Sympathy for the Devil
| "Sympathy for the Devil" | ||||||||
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German cover to 1973 single release
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| Song by The Rolling Stones from the album Beggars Banquet | ||||||||
| Released | February 1969 (Japan) October 1973 (continental Europe) |
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| Recorded | 4–5 and 8–10 June 1968 at Olympic Studios, London | |||||||
| Genre | Rock | |||||||
| Length | 6:18 | |||||||
| Label | Decca, London | |||||||
| Writer(s) | Jagger/Richards | |||||||
| Producer(s) | Jimmy Miller | |||||||
| Beggars Banquet track listing | ||||||||
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| 10 tracks |
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| "Sympathy for the Devil Remix" | ||||
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| Single by The Rolling Stones | ||||
| Released | 16 September 2003 | |||
| Recorded | March – June 1968 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 38:24 | |||
| Label | ABKCO | |||
| Producer(s) | Jellybean Benitez, The Neptunes, Fatboy Slim, Full Phatt | |||
| The Rolling Stones singles chronology | ||||
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| "Sympathy for the Devil" | ||||
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| Single by Guns N' Roses | ||||
| from the album Interview with the Vampire soundtrack | ||||
| B-side | "Escape to Paris" (by Elliot Goldenthal) | |||
| Released | 13 December 1994 (US) January 1995 (UK) |
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| Recorded | October 1994 | |||
| Genre | Hard rock, heavy metal | |||
| Length | 7:36 | |||
| Label | Geffen | |||
| Producer(s) | Guns N' Roses, Mike Clink, Matthias Gohl | |||
| Guns N' Roses singles chronology | ||||
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"Sympathy for the Devil" is a song by The Rolling Stones, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Sung by Jagger, the song is an ironic homage to The Devil, written in the first-person narrative from his point of view, recounting atrocities committed throughout the history of humanity. It is performed in a rock arrangement with a samba rhythm. It first appeared as the opening track on their 1968 album Beggars Banquet. Rolling Stone magazine placed it at No. 32 in their list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
"Sympathy for the Devil" was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, though the song was largely a Jagger composition. The working title of the song was "The Devil Is My Name", having earlier been called "Fallen Angels", and it is sung by Jagger as a first-person narrative from the point of view of The Devil, recounting his control over the events of human existence.
In the 2012 documentary Crossfire Hurricane, Jagger stated that his influence for the song came from Baudelaire and from the Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita (which had just appeared in English translation in 1967). The book was given to him by Marianne Faithfull.
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.
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Wikipedia