Monday, April 7, 2008

Some Useless Information to Fire Your Imagination













The other day, in my current state of nagging frustration, I found myself drinking coffee pre-dawn in my kitchen listening to the ipod on shuffle and contemplating what lay ahead for another day. Just then, "No Satisfaction" by Black Mountain came up and reentered my consciousness after a lengthy absence. "Oh yeah, " I thought. "How is it that Steve Jobs always knows what I need to hear?"

No Satisfaction = Frustration.
Thanks for reminding me.

The ipod is insidious in it's ability to pull things out of the air - like a vague or general horoscope that's been programmed by you. Maybe I'm just impressionable, or find it hard to ignore coincidence. Satisfaction is the humblest and most realistic of aspirations. It is way below the spiritual quest for enlightenment, transcendence, serenity, bliss or whatever it is we try to strive for in our lives - or maybe it's all the same. In frustration, we find these states to be transitory or just out reach. Here's some songs that look at the notion of what satisfaction is or more often is not, and what that feeling is if we don't get what we want. So, with that said, "let's light up your town and get things happening"

Download:

"No Satisfaction" mp3
by Black Mountain, 2005.
available on Black Mountain

"Satisfaction" mp3
by Ken Boothe, 1968.
available on Freedom Street

"What I'll Do For Satisfaction" mp3
by Johnny Daye, 1967.
available on The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1959-1968

"I'll Be Satisfied" mp3
by Don Covay, 1965.
available on Mercy!/See-Saw

"Just To Satisfy You" mp3
by Waylon Jennings, 1969.
available on The Essential Waylon Jennings

"Dissatisfied" mp3
by Sonny Boy Williamson, 1957.
available on Down and Out Blues

"Unsatisfied" mp3
by The Replacements, 1984.
available on Let It Be

"I Can't Be Satisfied" mp3
by Muddy Waters, 1947.
available on The Definitive Collection

"Satisfied Mind" mp3
by Jonathan Richman, 1992.
available on Jonathan Goes Country

"Uptight / Satisfaction" mp3
by Stevie Wonder with The Rolling Stones, 1972.
available on Keep Your Motor Runnin'
bootleg

**********
BONUS
**********

"You Can't Always Get What You Want" mp3
by The Rolling Stones, 1968.
available on Could You Walk On Water
bootleg - different stereo mix

3 comments:

sroden said...

yes! i keep thinking the ipod on shuffle is like that old 8ball game/object. you ask it a question and somehow you determine its choices as meaningful. some days it seems to pull out all the right songs in all the right order and some days i have to keep hitting the 'next' button because it doesn't give me what i need.

Anonymous said...

god, don covay is great.

Holly said...

VERY late.. but this is a great post!
Thank you so much.

BTW, I marginally prefer Bobby Bare's original 'Just to Satisfy You' to Waylon's version - if you need or want a copy just holler.