It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll: The Ultimate Guide to the Rolling Stones by James Karnbach & Carol Bernson (Facts on File, 1997)
Old Gods Almost Dead by Stephen Davis (Broadway, 2001)
Rolling with the Stones by Bill Wyman & Richard Havers (DK Publishing, 2002)
Mojo magazine, article by Paul Trynka, Rolling Stones feature issue, (#107, October 2002)

Data Sources and Notes:

Keith Richards’ birth data quoted from Astro Data Bank (Rodden Rating: A). Arthur Blackwell quotes him to Ruth F. Nobel (same from other astrologers). The given time is 6:00 a.m., though I have rectified it to 6:02:21. Although the rectified time puts his Midheaven at 10 Virgo, the position of the Mars-Uranus transit of May 1965, my rectification was not done to accommodate this fact. It was devised by adjusting certain planetary to angle relationships by secondary progression, to match several key dates in his life - a technique I hope to expand on in a future article.

Brian Jones’ birth date & place is quoted from numerous sources, including his tombstone in the case of his date, and all of the above biographical sources. Davis (p.5) states that he was born “on a winter Saturday night”. 7:00 p.m. has been used arbitrarily for the purpose of this article, although any birth time on that given day would give him a Mars-Uranus conjunction. It is the author’s opinion, for both astrological and biographical reasons, that Jones had Virgo rising (which would mean he was born in the early evening), but that is, clearly, speculative.

All of the dates, exact or approximate, for the events of May 1965 are quoted from the above biographical sources, Karnbach & Bernson being the primary source for dates. There are some ambiguities: while it is confirmed that the Rolling Stones played the Jack Russell Auditorium in Clearwater FL on the evening of May 6, 1965, and that Richards wrote the riff to Satisfaction while the group was staying overnight in that town, it is not clear as to whether they stayed there the night preceding or following the show. A few anecdotal accounts, including Davis’ claim that Richards showed the riff to Jagger the morning after he wrote it (p.122), and Jagger’s recollection that the song was completed by the swimming pool at their motel in Jacksonville FL (where the Stones played on May 8th), support the idea that they stayed there the night following the show. However, even if the reverse proved to be true (that they stayed in Clearwater the night of the 5th/6th), the Mars-Uranus conjunction transit would still have been in effect.

Similarly, there is a minor conflict as to the exact time Satisfaction was recorded. Karnbach & Bernson (p.225) state that the song was recorded, along with the tracks My Girl, Good Times, Cry to Me, I’ve Been Loving You Too Long, The Spider and the Fly and One More Try, during sessions that took place in Hollywood between May 11th/12th. However, Davis claims (p.124), “The final stereo mix of Satisfaction was finished by 5 a.m. on May 11, 1965.” This is a conflict because Karnbach & Bernson claim the Stones had been at a recording session at Chess Studios in Chicago on May 10th (where they made their first attempt at recording Satisfaction), which would make it close to impossible for them to make it over to Hollywood and complete the song by five o’clock the next morning. Regardless of this conflict, the Mars-Uranus conjunction would be present at any of these times.

The author wants to express his wish that every conceivable event in human history was recorded in precise atomic clock time. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.

The reason Mars was conjunct Uranus during both the release of the Beatles’ I Feel Fine in late November 1964 and the recording of (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction in May 1965 is because Mars had been retrograde between January and April of 1965 – which means it made three exact conjunctions to Uranus between Nov/Dec 1964 and May 1965. Interestingly, there were only three instances during the 20th century where a Mars retrograde coincided with multiple conjunctions to Uranus: 1907 (long before the Stones or probably even their parents were born), 1943-44 (when Keith Richards was born) and of course 1964-65. There will be a close call this coming summer (2003), as Mars goes retrograde in Pisces. Close, but no proverbial cigar. Keep your eye on Richards, though: he and Jagger just had their second Saturn Returns, and Jupiter stationed direct conjunct his natal Pluto and pre-natal Solar Eclipse this past April. Prosperity or doom? You never know what else this guy could face down and survive.

The author thanks Michael Lutin for introducing him to the concept of recurrence transits.

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