The Devil in the Details

Contorting on stage while loud blaring sounds ring throughout stadiums is actually one of the most effective ways the horrors of humanity have ever been articulated to the public if you can believe that.

Sympathy for the Devil finds infamy through many things, but the most glaring is seemingly the idea that no one really seems to look towards the lyrics as important. Quite frankly, if The Rolling Stones released a song in 1968 praising the devil, not many people would think twice about the truth of the sentiment. In an article from Insidehook.com by Bonnie Stiernberg [Revisiting the 15 Most Controversial Rolling Stones Songs, a list with simultaneously no research in parts and too much in others] the idea of the song was summed up pretty perfectly: ¨Much like how Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” frequently gets misinterpreted as a patriotic song, there were plenty of people who heard “Sympathy for the Devil” in 1968 and assumed it meant the Rolling Stones were worshiping Satan. Of course, it’s actually about all the horrors human beings inflict upon each other and the ways in which we’re more demonic than any mythical fallen angel,¨. Most important line here finds a home with ¨all the horrors human beings inflict upon each other and the way in which we're more demonic than any mythical fallen angel¨ which perfectly encapsulates the power of the song.

The comparison with Springsteen for once holds merit, as any excuse to call towards people's inability to listen as opposed to hear and use Vietnam protests songs as an example is right up my alley. I would prefer to use Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival as an example instead, though. Many people hear the line ¨Some

folks are born to wave the flag/ they´re red, white, and blue¨ and mistake John Fogerty´s biting commentary of rich privilege and patriotism for real patriotism. If people listened to the lyrics directly following the verse they would find the lines ¨It ain't me/ I ain't no Senator's son/ I ain't no fortunate one¨, showcasing our protagonist is not born to wave the flag, nor red, white, and blue, as he is not the one's he criticizes. Since many have issues with critical thinking and listening, the song has become an anthem for something it fights completely against. The song clocks in at under two and half minutes yet is so often misinterpreted by people who don't care to listen. In the same way people wave their flags and scream with patriotism at Bruce Springsteen shamefully stating he was ¨born in the USA¨, they took a song about the horrors of humanity and made it about the very thing the song proves it could never be.

Sympathy for the Devil was written primarily by Mick Jagger, lyric wise. Of all the Stones, he was the most conscientious of the changing world around him, protesting and oftentimes articulating thoughts brought to light by the counterculture in a way others could understand. While many could disagree with hippies and flower children, no one could disagree with a young man politely expressing that his generation needs to have its own voice. He used his platform and ability to communicate to lend a voice to people who were ignored. With the song in question he made the communication more intricate, letting people find their own answers instead of dumbing it down to them. For once, he was begging others to listen to him instead of speaking to them, not dumbing himself down to be who the public wanted him to be.

Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long, long years
Stole million man's soul an 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

Noteable in the first verse is the idea that the figure has been around as long as man, and taken his innocence. Innocence isn't as much taken as it is lost. Original sin was created because of that idea: nobody took that innocence, it was lost to time. The other lines here follow the same idea, with the idea of Jesus being most interesting to analyze. In the book The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis the human side of Christ is actually examined, as if he is half man and half god, he has the same pitfalls as any man ever had. The book, and subsequent movie [that was met with the same reactions as this song], introduce a story in which when Jesus is presented with the opportunity to not die on the cross and to live a long life with loved ones he takes it. He is tempted by normalcy, and by the end of his story realizes his mistakes and pleads with God to let him die on the cross to save everyone from their sins. Looking at the song in perspective of Jesus such as the one presented in Last Temptation allows us to look into the meaning of the line, that in that moment Jesus doubted his role and felt the pain, it was because of his humanity.

Stuck around St. Petersburg
When I saw it was a time for a change
Killed Tsar and his ministers
Anastasia screamed in vain

Once more, the verse details issues of humanity. The second there requires a change, death the way in which it happens, more often than not the death is inflicted by another human. And the most biting here: vanity, one of the seven deadly sins and yet rarely discussed as the only sin that can only find a real tie to humans.

I rode a tank
Held a general's rank
When the blitzkrieg raged
And the bodies stank

An obvious allusion to World War II, this line relates to the idea of war mongers. While many in the present time and when the song was written would agree that many soldiers are not at fault for the atrocities being asked to carry out and that most blame that doesn't fall on the government falls on those who rank higher. I think the 1987 film Casualties of War is a perfect representation of this, as it deals with lower ranking soldiers being forced into submission by their superiors. I´d even go as far to say that JoJo Rabbit [2019 Waititi] attests to the idea as well, that many soldiers are cogs in a machine they were forced into by the government. The line ¨I held a general's rank when the blitzkrieg raged¨ seems to attest to the evil that is possessed by these people who are genuine about their status in the war, that the idea of freedom only comes after bloodlust.

I watched with glee
While your kings and queens
Fought for ten decades
For the gods they made

One of the greatest lines ever written finds itself here. The idea that humans falsify gods is nothing new, but the way it is so slyly reported here almost mocks how easily and often it is shuffled under the rug by people. It follows a lot of the idea that Paul Simon was grasping in The Sound of Silence, which precedes this song by about a year. This line shares the same idea as the line “And the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made”. The songs were written around the time when the switch from religion to "work-ism" as the higher power of choice for American culture. The song isn’t supposed to take a religious meaning, the lines point to people being lost without being told what their higher power is, and ultimately falsifying gods just to give themself that solace of a guiding hand, regardless of how that guiding hand came to be, that the idea of working was a placebo for the people who had a hard time functioning in a non-religion driven society. This line also holds the whole idea of the song in center of it, that idea that humans will come up with any outrageous and irrational reason to justify the pain they inflict on each other. While kings and queens fight in the name of gods, humanity as a whole takes it´s sins and applies them to a creature that could never be capable of so much evil as a single entity.

I shouted out
Who killed the Kennedys?
When after all
It was you and me

The most startling line in the song by far, as the Kennedys´ death was still revered as an opened wound for many. What this does the best though is bring the realism back to the forefront of the song. While many can brush off the rest of the song as ¨coincidences¨, even as they clearly aren´t and were very explicitly hand picked moments in history, this is something no one could deny was flat out human evil. Both Kennedys´ were killed out of hatred of change, both killed by people who wanted to inflict pain and suffering. The thing about the Kennedy murders is that they were a changing point in how people viewed their world. There was no coincidence in the deaths, no accidents, they were shot and killed on purpose. It was the realism of human evil manifesting itself for the 20th century. There's a difference between learning about Lincoln and experiencing the shift in a nation in real time.

Let me please introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
And I laid traps for troubadours
Who get killed before they reached Bombay

There is no set idea of what was referred to here, but there is a theory of what Jagger could have meant. At a point in the late 60s, there was the ¨hippie trail¨ in which hippies traveled by foot in India, and in which many people were killed. This is more acutely tied to ¨the present¨ than all of the things referred to in the first half of the song, connecting to people that humans are still just as terrible as they've always been. With the changing times brought about through the 60s, and especially in the later half, it was easier for some to claim a biblical reasoning to the insane things that were happening. As the song proves, it's always just been people.

Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners saints
If 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, mm yeah

The first two lines in this stanza refer to the idea that even ¨good¨ people are in the wrong, because no one is exempt from the evils of man. The rest follows the idea that to meet Lucifer, you must speak to him like you speak to every other man who has inflicted terror and pain. Going back to the first two lines, sinners and cops are two people you are taught to respect, but as stated, they're just as bad as everyone else. The ending line, ¨Use your well-learned politesse, or I'll lay your soul to waste¨ drives this point home. In every example given throughout the song, there was a person who, the second they deemed they weren't respected, committed an atrocity. When not greeted as a god, they turned into the very thing they would go onto blame their crimes for.

The title of the song even calls back to the biblical texts and history scattered throughout the verses. Sympathy for humans is always something people want to believe in, so the song´s title echoes that sentiment, in its own way. Sympathy for the Devil is one of the smartest songs ever written. It's one that´s intelligence is layered, and that you have to listen to to understand. I think that's ultimately the point: digging into something until you find it´s truth, but until that point letting it be framed as nothing more than the work of the devil.

The Rolling Stones perfomring Sympathy for the Devil in the year of it's release