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From Songfacts: Muddy Waters wrote this song and released it as a single in 1948, very early in his career. In the song, the guy is letting his woman know that he’s leaving town for her safety and his own – he’s got a worried mind and can’t be satisfied. It’s somewhat related to the Muddy Waters song that gave The Rolling Stones their name: “Rollin’ Stone.”
In 1964, The Stones recorded at Chess studios in Chicago, which was Muddy Waters’ label. The story goes that they saw Waters painting the studios and were appalled that their idol was reduced to menial labor. Studio owner Marshall Chess refutes the story: “No way Muddy would have been painting in the studio.”
This is the ninth track from their album The Rolling Stones No. 2, which, as is ironically typical for albums named this way, wasn’t the Stones’ second studio album, but their fourth.
Once again, it was an album with more cover songs than actual songs by Jagger and Richards. It’s actually a credit to the Stones that they could make a hit charting career out of mostly covers, at least in the early days. However, at the beginning of their career they were also cranking out three to four albums per year, so it’s easy to see where they wouldn’t have had enough hours in a day otherwise.
Many of the songs from this album also appear on their US-released album The Rolling Stones, Now!
From the The Rolling Stones – All the Songs book: “I Can’t Be Satisfied” is the A-side of the third single recorded by Muddy Waters—alias McKinley Morganfield—for the Aristocrat label (soon to be renamed Chess) in 1948 with “I Feel Like Going Home” as the B-side. In this sprightly blues number, the founder of modern blues expresses what a good number of African Americans from the Southern states felt after making the big move to the industrial cities of the North: bitter disenchantment. Gradually, this disenchantment took a more personal turn: Woman I’m troubled/I be all worried in mind/Well baby I just can’t be satisfied/And I just can’t keep from cryin’. Clearly, it is a question here of frustration—sexual frustration, it goes without saying. And this is exactly what interested the Rolling Stones, who recorded “I Can’t Be Satisfied” at Chess Studios on June 10, 1964.
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