‘Sympathy For The Devil’: The greatest opening lyric that Mick Jagger ever wrote
I would class Mick Jagger, as easily one of the greatest performers of all time. But would I class him as a brilliant writer? I’m not so sure.
Of course, there is some brilliant songwriting at play within The Rolling Stones, especially with the help of Keith Richards, but lyrically, Jagger hasn’t always been at the tip of people’s tongues when it comes to labelling the greatest of all time. His swagger, charm and captivating on-stage persona are often labelled as his most redeeming qualities.
But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have his moments. On ‘Wild Horses’, he exhibited a tenderness that made him the envy of Bob Dylan, while ‘Moonlight Mile’ saw him surprisingly poignant in a state of introspection. But there is one song, and its opening lyric, that felt tailor-made for the charisma of his performance style, and that is “Please allow me to introduce myself / I’m a man of wealth and taste” from ‘Sympathy For The Devil’.
It was hypnotic, transfixing and somewhat menacing, as it allowed Jagger to purvey the twisted traits of Lucifer himself.
“’Sympathy’ is quite an uplifting song,” his songwriting partner, Keith Richards, explained, “It’s just a matter of looking the Devil in the face. He’s there all the time. I’ve had very close contact with Lucifer – I’ve met him several times. Evil – people tend to bury it and hope it sorts itself out and doesn’t rear its ugly head.”
Adding, “You want to think the world is perfect. Everybody gets sucked into that. And as America has found out to its dismay, you can’t hide. You might as well accept the fact that evil is there and deal with it any way you can. ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ is a song that says, Don’t forget him. If you confront him, then he’s out of a job.”
What’s rather interesting, however, is that in its final form, it feels like a swashbuckling rebuttal to the devil’s temptations or perhaps a celebration of the depravity he offers, which would track given the band’s persona. But that wasn’t the intention. No, Jagger actually attempted to be more heartfelt and inquisitive, which only makes that opening line and its delivery all the more brilliant.
“I wrote it as sort of like a Bob Dylan song,” he once admitted in an interview, which, during video footage of the band’s recording session, can be clearly seen. So with that in mind, that opening line and the story that follows were Jagger at his most socially conscious, trying to juggle the battle between righteousness and sin, through the worlds of a folk-tinged ballad.
But instead, the band changed tack and laid the tale on top of a more upbeat sonic palette. “It has a very hypnotic groove, a samba, which has a tremendous hypnotic power, rather like good dance music,” he once said. “It doesn’t speed up or slow down. It keeps this constant groove.”
Ultimately, that was a smart move as it forces Jagger to deliver that opening line with a heightened sense of dramatic tension, which then allows the preceding tale to be captivatingly performed with a vocal take that is simply oozing charisma. It is in many ways, the perfect Mick Jagger soundtrack.
