The Stones holding up a big mirror & asking "Are you really going to blame ME for your shit? Your dark desires, your love of violence, your banal venal thieving ratbastardy? Look in the mirror. This is all on you, do not use me as a fig leaf - I did not force you to do these things, you CHOSE to do them." Still gives chills after all these years.
Exactly Right..... this entire song is about the hypocrisy of man I've been dumbfounded for so long in nearly everyone's inability to actually see the truth....to think Your reference to Dr. King's quote was nail on the head Kudos to you sir
AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!!! A "reactor" who caught it. The ENTIRE MESSAGE of this song is given right at the end with the line, "I tell you one time, you're to blame." The devil is asking for some sympathy because we always blame our misdeeds on HIM. And he's just saying, have some sympathy for me, because I'm always your scapegoat when in reality YOU'RE TO BLAME. Many other people I've watched react to this song NEVER mention or seem to catch that last line. They're usually bobbing their heads to the beat or closing their eyes in an attempt to show how "into" the song they are. But you caught that line and even stopped the video to mention it. Bravo! This song is very simple and EASY to understand. By the way, the Tsar Nicholas II and his entire family were killed in the Russian Revolution in 1918. Anastasia was the youngest daughter of Nicholas and was killed with the rest of her family in 1918. She was only 17. Hence the reference to her screaming in vain. Many of the younger "reactors" probably don't know anything about who she was or understand the screaming in vain line. That's sad.
About the Kennedy's, it was "you and me" throughout history. Lucifer was only allowed by God to tempt man to do evil, but man was the one acting the evil out.
@@gingerbaker_toad696if you subtract god and the devil you are left with enticemen, incitement, temptation, lust, seduction, sedition, wanton greed, and wild ambition. If these things are not beyond one’s experience then have some sympathy. Otherwise, we shouldn’t judge or think we understand.
The way I always understood this is, I (Lucifer) may put the idea in your head, but it’s ultimately you (humans) who makes the decision to choose evil. Yet, everyone blames the devil. So, have some sympathy because it’s not he who actually did it. I heard a great quote from a Muslim cleric that summed it up well. “I wanted to ask God why he would allow so much hunger and war and poverty, but I was afraid he would ask me the same question.”
Anastasia was the daughter of Czar Nikolai II. She and the rest of the family were murdered in the basement of their mansion in Ekaterinburg Russia. The mansion was ordered to be torn down, but 2 officers loved the family and save the wall where the bullets which passed through their bodies entered. In 1998 the Cathedral of the Blood was being built in honor of the family and all saints in Russia. It was completed in 2003 and that very wall was placed in a special room on the right side of the main altar in the upper church. How do I know? I did a historical photo documentary of this event.
Thank you. That was the best analogy of Sympathy that I've seen, and I've seen a lot of them. I love the menace in the music. The "woo woos" is actually based on the sound that an owl, a creature of the night, makes. Lucifer, as Mick portrays him, is a cocksure, arrogant creature who relishes the fact that he's being blamed for the evil of others. He takes joy in the hypocrisy of it all. It's truly a classic song.
I remember when this came out and I was in college and the mainstream reaction was "The Stones are evil and depraved; they want you to have sympathy for the Devil." And I didn't think about the lyrics much at the time, except to think "Cool, anti-establishment!" About 20 years ago, I actually listened to all the lyrics and put together what I think the Stones were saying, which is very similar to your interpretation. I would add that I think they are also saying to have sympathy (love) for even your worst enemy, that which you think is most evil. It's an absolutely brilliant song, both musically and lyrically, and I'm astounded at the depth of understanding and the universal themes it depicts. I've never seen your channel before, and only selected it this time to see if what you had to say matched my interpretation. Thanks for covering a very different and illuminating aspect of pop culture.
Because, we all stood helplessly as his head was flowd on live TV. My father was an on duty officer that day in ‘63 in Dallas. Two years Bfore I’m born, but I’m forever linked to it!!
I don't know who wrote this song, Mick, or one of the other members of the Stones, but it is deep and you're the only reactor who's really tried to interpret the lyrics, and you sound spot on
I have been admiring this song since the release of 'Begger's Banquet' in 1968. I was at college then, studying philosophy, particularly the dialectical idealism of GWF Hegel, whose basic Notion is that Absolute Spirit manifests itself through history by the power of the negative. 'Sympathy for the Devil' is multi leveled in how it expresses its portrayal of negativity as the devil. Your insightful comments about human hypocrisy uncover the first level. Still, the question posed by the statement, "what's puzzlin' you is the nature of my game," remains unanswered. I have been watching every reaction to this 'bathroom wall' version on UA-cam, and have developed an answer to that question, but you are the first reactor I have seen with a sophisticated enough understanding to be able to grasp it. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to put my thoughts out there. Hegel's philosophy is called 'dialectical' in the sense that in the development of 'the Notion', the Absolute Idea ( which churchy people call God) categories are transformed into their opposites. History is driven forward through the process of good things leading to bad things leading to new things, with the whole process one of progression towards the ultimate real existence ( not just an idealistic dream) of what he calls the Ideal State, which churchy people call 'Heaven on Earth'. This is accomplished through "the Cunning of Reason", whereby the logic of Spirit (the dialectic) transforms the disaster of History, which he refers to as the 'slaughter bench of the Absolute Spirit.' Hegel was a Christian theologian and this portrayal of the devil would be congruent with his view of the function of the Negative in history. The 'nature of the game' is that the Logic of History transforms everything into the absolution of the Absolute. It is theodicy, the justification of evil which is required by the concept of an omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent Deity. Let me be clear, the Church of Hegel's time would have had a few problems with Hegel's metaphysics, which is basically pantheistic, whereas Church doctrine demands absolute separation of humanity from God, which then necessitates the need for 'salvation.' He escaped heresy charges mostly by describing his ideas using lots of big words and complicated syntax, combined with saying the G word at appropriate times. In fact Hegel's God is under construction. That process is called History. What's puzzling us is how Negativity fits into the equation. That's what 'Sympathy for the Devil' is about. Maybe you should redo your reaction video to incorporate this perspective. Think about it...🤯🥳🤓
I never understood how nobody ever gets the best line ever written in a song " I watched in glee while your kings and queens fought for ten decades for the gods THEY made"....... The devil watching us destroy ourselves for believing in, or not believing in certain gods that that they believe in!!!! What kind of god would want you to kill others that don't believe in him???
The song is based on the Soviet novel The Master and Margarita. Part of the plot is the Devil retelling history from his point of view. His main point was, he never needed to commit acts of evil himself, but just give man a nudge. By sympathy, Jagger doesn't mean empathy, from Merrium's "an affinity, association, or relationship between persons or things wherein whatever affects one similarly affects the other."
I think "Kings and Queens who fought for ten decades for the Gods they made" is a reference to the Hundred Years War between England and France during the Middle Ages.
As a nice young hip hop fan commenter summed it up: 'Yeah, the devil is out there doing evil things, but he's the devil. He's supposed to be there. What are you doing right there with him holding the bag? Or the gun? And often as not you can't even tell who he is and that you're running around doing stuff with him and for him and instead of him. So what the devil is sayin is own up to your own failings, cut him some slack, and quit blaming him. He's out there as a punishment, the hell are you out there for? '
At last, someone who listens to the words! He needs our sympathy because he is in all of us, the Romanovs, Lee Harvey Oswald, the criminals, you and me. Without the devil how would we know what good is? Good reaction ☝☝☝ to this song, so many of the reactors on UA-cam don't have the first idea of what this is about. Probably one of the best lyrics of all time. You forgot to mention Keiths blistering guitar solo! Not sure what to make of the Union Jack, but then Im Scottish!!
@z0n0ph0ne You covered most of the bases in your post, and then some!! Thanks for the kind words, sorry about the Union Jack, and glad you appreciate the lyrics as much as I do!
@@thinkingtheology Great reaction and actual understanding of the lyrics. No need to aplogise for the Union Jack. The Scots had a referendum to vote on whether to stay in the UK or not. They voted to stay...
I think the line "Because after all, it was you and me" (that killed the Kennedys) is saying the devil cannot let loose an arrow himself; he needs mankind to do his work for him. But beware, he is not without power over one man, even if helpless against mankind together.
I've heard that Mick wrote this song after reading The Master and Margherita by Mikhail Bulgakov but I've yet to actually read it. I've read that the Devil comes to Earth in the form of a man in that book. I believe it was written earlier in the century in what was then the Soviet Union. I need to check it out.
@@rachelpsmith3129 I read this book a couple years ago, prompted by a similar comment left on a reaction to this song. Definitely worth checking it out and some of the background behind it. Enjoy.
EXCELENT REACTION, BROTHER!. I think your dead on the money with your thoughts on this song. What lyrics. Thanks for that. Shoutout from Gatlinburg Tennessee. Peace. Later.
One of my favorite Stones songs. This and Paint it Black. A LOT of the music from the 60s and 70s was about social issues, hypocrisy, bigotry. We wanted to change the world - make it better. Listen to Southern Man - I forget if it is Crosby, Stills & Nash or if it is Neil Young’s. Young also did the searing “Ohio” about the Kent State massacre. Eight Miles High (kind of a “why waste money on space?”) by the Byrds. “Satisfaction” is another good Stones song about materialism. There are so MANY good songs from that era - songs that did more than “boy loves girl.”
I also appreciated his appreciation of the song. I was 12 years old (1968j, when the stones released beggars. My mom, matriarch of a catholic family, would intercept my music, and it was either thumbs up or thumbs down. She took away “Tommy” album (Who) after reading liner lyrics. She never had a problem with this song, because she understood that stones were just relating a different way of looking at the evil in the world. Plus, it’s just a good song, musically, and my mom got that part. One of my top five stones songs. Never tire of listening to it.
Don't blame evil on Satan; blame evil on us. What is my name? It is humanity. Have some sympathy because otherwise humanity is eternally damned. It is only in having sympathy can you be forgiven. It might be the greatest rock song ever written.
Greatest rock song ever written. Sidenote about the Kennedy's; the lyrics had to be altered to Kennedy's plural cuz Bobby was murdered in the weeks between the writing and the recording. The sixties/early seventies were flat-out fucking crazy.
I'm from Georgia, the U.S. not Europe. I remember the very moment in vacation Bible school when I heard the story of Abraham. I'm not kidding, i was 10 and I could not believe that God would ask his faithful to kill his own child and then at last moment say "just testing you". I went home and asked my Dad what kind of God does this? He shook his head and I never went to church again. As an adult, I read the Bible, how could I reject something I never read? When I heard this song, I thought, in the parlance of the day, Right on, Mick.
hey, I don't know you and I don't really dip into theology, but witnessing your epiphany of the meaning under the song prompts me to suggest to you to watch the 1968 movie "Bedazzled." [not the 2000 remake]. It's a satirical farce with Dudley Moore and Peter Cook about a man who befriends "The Horned One" for a time while realizing his dreams in exchange for his soul. behind the outright comedy is an alternative look at the theology around the Devil from the perspective of relationships with god and man.
You got it, "hypocrisy" - Mick's point is that there is no devil, it's all you and me... we are the makers of our own undoing - "as heads is tails, just call me Lucifer"
St petersburg was called leningrad not formerly moscow and i think the czar was alexader the third and his daughter was never found anastasia although recently 2 unknown childrens bodies have been discovered believed to be anastasia and her brother
Bear in mind that the lyrics of the song are based upon the novel Master & Margarita by the Soviet author Bulgakov, released in the West in English translation for the first time in the mid 1960s.
What gets me is that Lucifer's message is "I never once _made_ any of you do what you did. So stop trying to pretend that _you're_ not the bad guy." But of course, he says that right after spending the entire song doing _the exact same thing._
I think you really need to know a little history to truly appreciate this song. He's basically describing a lot of horrible events in history that he the devil influenced, but he couldn't have done it without willing people!
+1 on the "complicit" comments. The Russian Tsar's family was slaughtered, including poor young Anastasia. I've always found that lyric particularly chilling.
All the events mentioned are politically motivated. It is from their most political album Beggar's Banquet ( Street Fighting Man, Prodigal Son, Salt Of The Earth)
You grabbed onto the line *show some sympathy* as the kernal of the meaning, but for me it's in the lines right before that - As heads is tails call me Lucifer, implying that God and Lucifer are one and the same, or interchangeable, or that both are equally to blame for all that preceeded. Can you guess my name? The Devil does not seem to be a legitimate guess if The Devil is in the title of the song. In the Judeo Christian tradition it is God who expects worship and obedience, and it is God who will lay your soul to waste if He does not get it, as He did to Lucifer, so have some sympathy.
Remember the opening line "I'm a MAN of wealth and taste", this is about mankind doing bad things and shifting the blame. Inventing a scape goat to go with all the Gods we've invented. It's too hard to look in the mirror so it can't be OUR fault it must've been the boogeyman. The other line about "Kings and Queens fighting for ten decades for the Gods they made".
when he says You he's speaking to humankind. The devil didn't commit all the atrocities he lists, regular people did. Some encouraged or coaxed by politicians (men of wealth and taste) but ultimately it's us
"Nature of my game" is to get us to stay rebellious towards our Creator (because our Creator 'is really a tyrant') -- to reverse God's created moral order....as he boasts "...every cop is a criminal, and all the sinners saints... as heads is tails, just call me Lucifer..."
This song was written after Mick Jagger read the book The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov. A very good read in my opinion. The story concerns a visit by the devil and his entourage to the officially atheistic Soviet Union. The devil, manifested as one Professor Woland, challenges the Soviet citizens' beliefs towards religion and condemns their behavior throughout the book. The Master and Margarita combines supernatural elements with satirical dark comedy and Christian philosophy, defying categorization within a single genre. It exhibits autobiographical elements, but is also dominated by many aspects of fiction. Many critics consider it to be one of the best novels of the 20th century, as well as the foremost of Soviet satires.
If you look closely at the lyrics here, you may come to realize that this song is NOT about the Devil. 🎶🎶Just as every cop is a criminal🎶🎶 🎶🎶And all the sinners saints🎶🎶 🎶🎶As heads is tails🎶🎶 [THESE ARE CONTRADICTIONS] 🎶🎶Just call me Lucifer"🎶🎶 [SO IS THIS] If a cop is to a criminal, as a sinner is to a saint, and as heads is to tails, then it follows that Lucifer is to "God". 🎶🎶Hope you guess my name!🎶🎶 The protagonist in this song is God. "So if you meet me have some Courtesy have some Sympathy and some Taste" Ingenious lyrics.👍
YES!!!! Mick Jagger is a genius. There is no such thing as the Devil He is an imagined embodiment of evil.. The evil lurks in normal everyday people without any involvement of some mythical evil being.
The devil is basically saying of all the sins he has done, man is not that innocent either, man has conspired with me, and has done far worse things, so please have some sympathy on me...
This says it pretty clearly: your kings and queens Fought for ten decades For the gods they made So it's saying God is made up and further: 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 What's the opposite of Lucifer? God. People commit all kinds of atrocities in the name of their God.
I interpret “sympathy” for the Devil, as every bad act in the history of mankind was done by humans. Humans created the “Devil” as someone/something to blame for all these bad events when it was just down to humans. That’s my view anyway
It's not just your view either......it's the meaning of the song, in a nutshell. One should certainly have sympathy for someone being blamed for bad things when that someone can't possibly be to blame because they don't even exist!
Lucifer needs some understanding, some sympathy, because the Devil acts as the Devil is, he can't help his nature, he is as god made him. The Angels don't have free will remember. And people are complicit, that's correct, you hit the nail on the head.
The Stones holding up a big mirror & asking "Are you really going to blame ME for your shit? Your dark desires, your love of violence, your banal venal thieving ratbastardy? Look in the mirror. This is all on you, do not use me as a fig leaf - I did not force you to do these things, you CHOSE to do them."
Still gives chills after all these years.
Very well said.👍
You put it perfectly and far better than I ever could so thanks! 🙋♂
Exactly Right..... this entire song is about the hypocrisy of man
I've been dumbfounded for so long in nearly everyone's inability to actually see the truth....to think
Your reference to Dr. King's quote was nail on the head
Kudos to you sir
But at the same time, he wants those people to admit they've indulged in that very thing. Love it.
Damn what a way to put it lol anyone can understand this
AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!!! A "reactor" who caught it. The ENTIRE MESSAGE of this song is given right at the end with the line, "I tell you one time, you're to blame." The devil is asking for some sympathy because we always blame our misdeeds on HIM. And he's just saying, have some sympathy for me, because I'm always your scapegoat when in reality YOU'RE TO BLAME. Many other people I've watched react to this song NEVER mention or seem to catch that last line. They're usually bobbing their heads to the beat or closing their eyes in an attempt to show how "into" the song they are. But you caught that line and even stopped the video to mention it. Bravo! This song is very simple and EASY to understand. By the way, the Tsar Nicholas II and his entire family were killed in the Russian Revolution in 1918. Anastasia was the youngest daughter of Nicholas and was killed with the rest of her family in 1918. She was only 17. Hence the reference to her screaming in vain. Many of the younger "reactors" probably don't know anything about who she was or understand the screaming in vain line. That's sad.
They only know her from the The Disney flick. They don't understand the history. Our education fails our children.
About the Kennedy's, it was "you and me" throughout history. Lucifer was only allowed by God to tempt man to do evil, but man was the one acting the evil out.
Now take god and the devil out of the picture...
@@gingerbaker_toad696 If you do not that, which I also believe is in fact the case, "the devil made me do it" holds no water
Today his name is Qanon. MAGA Qanon, the orange puppet, and Mr. Putin and his Oligarch Ministers of Death, Destruction, Pain, and evil criminal greed.
@@gingerbaker_toad696if you subtract god and the devil you are left with enticemen, incitement, temptation, lust, seduction, sedition, wanton greed, and wild ambition.
If these things are not beyond one’s experience then have some sympathy. Otherwise, we shouldn’t judge or think we understand.
@@ed.z. if you take them away you have humans. ...
The way I always understood this is, I (Lucifer) may put the idea in your head, but it’s ultimately you (humans) who makes the decision to choose evil. Yet, everyone blames the devil. So, have some sympathy because it’s not he who actually did it.
I heard a great quote from a Muslim cleric that summed it up well. “I wanted to ask God why he would allow so much hunger and war and poverty, but I was afraid he would ask me the same question.”
We can only blame ourselves, however, the devil is extremely clever at suggestion.
Anastasia was the daughter of Czar Nikolai II. She and the rest of the family were murdered in the basement of their mansion in Ekaterinburg Russia. The mansion was ordered to be torn down, but 2 officers loved the family and save the wall where the bullets which passed through their bodies entered. In 1998 the Cathedral of the Blood was being built in honor of the family and all saints in Russia. It was completed in 2003 and that very wall was placed in a special room on the right side of the main altar in the upper church. How do I know? I did a historical photo documentary of this event.
Yes know the story but great share. Thank you.
Knowing the story of the Russian revolution is a requirement in school all over the world...
Americans don't get tought this?
Late to the party, but you are the only reviewer that really gets this song. It's right there in the lyrics. Bravo
@tomas347 Thanks for the kind words, and welcome to the party!
Thank you. That was the best analogy of Sympathy that I've seen, and I've seen a lot of them. I love the menace in the music. The "woo woos" is actually based on the sound that an owl, a creature of the night, makes. Lucifer, as Mick portrays him, is a cocksure, arrogant creature who relishes the fact that he's being blamed for the evil of others. He takes joy in the hypocrisy of it all. It's truly a classic song.
I remember when this came out and I was in college and the mainstream reaction was "The Stones are evil and depraved; they want you to have sympathy for the Devil." And I didn't think about the lyrics much at the time, except to think "Cool, anti-establishment!" About 20 years ago, I actually listened to all the lyrics and put together what I think the Stones were saying, which is very similar to your interpretation. I would add that I think they are also saying to have sympathy (love) for even your worst enemy, that which you think is most evil. It's an absolutely brilliant song, both musically and lyrically, and I'm astounded at the depth of understanding and the universal themes it depicts. I've never seen your channel before, and only selected it this time to see if what you had to say matched my interpretation. Thanks for covering a very different and illuminating aspect of pop culture.
At 7:35, that's the lightbulb moment!
You absolutely nailed it. You couldn't be more right! I've heard this song for 50 plus years and am just now really hearing it. A masterpiece.
Well done! Not only are we to blame, but he's "in need of some restraint", which we're not providing.
Because, we all stood helplessly as his head was flowd on live TV. My father was an on duty officer that day in ‘63 in Dallas. Two years Bfore I’m born, but I’m forever linked to it!!
I don't know who wrote this song, Mick, or one of the other members of the Stones, but it is deep and you're the only reactor who's really tried to interpret the lyrics, and you sound spot on
The song was co-written by Mick and Keith, with more of the lyrics by Mick where Keith strongly influenced the instrumental direction taken.
There are so many reactors who have interpreted this song already.
@@steveullrich7737Yeah, and most reactors completely missed it.
I have been admiring this song since the release of 'Begger's Banquet' in 1968. I was at college then, studying philosophy, particularly the dialectical idealism of GWF Hegel, whose basic Notion is that Absolute Spirit manifests itself through history by the power of the negative.
'Sympathy for the Devil' is multi leveled in how it expresses its portrayal of negativity as the devil. Your insightful comments about human hypocrisy uncover the first level. Still, the question posed by the statement, "what's puzzlin' you is the nature of my game," remains unanswered. I have been watching every reaction to this 'bathroom wall' version on UA-cam, and have developed an answer to that question, but you are the first reactor I have seen with a sophisticated enough understanding to be able to grasp it. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to put my thoughts out there.
Hegel's philosophy is called 'dialectical' in the sense that in the development of 'the Notion', the Absolute Idea ( which churchy people call God) categories are transformed into their opposites. History is driven forward through the process of good things leading to bad things leading to new things, with the whole process one of progression towards the ultimate real existence ( not just an idealistic dream) of what he calls the Ideal State, which churchy people call 'Heaven on Earth'. This is accomplished through "the Cunning of Reason", whereby the logic of Spirit (the dialectic) transforms the disaster of History, which he refers to as the 'slaughter bench of the Absolute Spirit.' Hegel was a Christian theologian and this portrayal of the devil would be congruent with his view of the function of the Negative in history. The 'nature of the game' is that the Logic of History transforms everything into the absolution of the Absolute. It is theodicy, the justification of evil which is required by the concept of an omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent Deity. Let me be clear, the Church of Hegel's time would have had a few problems with Hegel's metaphysics, which is basically pantheistic, whereas Church doctrine demands absolute separation of humanity from God, which then necessitates the need for 'salvation.' He escaped heresy charges mostly by describing his ideas using lots of big words and complicated syntax, combined with saying the G word at appropriate times. In fact Hegel's God is under construction. That process is called History. What's puzzling us is how Negativity fits into the equation. That's what 'Sympathy for the Devil' is about. Maybe you should redo your reaction video to incorporate this perspective. Think about it...🤯🥳🤓
“But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?”
― Mark Twain
I never understood how nobody ever gets the best line ever written in a song " I watched in glee while your kings and queens fought for ten decades for the gods THEY made"....... The devil watching us destroy ourselves for believing in, or not believing in certain gods that that they believe in!!!! What kind of god would want you to kill others that don't believe in him???
one of my favorite quotes is from Mark Twain, "nothing needs reform like other peoples bad habits"
The song is based on the Soviet novel The Master and Margarita. Part of the plot is the Devil retelling history from his point of view. His main point was, he never needed to commit acts of evil himself, but just give man a nudge. By sympathy, Jagger doesn't mean empathy, from Merrium's "an affinity, association, or relationship between persons or things wherein whatever affects one similarly affects the other."
I think "Kings and Queens who fought for ten decades for the Gods they made" is a reference to the Hundred Years War between England and France during the Middle Ages.
And you're damn right. Guess you're not from the usa since you know some history
Canadian. Yourself?@@alexdart8508
As a nice young hip hop fan commenter summed it up: 'Yeah, the devil is out there doing evil things, but he's the devil. He's supposed to be there. What are you doing right there with him holding the bag? Or the gun? And often as not you can't even tell who he is and that you're running around doing stuff with him and for him and instead of him. So what the devil is sayin is own up to your own failings, cut him some slack, and quit blaming him. He's out there as a punishment, the hell are you out there for? '
I think you got it quite right. And I believe it´s Keith Richards who plays both bass and solo guitar on this recording.
Hmm. Just stumbled into this "other" channel of yours. I'm intrigued. Might have to watch some old stuff and see if we have anything to argue about. 😇
@KevinRCarr There's always something to argue about. Ha!!
I've missed that line "you're to blame" too. OMG, I think you are right--hypocrisy!!!!
@deniseburney5543 It only took me 40 years to get it, assuming that's even the right interpretation!!
I’ll tell you one time….
Yep
Great line
What a great reaction! Thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. Thank you ☺
@Rosie-il3on Thank you for the post and kinds words--I'm glad you enjoyed it, Rosie!
Great analysis 🧐
Im 50 & never caught that last line either
Loved this ♥️
At last, someone who listens to the words!
He needs our sympathy because he is in all of us, the Romanovs, Lee Harvey Oswald, the criminals, you and me.
Without the devil how would we know what good is?
Good reaction ☝☝☝ to this song, so many of the reactors on UA-cam don't have the first idea of what this is about.
Probably one of the best lyrics of all time.
You forgot to mention Keiths blistering guitar solo!
Not sure what to make of the Union Jack, but then Im Scottish!!
@z0n0ph0ne You covered most of the bases in your post, and then some!! Thanks for the kind words, sorry about the Union Jack, and glad you appreciate the lyrics as much as I do!
@@thinkingtheology Great reaction and actual understanding of the lyrics. No need to aplogise for the Union Jack. The Scots had a referendum to vote on whether to stay in the UK or not. They voted to stay...
I think the line "Because after all, it was you and me" (that killed the Kennedys) is saying the devil cannot let loose an arrow himself; he needs mankind to do his work for him. But beware, he is not without power over one man, even if helpless against mankind together.
This one peels the top of my head back when I think about it too hard! LOL. Brilliant song.
@dantallman5345 Same thing happens to me, and I've heard it a thousand times!
I've heard that Mick wrote this song after reading The Master and Margherita by Mikhail Bulgakov but I've yet to actually read it. I've read that the Devil comes to Earth in the form of a man in that book. I believe it was written earlier in the century in what was then the Soviet Union. I need to check it out.
@@rachelpsmith3129 I read this book a couple years ago, prompted by a similar comment left on a reaction to this song. Definitely worth checking it out and some of the background behind it. Enjoy.
Best gospel song ever! 🜏
This might be the most well written rock song of all time. I’ve never really listened to all the lyrics before, it’s chilling.
EXCELENT REACTION, BROTHER!. I think your dead on the money with your thoughts on this song. What lyrics. Thanks for that. Shoutout from Gatlinburg Tennessee. Peace. Later.
One of my favorite Stones songs. This and Paint it Black.
A LOT of the music from the 60s and 70s was about social issues, hypocrisy, bigotry. We wanted to change the world - make it better.
Listen to Southern Man - I forget if it is Crosby, Stills & Nash or if it is Neil Young’s. Young also did the searing “Ohio” about the Kent State massacre.
Eight Miles High (kind of a “why waste money on space?”) by the Byrds.
“Satisfaction” is another good Stones song about materialism. There are so MANY good songs from that era - songs that did more than “boy loves girl.”
I also appreciated his appreciation of the song. I was 12 years old (1968j, when the stones released beggars. My mom, matriarch of a catholic family, would intercept my music, and it was either thumbs up or thumbs down. She took away “Tommy” album (Who) after reading liner lyrics. She never had a problem with this song, because she understood that stones were just relating a different way of looking at the evil in the world. Plus, it’s just a good song, musically, and my mom got that part. One of my top five stones songs. Never tire of listening to it.
Don't blame evil on Satan; blame evil on us. What is my name? It is humanity. Have some sympathy because otherwise humanity is eternally damned. It is only in having sympathy can you be forgiven.
It might be the greatest rock song ever written.
These guys are gonna be HUGE mark my words
Greatest rock song ever written.
Sidenote about the Kennedy's; the lyrics had to be altered to Kennedy's plural cuz Bobby was murdered in the weeks between the writing and the recording.
The sixties/early seventies were flat-out fucking crazy.
Best reaction I've heard on this song! Thanks...take care
@rickwestic746 Thank you for the post and kind words, Rick!
You are very astute and good with this reaction. Well done. Brilliant song.
outstanding review!
I'm from Georgia, the U.S. not Europe. I remember the very moment in vacation Bible school when I heard the story of Abraham. I'm not kidding, i was 10 and I could not believe that God would ask his faithful to kill his own child and then at last moment say "just testing you".
I went home and asked my Dad what kind of God does this?
He shook his head and I never went to church again. As an adult, I read the Bible, how could I reject something I never read?
When I heard this song, I thought, in the parlance of the day, Right on, Mick.
hey, I don't know you and I don't really dip into theology, but witnessing your epiphany of the meaning under the song prompts me to suggest to you to watch the 1968 movie "Bedazzled." [not the 2000 remake]. It's a satirical farce with Dudley Moore and Peter Cook about a man who befriends "The Horned One" for a time while realizing his dreams in exchange for his soul. behind the outright comedy is an alternative look at the theology around the Devil from the perspective of relationships with god and man.
Every time something good happens people say it’s God’s will, when something bad happens it’s the Devil’s fault. Let’s face it it’s all you and me.
mick had just read bulgokov's novel 'the master and margarita' ... satan visits stalin's moscow, and he remembers pilate's jerusalem... oh yeah...
You got it, "hypocrisy" - Mick's point is that there is no devil, it's all you and me... we are the makers of our own undoing - "as heads is tails, just call me Lucifer"
Margarita. Art inspiring art. Brilliance
St petersburg was called leningrad not formerly moscow and i think the czar was alexader the third and his daughter was never found anastasia although recently 2 unknown childrens bodies have been discovered believed to be anastasia and her brother
Ol' Scratch is saying quit using me as the fall guy for all the evils mankind does.
Bear in mind that the lyrics of the song are based upon the novel Master & Margarita by the Soviet author Bulgakov, released in the West in English translation for the first time in the mid 1960s.
Do you take requests for songs to analyze? I would love to see your take on Queen’s “The Prophet’s Song”, written by the guitarist Brian May.
I loved your analysis.
Read “The Master and Margarita” by Bulgakov
You should listen then to the song called “ Dancing with Mr. D.” And “Midnight rambler” Gimmie Shelter By The Rolling Stones
At the end he sneaks in on line ‘you’re to blame’.
YES! We are just like him.
Throughout our dark history, we were only too happy to be complicit in carrying out Lucifer's will on earth...
What gets me is that Lucifer's message is "I never once _made_ any of you do what you did. So stop trying to pretend that _you're_ not the bad guy." But of course, he says that right after spending the entire song doing _the exact same thing._
I think "it was you and me" was a reference to free will.
I think you really need to know a little history to truly appreciate this song. He's basically describing a lot of horrible events in history that he the devil influenced, but he couldn't have done it without willing people!
+1 on the "complicit" comments. The Russian Tsar's family was slaughtered, including poor young Anastasia. I've always found that lyric particularly chilling.
An introspective man,indeed! U gotta turn a harsh lens on yourself to get this song.
All the events mentioned are politically motivated. It is from their most political album Beggar's Banquet ( Street Fighting Man, Prodigal Son, Salt Of The Earth)
There is a lot of truth in the lyrics.
Comes down " devil made me do it ", or did he?!!
I took it that the devil couldn't do any of those evil without our help
The devil has no power except the power of god freely given to him by the hand of man
That's Keith on the Bass
You grabbed onto the line *show some sympathy* as the kernal of the meaning, but for me it's in the lines right before that - As heads is tails call me Lucifer, implying that God and Lucifer are one and the same, or interchangeable, or that both are equally to blame for all that preceeded. Can you guess my name? The Devil does not seem to be a legitimate guess if The Devil is in the title of the song. In the Judeo Christian tradition it is God who expects worship and obedience, and it is God who will lay your soul to waste if He does not get it, as He did to Lucifer, so have some sympathy.
When JFK was assinated, although the Republicans had nothing to do with it, during the funeral procession there were no tears on their cheeks.
I dunno, if anyone was on the Grassy Knoll it was an FBI guy.
In the song the devil ask for sympathy, but in the facts and the real, we like him already...
Remember the opening line "I'm a MAN of wealth and taste", this is about mankind doing bad things and shifting the blame. Inventing a scape goat to go with all the Gods we've invented. It's too hard to look in the mirror so it can't be OUR fault it must've been the boogeyman. The other line about "Kings and Queens fighting for ten decades for the Gods they made".
Check out the very recent Sweet Sounds of Heaven by a same band.
The song is basically how we blame some made up devil for the evil we do ourselves.
when he says You he's speaking to humankind. The devil didn't commit all the atrocities he lists, regular people did. Some encouraged or coaxed by politicians (men of wealth and taste) but ultimately it's us
"Nature of my game" is to get us to stay rebellious towards our Creator (because our Creator 'is really a tyrant') -- to reverse God's created moral order....as he boasts "...every cop is a criminal, and all the sinners saints... as heads is tails, just call me Lucifer..."
This song was written after Mick Jagger read the book The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov. A very good read in my opinion. The story concerns a visit by the devil and his entourage to the officially atheistic Soviet Union. The devil, manifested as one Professor Woland, challenges the Soviet citizens' beliefs towards religion and condemns their behavior throughout the book. The Master and Margarita combines supernatural elements with satirical dark comedy and Christian philosophy, defying categorization within a single genre. It exhibits autobiographical elements, but is also dominated by many aspects of fiction. Many critics consider it to be one of the best novels of the 20th century, as well as the foremost of Soviet satires.
I guess it's the only song with Politesse on the lyrics
awesome reaction
If you look closely at the lyrics here, you may come to realize that this song is NOT about the Devil.
🎶🎶Just as every cop is a criminal🎶🎶
🎶🎶And all the sinners saints🎶🎶
🎶🎶As heads is tails🎶🎶
[THESE ARE CONTRADICTIONS]
🎶🎶Just call me Lucifer"🎶🎶
[SO IS THIS]
If a cop is to a criminal, as a sinner is to a saint, and as heads is to tails, then it follows that Lucifer is to "God".
🎶🎶Hope you guess my name!🎶🎶
The protagonist in this song is God.
"So if you meet me
have some Courtesy
have some Sympathy
and some Taste"
Ingenious lyrics.👍
Boom! You got it.
YES!!!! Mick Jagger is a genius. There is no such thing as the Devil He is an imagined embodiment of evil.. The evil lurks in normal everyday people without any involvement of some mythical evil being.
he says call me lucifer to give him some restraint...lucifer was an angel....also ansastasia didnt have the happy ending you think
Keith on bass!
Not only is the devil not whispering in your ear, God is letting all this evil happen.
We have met the enemy and he is us
The devil is basically saying of all the sins he has done, man is not that innocent either, man has conspired with me, and has done far worse things, so please have some sympathy on me...
This says it pretty clearly:
your kings and queens
Fought for ten decades
For the gods they made
So it's saying God is made up and further:
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
What's the opposite of Lucifer? God. People commit all kinds of atrocities in the name of their God.
Spot on.
The Devil is a tool of human desire. Sympathy for the Devil is for the burden of carrying out those desires.
Lucifer is our way to explain our evils, if he exists all he has to do is sit back and watch us the Human Race
I interpret “sympathy” for the Devil, as every bad act in the history of mankind was done by humans. Humans created the “Devil” as someone/something to blame for all these bad events when it was just down to humans. That’s my view anyway
It's not just your view either......it's the meaning of the song, in a nutshell. One should certainly have sympathy for someone being blamed for bad things when that someone can't possibly be to blame because they don't even exist!
Lucifer needs some understanding, some sympathy, because the Devil acts as the Devil is, he can't help his nature, he is as god made him. The Angels don't have free will remember. And people are complicit, that's correct, you hit the nail on the head.
there can be no good without bad, what would you compare it too ... HAKAD
How about Evil .Eternal battle of Good vEvil .
the longer you fight evil the easier it is to become... HAKAD@@CliveAdlam-yn8uz
No god no devil just man.
this song always gave me a Rumpelstiltskin vibe...and we killed the Kennedy's because of the fame we gave them
If you don't have sympathy for the Devil, you end up just like Him!
he's busy in our govt.
Jou cant blame Lucifer...becouse Lucifer and Jesus are one and the same...both called the " morningstar "!
The devil made me do it.
Sympathy for the devil because that could be you cast out from Heaven..
Who's your daddy? What's my name?