Sympathy for the Devil
Encyclopedia
"Sympathy for the Devil" is a song by The Rolling Stones
which first appeared as the opening track on the band's 1968 album Beggars Banquet
. It was written by Mick Jagger
credited to Jagger/Richards
. Rolling Stone magazine
placed it at #32 in their list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
.
.
In a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone
, Jagger said, "I think that was taken from an old idea of Baudelaire's, I think, but I could be wrong. Sometimes when I look at my Baudelaire books, I can't see it in there. But it was an idea I got from French writing. And I just took a couple of lines and expanded on it. I wrote it as sort of like a Bob Dylan
song." It was Richards who suggested changing the tempo and using additional percussion, turning the folk song into a samba
. Additionally, the song has some similarities to Mikhail Bulgakov
's novel The Master and Margarita
.
Jagger's philosophy of the devil states that "Just as every cop is a criminal/ and all your sinners saints."
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."
At the time of the release of Beggars Banquet the Rolling Stones had already raised some hackles for sexually forward lyrics such as "Let's Spend the Night Together
" and for allegedly dabbling in Satanism
(their previous album, while containing no direct Satanic references, had been titled Their Satanic Majesties Request
), and "Sympathy" brought these concerns to the fore, provoking media rumours and fears among some religious groups that The Rolling Stones were devil-worshippers and a corrupting influence on youth. The lyrics' focus, however, is on atrocities in the history of mankind, including the trial and death of Jesus Christ where "Pilate washed his hands and sealed his fate". Also, including European wars of religion ("I watched with glee while your kings and queens fought for ten decades for the Gods they made"), the violence of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the 1918 massacre of the Romanov
family ("I stuck around St. Petersburg when I saw it was a time for a change, killed the Tsar and his ministers — Anastasia
screamed in vain") and World War II ("I rode a tank, held a general's rank when the Blitzkrieg
raged and the bodies stank").
The lyrics also refer to the assassinations of John
and Robert Kennedy. 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?"
The song may have been spared further controversy when the first single from the album, "Street Fighting Man
", became even more controversial in view of the race riots
and student protests
occurring in many cities in the U.S.
on 4 June 1968 and continued into the next day; overdubs were done on 8, 9 and 10 June. Personnel included on the recording include Nicky Hopkins
on piano; Rocky Dijon on congas; Bill Wyman
on maracas.
It is often mentioned that Marianne Faithfull
, Anita Pallenberg
, Brian Jones
, Charlie Watts
, producer Jimmy Miller, Wyman and Richards performed backup vocals, singing the "WOO WOOS", repeatedly, as this can be seen in the film Sympathy for the Devil (see below) by Jean-Luc Godard
. In reality the backup 'whoo whoo' vocals were overdubbed at a later stage in Los Angeles by Richards, Jagger and Jimmy Miller. Richards plays bass on the original recording, and also the song's electric-guitar solo. Jones is seen playing an acoustic guitar in the film, but it is not audible in the finished mix.
Jagger sings the ending code in a high falsetto.
In the 2003 book According to the Rolling Stones, Charlie Watts said: "'Sympathy' was one of those sort of songs where we tried everything. The first time I ever heard the song was when Mick was playing it at the front door of a house I lived in in Sussex... He played it entirely on his own... and it was fantastic. We had a go at loads of different ways of playing it; in the end I just played a jazz Latin feel in the style of Kenny Clarke
would have played on 'A Night in Tunisia
' - not the actual rhythm he played, but the same styling."
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 (candomblé
). 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."
, Jagger 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 wasn't 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."
Of the change in public perception the band experienced after the song's release, Richards said in a 1971 interview with Rolling Stone, "Before, we were just innocent kids out for a good time, they're saying, 'They're evil, they're evil.' Oh, I'm evil, really? So that makes you start thinking about evil... What is evil? Half of it, I don't know how much people think of Mick as the devil or as just a good rock performer or what? There are black magicians who think we are acting as unknown agents of Lucifer and others who think we are Lucifer. Everybody's Lucifer."
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, Jagger commenting, "We're always having--something very funny happens when we start that number." Several other songs were performed before Hunter was killed.
After being omitted from the Rolling Stones' 1972/73 tours, "Sympathy for the Devil" was played occasionally as the encore in 1975/1976, and has been performed regularly on all of their tours since 1989. Concert renditions have been released on the albums The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
, Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!, Love You Live
, Flashpoint
and Shine a Light.
Prior to the opening bars of "Sympathy" on Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!, a female audience member pleads with Keith Richards to play "Paint it Black". She can be heard saying, 'Paint it black, paint it black you devil.'
The studio version has been featured on the Rolling Stones compilation albums Hot Rocks and Forty Licks
.
In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine placed the song at #32 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The fourth track, "A Good Idea at the Time", on American band OK Go
's 2005 album Oh No is a response to the song.
In Tropic Thunder
, the song is played during the scene following Tugg Speedman's departure from the group.
The song is played repeatedly during the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops
, including during an early mission when the player's squad is attempting to kill Fidel Castro, and during the end credits. The song's inclusion in the level is an anachronism, as the game is actually set several months before the song's release.
Sympathy for the Devil is also the title of a producer's edit of a 1968 film
by Jean-Luc Godard
whose own original version is called One Plus One. The film, a depiction of the late 1960s American counterculture, also featured the Rolling Stones in the process of recording the song in the studio. On the filming, Jagger said in Rolling Stone: "... [it was] very fortuitous, because Godard wanted to do a film of us in the studio. I mean, it would never happen now, to get someone as interesting as Godard. And stuffy. We just happened to be recording that song. We could have been recording 'My Obsession.' But it was 'Sympathy for the Devil,' and it became the track that we used."
, on her album Reviewing the Situation
(1969); Blood, Sweat & Tears
, whose version entitled "Symphony for the Devil" appeared on their third album
(1970); Bryan Ferry
, on his solo album These Foolish Things (1973); "Weird Al" Yankovic
on his Rolling Stones polka medley "The Hot Rocks Polka" (1989); and Jane's Addiction
, on their 1987 self-titled live debut album
(1987). The Jane's Addiction version was also featured on the soundtrack to the 1988 film Alien Nation
. In 1989, the Slovenian band Laibach
released an EP of seven different versions of the song
, interpreted as everything from a Wagnerian
symphony to a light techno number.
In 1990, Brazilian actress Claudia Ohana recorded the song as the main theme for her character Natasha in soap opera Vamp. The song went on to become one of the biggest hits of the year in that country.
Guns N' Roses
recorded a cover in 1994 which reached #55 on the Billboard Hot 100
; it was featured in the closing credits of Neil Jordan
's film adaptation of Anne Rice
's Interview with the Vampire
and was included on their Greatest Hits
album. This cover is notable for causing an incident within the group that was partially responsible for guitarist Slash
departing from the band in 1996. Slash has described the Guns N' Roses version of the song as "the sound of the band breaking up".
In 1996 Natalie Merchant
released the song as a bonus track on the commercial CD single of her single "Jealousy". The song was later quietly re-released as a bonus track on Merchant's 1999 re-release of Tigerlily
. The song is a fused version of two live recordings, one at The Meadows in Hartford, Connecticut and The Mid Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York.
At their 2000 Halloween Concert at UNO arena in New Orleans, Louisiana, Widespread Panic covered Sympathy for the Devil as their show opener. While not the first time they played the song, it was the 1st time since 1989 and 1497 shows since the last time played.
Pearl Jam
's concert renditions of "The Water Pouring Song" included an instrumental section of "Sympathy for the Devil". Bon Jovi
often covers it during the piano break in their concert performances of "Keep the Faith". A snippet of the song is often sung by Bono
along with "Ruby Tuesday
" during performances of "Bad
" at U2
concerts, for example at Live Aid
in London and in the concert film Rattle and Hum
. In 2005, Ozzy Osbourne
released a cover on his box set Prince of Darkness and the related Under Cover release.
The Swedish metal band Tiamat
covered the song on their album Skeleton Skeletron
, released in 1999.
Indie rock bands Band of Skulls
and John & Jehn
covered the song for the French TV show Taratata
broadcasted in March 2010.
In 2005, Cuban drummer and percussionist Horacio Hernandez
("El Negro") recorded a Latin Jazz version of the song, sung by Latin great Rubén Blades
.
Freedom Dub recorded a "Bossa 'n' Stones" version of "Sympathy for the Devil" that enjoyed much success in Italy thanks to airplay on Radio Monte Carlo's Nick the Nightfly program in the late 2000s.
The song was also sampled by My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult
in the track "The Devil Does Drugs" on their WaxTrax! EP release Some Have to Dance, Some Have to Kill (Wax 055).
In 1984, Marius Percali, Piero Fidelfatti, Raff Todesco, Sergio Bonzanni and George Aaron recorded italo version and released in Italy with their own songs as Time project (title: Prime Time, label: Fly Music – TPF 005/84).
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
which first appeared as the opening track on the band's 1968 album Beggars Banquet
Beggars Banquet
- Personnel :The Rolling Stones* Mick Jagger – lead and backing vocals, harmonica on "Parachute Woman"* Keith Richards – acoustic and electric guitar, bass guitar on "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Street Fighting Man", backing vocals, lead vocals on opening of "Salt of the Earth"* Brian...
. It was written by Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
credited to Jagger/Richards
Jagger/Richards
The songwriting partnership of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, known as Jagger/Richards , is a musical collaboration whose output has produced the majority of the catalogue of The Rolling Stones....
. Rolling Stone magazine
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
placed it at #32 in their list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" was the cover story of a special issue of Rolling Stone, issue number 963, published December 9, 2004, a year after the magazine published its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time"....
.
Inspiration
"Sympathy for the Devil" was written by singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards, though the song was largely a Jagger composition. The working title of the song was "The Devil Is My Name", and it is sung by Jagger as a first-person narrative from the point of view of LuciferLucifer
Traditionally, Lucifer is a name that in English generally refers to the devil or Satan before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer means "light-bearer"...
.
In a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, Jagger said, "I think that was taken from an old idea of Baudelaire's, I think, but I could be wrong. Sometimes when I look at my Baudelaire books, I can't see it in there. But it was an idea I got from French writing. And I just took a couple of lines and expanded on it. I wrote it as sort of like a Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
song." It was Richards who suggested changing the tempo and using additional percussion, turning the folk song into a samba
Samba
Samba is a Brazilian dance and musical genre originating in Bahia and with its roots in Brazil and Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions. It is recognized around the world as a symbol of Brazil and the Brazilian Carnival...
. Additionally, the song has some similarities to Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhaíl Afanásyevich Bulgákov was a Soviet Russian writer and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, which The Times of London has called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.-Biography:Mikhail Bulgakov was born on...
's novel The Master and Margarita
The Master and Margarita
The Master and Margarita is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, woven around the premise of a visit by the Devil to the fervently atheistic Soviet Union. Many critics consider the book to be one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, and one of the foremost Soviet satires, directed against a...
.
Jagger's philosophy of the devil states that "Just as every cop is a criminal/ and all your sinners saints."
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."
At the time of the release of Beggars Banquet the Rolling Stones had already raised some hackles for sexually forward lyrics such as "Let's Spend the Night Together
Let's Spend the Night Together
"Let's Spend the Night Together" is a song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and originally released as a single by The Rolling Stones in 1967...
" and for allegedly dabbling in Satanism
Satanism
Satanism is a group of religions that is composed of a diverse number of ideological and philosophical beliefs and social phenomena. Their shared feature include symbolic association with, admiration for the character of, and even veneration of Satan or similar rebellious, promethean, and...
(their previous album, while containing no direct Satanic references, had been titled Their Satanic Majesties Request
Their Satanic Majesties Request
Their Satanic Majesties Request is the sixth British and eighth American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released on 8 December 1967 by Decca Records in the United Kingdom and the following day in the United States by London Records...
), and "Sympathy" brought these concerns to the fore, provoking media rumours and fears among some religious groups that The Rolling Stones were devil-worshippers and a corrupting influence on youth. The lyrics' focus, however, is on atrocities in the history of mankind, including the trial and death of Jesus Christ where "Pilate washed his hands and sealed his fate". Also, including European wars of religion ("I watched with glee while your kings and queens fought for ten decades for the Gods they made"), the violence of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the 1918 massacre of the Romanov
Romanov
The House of Romanov was the second and last imperial dynasty to rule over Russia, reigning from 1613 until the February Revolution abolished the crown in 1917...
family ("I stuck around St. Petersburg when I saw it was a time for a change, killed the Tsar and his ministers — Anastasia
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia, and his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna....
screamed in vain") and World War II ("I rode a tank, held a general's rank when the Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg
For other uses of the word, see: Blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg is an anglicized word describing all-motorised force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power, concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken,...
raged and the bodies stank").
The lyrics also refer to the assassinations of John
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
and Robert Kennedy. 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?"
The song may have been spared further controversy when the first single from the album, "Street Fighting Man
Street Fighting Man
"Street Fighting Man" is a song by English rock and roll band The Rolling Stones featured on their 1968 album Beggars Banquet. Called the band's "most political song", Rolling Stone ranked the song #295 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.-Inspiration:Originally titled and recorded...
", became even more controversial in view of the race riots
Mass racial violence in the United States
Mass racial violence, also called race riots can include such disparate events as:* attacks on Irish Catholics, the Chinese and other immigrants in the 19th century....
and student protests
Protests of 1968
The protests of 1968 consisted of a worldwide series of protests, largely participated in by students and workers.-Background:Background speculations of overall causality vary about the political protests centering on the year 1968. Some argue that protests could be attributed to the social changes...
occurring in many cities in the U.S.
Recording
The recording of "Sympathy for the Devil" began at London's Olympic Sound StudiosOlympic Studios
Olympic Studios was a renowned independent commercial recording studio located at 117 Church Road, Barnes, South West London, England. The studio is best known for the huge number of famous rock and pop recordings made there from the late 1960s onward....
on 4 June 1968 and continued into the next day; overdubs were done on 8, 9 and 10 June. Personnel included on the recording include Nicky Hopkins
Nicky Hopkins
Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins was an English pianist and organist.He recorded and performed on noted British and American popular music recordings of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s as a session musician....
on piano; Rocky Dijon on congas; Bill Wyman
Bill Wyman
Bill Wyman is an English musician best known as the bass guitarist for the English rock and roll band the Rolling Stones from 1962 until 1992. Since 1997, he has recorded and toured with his own band, Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings...
on maracas.
It is often mentioned that Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Evelyn Faithfull is an award-winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned five decades....
, Anita Pallenberg
Anita Pallenberg
Anita Pallenberg is an Italian-born actress, model, and fashion designer. She was the romantic partner of Rolling Stones multi-instrumentalist and guitarist Brian Jones and later the partner of the guitarist of the same band Keith Richards, from 1967 to 1979, by whom she has two surviving...
, Brian Jones
Brian Jones
Lewis Brian Hopkins Jones , known as Brian Jones, was an English musician and a founding member of the Rolling Stones....
, Charlie Watts
Charlie Watts
Charles Robert "Charlie" Watts is an English drummer, best known as a member of The Rolling Stones. He is also the leader of a jazz band, a record producer, commercial artist, and horse breeder.-Early life:...
, producer Jimmy Miller, Wyman and Richards performed backup vocals, singing the "WOO WOOS", repeatedly, as this can be seen in the film Sympathy for the Devil (see below) by Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
. In reality the backup 'whoo whoo' vocals were overdubbed at a later stage in Los Angeles by Richards, Jagger and Jimmy Miller. Richards plays bass on the original recording, and also the song's electric-guitar solo. Jones is seen playing an acoustic guitar in the film, but it is not audible in the finished mix.
Jagger sings the ending code in a high falsetto.
In the 2003 book According to the Rolling Stones, Charlie Watts said: "'Sympathy' was one of those sort of songs where we tried everything. The first time I ever heard the song was when Mick was playing it at the front door of a house I lived in in Sussex... He played it entirely on his own... and it was fantastic. We had a go at loads of different ways of playing it; in the end I just played a jazz Latin feel in the style of Kenny Clarke
Kenny Clarke
Kenny Clarke , born Kenneth Spearman Clarke, nicknamed "Klook" and later known as Liaqat Ali Salaam, was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming...
would have played on 'A Night in Tunisia
A Night in Tunisia
"A Night in Tunisia" is a musical composition written by Dizzy Gillespie in 1942 while he was playing with the Earl Hines Band. It has become a jazz standard....
' - not the actual rhythm he played, but the same styling."
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 (candomblé
Candomblé
Candomblé is an African-originated or Afro-Brazilian religion, practised chiefly in Brazil by the "povo de santo" . It originated in the cities of Salvador, the capital of Bahia and Cachoeira, at the time one of the main commercial crossroads for the distribution of products and slave trade to...
). 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."
Aftermath
In an interview with CreemCreem
Creem , "America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine," was a monthly rock 'n' roll publication first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. It suspended production in 1989 but received a short-lived renaissance in the early 1990s as a glossy tabloid...
, Jagger 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 wasn't 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."
Of the change in public perception the band experienced after the song's release, Richards said in a 1971 interview with Rolling Stone, "Before, we were just innocent kids out for a good time, they're saying, 'They're evil, they're evil.' Oh, I'm evil, really? So that makes you start thinking about evil... What is evil? Half of it, I don't know how much people think of Mick as the devil or as just a good rock performer or what? There are black magicians who think we are acting as unknown agents of Lucifer and others who think we are Lucifer. Everybody's Lucifer."
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
Meredith Hunter
Meredith Curly Hunter was a male spectator at the Altamont Free Concert. During the performance by The Rolling Stones, Hunter pulled out a gun after being punched by a Hells Angel and was then stabbed to death by a Hells Angel serving as a security guard...
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, Jagger commenting, "We're always having--something very funny happens when we start that number." Several other songs were performed before Hunter was killed.
After being omitted from the Rolling Stones' 1972/73 tours, "Sympathy for the Devil" was played occasionally as the encore in 1975/1976, and has been performed regularly on all of their tours since 1989. Concert renditions have been released on the albums The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus (album)
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus is the fifth release of The Rolling Stones music by former manager Allen Klein's ABKCO Records after the band's departure from Decca and Klein...
, Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!, Love You Live
Love You Live
Love You Live is a double live album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1977. It is drawn from Tour of the Americas shows in the US in the summer of 1975, Tour of Europe shows in 1976 and performances from the infamous El Mocambo nightclub concert venue in Toronto in 1977...
, Flashpoint
Flashpoint (album)
Flashpoint is a live album by British rock band The Rolling Stones. It was released in 1991, having been recorded throughout 1989 and 1990 on the mammoth Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour...
and Shine a Light.
Prior to the opening bars of "Sympathy" on Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!, a female audience member pleads with Keith Richards to play "Paint it Black". She can be heard saying, 'Paint it black, paint it black you devil.'
The studio version has been featured on the Rolling Stones compilation albums Hot Rocks and Forty Licks
Forty Licks
Forty Licks is a double compilation album by The Rolling Stones. A 40-year career-spanning retrospective, Forty Licks is notable for being the first retrospective to combine the band's formative Decca/London era of the 1960s, now licensed by ABKCO Records , with their self-owned post-1970 material,...
.
In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine placed the song at #32 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The fourth track, "A Good Idea at the Time", on American band OK Go
OK Go
OK Go is a rock band originally from Chicago, Illinois, USA, now residing in Los Angeles, California, USA. The band is composed of Damian Kulash , Tim Nordwind , Dan Konopka and Andy Ross , who joined them in 2005, replacing Andy Duncan...
's 2005 album Oh No is a response to the song.
In Tropic Thunder
Tropic Thunder
Tropic Thunder is a 2008 American action satire comedy film written, produced, and directed by Ben Stiller, and starring Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr., and Jack Black. The main plot revolves around a group of prima donna actors who are making a Vietnam War film...
, the song is played during the scene following Tugg Speedman's departure from the group.
The song is played repeatedly during the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Call of Duty: Black Ops is a first-person shooter video game developed by Treyarch, published by Activision and released worldwide on November 9, for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii consoles, with a separate version for Nintendo DS developed by n-Space. Announced on April 30, 2010,...
, including during an early mission when the player's squad is attempting to kill Fidel Castro, and during the end credits. The song's inclusion in the level is an anachronism, as the game is actually set several months before the song's release.
1968 film
Sympathy for the Devil (film)
Sympathy for the Devil is a 1968 film shot mostly in color by director Jean-Luc Godard.- Plot summary :...
by Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
whose own original version is called One Plus One. The film, a depiction of the late 1960s American counterculture, also featured the Rolling Stones in the process of recording the song in the studio. On the filming, Jagger said in Rolling Stone: "... [it was] very fortuitous, because Godard wanted to do a film of us in the studio. I mean, it would never happen now, to get someone as interesting as Godard. And stuffy. We just happened to be recording that song. We could have been recording 'My Obsession.' But it was 'Sympathy for the Devil,' and it became the track that we used."
Notable cover versions
The song has been widely covered since its release, including renditions by Sandie ShawSandie Shaw
Sandie Shaw is an English pop singer, who was one of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s. In 1967 she was the first UK act to win the Eurovision Song Contest...
, on her album Reviewing the Situation
Reviewing the Situation
-Personnel:*Sandie Shaw - vocals*Geoff Peach- tenor sax, flute & vocals*Rodney Hill - guitar*Brent Pickthall - bass Guitar & backing vocals*Ian Wallace - drums...
(1969); Blood, Sweat & Tears
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Blood, Sweat & Tears is an American music group, originally formed in 1967 in New York City. Since its beginnings in 1967, the band has gone through numerous iterations with varying personnel and has encompassed a multitude of musical styles...
, whose version entitled "Symphony for the Devil" appeared on their third album
Blood, Sweat & Tears 3
Blood, Sweat & Tears 3 is the third album by the band Blood, Sweat & Tears, released in 1970.-History:After the huge success of their previous album, Blood, Sweat & Tears 3 was highly anticipated and it rose quickly to the top of the US album chart...
(1970); Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry, CBE is an English singer, musician, and songwriter. Ferry came to public prominence in the early 1970s as lead vocalist and principal songwriter with the band Roxy Music, who enjoyed a highly successful career with three number one albums and ten singles entering the top ten charts in...
, on his solo album These Foolish Things (1973); "Weird Al" Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
on his Rolling Stones polka medley "The Hot Rocks Polka" (1989); and Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction is an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985. The band's original line-up featured Perry Farrell , Dave Navarro , Eric Avery and Stephen Perkins . After breaking up in 1991, Jane's Addiction briefly reunited in 1997 and again in 2001, both times...
, on their 1987 self-titled live debut album
Jane's Addiction (album)
Jane's Addiction, also known as Triple-X or XXX by fans, is the debut album by the band Jane's Addiction. It was recorded live at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles on January 26, 1987. Overdubs were later recorded at The Edge studio in Los Angeles and added to the album mix. The audience track is...
(1987). The Jane's Addiction version was also featured on the soundtrack to the 1988 film Alien Nation
Alien Nation (film)
Alien Nation is a 1988 American science fiction film directed by Graham Baker and produced by Gale Anne Hurd, Richard Kobritz and Bill Borden. The storyline was based on a screenplay written by Rockne S. O'Bannon. It stars James Caan, Mandy Patinkin, Terence Stamp, and Kevyn Major Howard...
. In 1989, the Slovenian band Laibach
Laibach (band)
Laibach is a Slovenian avant-garde music group associated with industrial, martial, and neo-classical musical styles. Laibach formed June 1, 1980 in Trbovlje, Slovenia . Laibach represents the music wing of the Neue Slowenische Kunst art collective, of which it was a founding member in 1984...
released an EP of seven different versions of the song
Sympathy for the Devil (EP)
Sympathy for the Devil is an EP by Laibach and follows on from their Beatles cover album Let It Be. Sympathy for the Devil features seven cover versions of the Rolling Stones song "Sympathy for the Devil" and one original Laibach track...
, interpreted as everything from a Wagnerian
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
symphony to a light techno number.
In 1990, Brazilian actress Claudia Ohana recorded the song as the main theme for her character Natasha in soap opera Vamp. The song went on to become one of the biggest hits of the year in that country.
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
recorded a cover in 1994 which reached #55 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
; it was featured in the closing credits of Neil Jordan
Neil Jordan
Neil Patrick Jordan is an Irish filmmaker and novelist. He won an Academy Award for The Crying Game.- Early life :...
's film adaptation of Anne Rice
Anne Rice
Anne Rice is a best-selling Southern American author of metaphysical gothic fiction, Christian literature and erotica from New Orleans, Louisiana. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history...
's Interview with the Vampire
Interview with the Vampire
Interview with the Vampire is a vampire novel by Anne Rice written in 1973 and published in 1976. It was the first novel to feature the enigmatic vampire Lestat, and was followed by several sequels, collectively known as The Vampire Chronicles...
and was included on their Greatest Hits
Greatest Hits (Guns N' Roses album)
-Notes:*"Ain't It Fun" was censored for the compilation: "Ain't it fun when you tell her she's just a cunt" became "Ain't it fun when you tell her she's just a–", with guitar notes at 3:36 instead of the final word in the line. This version had never been officially released before, but had...
album. This cover is notable for causing an incident within the group that was partially responsible for guitarist Slash
Slash (musician)
Saul Hudson , known by his stage name Slash, is a British-American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During his later years with Guns N'...
departing from the band in 1996. Slash has described the Guns N' Roses version of the song as "the sound of the band breaking up".
In 1996 Natalie Merchant
Natalie Merchant
Natalie Anne Merchant is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She joined the alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 and left it to begin her solo career in 1993.-Early life:...
released the song as a bonus track on the commercial CD single of her single "Jealousy". The song was later quietly re-released as a bonus track on Merchant's 1999 re-release of Tigerlily
Tigerlily
Tigerlily is an album written, produced, and performed by Natalie Merchant, released on June 20, 1995 . It is her first solo album after splitting from the 10,000 Maniacs...
. The song is a fused version of two live recordings, one at The Meadows in Hartford, Connecticut and The Mid Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York.
At their 2000 Halloween Concert at UNO arena in New Orleans, Louisiana, Widespread Panic covered Sympathy for the Devil as their show opener. While not the first time they played the song, it was the 1st time since 1989 and 1497 shows since the last time played.
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
's concert renditions of "The Water Pouring Song" included an instrumental section of "Sympathy for the Devil". Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi is an American rock band from Sayreville, New Jersey. Formed in 1983, Bon Jovi consists of lead singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi , guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, as well as current bassist Hugh McDonald...
often covers it during the piano break in their concert performances of "Keep the Faith". A snippet of the song is often sung by Bono
Bono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
along with "Ruby Tuesday
Ruby Tuesday (song)
"Ruby Tuesday" is a song recorded by The Rolling Stones in 1966, released in January 1967. The song, coupled with "Let's Spend the Night Together", was a number-one hit in the United States and reached number three in the United Kingdom....
" during performances of "Bad
Bad (U2 song)
"Bad" is a song by rock band U2 and the seventh track from their 1984 album, The Unforgettable Fire. A song about heroin addiction, it is considered a fan favourite, and is one of U2's most frequently performed songs in concert....
" at U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
concerts, for example at Live Aid
Live Aid
Live Aid was a dual-venue concert that was held on 13 July 1985. The event was organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for relief of the ongoing Ethiopian famine. Billed as the "global jukebox", the event was held simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom ...
in London and in the concert film Rattle and Hum
Rattle and Hum
Rattle and Hum is the sixth studio album by rock band U2 and companion rockumentary directed by Phil Joanou, both released in 1988. The film and the album feature live recordings, covers, and new songs...
. In 2005, Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is an English vocalist, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, whose radically different, intentionally dark, harder sound helped spawn the heavy metal...
released a cover on his box set Prince of Darkness and the related Under Cover release.
The Swedish metal band Tiamat
Tiamat (band)
-Biography:Initially, the band played straightforward black metal under the name Treblinka. After having recorded the album Sumerian Cry in 1989, vocalist/guitarist Johan Edlund and bassist Jörgen Thullberg parted ways with the other two founding members, and subsequently changed the name to Tiamat...
covered the song on their album Skeleton Skeletron
Skeleton Skeletron
Skeleton Skeletron is the 1999 album release by Swedish band Tiamat.Following A Deeper Kind of Slumber, the band took a less ambiguous direction to their style, utilizing a Gothic metal-based sound but with various atmospheric soundscapes/effects and female background vocals added in."Church of...
, released in 1999.
Indie rock bands Band of Skulls
Band of Skulls
Band of Skulls is an alternative rock band from Southampton, England, consisting of Russell Marsden , Emma Richardson , and Matt Hayward...
and John & Jehn
John & Jehn
John & Jehn are a Lo-fi indie rock duo from France in which John and Jehn are respectively Nicolas Congé and Camille Berthomier.- History :...
covered the song for the French TV show Taratata
Taratata
Taratata is a French TV show showcasing live and pre-recorded footage of current rock acts. Presented by Nagui since its début in 1993, the show was initially shown on France 2. This show often involves surprise and unlikely duets, as well as brief interviews with the artists...
broadcasted in March 2010.
In 2005, Cuban drummer and percussionist Horacio Hernandez
Horacio Hernandez
Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez is a renowned Cuban drummer and percussionist."El Negro" is a gifted musician who represents a new generation of great players following in the footsteps of countrymen Arturo Sandoval, Paquito D'Rivera, Ignacio Berroa, and others. Hernandez plays on the cutting edge of...
("El Negro") recorded a Latin Jazz version of the song, sung by Latin great Rubén Blades
Rubén Blades
Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna is a Panamanian salsa singer, songwriter, lawyer, actor, Latin jazz musician, and politician, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz genres...
.
Freedom Dub recorded a "Bossa 'n' Stones" version of "Sympathy for the Devil" that enjoyed much success in Italy thanks to airplay on Radio Monte Carlo's Nick the Nightfly program in the late 2000s.
The song was also sampled by My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult is an American electronic industrial rock band originally based out of Chicago, Illinois.-History:...
in the track "The Devil Does Drugs" on their WaxTrax! EP release Some Have to Dance, Some Have to Kill (Wax 055).
In 1984, Marius Percali, Piero Fidelfatti, Raff Todesco, Sergio Bonzanni and George Aaron recorded italo version and released in Italy with their own songs as Time project (title: Prime Time, label: Fly Music – TPF 005/84).
Personnel
- Mick Jagger – lead and backup vocals
- Keith Richards – electric guitar, bass guitar, backup vocals
- Brian Jones – acoustic guitar (not audible in final mix), backup vocals
- Bill Wyman – maracas, backup vocals
- Charlie Watts – drums, percussion, backup vocals
- Nicky Hopkins – piano
- Rocky Dijon – congas
- Jimmy Miller – backup vocals
- Anita Pallenberg – backup vocals
- Marianne Faithfull – backup vocals