It has always been “girl reaction” to me.
it couldn’t be “I can’t get no girl’s reaction”?
“Girlie magazine”, “girlie show” etc. Older usage, connotation of scantily clad women on display. Usually spelt “-ie”.
“Girly”, adj., with a more general meaning of “girlish” or “pertaining to girls” seems to me a more recent invention e.g. “his flowery smartphone cover seemed a bit girly”. You could also spell it “girlie”, but like other adjectives it is usually spelt with a -y.
Even if true, I don’t see how your point is relevant to the song. Mick doesn’t want action that is girlish. He wants action with (or a reaction from) the girlies–chicks, babes, birds, broads. The kind of action that will involve them getting scantily, or completely un-, clad. That’s satisfaction, buddy.
I just tried this…I can’t believe this, but you’re right.
Of course Jagger didn’t sing “half assed” - I don’t know if that phrase was in common use in the US in the mid sixties, but it certainly wasn’t well known outside the US at the time.
“Ass” is an American-only usage, the word is “arse” (rhymes with “farce”) everywhere else in the English-speaking world, and if Jagger had wanted to refer to an arse, he’d have said arse and not ass, which to non-American English speakers means “donkey”.
Yes, I know the Stones were aping American music at the time, even so Jagger is highly unlikely to have used the “ass” pronunciation in the mid sixties. Even now, the only time anyone outside of North America would say “ass” instead of “arse” would be to imitate an American.
Yeah, not sure what to say about this one; I always heard high-class, but wouldn’t’ve considered half-assed for the reasons you state.
You’re forgetting that the song was written by an American (Bobby Womack, originally recorded by his group the Valentinos). If the original had included the words “half-assed,” Jagger would presumably have sung the same.
Fair, but…nah. 
It’s relevant because in 1965 “girlie action” (if that were the line, which it isn’t) wouldn’t have made much sense. It would have sounded like Mick was saying “I want to go to a strip club” or something. The more recent adjective “girly” was not yet current, and even it had been it would still have sounded clumsy.
All I know is that big ol’ Jed had a light on.
Common enough. The 1964 “half-fast vs. half-assed” issue certainly wasn’t the first time this fourteen year-old Californian had ever heard the phrase.
link to Devo '78 Satisfaction.
God they sucked.
No, in those days, 10-year-olds (which I was) spoke of “girly” activities and such, and poor James Gurley of Big Brother and the Holding Company sure got kidded about it enough. At that time, I heard “girly action,” and understood it to mean exactly what it must have meant.
I think I speak for a lot of us here when I say, “Fuck You.”
And I **know **I speak for the powers that be when I say, “This is way over the line for Cafe Society, dial it *way *back.”
twickster, Cafe Society moderator
My apologies. Nothing personal, just trying to stick up for Devo and especially that cover of theirs which is brilliant.