The first time Mick Jagger heard the Devo version of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," he didn't just listen. He got up and started dancing. That’s the legend, anyway, and it’s one of the few things about this track that actually makes sense. Most people hear those opening, mechanical stutters and think their record player is dying. Or that a robot is having a nervous breakdown in a rubber factory. It’s a complete gutting of a rock and roll sacred cow.
When Devo released their take on the Rolling Stones classic in 1977 (and later on Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!), it wasn't just a cover. It was a manifesto. It was an act of aggressive de-evolution. If the original Stones track was about sexual frustration and consumerist angst, Devo’s version felt like a surgical procedure performed by aliens who had never seen a human heart but were very interested in how the nervous system twitches under high voltage.
The Devo Satisfaction Cover Was a Total Reset
Music in the late 70s was bloated. You had prog-rock bands playing twenty-minute flute solos and "corporate rock" dominating the airwaves with high-gloss production. Then came these guys from Akron, Ohio. They wore yellow radiation suits. They looked like lab technicians. And they took the most famous riff in rock history—the fuzzed-out, bluesy hook Keith Richards wrote in a dream—and they deleted it.
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They literally threw the riff away.
Instead of that iconic 1-2-3-4 stomp, we got a jerky, 7/8-adjacent rhythmic twitch. Gerald Casale’s bassline sounds like a malfunctioning assembly line. Mark Mothersbaugh’s vocals aren't soulful or gritty; they are frantic, anxious, and borderline robotic. It’s the sound of a man being squeezed by the very "information" and "useless information" Jagger sang about a decade earlier.
What Mick Jagger actually thought
There’s a persistent myth that Devo "stole" the song or did it as a joke. In reality, they had to get permission because they changed the arrangement so drastically that it barely qualified as the same composition. They met with Jagger in a high-rise office.
Casale has talked about this in interviews for years. They played him the track, terrified he’d hate it. Instead, Jagger supposedly loved the "spastic" energy. He saw what they were doing: they were updating the anxiety. The 1965 version was about the frustration of a young man in a world of "men in shiny shirts." By 1978, the frustration had become systemic. It was about being a cog in a machine. Jagger cleared it on the spot. He got the joke, even if half the critics at the time didn't.
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Why the rhythm feels so "wrong" (but isn't)
If you try to tap your foot to i can't get no satisfaction devo, you might trip over yourself. It’s weirdly syncopated. It’s mechanical but chaotic.
The drums, handled by Alan Myers (who Brian Eno famously called "the human metronome"), are the secret sauce here. He’s playing a beat that feels like it’s constantly resetting itself. Most rock music is built on the "backbeat"—the snare on 2 and 4. Devo throws that out. It’s all accents and gaps. It creates a feeling of "disconnection," which is exactly the point of the song. You aren't supposed to feel comfortable. You’re supposed to feel like your skin is vibrating.
- The Tempo: It’s faster than the original but feels slower because of the gaps.
- The Vocals: Mothersbaugh yelps. He doesn't sing.
- The "Hey Hey Hey": In the Stones version, this is a triumphant shout. In the Devo version, it’s a repetitive, glitchy loop.
Honestly, it’s a miracle it ever got played on the radio. It sounded like the future, but a future where everything was broken and made of plastic.
Brian Eno’s invisible hand in the studio
We have to talk about Conny Plank’s studio in Germany. That’s where the magic (or the madness) happened. Brian Eno produced the debut album, and he tried to bring a certain art-school polish to the band. Interestingly, Devo resisted a lot of it. They were so committed to their "theory of de-evolution" that they fought Eno on various creative choices.
Eno wanted to add more "beautiful" textures. Devo wanted it to sound like a machine.
The result of that friction is exactly why the track holds up. It has the sonic depth of a high-end production but the soul of a garage band from a post-industrial wasteland. It’s thin, wiry, and sharp. If you listen to it on a good pair of headphones today, you can hear the layers of percussive noise that make it feel so claustrophobic. It’s a masterclass in using the studio to create a specific emotional "wrongness."
The Cultural Impact of the Yellow Suits
You can't separate the song from the video. The 1970s wasn't big on "music videos" as we know them yet, but Devo was ahead of the curve. They created short films.
Seeing them perform this song in those yellow suits—industrial protective gear—changed the way people looked at New Wave. It wasn't just "punk with synths." It was performance art. It was a critique of the American dream. By wearing the suits, they were saying: "We are all workers. We are all protected from the mess of reality by our consumerist shells." It made the song's message about "satisfaction" (or the lack thereof) feel much more literal. It wasn't about sex anymore. It was about survival in a cubicle.
Realities of the 1970s Akron Music Scene
People often forget where these guys came from. Akron, Ohio was the "Rubber Capital of the World." But by the 70s, the factories were closing. The air was thick with the smell of burning tires and industrial decay. That environment is baked into their sound.
When they play "Satisfaction," they aren't playing the blues. They are playing the sound of a conveyor belt. If the Rolling Stones were inspired by Muddy Waters and the Mississippi Delta, Devo was inspired by the Goodyear tire factory and the Kent State shootings. That’s why the song feels so urgent. It wasn't a fashion statement; it was a response to a world that felt like it was falling apart in real-time.
- The "Spud" Philosophy: They called themselves spuds because a potato has eyes all over but can't see anything.
- The Instrumentation: They used heavily modified guitars and early synths to strip away any "warmth."
- The Reception: UK audiences loved it immediately. American audiences were... confused.
How to actually listen to this track today
To get the most out of i can't get no satisfaction devo in 2026, you have to stop comparing it to the Stones. Forget the 1965 version exists for a second.
Listen to the bass. It doesn't walk; it hops. Look for the way the guitar parts (Bob Mothersbaugh and Bob Casale) interlock like gears. One is playing a jagged, scratchy rhythm while the other is adding these tiny, metallic stabs. It’s more like a clockwork orange than a rock band.
Also, pay attention to the silence. One of the coolest things about this arrangement is what isn't there. There’s a lot of empty space between the notes. That’s where the tension lives. In the original, the wall of sound keeps you moving. In this version, the gaps keep you guessing. It’s "anti-groove."
Is it better than the original?
That’s a trap question. It’s not "better," it’s a different organism entirely. The Rolling Stones version is a perfect rock song. The Devo version is a perfect critique of a rock song.
One celebrates the swagger of youth; the other documents the twitching of the modern mind. Most cover songs are just tributes. They say, "I love this song, so I'm going to sing it too." Devo’s "Satisfaction" says, "This song is a relic, and here is what it looks like in the trash compactor of history." That’s much more interesting than a straight cover.
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Actionable Insights for Music Nerds
If you want to dive deeper into why this specific track changed the trajectory of alternative music, here is how to deconstruct it:
- Check the Time Signatures: Try to count along. You’ll notice how the band "cheats" the rhythm to make it feel unstable. This paved the way for math-rock and post-punk bands like Talking Heads and even later acts like LCD Soundsystem.
- Compare Live vs. Studio: Watch the 1978 Saturday Night Live performance. It is arguably one of the top five musical moments in the show's history. The energy is much more violent than the record.
- Analyze the Lyrics: Notice how Mothersbaugh emphasizes different words than Jagger. Jagger emphasizes the "get." Mothersbaugh emphasizes the "no." It changes the entire psychological profile of the narrator from "I am trying to find it" to "I am defined by the absence of it."
- Trace the Influence: Listen to "Satisfaction" and then go listen to Is This It by The Strokes or anything by Parquet Courts. You can hear the "stiff" rhythm everywhere in modern indie rock.
The song remains a litmus test. If you play it for someone and they hate it, they probably prefer their music to be comforting and familiar. If they lean in and start twitching along with the beat, they’ve probably felt that same 21st-century anxiety that Devo saw coming fifty years ago. It’s a masterpiece of discomfort. And honestly, it’s still the most satisfying thing they ever did.