Thursday, March 5, 2009

Sympathy for the Devil

Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long long year stolen many a man's soul and faith
I was around Jesus Christ had his moment of doubt and pain
Made damn sure that Pilate washed his hands and sealed his fate
Pleased to meet you hope you guess my name
But what's puzzling you is the nature of my game

Stuck around St. Petersburg when I saw it was a time for a change
Killed the Tsar and his ministers; Anastasia screamed in vain
I rode a tank held a gen'rals rank when the blitzkrieg
raged and the bodies stank
Pleased to meet you hope your guess my name, oh yeah
Ah what's puzzling you is the nature of my game, oh yeah

I watched the glee while your kings and queens fought for
ten decades for the Gods they made
I shouted out "who killed the Kennedy's?" when after all it was you and me
Let me please introduce myself I'm a man of wealth and taste
And I lay traps for troubadors who get killed before they reach Bombay

Pleased to meet you hope you guess my name, oh yeah
But what's puzzling you is the nature of my game, oh yeah

Pleased to meet you hope you guess my name
But what's confusin you is just the nature of my game

Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners saints
As heads is tails
Just call me Lucifer
'Cause I'm in need of some restraint

So if you meet me have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, and some taste
Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I'll lay your soul to waste, um yeah

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, um yeah
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, um mean it, get down

Woo, who
Oh yeah, get on down
Oh yeah
Oh yeah!

Tell me baby, what's my name
Tell me honey, can ya guess my name
Tell me baby, what's my name
I tell you one time, you're to blame

oh, who
woo, woo
Woo, who
Woo, woo
Woo, who, who
Woo, who, who
Oh, yeah

What's my name
Tell me, baby, what's my name
Tell me, sweetie, what's my name

Woo, who, who
Woo, who, who
Woo, who, who
Woo, who, who
Woo, who, who
Woo, who, who
Oh, yeah
Woo woo
Woo woo


The original live recording of the song on Rock and Roll Circus, a British TV special The Stones taped in 1968 but never aired.



- Released December 6, 1968

-
The working title of the song was "The Devil Is My Name", and it is sung by Mick Jagger as a first-person narrative from the point of view of Lucifer.

-
Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste These opening lines reflect Jagger's direct inspiration by The Master and Margarita, with the book opening with the similar "'Please excuse me,' he said, speaking correctly, but with a foreign accent, 'for presuming to speak to you without an introduction.'"

- Backed by an intensifying rock arrangement, the narrator, with chilling narcissistic relish, recounts his exploits over the course of human history and warns the listener: "If you meet me, have some courtesy, have some sympathy, and some taste; use all your well-learned politesse, or I'll lay your soul to waste." Jagger stated in the Rolling Stone interview: "...it's a very long historical figure -- the figures of evil and figures of good -- so it is a tremendously long trail he's made as personified in this piece."

- Stuck around Saint Petersburg when I saw it was a time for a change, killed the tsar and his ministers; Anastasia screamed in vain - Refers to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the 1918 massacre of the Romanov family.

-
I rode a tank held a gen'rals rank when the blitzkrieg raged and the bodies stank - Refers to Hitler and World War II. "...the bodies stank" is in reference to the gas chambers.

-
I watched the glee while your kings and queens fought for ten decades for the Gods they made - Refers to the Hundred Years' War.

-
I shouted out "who killed the Kennedys'?" when after all it was you and me - This line originally referred to John F. Kennedy. However, the recording sessions for the track were in progress when the latter was killed, and the words were changed from "Who killed Kennedy?" to "who killed the Kennedys'?"

-
And I lay traps for troubadors who get killed before they reach Bombay. - refers to the hippies who traveled the "Hippie Trail" by road. Many of them were killed and ripped off by drug peddlers in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Another link for the "Hippie Trail"

- The song was also inspired by Robert Johnson's "Me and the Devil Blues"



- Contrary to a widespread misconception, it was "Under My Thumb" and not "Sympathy for the Devil" that the Rolling Stones were performing when Meredith Hunter was killed at the Altamont Free Concert. Rolling Stone magazine's early articles on the incident misreported that the killing took place during "Sympathy for the Devil", but The Rolling Stones in fact played "Sympathy for the Devil" earlier in the concert; it was interrupted by a fight and re-started, and several other songs were performed before Hunter was killed.

- On the overall power of the song, Jagger continued in Rolling Stone: "It has a very hypnotic groove, a samba, which has a tremendous hypnotic power, rather like good dance music. It doesn't speed up or slow down. It keeps this constant groove. Plus, the actual samba rhythm is a great one to sing on, but it is also got some other suggestions in it, an undercurrent of being primitive -- because it is a primitive African, South American, Afro-whatever-you-call-that rhythm (candomble). So to white people, it has a very sinister thing about it. But forgetting the cultural colors, it is a very good vehicle for producing a powerful piece. It becomes less pretentious because it is a very unpretentious groove. If it had been done as a ballad, it wouldn't have been as good."




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