These two Stones songs, both built around similar, irresistible Keith Richards guitar riffs, are absolute classics. Do they have anything else in common?
“JJF” has lyrics about suffering that are wildly baroque–weird, even. I can’t think of another prominent Stones song that sounds like it. What was the point of it? The only plausible answer is that Jagger and Richards wanted to remind their mostly working-class audience that they, in spite of their wealth and fame, still felt their fans’ pain. It was a gesture of solidarity with the base, as it were.
The last verse of “Satisfaction” serves the same purpose. You can easily imagine the average Stones fan saying “What do you have to complain about, Mr. Jagger? You have all of the fame and the booze and the drugs and the chicks that you want. I can barely make ends meet. What is it exactly that we have in common?” Jagger is ready for that question, and he answers it in a way that makes the song universal. He may be rich and famous, but like you, he’s Adam, or Faust. He can never have everything he wants.
That’s what makes the song so great, along with the riff, of course.