For information about how to use this forum please check out forum help and policies.
Quote
DandelionPowdermanQuote
duke richardson
guitar players- ...what do you think? the attack, the tone , the playing.. Keith's best?
I think so..but I aint a guitar player
Probably the most infectous, coolest and dangerous-sounding guitar playing from any Stone ever.
However, people have different perceptions of what the word "best" actually means.
Quote
Silver Dagger
Great footage of the song on the David Frost show in 1968.
Quote
duke richardson
this song will never sound dated, I don't think..
..transcends all eras, like all great art..
is SFTD the only song we have documentary film of, as its being developed in the studio?
Quote
Silver Dagger
Simply one of the most important and best loved songs that the Stones ever wrote. Apart from their flirtation with psychedelia this was their first real move away from pop into the brave new world of rock that was now taking the world by storm. At least the first that the public would hear.
Cream, Hendrix, The Doors, Velvet Underground, the San Francisco bands – all had already laid down strong markers in abandoning pop or psychedelic pop to take new directions in heavier rock.
Yes, there were some experimental rockish wig outs on Satanic Majesties and Jumping Jack Flash gave us all a pointer but now was time for the real deal – the great era of the guitar solo was upon us and the Stones didn’t want to get left behind.
And boy, did the Stones deliver! Major big time. As guitar solos go they don’t get much better than that sublime, seering, beacon of sound that shoots like a laser beam from Keith’s guitar to our speakers at 2.52 for 40 seconds and that simply floors everything in its path. You ever listened to that original studio version in a disco or at full blast? It’s life-affirming, transcendental stuff – everything that rock music should do to transport you to a higher spiritual plain of ultra happiness. It’s a stop everything moment that creates ear to ear grins and thousand mile stares. Simply amazing. If anyone ever asks you what rock music is all about, just play them that and they’ll know.
Then there’s that simply irresistible rhythm. A samba. I can’t think of anyone in the pop/rock idiom who merged a Latin dance rhythm with pop or rock on an album before this. Not The Beatles, nor The Who, Dylan, Cream, The Yardbirds or any other of the era’s leading lights Santana were also still a year away from establishing themselves on a global scale.
Thanks to the One Plus One film we have the good luck to see this song being built up – laboriously bit by bit. It makes me sad to think that the Stones don’t write or create this way anymore. I guess they simply don’t have the patience. In those days they all had a great collective energy in wanting to produce art of staggering quality.
Just listen to the ingenious way that the chorus of Mick, Keith, Marianne, Anita, Brian, Charlie, Jimmy Miller and whoever else was lucky enough to be there push the song on with their infectious woo woo chanting. That’s a really black sound, with its roots not only in gospel but also in voodoo and call and response going right back to Congo Square in New Orleans in the mid-1800s – the birth of modern popular music.
And Charlie and Bill with Rocky Dijon on congas create a rhythm to die for. It grabs you by the nuts and doesn’t let go until the very last note fades away. Even today at concerts the woo wooing can carry on for a few minutes as the body slowly returns to its normal rhythm.
And how about those lyrics then? Inspired by Marianne’s great literary knowledge and foresight to give Mick the weird and wonderful book The Master And Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov as well as a book of Baudelaire poetry. Mick brilliantly took that inspiration about Satan’s arrival in society to pen a lyric that immediately hit home with the disaffected students of Europe and American army draftees. Very stirring, and unsettling, it brilliantly enhanced the Stones’ flirtation with the dark side and even led some of the establishment to believe that the band were now in league with the devil.
It remains, with Paint It Black, Gimme Shelter and Midnight Rambler the songs that best represent the image of the Stones as disciples of darkness – polarising them against the neo-Christian Festival of Light and the establishment in general. But it also rubberstamped their bad boy credentials and help extend their career right through to today.
Sympathy For The Devil is as epic a rock song as you are ever likely to find.
Quote
Silver Dagger
Great footage of the song on the David Frost show in 1968.
Quote
treaclefingersQuote
Silver Dagger
Great footage of the song on the David Frost show in 1968.
Where to start...that was bizarre. The jarring edit in the middle from strictly lip syncing to sort of singing with the track...Keith's never been better on tambourine...I see Mick washed off the tattoo from the R'n'R Circus gig, but kept the singing into the mike between his leg's bit...I'm just not sure why the hell they did that, but an interesting time capsule!
Quote
BluerangerQuote
treaclefingersQuote
Silver Dagger
Great footage of the song on the David Frost show in 1968.
Where to start...that was bizarre. The jarring edit in the middle from strictly lip syncing to sort of singing with the track...Keith's never been better on tambourine...I see Mick washed off the tattoo from the R'n'R Circus gig, but kept the singing into the mike between his leg's bit...I'm just not sure why the hell they did that, but an interesting time capsule!
Try to do a search on youtube for a better version. Can't post it on a mobile device, but there is a MUCH better version available featuring Keith miming the guitar solo as well.
Quote
Come On
A very good starter on a very good album...Sandie Shaw show us how to do it...:
video: [www.youtube.com]
Quote
treaclefingers
I see Mick washed off the tattoo from the R'n'R Circus gig ...
Quote
with sssoulQuote
treaclefingers
I see Mick washed off the tattoo from the R'n'R Circus gig ...
The Frost show performance preceded the filming of the Rock & Roll Circus, actually.
From the Department - you know what kind :E
Quote
BluerangerQuote
treaclefingersQuote
Silver Dagger
Great footage of the song on the David Frost show in 1968.
Where to start...that was bizarre. The jarring edit in the middle from strictly lip syncing to sort of singing with the track...Keith's never been better on tambourine...I see Mick washed off the tattoo from the R'n'R Circus gig, but kept the singing into the mike between his leg's bit...I'm just not sure why the hell they did that, but an interesting time capsule!
Try to do a search on youtube for a better version. Can't post it on a mobile device, but there is a MUCH better version available featuring Keith miming the guitar solo as well.
Quote
mr_dja
Thanks to this thread, Sympathy may have just become my favorite Stones track.
All day long, I've been suffering through a crappy Monday with that stupid "All About The Bass" song stuck in my head. And I mean stuck! Nothing could seem to get it out of my head... "All about the bass, bout the bass" on auto-repeat on my internal playlist was
Until...
Track Talk. Reading about, thinking about and listening to Sympathy has erased Megan Trainor and now I've got a combination of the opening rhythm and bass from the studio cut mixed with woo-woo's from the end! Go Stones!
Note: I've always enjoyed this tune but today, it truly saved my life. Or someone else's.
Peace,
Mr DJA
Quote
mr_dja
Quote
treaclefingersQuote
mr_dja
Thanks to this thread, Sympathy may have just become my favorite Stones track.
All day long, I've been suffering through a crappy Monday with that stupid "All About The Bass" song stuck in my head. And I mean stuck! Nothing could seem to get it out of my head... "All about the bass, bout the bass" on auto-repeat on my internal playlist was
Until...
Track Talk. Reading about, thinking about and listening to Sympathy has erased Megan Trainor and now I've got a combination of the opening rhythm and bass from the studio cut mixed with woo-woo's from the end! Go Stones!
Note: I've always enjoyed this tune but today, it truly saved my life. Or someone else's.
Peace,
Mr DJA
it's all about the congas...
Quote
triceratopsQuote
mr_dja
I hated the Eagles for decades but their derivative stuff brightens up my day when I hear them on the classic rock radio station
Quote
mr_djaQuote
treaclefingersQuote
mr_dja
Thanks to this thread, Sympathy may have just become my favorite Stones track.
All day long, I've been suffering through a crappy Monday with that stupid "All About The Bass" song stuck in my head. And I mean stuck! Nothing could seem to get it out of my head... "All about the bass, bout the bass" on auto-repeat on my internal playlist was
Until...
Track Talk. Reading about, thinking about and listening to Sympathy has erased Megan Trainor and now I've got a combination of the opening rhythm and bass from the studio cut mixed with woo-woo's from the end! Go Stones!
Note: I've always enjoyed this tune but today, it truly saved my life. Or someone else's.
Peace,
Mr DJA
it's all about the congas...
No fair! I was celebrating getting it OUT of my head! Now I'm going to be contemplating alternate lyrics for a parody video!!! Because it's all about the congas, bout the congas. No cowbell.
Screw it!!
Only 20 more minutes and I'll have Sympathy blasting on my car stereo for the ride home!
Peace,
Mr DJA