The Rolling Stones have returned with a new album, Foreign Tongues. So to celebrate the band’s 25th studio release, let’s revisit one of their epic tunes. “Sympathy For The Devil” arrived on the 1968 LP, Beggars Banquet. And it came with controversy, as some questioned why this rock-and-roll band had compassion for evil.
Many folk and blues standards feature supernatural themes, and none more crucial than Robert Johnson’s Faustian bargain in “Cross Road Blues”. The Stones continue this tradition in “Sympathy For The Devil”. But its aim is more grounded than you might think.
Foreign tongues? How about a mythical beast with enough influence to talk the well-intentioned into terrible mischief?
Supernatural Folk
So if you are going to write a folk banger, narrating the supreme being of evil is a good way to go. Mick Jagger sings from the perspective of the Devil as it reveals itself to confused earthlings wondering where all this wickedness originates.
Dear humans, you won’t like the answer. Jagger begins with the trial of Jesus.
Please allow me to introduce myself,
I’m a man of wealth and taste.
I’ve been around for a long, long year,
Stole many a man’s soul and faith.
And I was ’round when Jesus Christ,
Had his moment of doubt and pain.
Made damn sure that Pilate,
Washed his hands and sealed his fate.
Jagger continues. Confusion is the Devil’s game. It’s the whole point. Why else, do you think, so many go to great lengths to mystify?
Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name,
But what’s puzzling you is the nature of my game.
Pointy Fingers
Then the Devil turns its eye toward the planet’s leaders and the self-made gods. But Jagger’s most damning line arrives when he turns a mirror toward the audience. Who’s responsible for all this turmoil? How about the Devil’s enablers? After all, it was you and me, Jagger sings.
He may be pointing fingers, but that’s exactly what you paid for.
I watched with glee while your kings and queens,
Fought for ten decades for the gods they made.
I shouted out, “Who killed the Kennedys?”
When, after all, it was you and me.
Photo by Mark Hayward Archive/Redferns