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pmk251
Again, the key song of the '69 tour to mark the emergence of a new band. The "audacity" and drive of the arrangement to suit the guitar duo...The Taylor solos scripted in along side Keith's as the band moved east, hearing the band surge behind those solos make it clear this new ground for the band, a new era. Jagger's vocals never sounded more convincing on that song. Performances later in the band's career are IMO travesties.

hyperbole.

there are many bands whose best material doesn't hold a candle to these 'travesties'. (ok, and that is my own hyperbole!)

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latebloomer
Aside from the song's hypnotic musical power, lyrically,it's a tour de force. I said it was as brilliant as anything Dylan wrote on a thread sometime ago and got shot down for it, but I stand by it. It is awe inspiring, in the old sense of the word, what Mick Jagger created out of his imagination and the times in which he was living. "Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name"...the devil amoung us and in us. It's a great favorite of English teachers (hope you guess my job ), it pairs so well with all kinds of texts, from Lord of the Flies to Heart of Darkness.

Conservatives love it just as much as liberals, it was included a few years ago in a list of top conservative songs, of all things...

3. "Sympathy for the Devil," by The Rolling Stones.
Don't be misled by the title; this song is "The Screwtape Letters" of rock. The devil is a tempter who leans hard on moral relativism — he will try to make you think that "every cop is a criminal / And all the sinners saints." What's more, he is the sinister inspiration for the cruelties of Bolshevism: "I stuck around St. Petersburg / When I saw it was a time for a change / Killed the czar and his ministers / Anastasia screamed in vain."

Don't disagree with your assessment. Probably a pinnacle in MJ's lyrical canon.

without going thru 3 pages worth, I would be amazed if anyone stated that this is not an amazing song. It's gotta rank up there w/ one of the most radio played non-singles ever!

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Naturalust
Strangely, their official live version is pretty lame, imo. Ronnie's licks and fills don't fit the song well, Keith's contributions are not stellar, Mick's singing is a shadow of the original. I won't even talk about the piano....and yeah that whole verse with the Kennedy reference is missing. It has it's moments but overall it doesn't come close to the magic of the original release, imo.





peace

FLASHPOINT's version pales in comparison to LOVE YOU LIVE's. And as decent as LYL's version is, it pales compared to GYYYO!, which will always be THE version of the song - live, of course. Fortunately it's not been on a... oops. Nevermind.

#3 in NR's list of 50 greatest conservative rock songs...

[www.nytimes.com]

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-28 14:54 by camper88.

Masterpiece.

Fell in love with it at 10 or so along with the rest of HotRocks.It has been unfolding and growing with every listen.Pure Stones magic.Iconic.
Everything about this one is perfect.It is spooky,sexy,seductive and sublime.Keiths apex.Possibly Mics too.
The guitar solo is monumental,the whoo-whoos indelible.

It's ok I guess.

--artofstone I love that painting

I completely forgot a couple of points I think are very interesting(YMMV)

_The tightness of the recording process(2 sessions within a month of each other) seems quite different from many sessions Rene has posted.They must have known they had lightning in a bottle.

_it's interesting that the 'riff' is a piano rather than Keiths open G and that Keith plays not just a solo,but one for the ages and on an acoustic guita.wowza.

Masterpiece indeed.

Sometimes that very word is used too loosely, but "Sympathy For the Devil" belongs to the very small group of real rock and roll masterpieces, milestone pieces. A huge, huge song. I think I need several posts to do the song some justice...

First of all, it is Jagger's biggest hour as a song-writer. Yeah, there all those "Brown Sugars" and "Miss Yous" and everything, genius by their terms, but this is a real master class showcase what this man is able to at his best. Showing that he belongs to the class of Bob Dylan and John Lennon, and probably hitting a sphere in where those two mentioned might not even reach, or at least not too often. It is incredible to think that just about a year earlier he had just started writing by his own, and coming up things like "Yesterday's Papers", and suddenly we are treated with this song...

From song-writers point of view, "Sympathy" is a perfect song - musically. lyrically - just perfect, mature. The melody is simple, but catchy and genious as hell... just like best Dylan tunes. And then we are just entering to the lyrics section - all of it following a great Dylan fashion... the song seemingly was a Dylanisque effort by many ways, and before Mick even introduced the song into others, or hit the studio, he had a masterpiece in his hands.

The lyrics, yeah... Just from the dramatic opening line - if no "Like A Rolling Stone" exists, this would be THE most dramatic opening line ever in rocK: "Please allow introduce myself, I am a man of wealth and taste...." ... what I was to say?... yep... just from the dramatic opening line, every and each line the song has is just perfect, statement-like, well-thought, precise, exciting. It could be the most exciting way of words any rock song ever. And the most clever. If Dylan had written the story, he would have come up with wild and rich metaphors and would have made the professors of literature more happy. But Jagger with his precise, straght literal senses of the words is making more the professors of history, politics and teology happy... And still the song having such a clever stance despite its literalness, would make even the professors of philosophy happy...

In "Satisfaction" Jagger might have come up with the words everybody wanted to hear at the time, and he was the only person in the world doing them convincingly. In "Paint It Black" he added the darkness implicit in us no one had earlier being able to explicate so sharp. But all that is children's stuff compared to the wit and edge and maturity of "Sympathy". Never earlier - and never again - Jagger would be so with the times, a personification of relevance and zeitgeist. And all that in the best literature fashion, the Bulganov's gentleman devil re-incarnating himself once again... (I might deal later the 'moral relavitism" it is supposed to claim for or against). But it is not solely the Devil of best Russian literature - we know "Devil's music", we know what we Robert Johson supposedly once did. Now it's all there - Mick Jagger is not just updating the blues of the past, and having mastered Marianne's best books, he is defining a rock star there - a devilish creature that might be more close to Nietzsche's 'superman' than good ol' Christian devils. Only he could have done it.

If the bloody parents once were so worried about their kids listening to 'devil's music', man... Mick Jagger not just verifies all of yours fears, he with his sharp as knife wit pushes into more dangerous intellectual level. Now you actually should be worried, people! The title of the song alone is one of the most distinguished and controversial song titles ever: the prevailing genious and intuition, once again, was leading them to change it from "Devil Is My Name" into "Sympathy For The Devil" to give it more edge and provocation... It could be that the title and anything to devil related (black magic and all that shit that has nothing to do with the "Sympathy For The Devil") is a cliche and boring these days, and it is not easy to imagine what it was back in 1968 to come up with a title like that...

And we are not yet entered to studio to discuss the sounds they created there... Just gimme a breath...

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-17 08:42 by Doxa.

Not yet satisfied in praising the lyrical content of "Sympathy For The Devil"...

I think what is crucial and unique in the song compared to his earlier efforts (which, like "Satisfaction" or Paint It Black", are masterful), is that as he was earlier great in expressing feelings, typically those of more negative ones no other in pop music was able to do before, such as frustration, angriness, etc. in "Sympathy" Jagger reaches a whole new level: he starts to tell stories. He had this wonderful idea - maybe the most exciting ever in rock music - and he is able to come up with a storyline that expresses it perfectly. Each sentence supports the story and the story goes on so naturally, even easily despite having such strange, strong individual sentences full of rich content. The drama of the song never shows moments of waekness, or gets repitive but the tension just builds up. An incredible achievement lyrically (and the music and performance supports it wonderfully).

Jagger seemingly tried that rather demanding Dylanisque writing method in some other BEGGARS BANQUET (era) numbers, but none of them comes even closely the perfect result of "Sympathy For The Devil". For example, I think "Jig-Saw Puzzle" sounds rather artificial and manufactured piece compared to it.

- Doxa

Excellent post! I'm eager to hear conversation shift from meaning of this classic song to actual musical elements. My preference is the guitar oriented version from 1969. Of course, populous favors Let it Bleed version, which has been a Stone's concert standard over the past three decades.

It all boils downs to if one likes a guitar or percussion approach. I'll take the former. Unfortunately, they will never play our beloved GYYO style ever again.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-17 09:28 by Chris Fountain.

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Chris Fountain
Of course, populous favors Let it Bleed version, which has been a Stone's concert standard over the past three decades.

Which Let It Bleed version is that?

Some of us like both

Seriously, the groove they created on the studio version was never to be surpassed. However, the road version in the late 60s had its own brilliance as well.

The hybrid they did in the mid-70s was also very good, imo.

Then to 'judge' what the guys were able to do in a studio...

If the song itself was Jagger's biggest hour as a song-writer, the recorded result - with "Gimme Shelter" - is band's biggest hour as a studio band. "a studio band?" I hear you asking... yep, that's what I consider them fundamentally being during 1967-69 (following the Beatles there), and the results are to be haerd in those three albums (SATANIC, BEGGARS, BLEED). I don't know if that is a co-incidence, but that 'era' produced their most memorable recordings (not probably best albums as a whole, but best individual songs). Typical for this era is that there was no idea that 'this might be a good song to perform live; dying to play it there', but the whole aim was solely to make perfect recordings. They went to the extreme there, and it took them some time and rehearsal - and re-arrangement of songs - to make the ongs to work live (which, of course, was worth effort, since their biggest songs derive from the period). Thanks to their commeitment in defining their band essence as a studio band, many of the songs from the era now have dual existence: the original studio one and the 'road versions' (pretty much manifested in GET YER YA-YA'S OUT!). I mean, anyone thinking of enrichening a track by a whole scale classical choir is not first thinking that 'yep, let's get this bugger to road as quick as possible'... Starting with "Brown Sugar" during their American Tour 1969, the pragmatism of the road started affect their studio recordings, even though for years Keith Richards would still define himself foremost as a "record maker", even though not being so experimental as he once was.

So "Sympathy", with "Gimme Shelter" - two of their most ambitious, biggest songs ever - is a crown jewel of the 'studio era'. Since the individual features have been so greatly alraedy pointed out and discussed here (and I have done it so much during the years), I don't go into details. I tend to say that "Honky Tonk Women" is Jimmy Miller's biggest hour with the Stones, but probably it is "Sympathy For The DEvil" actually. Compared to anything they had done earlier, the song starts a whole new life for them, sounding so precise, so mature, so groovie... the boys being men finally, pop being transformed into whole scale rock. It needs to be something with a pro producer like Jimmy Miller. "Jumpin' Jack Flash" introduced the new, matured sound (big time), but here everything is even bigger, more ambitious, daring...

Being such an era-defining rock anthem, "Sympathy" is one of the odddest rock classics ever done... I mean, you put a bloody samba rhythmn into a folk tune, and the result is one of the strongest rock tunes ever - even though the rock instrument per se - electric guitar - is not heard until the solo (and which, by the way, is the most striking solo with Brian's in "I Wanna Be Your Man" to be heard on a Rolling Stones recording.). Pure genious. Like with "Paint It Black", an 'exotic' element is used to serve the needs of a rock and roll song. I mean, one can listen "Norwegian Wood", and start dreaming meditating with some Indian guru and do whatever hippie thing, by trying to be so 'authentic' and everything, but "Paint It Black" just makes your ass and feet move, your heart jump like a great rock and roll song should do. And "Sympathy" does the same even more extremily. The Stones at their best don't do experiments per se, but experiments, which work as great rock and roll songs. IN SATANIC they made have had some problems with that, but here - with Jimmy Miller, and damn well written song - they are in a right track (again).

I think "Sympathy For he Devil" is a perfect recording. Nothing is missing, and anything that it has is a spot on. The balance, the drama, the sounds. Everything. Probably also Jagger's best performance as a singer.

Masterpiece. Indeed.

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-17 10:48 by Doxa.

Three inspired and inspiring posts from you to reflect on, Doxa, thank you!

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Chris Fountain

My preference is the guitar oriented version from 1969. Of course, populous favors Let it Bleed version, which has been a Stone's concert standard over the past three decades.

It all boils downs to if one likes a guitar or percussion approach. I'll take the former. Unfortunately, they will never play our beloved GYYO style ever again.

My take basically is that all the BEGGARS and BLEED original versions are just so perfect by their own rights that it is impossible for them to think that they could actually do them any better. That's why I am so pleased that they didn't even try to be too fateful to the originals, but changed them to fit to their live sound. The result is that we have dual existence of the songs, and I usually don't try to even compare them to each other. They are just so different animals. (The 'modern times' is a different issue, since they try so hard to recrreate the originals with their current means - and usually the result happens to be a far cry from the greatness of the original.)

"Sympathy For The Devil" really is a great example of a 'double existence'. The version in YA-YA'S is simply stunning, and I can't even try to claim that there is something wrong with it, or it lacks something 'essential' the original has. No. What we hear there is the greatest rock and roll band of the world in action, and I can't think them sounding any better. For guitar lovers, it is probably one of the best prformances ever captured on a (live) recording. I mean, among other things they do, the solos of both Keith and Taylor are simply phenomenal. If nothing else, like with other BEGGARS/BLEED numbers, it is basically the 'Taylor factor' that makes the songs arrangemnetwise different and adding something to the numbers we basically love hearing from a rock and roll band in a concert (= GUITAR! but usually there is some other factors as well). What I especially love in those 'road versions' is the idea that the songs are not treated as finished products when they relaese the studio versions. No, they don't leave them there, but keep on hearing in them different things, new possibilities, and develop some features further, while leaving something off. It is a mark of creative imagination. Of course, the typical feature is 'what the guitarists do?', and it is mostly on their shoulders to give a new 'identity' to the songs. And what is fascinating that the result is created here and then, in that very mment playing it live, which leaves a lot of room for intuition, spontaneuty and even experimentalism. The Rolling Stones live from 1969 to 1973 is the most exciting period of any guitar-based rock and roll band ever. Especially the BEGGARS/BLEED numbers are pure gems if one loves 'guitar fiesta'. They had never given, or would do again, such a huge and defining role for guitars.

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-17 11:51 by Doxa.

They did try to be faithful to the original on Rock'n'Roll Circus, and that worked nicely. But with two guitar players in action they might have thought that leaving both of them practically "unemployed" would be a little boring for them.

As we know, they got plenty work to do

Apart from the amazing studio version, I especially like the live version that I have on my old vinyl "Liver Than You'll Ever Be"-boot, which is quite different from every other version I have heard (not that many from that period). I have not got a vocabulary to describe it.

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Witness
Apart from the amazing studio version, I especially like the live version that I have on my old vinyl "Liver Than You'll Ever Be"-boot, which is quite different from every other version I have heard (not that many from that period). I have not got a vocabulary to describe it.

It's similar to the Ya Yas-version, minus the extended Taylor solos?

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DandelionPowderman

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Witness
Apart from the amazing studio version, I especially like the live version that I have on my old vinyl "Liver Than You'll Ever Be"-boot, which is quite different from every other version I have heard (not that many from that period). I have not got a vocabulary to describe it.

It's similar to the Ya Yas-version, minus the extended Taylor solos?

That does not capture what for me is the difference or the magic.

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Witness

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DandelionPowderman

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Witness
Apart from the amazing studio version, I especially like the live version that I have on my old vinyl "Liver Than You'll Ever Be"-boot, which is quite different from every other version I have heard (not that many from that period). I have not got a vocabulary to describe it.

It's similar to the Ya Yas-version, minus the extended Taylor solos?

That does not capture what for me is the difference or the magic.

That's way I remember it. Haven't listened to it in a couple of years, though.

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Doxa

So "Sympathy", with "Gimme Shelter" - two of their most ambitious, biggest songs ever - is a crown jewel of the 'studio era'.

- Doxa

A couple of questions....

Is it any coincidence that these two songs both deal with violence?

And is it in relating darkness that gave the Stones their edge at this time?

In fact I'd add Midnight Rambler as the third masterpiece from this studio era and a song that fits perfectly with Sympathy and Gimme Shelter. These three songs have continued to be the Holy Trinity that many - actually, I'd say most - fans have looked forward to hearing live in concert for the last 5 decades.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-17 12:18 by Silver Dagger.

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DandelionPowderman
They did try to be faithful to the original on Rock'n'Roll Circus, and that worked nicely. But with two guitar players in action they might have thought that leaving both of them practically "unemployed" would be a little boring for them.

As we know, they got plenty work to do

ROCK AND ROLL CIRCUS is technically a live performance, but the band is not yet playing on a real stage, confronted by actual (critical, buying) audience, but just rehearsing what is to play live these days for the cameras of a television show. What we hear is, what?, take three of "Sympathy For The Devil"? And still they weren't satisfied how they sounded like... Yeah, they knew they got plenty to do...

Still, I think had they continued with that recipe with just one guitarist, and piano still leading the samba march like in the original, I am afraid it would not have been just the other guitarist being bored, but the audience as well... (mostly because it would have been rather demanding to make that studio sound to work convincingly in the live setting those days.)

However, if we listen closely the CIRCUS version, there are some hints of what will happen in future:: probably for doing something, Keith enriches the intro (and then the first verse) by adding there a cool and catchy guitar riff/motif. At Hyde Park - another work in process, but now with a second guitarist - a half year later, he continues the idea. Basically, the 'road versions' of Amaerican Tour 1969 are created around those two guitar constituents we hear first time at Hyde Park: Keith's leading riff backed up with Taylor's rhythmn guitar (or other way around, if you like, since it is Taylor who starts the guitar fiesta with his strumming).

But ROCK AND ROLL CIRCUS version really is an unique performance in capturing the band at that moment, their feet mostly still on a studio.

- Doxa



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-17 13:32 by Doxa.

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Silver Dagger

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Doxa

So "Sympathy", with "Gimme Shelter" - two of their most ambitious, biggest songs ever - is a crown jewel of the 'studio era'.

- Doxa

A couple of questions....

Is it any coincidence that these two songs both deal with violence?

And is it in relating darkness that gave the Stones their edge at this time?

In fact I'd add Midnight Rambler as the third masterpiece from this studio era and a song that fits perfectly with Sympathy and Gimme Shelter. These three songs have continued to be the Holy Trinity that many - actually, I'd say most - fans have looked forward to hearing live in concert for the last 5 decades.

A good question, indeed. Yeah, "Midnight Rambler" belongs to those dark masterpieces that, co-incidentally or not, deal with violence. Probably I would not quite rate "Rambler" so high as those two, because as a studio effort it is just so primitive and relying on so simple components (for them). But using those archaic blues compotents so damn effectively is actually what makes the original studio so great (and damn threatening). But still I would say that if we didn't have all those INCREDIBLE "road versions" we have used to during the years (and decades), the song would not be rated as high in a Stones canon as it - rightly - is. That song if any ever - probably "Love Is Vain" is another - really gained from played live.

But yeah, the violence... I guess we can only conclude that that theme inspired those guys helluva lot. in a way, it was a natural continuum from the themes they had earlier dealed with - mostly to do with negative feelings and just 'playing nasty', no matter if it only dealed with relationship to girls or mothers... The flower power and all that hippie idealism, love and peace - never seemed quite work for them (if it was not dealing sex), but then the happenings of 1968 and the whole world starting to be aggressive and violent, offered them much more suitable framework. I don't know... maybe it was almost too fitting, and they were able - without a dare - put there 'anything they know' and are good at. Lyrics aside, I think it is their 'original' band sound, with all that dark, aggressive blues tone with it, alone that is made as a soundtrack for the times. Add there lyrics dealing with violence, shit....

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-17 13:26 by Doxa.

Random thoughts.

The only live versions that do justice to the majestic studio version are the Rock and Roll circus and the 75 versions. A step below the 69 Hyde Park version.

The Ya Ya's version, without the percussion work, is completely different song (although a truly great one!).

The 89 onward versions can be described only with Mr. Kurtz's immortal words: "The horror! The horror!"

My fav Nicky Hopkins piano work with the stones!

Keith's bass is ferocious, muscular, primitive but with little subtleties that give the measure of the artist. Think of that D flat in the line - love it!

The who whoos are pure genius. One of the most infectious hooks in the stones catalog.

C

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Doxa
But yeah, the violence... I guess we can only conclude that that theme inspired those guys helluva lot. in a way, it was a natural continuum from the themes they had earlier dealed with - mostly to do with negative feelings and just 'playing nasty', no matter if it only dealed with relationship to girls or mothers... The flower power and all that hippie idealism, love and peace - never seemed quite work for them (if it was not dealing sex), but then the happenings of 1968 and the whole world starting to be aggressive and violent, offered them much more suitable framework.

Enter Dr. Sigmund Freud with his theory of Libido and Thanatos...

The range of so called "dark songs" are indeed among the very best they've created.
Apart from the three mentioned by Silver Dagger, the list also contains Stray Cat Blues,
Sister Morphine, Sway and (I'd say) Monkey Man.

Violence, sex, drugs.
What they did brilliantly, is add music to these subjects, that deal with the psychology
of man.

Just as long as the guitar plays, let it steal your heart away

Flipping through the pages of history. A young band performing with a depth that is way beyond their tender years. Where did this come from? A heady stew of London intellectualism inspiring young frustrated rock gods. With time and good drugs and a voracious appetite consuming far more than mere traditional English schools had to offer. This song ripped the facade off the face of the English invasion. Stepping toward a inspiring flow of music, the Stones begin yet another classic period of their history. A beautiful poetic vision of a decadence and anger. Yet a love letter from the most reviled demon in history, Catalyst of evil which transformed humanity throughout the ages. A roiling samba of flesh, blood, stone, and metal. Grinds through your consciousness opening a window of wonder and fear. Sympathy for all our devils, gloriously seared into a generation of youthful protest agains all the petty morals of the status quo. Cocktail harpies floating and bobbing through the world's largest party.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-17 14:26 by whitem8.

Douglas Marshall comes as close to providing a full explanation of the evolvment of 'Sympathy for the Devil' as anyone does -

"Sympathy for the Devil"
Mick Jagger's mad, erudite incantation strutted '60s rock toward the dark side of history.

By Douglas Cruickshank

The Stones have made plenty of mistakes over the years ("Their Satanic Majesties Request"winking smiley, but producing a rock opera wasn't one of them. Though "Sympathy for the Devil" is embedded with enough historical and philosophical scope to seem like the opening act to a drama of operatic dimensions, they wisely kept it to a concise six minutes and 22 seconds. In interviews, Mick Jagger -- who wrote "Sympathy" ("I wrote it as sort of like a Bob Dylan song"winking smiley without his usual writing partner, Keith Richards -- has said he was concerned at the time about the potential for the lyrics to come off as pretentious and the band to be "skewered on the altar of pop culture." So when Richards suggested changing the rhythm, Jagger agreed and as the band worked (and worked and worked) on the piece, it ended up as a samba, which Jagger has called "hypnotic" and Richards referred to as "mad."

Jagger, a voracious reader and history buff, claimed he was influenced in writing "Sympathy" by Baudelaire. But he was also, as others have pointed out, clearly under the spell of Mikhail Bulgakov's classic allegorical novel of good and evil, "The Master and Margarita." Of course Jagger was even more clearly under the spell of the 1960s, a time when -- for many -- heaven and hell seemed to have come to earth in the most lucid terms.

The song's opening -- "Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste" -- parallels the beginning of Bulgakov's novel, in which a sophisticated stranger, who turns out to be Satan, introduces himself to two gentlemen sitting in a Moscow park as they're discussing whether Jesus existed or not. ("'Please excuse me,' he said, speaking correctly, but with a foreign accent, 'for presuming to speak to you without an introduction.'"winking smiley The song then references Christ and the story of Pontius Pilate, which the novel takes up in its second chapter. Before moving on to the Russian Revolution, the song's narrator, Lucifer, acknowledges that his listeners are mystified -- "But what's puzzling you is the nature of my game" -- just as, in "The Master and Margarita," one of the men approached by Satan in the park thinks to himself, "What the devil is he after?"

In the lyrics for "Sympathy," Jagger's narrator jumps from making "damn sure that Pilate washed his hands and sealed [Jesus'] fate" to St. Petersburg, "When I saw it was time for a change," and kills "the Czar and his ministers." Curiously (or not so curiously, given Jagger's penchant for reading history), the only other allusion in the song to Russia's dark past is an odd one: "Anastasia screamed in vain" -- a reference to the youngest daughter of the czar who was murdered with the rest of the Romanov royal family. For most of the 20th century Anastasia was an almost mythological figure, thanks to the specious claims that she alone had survived the murders.

But more interesting than what appear to be direct correlations between the book and the song is how Jagger and the Stones, drawing on numerous influences, Bulgakov's novel apparently among them, managed -- in a rock song -- to address serious, even profound, ideas to a samba beat without turning the whole affair into an exercise in dull earnestness. On the contrary, "Sympathy" sounds like a party and works so well, on multiple levels, because its lyrics evoke more than they spell out, while the music not only has an infectious rhythm, it features ingenious layering of sound and background vocals that build to an irresistible, kick-ass tribal hootenanny. Those "woo woos," by the way, which provide a self-deprecating, cartoonish poke at the song's spookiness, while adding to the chanting-around-the-bonfire nature of the music, were provided by the four demons themselves, along with two members of the Stones' 1968 coven -- Anita Pallenberg and Marianne Faithfull -- and the album's producer, Jimmy Miller.

In writing the song, Jagger used words with impressive economy. He cites Jesus Christ, Pontius Pilate, the czar, Anastasia, the blitzkrieg (World War II), the Kennedys and the city of Bombay and mentions Lucifer by name (just once) and in so doing creates a deep, amplified portrait of a world torn by religion, war, assassination and confusion where "Every cop is a criminal/And all the sinners saints." Threaded throughout are taunts from the teasing narrator -- the traditional demon trickster -- trying to get the listener to speak his name: "Hope you guess my name," "Tell me, baby, what's my name?" "Tell me, sweetie, what's my name?" And -- at the very pinnacle of the Flower Power era, remember -- he then turns on his starry-eyed audience and tells them that they, in league with him, are to blame for the deaths of the '60s most promising political leaders.



Jagger concedes that the song may have been something of an inspiration for all the '70s and '80s heavy metal bands that flirted with Satanism, but in interviews he's repeatedly distanced the Stones from any of it. In an exchange with Creem magazine, he said, "[When people started taking us as devil worshippers], I thought it was a really odd thing, because it was only one song, after all. It wasnt like it was a whole album, with lots of occult signs on the back. People seemed to embrace the image so readily, [and] it has carried all the way over into heavy metal bands today."

Regardless of, or maybe because of, the swath it has cut, "Sympathy for the Devil," as good art often does, continues to resonate at least as strongly today as it did when it was first created. Woo woo.


As withsssoul has stated the line 'Troubadours killed before they reach 'Bombay'
has never been explained and is really difficult to understand unless it has a hidden meaning.
Troubadours were aristocratic poet-musicians of S France (Provence) who flourished from the end of the 11th cent. through the 13th cent. Many troubadours were noblemen and crusader knights; some were kings, e.g., Richard I, Cœur de Lion; Thibaut IV, king of Navarre; and Alfonso X, king of Castile and León.
It is possible that Mick's line about 'Troubadours' is about crusader knights
or kings who wre killed on their travels.

Anyway what an absolutely fantastic song that the skinny English guys conjured up and I never tire of hearing it live or on record.

In the studio version there's a sound at the end of the solo as if Keith is slamming a door shut, or maybe the gates of hell.
That moment has fascinated me since the album came out and I always wait for it. What's making that sound?