| The Rolling Stones – Sympathy for the Devil Lyrics | 3 months ago |
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To me, the key challenge in the song is the identity of the speaker. “What’s my name?” Years ago I watched the film of the same name, which followed the Stones as they developed and finally recorded the song. As I watched each iteration of the recording in the movie, I went from the obvious answer that the speaker is the Devil, to a totally different interpretation. As he recounts all the horrible things that have been done in the Devil’s name, he says “as Heads is Tails just call me Lucifer.” But Heads isn’t Tails! To me he’s saying, let’s blame all the shit in the world on Lucifer. But it’s NOT Lucifer, it’s US! “When after all, it was YOU AND ME!” It’s PEOPLE who do these terrible things. But we blame it on Lucifer. Also, he shouts out, “who killed the Kennedy’s.” Then, “after all, it was YOU AND ME.” Listen to the outro of the song: “I’ll tell you one time—YOU’RE TO BLAME!” And I believe that’s why the title is SYMPATHY for the devil. Why sympathy? Because we blame ALL the evil and shit on him, when it’s really WE who cause all this pain and suffering. This is how I see this song, and it’s an absolute masterpiece! |
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