One of the things I always praise most about The Serpent Queen is the precise and intelligent use of its soundtrack. The choice of WOMEN and ROCK reflects the rebellious nature of our anti-heroine, Catherine de Medici (Samantha Morton).

The selection for the first season was ultra interesting and I have the playlist ready. Of course, it will be updated. And now that we’ve resumed the series, the formula has remained the same and promises to keep the quality in the stratosphere. In the first episode, the credits go to none other than the controversial Cat Power and her emotional version of (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, by the Rolling Stones. Yes, it’s a perfect choice! Let’s look at the reason.

One of the band’s biggest hits while still active, (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction was released in August 1965 and the seed came from a show on the band’s first tour in the United States, where around 200 young fans fought with a line of police at the Florida show. There was so much chaos that the musicians could only play four songs and had to be removed from the stage to get out safely.

Later, at the hotel, Keith Richards composed the riff and chorus, angered by what he witnessed. Mick Jagger completed the lyrics with everything else. For them, the song has nothing sexual, as many might initially imagine if they don’t pay attention: it is a criticism of the falsehood and hypocrisy of society. As he later explained, it’s about searching for authenticity and how difficult it is to find it in a commercialized world.

And it was this essence that drove Cat Power, a unique rocker who gave her version greater emphasis on the fact that it is about the generalized feeling of discontent and frustration that characterizes modern life.

For those who don’t know the singer, she signs as Cat Power, but her name is Charlyn Marie “Chan” Marshall and has been on the road since the 1990s. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction is on her most successful album, The Covers Record, from 2000. Her music is generally a mix of punk, folk, and blues, with the artist being very frank and vocal about her problems with drinking, drugs, and mental health.

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction has the narrator driving his car, bombarded by radio advertisements with superficial products that reflect the overwhelming presence of consumer culture. Therefore, nothing material brings true satisfaction. In the second part, TV is the same thing, so it begins to reflect on the superficial criteria by which people are judged, just as rampant consumption reinforces existential emptiness. In the final part, the protagonist travels the world and feels defeated because the fight is inglorious and scattered. That’s why Cat Power‘s melancholic and introspective version is considered one of the best versions of the song.

The perfection of the song in The Serpent Queen is to reinforce the opposing and equally hypocritical religious forces represented by the Bourbon brothers and Guise. To regain power, they are ready to sacrifice France.

Ironically, Catherine de Medici, a devout Catholic, went down in history as the bloodthirsty woman who massacred thousands of Huguenots (Protestants) for her Faith in Catholicism, but the series makes no mistake in highlighting that she apparently genuinely tried and managed to maintain tolerance for 10 years, which makes many question his radical change, which is the heart of the second season. At least in fiction, everything she does will be a result of the actions of ambitious men, not necessarily a personal initiative.

Therefore, closing with (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction is brilliant because it is precisely what Catherine has as an obstacle: hypocrisy, ambition and never, ever, a moment in which she can be satisfied. The snake’s attack will be fatal.

Pesquisar

Pesquisar