Sympathy for the Devil

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Sympathy for the Devil is a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones . It was released in 1968 on the studio album Beggars Banquet and is considered one of the band's most outstanding pieces. It was listed at number 32 of the 500 greatest songs of all time by Rolling Stone in 2004 and number 3 of the 100 greatest Rolling Stones songs in 2013 .

Emergence

Sympathy for the Devil was made during several days of recording studio recording sessions for the Rolling Stones in June 1968 at Olympic Studios in London . The band came into the studio without preparation and developed the piece of music improvisationally over the course of the sessions . The work in one piece began with a song text by singer Mick Jagger under the working title The Devil Is My Name . Jagger had written this text under the impression of the novel The Master and Margarita by the Russian writer Michail Bulgakow ; a book he had received from his partner Marianne Faithfull . In Bulgakov's novel, the devil pays a visit to Moscow in the 1930s, in the course of which he kills two people or drives them mad. Another part of the book deals with the role of Pontius Pilate during the last days of Jesus of Nazareth .

During the studio recording of the Rolling Stones and the filming of Jean-Luc Godard , a fire broke out in the Olympic Studios, caused by hot movie lights. All those present were able to flee from the burning studio , but the band's studio equipment and musical instruments were destroyed in the fire and the fire brigade's work . The Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman and the also present Jimmy Miller , producer of the rock band Traffic , which is recording in the same studio complex , were able to save the tapes with the recordings of Sympathy for the Devil . André Hagedorn lists the song in 1990 in his book It's Only Rock'n'Roll - The Rolling Stones as the 123rd published recording and the band's 119th studio song .

Music and lyrics

In the lyrics of the song written by Jagger, the devil tells, after he has formally introduced himself to the listener, of his being and his presence at key historical events. He was there when Jesus Christ doubted and suffered and he made sure that Pontius Pilate sealed his fate. He was also involved in the Russian October Revolution and was responsible for the murder of the tsarist family . During the Second World War he was active as a tank general in the Blitzkrieg . Finally, the devil asks the question who murdered “the Kennedys” and answers it himself with the consideration “after all it was you and me” ( “ actually it was you and me”). In early versions of the text, only the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy was mentioned; after his brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy , was also murdered on June 6, 1968 , the Rolling Stones changed this line of text accordingly.

The devil describes himself in the play as a man of wealth and taste. What a mystery ( puzzling ) be on him, was just his nature ( the nature of my game , see. Pellets ). Finally, he asks his counterpart to politeness ( courtesy ), compassion ( sympathy ) and taste ( taste ) and threatens with his devastating for the human soul power.

The song assigns human characteristics to the devil, whom it conjures up in an ecstatic samba rhythm (cf. Exorcism ) and whose embodiment Mick Jagger appears here: He wants to be treated as a kind of man of the world and a gentleman among gentlemen. After all, the core message is that there is a devil in everyone. The samba rhythm arose from a suggestion by Jimmy Miller.

What is striking is the restrained instrumentation of the over six-minute song, which begins with hand drums , inarticulate human sounds and maracas , followed by vocals, electric bass and piano (played by Nicky Hopkins ). The basic key of Sympathy for the Devil is E major. The harmony sequence of the song verses is E major, D major, A major, E major, that of the refrain ( Pleased to meet you, ... ) in B major and E major alternately. Through the rhythms and sounds of the piece of music, which "can be associated with indigenous cultures", the devil is "placed in context with the 'uncivilized'". Finally, the bass supports and completes the rhythmic-harmonic basis. The intensity is increased by the beginning of the choir, which repeats the “Ooo-whoo” that characterizes the piece of music until the end. The highlight is the succinctly phrased guitar solo Keith Richards , whose playing then accompanies the end of the piece in alternation with Jagger's voice. However, the piano always remains the leading element and only changes the position of the chords for dramatization. The instrumentation thus differs significantly from other pieces by the band at the time, which were more guitar-heavy.

Reception and effect

Sympathy for the Devil is one of the classics in the Rolling Stones repertoire as well as rock music. The piece was released in 1974 in Great Britain as a single in a shortened version. The US music magazine Rolling Stone chose the song in 2004 at number 32 on its list of the 500 best songs of all time . The development of the song was captured by film director Jean-Luc Godard in his socially critical film One Plus One , which shows the Rolling Stones at work in the studio. Godard intended to contrast the emergence of Sympathy for the Devil as a metaphor for growth with other, socially critical film recordings. After the premiere under the title One Plus One , the film was renamed Sympathy for the Devil .

Jagger's depiction of the devil in the lyrics and the demand for sympathy for him long influenced the reputation of the Rolling Stones. Rumors circulated among fans of the band about possible satanic tendencies of the musicians. These rumors peaked in 1969 with the deaths at the Altamont Free Concert . In front of the Rolling Stones stage, Meredith Hunter was killed in a knife fight and it was often claimed that the band was playing Sympathy for the Devil at the time. In fact, she played the song Under My Thumb . Although some fans turned away from the band's music as a result, Marianne Faithfull, who was friends with Jagger, described the song in her autobiography as "Satanism made of paper mache". Jagger denied suspicions of Satanism and black magic .

Even today the song has potential for controversy, as censorship measures of the BPjM show. The piece was not included in the cut German version of the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops from 2010.

occupation

  • Mick Jagger - vocals and choral singing
  • Keith Richards - electric bass, electric guitar, choral singing
  • Nicky Hopkins - piano
  • Bill Wyman - maracas, choral singing
  • Charlie Watts - drums
  • Rocky Dijon - Congas
  • Brian Jones , Anita Pallenberg , Marianne Faithfull , Jimmy Miller - choral singing

Cover versions

  • Blood, Sweat & Tears created a mini symphony based on the model of the Rolling Stones, which was published in 1970 on their album 3 .
  • Bryan Ferry released a version of Sympathy for the Devil on his solo album These Foolish Things in 1973 .
  • Lindra Kendrick published a version with choir and orchestral accompaniment in 1974.
  • Udo Lindenberg sang a German version of the song under the title Sympathie für den Teufel on his album Lindenbergs Rock Revue in 1978.
  • In 1979 the Austrian singer Peter Schleicher published a cover in the Viennese dialect under the title Der Teufel In Euch (album: Hart auf Hart )
  • The Slovenian band Laibach released a cover version as a 7 "and 12" single in 1988 and an album in 1990 entitled Sympathy for the Devil , which consists exclusively of different (also multilingual) self-interpreted versions of the song.
  • From 1993 there is an unplugged version of the song from a recording of a concert by the band Jane's Addiction .
  • A cover version of the play by Guns N 'Roses accompanies the credits of the film Interview with a Vampire (1995).
  • In the best-of album Rainbirds entitled The Mercury Years a cover was added as the last song to be published without first on another album by the band.
  • The guitar solo, played by trumpets, can be heard in Robbie Williams ' song Let Me Entertain You (1998).
  • Another cover version appeared in 1999 on the EP Brighter than the Sun and in a slightly longer version on the album Skeleton Skeletron by the Swedish band Tiamat .
  • The King released a cover version in the style of Elvis Presley on his CD Return to Splendor in 2000 .
  • The Hawaiian singer-songwriter Gail Swanson published a version orchestrated with a flute (2000) on her album Standing on the Bridge .
  • The band Death SS released a cover on their album Humanomalies in 2002 .
  • A country version of the song was released by The Twang in 2003 on the Countryfication album.
  • In September 2003 two remix versions (one radio remix and full length remix each ) of The Neptunes , Fatboy Slim and Full Phat were released . They were published in various combinations, sometimes with the original version, on maxi CDs and records .
  • A version of the song can also be found on Ozzy Osbourne's album Under Cover (2005) .
  • In 1994 (in Germany 2006) the London Symphony Orchestra , known for its artistically innovative implementations, released the CD Symphonic Rolling Stones together with other artists , on which the interpretation of the title by the tenor Jerry Hadley can be found.
  • A modern Gregorian version appeared in 2010 by the Gregorian vocal group .
  • Motörhead recorded a cover version for their album Bad Magic in 2015 .

literature

  • Steve Appleford: The Rolling Stones - Rip This Joint. The story of each song (title of the original edition: The Rolling Stones. It's Only Rock 'N' Roll ). Rockbuch-Verlag, Schlüchtern 2002, ISBN 3-927638-11-0 .
  • Stephen Davis: The Stones . Europa Verlag, Hamburg 2002. ISBN 3-203-76075-4 .
  • Albert Kümmel-Schnur (Ed.): Sympathy for the devil . Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn, 2009 ( collection of essays on 40 years of Sympathy for the Devil ), ISBN 978-3-7705-4798-2 .

Web links

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  1. ^ "Sympathy for the Devil" (1968) - 100 Greatest Rolling Stones Songs. In: rollingstone.com. Retrieved July 31, 2015 .
  2. ↑ a b Appleford: Rip This Joint, pp. 71 ff.
  3. ↑ a b Davis: The Stones, p. 292.
  4. ^ Davis: The Stones , p. 295.
  5. ^ Davis: The Stones , p. 294.
  6. ↑ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/rolling-stones-producer-jimmy-miller-15-things-you-didnt-know-630234/ (01.03.2019)
  7. ^ Eva-Maria Hanser: Ideotopie . Playing with the ideology and utopia of 'Laibach art'. Vienna 2010, p. 31–34 ( univie.ac.at [PDF; accessed on September 14, 2011]).
  8. ↑ Sympathy for the Devil in Rolling Stone's list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time .
  9. ^ Davis: The Stones , p. 296.
  10. ↑ Michael Moynihan , Didrik Søderlind: Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground . Venice, CA: Feral House 1998, p. 3.
  11. ↑ Quoted in Appleford: Rip This Joint, p. 72.
  12. ↑ Announcement of the censorship measures in Germany for Call of Duty: Black Ops .
  13. ↑ Untitled Document ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 6, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.emersonlakepalmer.de
  14. ^ Sympathy For the Devil Remix (search results). Discogs , accessed August 10, 2014 .