Sympathy for the Devil

I think this song is sung in the point of view of the Devil, and is saying to stop blaming the Devil for everything bad. There are alot of references, including the crucifixion of Jesus, world war 2, and the assasination of John F. Kennedy. But who crucified Jesus? Man. Who started WWII? Man. What killed J.F.K? Man. This song is saying that the Devil didn't cause these things, he just "watched" while man did all the work. That's why this song is called "Sympathy for the Devil". It isn't saying to really have sympathy for him, it is saying that maybe we should stop blaming him for all bad things, and maybe start taking a look at ourselves

The song taunts us over and over with "What's my name?" even after the narrator tell us to just call him Lucifer.

His name is God. Not Lucifer, not Satan, but God. I used to think this verse was just bad grammar:

 As heads is tales
 Just call me Lucifer

But the anwer is right there--cop is to criminal as God is to Lucifer.

God in a bad mood is Satan. God in a bad mood lays our souls to waste:

 Just call me Lucifer,
 Cause I'm in need of some restraint.

God in a good mood plays games with us:

 What's puzzling you
 Is the nature of my game.

 What's confusing you
 Is just the nature of my game.

What a masterful song!

It's not Lucifer speaking in this song, it's God.

Just as every cop is a criminal And all the sinners saints As heads is tails

This song is saying that God is the real devil. It's a maltheistic song.

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, um yeah

It's telling you to worship this evil totalitarian or you will suffer. The title "Sympathy for the Devil" is because people generally worship God and sympathize with him despite monstrous deeds. "Devil" is not a literal term.

I don't actually believe God is this, just what I think the song is saying. I don't agree with it, but this is what I think it's saying

I think the meaning of this song is pretty obvious. This is clearly not a Satanic song. It's a cautionary tale.

Evil is everywhere. It's a constant. Those who try to just go along with everything and ignore the fact that evil exists and do nothing about it are going to be consumed by the devil (Have some sympathy, and some taste/Use all your well-learned politeness/Or I'll lay your soul to waste). He is out to destroy us. To take us over. To remove our good. If we are apathetic to it or if we go along with it to save ourselves in the natural world, he will destroy our souls. We have to learn to recognize him (hope you guessed my name). He puts on a great disguise. We must sift through all the B.S. if we want to outsmart him.

I understand this as an admonishment that evil is nothing new and can disguise itself in many forms, as it has thru history.Even Christ faced this dilemma (of course, HE recognized it for what it was) Sympathy is thinking like the devil, the ultimate enemy, to effectively recognize and resist. It's a warning to those who are naive and accept everything at face value. Writing this in the first person further drives home the point of entering the mind of the ultimate enemy. I find this song almost too profound for a robot, take- everything-literally Christian to comprehend.Few ever get past the knee-jerk reaction because it portrays the devil in the first person. mmmmmm......... makes ya think, huh?

The man who wrote the article that a link was given to in the previous comment is a false prophet. The man is proclaiming hate, telling people to condemn these songs and singers for their lyrics, calling them prophets of Satan. The author of the article is saying that we are all weak minded and able to be swayed by these "satanic" lyrics if we listen to them. He says we should listen to christian songs only.

The author is wrong. We sould be able to listen to whatever we want. We shouldn't be limited to only Christian music. This author is a prime example of why people are driven from Christianity. The author used misquoted lyrics in his article, the System of a Down lyrics read this:

Father, Father, Father, Father, Father/ Into your hands/I/commend my spirit, Father, into your hands,

Why have you forsaken me, In your eyes forsaken me, In your thoughts forsaken me, In your heart forsaken, me oh,

not:

Father (**) Brother (**) Father/ Into your hands/I/commend my spirit, Father, into your hands,

Why have you forsaken me, In your eyes forsaken me, In your thoughts forsaken me, In your heart forsaken, me oh,

In closing, I do not believe you should listen to this false prophet. Christ taught compassion, not hate.

i really think that the line about the troubadours is a metephore - the lost of young musicians to drugs, alcohol, ect. before they really meet their potential. and it is possible that everyone is just reading too much into it.

This song is a direct shot at people with religious beliefs. It was meant for certain people not to get. In short, it is saying, to blame all the bad things in the world on a "character", is naive and uneducated. The only thing that would be more rediculous than this belief, would be the actual belief that Mick Jagger is actually the devil. This song, not only is extremely cleverly written, and disguised, but has some of the best guitar licks, and rolls along with the best r&b ever written. For those who still don't get it, I'm sure think Ozzy Osbourne is the prince of darkness, Alice Cooper is the Devil's son, and Marilyn Manson is, well "mister scary". What these artists all have in common, is they get to travel world, and see first hand the atrocities caused by religion. All were brought up very religious, and began to mock this belief, after worldly education. For all you young music listeners, I was like you, and at 15 took the words to this song literally, after learning about popular music extensively, and the different bands, I was able to see through the simple lyrics of alot of songs, but believe this one is one of the most important. "Who killed the Kennedy's?" after all it was you and me, and the russian's, and the mafia, and the.................. Not some dude in a red cape.The end lyrics give it away, "I tell you one more time baby, your to blame". Meaning us, people. It's a shame that alot of people weren't sharp enough at the time to get it, and for those who didn't, John Lennon had to write a song with no hidden tongue in cheek meanings. The shame is, when he wrote that song , people got it, but stuck their heads in the sand. Though it doesn't rock like "Sympathy", it's just as important, and 200 years from now ,people will know , "Imagine ", was sending the exact same message to an ignorant and confused society.

Troubadours were people in the middle ages who would travel from France trying to reach out to Europe and Asia of Gods true message but were often killed by Church officials or others before they could finish their journey.

This song is clearly about God being responsible for what goes on.

"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"

"I shouted out "who killed the Kennedy's?" when after all it was you and me"

"Tell me baby, what's my name I tell you one time, you're to blame"

it's as simple as that. People like to blame the worlds problems on a "devil" or "evil" when it is Man himself to blame.