the best thing we ever did with [producer] Jimmy Miller. As soon as I pick up the guitar and play that riff, something happens here, in your stomach. It’s one of the better feelings in the world.
“You just jump on the riff and it plays you. Matter of fact, it takes you over. An explosion would be the best way to describe it. It’s the one that I would immediately go to if I wanted to approach the state of nirvana.”
Despite praise for Jumpin’ Jack Flash, the other song which featured on their May 24, 1968 date, is not held in similar relevance, not from Mick Jagger, anyway. The frontman believes the song features all too much in their current-day setlists, and shared his disillusionment with the song during a conversation with Rolling Stone Magazine founder, Jann Wenner.
He said (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction was not intentionally “nicked” by the blues rock popularised in the United States, but that there was certainly a lot of credit to be given to the genre. Jagger shared: “No, I didn’t know it, but Keith might have heard it back then, because it’s not any way an English person would express it.
“I’m not saying that he purposely nicked anything, but we played those records a lot. Yeah, that was just one little line. And then I wrote the rest of it. There was no melody, really.”
Jagger went on to confirm he was struggling to bring a more “melodic” touch to the one of the group’s defining songs. A few changes to the verse are all he has for now, and it appears the group is not letting up when it comes to performing (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, despite Jagger’s wishes.
The band has performed the song over a thousand times in concert, most recently at their Thunder Ridge Nature Arena set on July 21, 2024. The band closed out their set with (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction. The set also featured Let it Bleed, Sympathy for the Devil, and Paint it Black.
