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Tonyz

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Thrylan
Oh god........It is a philosophical statement. There is no god, or devil. The devil is a scapegoat. The TV show had a running gag,"The devil made me do it!" The joke is, no, you did it. We are the good and evil. It is a statement against organized religion. That being said, if you don't believe in god, then there is no devil. It is also a call to take responsibility for your own actions.

Nice post.

It does annoy me that they omit that "fought for ten decades for the gods they made" verse in concert. It's easily my favorite part of the song.

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DandelionPowderman

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24FPS
They've driven this tired warhorse into the ground so deeply that I don't even hear it when they play it. It's shut out until the next song.

Where were you on Saturday?????????

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opentuning
But did God even have a choice himself? If he is perfeclty omnipotent and benevolent, as people often claim, then he would have to, on the basis of his own very nature, always do that which is perfectly omnipotent and benevolent. He would literally have no choice in the matter.

Ah religion... your claims are so fun to analyze

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stonehearted
Omitting the Kennedys reference is a way to keep the song from being too dated, because all the Kennedys are dead now, and so are all the people who killed them.

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loog droog
Sadly, Sirhan Sirhan--who killed RFK 45 years ago--is among the living.

He is still serving a life sentence in prison.

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GravityBoy
I always wondered what the words were.

I always thought it was "fought for tender cakes for the gods they made".

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sonomastone
There could be a whole topic on misunderstood stones lines

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svt22

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stonehearted
Omitting the Kennedys reference is a way to keep the song from being too dated, because all the Kennedys are dead now, and so are all the people who killed them. Besides, you can still have sympathy for the devil without hearing about the Kennedys.

Also, does Mick still sing the line "who get killed before they reach Bombay"? It's known as Mumbai now. Come to think of it, "devil" is a bit of an outdated word as well....

For a moment I thought you are Mathijs.

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GravityBoy

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noughties
- But sympathy? Isn`t that to go a bit too far?

The devil had no choice either.

Omnipotent God knew what the devil would do even before he created him but created him anyway.

Knottier and knottier..

(That's if the story we are told is true).

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noughties
Well, all God`s creatures had an unpredictable free will.

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GravityBoy
I always wondered what the words were.

I always thought it was "fought for tender cakes for the gods they made".

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treaclefingers

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GravityBoy
I always wondered what the words were.

I always thought it was "fought for tender cakes for the gods they made".

have always loved tender cakes with a bit of butter.

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stonehearted

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svt22

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stonehearted
Omitting the Kennedys reference is a way to keep the song from being too dated, because all the Kennedys are dead now, and so are all the people who killed them. Besides, you can still have sympathy for the devil without hearing about the Kennedys.

Also, does Mick still sing the line "who get killed before they reach Bombay"? It's known as Mumbai now. Come to think of it, "devil" is a bit of an outdated word as well....

For a moment I thought you are Mathijs.

I take it that is not a compliment.

I was just playing devil's advocate, for which I get no sympathy....

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maradona
Hey you,
yesterday I had an annoying discussion with a friend of mine who calls the Stones "satanists" only due to Sympathy for the Devil. In the end he really changed his point of view a bit but there was still one question left that I could not answer: On which tours was the WHOLE song played? I guess usually the stanza with the Gods and the Kennedys is missing, isn't it? Help would be appreciated!
Many thanks

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Bluesstone
Exactly, especially the lines about Jesus and Pilate are pretty much a caption of Master and Margarita and the perspective in which the story is told in the novel. I read it recently and I get how the idea to the song could have come about. If you take it as the devil talking about how he messed in world events over centuries and then spin it further to the context of the events Mick then wrote about, it makes total sense. A "stones are satanists" debate though seems very rural 1969 to me The song is a piece of art, nothing more and certainly nothing less.

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maradona
Hey you,yesterday I had an annoying discussion with a friend of mine who calls the Stones "satanists"......

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GravityBoy

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sonomastone
it's a shame they don't sing the kennedys line because it contains the important "it was you and me" line

The devil is the prince of lies.

So when he says "after all it was you and me" its a lie.

I never killed JFK or RFK.

I would like that on record.

Thanks.

(PS it wasn't LHO either).