You were very refreshing as a reactor, you are possibly the only reactor who understood the historical reference's, I'm following on that fact first secondly I like the style of you musical assessment!

When Jagger/the Devil goes into that high screechy voice near the end, I always visualise it like he's dropped his "refined gentleman" disguise and revealed his true horrific appearance 😄

Oh no - you found this one. This song started as a reaction to the assassination of Robert Kennedy in the United States. Hence the line "I shouted out ''Who killed the Kennedys.' when after all it was you and me'". The philosophical underpinning of this song will be found in many Stones songs. That philosophy is that good and bad are relative terms applied by humans to events that are, at core, neither good or bad. "Just as every cop is a criminal and all the sinners saints" MIck often writes from the point of view of a character. In Tumbling Dice he actually becomes the dice. You reactions are good stuff. Happy to get a Hip Hop recommend form you.

The percussion is one conga player, and you were right, the core of the rhythm is based on a form of samba, which is Brazilian.

I also love the double entendre of "...what's puzzling you is the nature of my game." Not just that he leaves one puzzled as to what his game is. But that puzzling and misleading you IS what his game is. I just recently got this after all these years.

OK, this is absolutely the most informed analysis of this song I've seen on KZfaq. I personally understood every single reference when the song came out, that's how old I am.

Incredible song. Many historical references, made by it's narrator, Jagger. RIP, Charlie Watts. Underrated drummer, with a strong jazz background.

Damn…I am SO enjoying your highly intelligent and informed reactions! How many reactors throw out Jung when analyzing lyrics? You so, and I LOVE it!

You kinda nailed it. It’s way more a take on how humans blame a non existing being for things they have done.

The song is based on the book, 'The Master and Margarita', written during the Stalinist era by Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov. The story concerns a visit by the devil to the officially atheistic Soviet Union. The Master and Margarita combines supernatural elements with satirical dark comedy and Christian philosophy, defying categorization within a single genre. Many critics consider it to be one of the best novels of the 20th century, as well as the foremost of Soviet satires.

One of the best songs the Stones ever did. Jagger and Richards were in fact one of the finest songwriting teams in the business, and this song proves it. Jagger's vocals are, as you note, somewhat like Dylan's vocals (during certain periods of Dylan) in that he's sort of talking and singing at the same time. The notes are there, but they are not being delivered as they would be in pop music, so the melody is not as obvious as in a pop song. The delivery is a lot more visceral, and it suits the material perfectly. All the "husk and bark" has been left on the vocals, and this was found in much of the North American folk legacy, specially in the acoustic blues done by black musicians during the pre-WWII era and into the 50's. The Stones very much based their sound on the old Blues sound, specially in their earlier material which was mostly covers of Blues songs. Jagger's vocal approach was affected a lot by that. He's not your typical "singer", but his style works just right for the Rolling Stones.

The Rolling Stones "Paint It Black"..Nuff Said.

When I saw it played live, the lights on the stage turned blood red, and the bongos started up and played for about five minutes of extended intro. The crowd knew what was coming and was getting more and more pumped up with each passing second. When mick actually started singing the place went nuts. It was wild.

Quite the breadth of knowledge that Syed has, which is very refreshing.

With the great Nicky Hopkins on piano. Hope you do more songs from this album. I think that Mick has a great voice.

The drums, the bass and the piano, amazing song.

Linus pointed it out below - the song is about how people blame the devil for their own actions. The devil made me do it.

Top 5 guitar solo. Hands down. The ferocity. The way he ends it with a scratch that sounds like it’s loudly spitting imo. Not singular in any one aspect but just a complete thematic tour de force.

I'm totally down the rabbit hole now. You are so incredibly intuitive and it's brilliant.

The Bass line is the glue that binds this masterpiece.

This is one of my all time favorite songs. I cannot tell you how nice it was to have someone with intelligence and a knowledge of history to react to the lyrics. I've watched several reactions to this song and I usually end up yelling at my scream as other reactors either don't understand or completely misinterpret the lyrics. Thanks for this. Great job. BTW, the one bit almost no one- including me and perhaps you- gets is the troubadours who are killed on the way to bombay. Turns out it was a reference to a cult of murderers and thieves in India called Thugees. They were the origin of the term Thugs to refer to bad criminals.

I have studied this song and it’s lyrics for many years. I believe it has some of the best, most meaningful, perfectly written words ever. The historical references are great. For me, the song is saying this: the devil isn’t an independent actor, he works through us. We like to attribute all the bad and evil things that happen to the devil, and while he is certainly behind much of it, he can’t do anything on his own. We are the ones who do the evil acts, then we try to justify our actions and recuse ourselves from any culpability, laying it all at the devil’s feet.

Usually, I don't watch any reactions other than LZ (subbed with you for them) and 1or 2 other favourite groups, but this song is a very long time favourite that I can't resist and probably 1of only a small handful of Stones songs that I will listen to. This is an incredible song of theirs.

This song is famous for the Altamont concert where the Stones hired the Hells Angels for crowd control, and they knifed a concert goer to death. The Hell's Angels were paid $500 in beer.

Fun Fact ..singers of that haunting "whoo - whoo" background on the original studio recording was amongst others Eric Burdon from "The Animals"... and - if I remember correctly - according to an interview with Eric Burdon where he mentioned that - also John Lennon from "The Beatles" as well..who both happened to randomly and coincidentally hung around in the studio as well at that time. Speaking of Eric Burden He and "The Animals" recorded a cover version of the Rolling Stones song "Paint it Black" which is an example where a great musician is making an already iconic song of an iconic band into totally his own song by giving the song a totally different vibe. The only time I experienced such an achievement at such a high level as well was decades later with Johnny Cash´s interpretation of the Nine Inch Nail song "Hurt".

YES!!! I LOVE THIS SONG and your reaction is spot on and man you are the shit! I love it!

Your review here is by far the best, concise , and literate review I seen and I’ve watched many. Great job! Keep them coming.

I've been watching more of your music reactions (The Who, and now The Stones) and I'm finding that you are very astute in your analysis of song lyrics, and what they might be trying to say. As in alternative interpretations. Great job mate, keep it up!!

Satanic majesties request is deeply underrated. Some truly great songs on it. She’s a rainbow and 2000 light years from home are amazing

Great, I was seriously hoping you'd do this one!

You are the best music reviewer I have listened to in a very long time ! Great show !

Nicky Hopkins is the piano player. He played with many of the greatest rock acts of the late 60s and 70s, and is prominent on many of the Stones greatest songs. My favorite songs that Nicky Hopkins played on are She's a Rainbow by the Stones and Jealous Guy by John Lennon. Both songs melodic and beautiful beyond belief.

This is my favorite Stones song. So great and subtle. You are right about Jaggar's singing but he has so much style & charisma it really works. Watching him perform really clarifies that.

Black Sabbath's NIV is also sung from the devil's perspective.

Just stumbled upon your channel. I’ve seen many reactions to this song and most fail to appreciate the historical significance of it. Great reaction sir.

Nicky Hopkins on piano. There is a KZfaq video that features the piano isolated on this song. There is a movie called "Sympathy for the Devil" which features snippets of the making of this song. BTW, Keith Richards is also playing bass on this track.

Love your reactions. It's really refreshing to see a thoughtful and intelligent fan of music. I was raised on classic rock and do not know much about hip-hop but we you said that is comparable to a hip hop song the first I thought of was "NY state of mind".✌

Your editings getting better by the day, everything feels very smooth. Great vid and analysis as always

Great reaction! Preeesh. Enjoying the channel

Spot on analysis here good job love you

How are you always so spot on when breaking down a song, love ya man, keep it going 😎😎

Love your videos. I really do. I like that you got the great lyrics of this tune. I wish you great success with your channel.

Best version of this song from the 1969 live album - get yer yas yas out!! By far! Mick Taylor’s solo at the end - timeless

No Autotune… no N word… pure talent!!!!

A master class on reaction videos - solid intellectual and aesthetic analysis. Well done sir. Well done.

Keep on, Mr. Syed! We thoroughly enjoy your insights. You will have many, many subscribers. Congrats.

I am very thankful to have stumbled blindly upon your reactions and I have to applaud and admire how in depth you go with your reactions. You picked up on the historical references of this song and I really enjoyed this. As I did your reactions to a day in the life and fortunate son. Definitely have a new subscriber that's for sure!

Love your ability to break it all down. Well done mate.

Inspired by the book: The Master and Margarita. Great song

I agree love that you are finding all the great history put into a great sing ! you are a great . . .very cool . . .

Always look forward to your analysis!

I really dig your philosophical take on the lyrics. Instant subscription! Thanks! ✌🏻💀

One of the Best Songs ever . Great Reaction ,Thank You Syed .

I love when you smile because you're reacting to the same things that made me smile when I was 15. Haha. I'm 54 these days. Good job!

You need to see The Stones live and see how the audience reacts when this song starts 🙂👍. Last time we saw them in Hyde Park, people were singing 'woo hoo' all the way to the tube station and onto the train 👍😎

Your comments and perspectives are great. Awesome reaction.

Jagger’s performance of this song at the Rock n Roll Circus takes this song to a new level. Don’t miss it.

Jagger is very clever using the crucifixion as an easter egg .

Once again great reaction and analysis. A minor point perhaps, but Bill Wyman is consistently brilliant in all of the Stones' material from this era

History: Concert at Altamont, California. The concert promoters hired the Hell's Angels as security. Stones were playing Sympathy for the Devil, while a man was beaten to death right in front of the stage.

The question is, how does a four piece rock band without a piano player or a percussionist pull this off live… and then you hear the version from Get Your Ya Yas out and you go, oh, that’s how, they just barrel through it.

I was the manager of a retail store at-nd the cashier called me and said someone wants to talk to you. As I got close there was a guy and his daughter waiting for me. He said "I'm not shopping at a place that plays devil music". I was not sure then I could hear "Sympathy For the Devil" was playing from our radio. I said "It's just what is playing right now". He stormed out with his child.

Pianist, Ian Stewart often called the 6th Rolling Stone. Brilliant song. Good job dissecting it.

I haven't seen so sophisticated person reacting so far. Man, thank you for giving me a new perspectives on songs I've listen for years, especially this one.

Whenever people talk about this song. The intro with bongos is mentioned. The lyrics are of course mentioned. The guitar solo. The piano. The woo woos. But damn it the bass line is what keeps this track from going off the rails. No one ever talks about the bass line but it is what turns this song from a great song into a classic

Give the Rolling Stones track 'Can't You Hear Me Knocking' a listen if you haven't already. Killer track Stones at their best.

I been lucky enough to see the Stones in 2006 at Churchill Downs. This was the 15th song of a 19 song set list. By far, the most memorable song live with massive audience participation as backup singers for WOO WHO. The Stones live are a most see. Love the review as always.

Excellent, deep review. Great analysis..Thank you.

A great reaction! Refreshing to see someone that knows the historical references. Great work…thanks!

Hey the man knows some history ! Nice. The Stones stopped playing this song live for a real long time. Something bad happened a concerts when they played it. Check out the Altamont Speedway 1970 show, a disaster, a death, beatings by the Hells Angels who were supposed to be stage security. It was a controversial song in 1969. Misinterpreted. Check out the live cut on 'Get Yer Ya's Ya's Out'. Phx

Thanks for the recommendation!

Mick Jagger was reading The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov when he wrote the lyrics to this song. The piano is played by Nicky Hopkins. Keith Richards plays both bass and lead guitars. Bill Wyman is shimmying the maracas. And Charlie Watts is playing the drums. A man named Rocky Dijon is playing the bongos. Brian Jones' participation is only in the "woo-woo" chorus. Regardless, this is an amazing and well-produced song. It was a great re-entry into rock and roll, which they had abandoned for the very experimental Their Satanic Majesties Request (which was not even remotely comparable to anything The Beatles had done, especially Sgt. Pepper. TSMR stands alone on its own and is now considered an art rock masterpiece).

Cop/criminal. Sinners/saints etc. It’s the nature of duality. Can’t know light without knowing what dark is. Yin and Yang! Incredible song. Amazing performance. Great analysis and insight from a writer’s perspective. Thanks for putting a focus on lyrics!

This song is like the Pogo cartoon. We have met the enemy and it is us.

The band I was in many years ago used to do a live mashup of "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" by Bananarama if anyone fancies recreating it digitally.

Nicky Hopkins played notably on songs recorded by the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Who, the Beatles, the Steve Miller Band, Jefferson Airplane, Rod Stewart, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, The Hollies, Cat Stevens, Carly Simon, Harry Nilsson, Joe Walsh, Peter Frampton, Jerry Garcia, Jeff Beck, Joe Cocker, Art Garfunkel, Badfinger, Graham Parker

I absolutely agree that Jagger/Richard's are as formidable a songwriting team as the Beatles' top-two. I saw them in Toronto in '75 and in Buffalo in a football stadium a year later. Woody was supposed to meet Rod at the airport later to go finish up remaining Faces touring obligations. They put the message up on the big board at the back of the stadium during the show. 'One Plus One: Sympathy for the Devil ' by Jean-Luc Godard is a pretty fascinating documentary about the making of the song, the creative evolution and process. I was watching a show called 'Pieces of Her' earlier and this song came on, thought I'd share it with you next time I was scrolling through KZfaq. So, apropos of nothing else but incidental interest, here's an early-ish aid to the mainstreaming, adoption/co-opting of rap by New-Wave darlings Blondie: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pq5zl7ZotJiYaJs.html An episode or two later of the same show, this popped up, a cool artifact of a later era of the Stones: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/erx6nsmJyrrXaYU.html

Great reaction. It's amazing that people have gone through life without hearing this song. This changed the way I experienced music back in the day. And I never considered myself a Stones fan, because in the mid 60s you had to choose between the Stones or the Beatles. Lol

Keith played every guitar and the bass on this track

Your videos are killer bro.

Excellent reaction! Made me rediscover the song.

This and Paint it Black are probably my favorite Stones song.

Great take on this

I think k it's crazy cool how you picked up on the folk singer way of storytelling. Cause this song was heavily influenced by Bob Dylan and his style of storytelling. You can see videos of them rehearsing this song and mock sounds just like Dylan. Super impressed you got that man

Thanks for covering my favorite Stones song.

Nicky Hopkins is on piano for this session. Great player

FWIW, I like the music/lyrics combo reaction. Please keep it up. EDIT: another great review of a banger!

Satanic Majesties Request has been redeemed over time. "She's a Rainbow" wakes up any commercial ad in which its used. "2000 Light Years From Home" and "Citadel" are really unique.

Great reaction video. Such an epic song and the reason why I believe they have been around for such a long time too lol, kidding but not really, deal with the devil n all that

Connecting this tune to Dostoyevsky is something I never thought of, but makes so much sense! Fantastic work. I really dug that you understood all the references and had a command of the subject matter. It makes the song hit harder.

You really get it on this tune. I was born in 56 and like all my age we were all little Beatles freaks and the Stones helped by scaring us away. It was like " You kids ain't ready for this" I was about 14 when this came out . Nothing like this sound and it's like the Stones were warning us again . This song shut down the sixties and the Stones left you wondering and many got hooked,and at 18 I was all in and shelved my Beatles LPs. Sympathy meaning is pretty much what you interpret. Whether you're religious or not it puts an explanation of the bad side of humanity ,or the devil. Evil exists one way or another and if you can't recognize it you're in trouble. Sympathy is like "Recognize me "or" acknowledge me" and respect that you're following the wrong entity. Nice break down 👍👍😎

Always on spot greetings from BUFFALO NY , 😂

Somebody's going to point this out and I don't see it scrolling down the comments so far so I'm going to take a shot at it: this song has a legend attached to it and it's called Altamont. I heard the song when it first came out in the late 60s and 70s and then suddenly it was pulled from the radio for over 10 years, more like 20. And the Stones themselves pulled it from their playlist and never performed it for the same length of time. In 1971 the Grateful Dead organized what was to be the West Coast answer to Woodsto, at the Altamonte Speedway. They invited the best bands in Rock to play at a three-day festival. Above even the Grateful Dead themselves the headliner was the Rolling Stones. Instead of getting the cops to run security as was usually done then, they got the motorcycle gang The Hell's Angels to do it. Seemed like a good idea at the time. As legend has it, while the Rolling Stones were performing Sympathy For The Devil, the Angels got into a squabble with some people right in the first row in front of the stage and killed one of them, right in front of Mick Jagger! Everybody has details to add to this, I don't remember much more than that. I can't even say if the Stones finished the song much less the set! As the dust settled, there was an awful feeling that the song itself stirred on the deed that was done. This changed everything! I think it is universally accepted to be the final death knell of the 60s, following Charles Manson and the Sharon Tate killings in California. Look up the song, "New Speedway Boogie" by The Grateful Dead, lyrics by Robert Hunter, for the aftermath of the seismic event by the folks who were there. The Stones seem to think that the song itself was cursed, and pulled it from their play set for years. Radio stations pulled the song, sales of Beggars Banquet dropped for years, and the song was seldom heard for the longest time. I don't remember when or why the ban was finally dropped, but there seemed to be an agreement among fans who remembered the song that the curse had been played out. I'll let other people fill in the cracks; for me the song always reminds me of the hole we had in the Rolling Stones playlist for decades.

Wow this is the only reactor that actually understood the meaning the lyrics the references I shouldn’t be surprised he’s a brit and they teach thoroughly and their schools were like here in America they don’t give a shit if you want to learn that kind of stuff you have to do it on your own

Cool insight again

First, your accent is lovely. You’re adorable looking, and your analysis is spot on! What’s not to like? Thanks for the reaction for the great song

For some reason after watching this reaction, I felt that N.I.B from Black Sabbath would be a great next reaction. Enjoying your content, keep up the good work.

"Don't blame me, you were gifted free will." ~Lucifer ~

Such a joy watching young cat groove to the Rolling Stones. He high lights the roll of a samba beat with screaming guitar and boogie piano. Such a cool track I grooved into as a young punk. Thanks Big Brother...

I always loved Hes telling you then he says guess my name yet have respect or else. great stuff