Sympathy For The Devil

by **Soulmonster** Thu Aug 12, 2010 8:32 pm

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL

Albums:

Sympathy For The Devil single, October 1994.

Greatest Hits, track no. 14 on original release and track no. 15 on 2020 reissue, March 2004.

Written by:
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones).

Musicians:
Vocals: Axl Rose
Lead guitar: Slash
Rhythm guitar: Paul Huge
Bass: Duff McKagan
Drums: Matt Sorum.

Notes:
The last official release before Slash, Duff and Matt left the band.

Live performances:
'Sympathy For The Devil' has never been played live.

Lyrics:

Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man's soul and faith

And I was 'round when Jesus Christ
Had his moment of doubt and pain
Made damn sure that Pilate
Washed his hands and sealed his fate

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game

I stuck around St. Petersberg
When I saw it was a time for a change
Killed the Czar and his ministers
Anastasia screamed in vain

I rode a tank
Held a general's rank
When the Blitzkrieg raged
And the bodies stank

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name, oh yeah
What's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah

I watched with glee
While your kings and queens
Fought for ten decades
For the Gods they made

I shouted out
"Who killed the Kennedys?"
When after all
It was you and me

Let me please introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
And I laid traps for troubadors
Who get killed before they reached Bombay

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, oh yeah, get down, baby

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah
But what's confusing you
Is just the nature of my game

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

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

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name, um yeah
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game, um baby, get down

Woo, who
Oh yeah, get on down
Oh yeah
Oh yeah!

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

Ooo, who
Ooo, who
Ooo, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Oh, yeah

What's my name
Tell me, baby, what's my name
Tell me, sweetie, what's my name

Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Ooo, who, who
Oh, yeah

Quotes regarding the song

Well, like that stupid "Sympathy For The Devil" track we did - granted it sort of sounds like Guns N' Roses, but it was my vehicle to help get the band into one room. But who shows up? It's Duff and Matt and me who do the whole track, then Axl did the other bit by himself a week later. That wasn't my idea of something that we should've released, and it definitely wasn't what I was hoping for to be the thread that was going to get the band back together and get us inspired to get out and do it .

Metal Hammer, November 1995

There is a funny story to 'Sympathy'. When the movie came out a couple of months ago, Geffen called and said, "Could you do us a favor?" That movie coming out was a big issue for me, because the books were great. They have a real kind of passion in there --a sort of dark romanticism - and I'm a real heavy-duty, old time vampire horror movie freak. And it was like Tom Cruise AND Brad Pitt? No fucking way! So I got this call saying would we do "Sympathy For The Devil" for the movie. I thought, "Well okay, maybe it'll be a vehicle to get the band back together and get the wheels in motion for some pre-production stuff." So I went to the screening in one of those stiff theatres full of showbiz fucking suits, and I'm half asleep! I'm not having a good time, and I couldn't just get up and leave, so I was trying to be cool. I started smoking some cigarettes, which is not something you're meant to do in an LA cinema... it's like murder! So I got up and left before the lights went out. I have to say Tom Cruise did the best he could, but the film's laughable to me. The Stones' version of the song was playing in the same place ours was meant to be. Anyway, I got up and went home. I called Doug and said, "Leave it: the Stones' version's fine. There's no need to do a song that doesn't need to be redone." Then Axl went to see the film the next day, and it's inevitable that he likes it and comes out of the movie completely at odds with me! It just goes with the territory - I love this singer/lead guitarist relationship in bands... it's just f**king stupid! So Axl went and saw it and said he loved it. He was ecstatic. "Let's do the song!" he says. So I said "okay". We show up at the studio... who shows up? Matt, Duff and I. That was it. Paul Huge came in with Axl a couple of days later. While we were doing it (recording the song), we had to write down how many bars each section was, because without vocals you don't know where the next change is going to come. But we got it done and the guitar solos on and everything, and then Axl went in to do vocals... and the next thing you know, there's this "answer" guitar going on during my guitar solo! It's Paul Huge! I will probably never forgive Axl for that. But we talked about it. We made a deal that if Paul ever plays on anything, then I should at least be told first, because it really took me off guard. I wasn't there when he did it. Axl likes the song. I haven't listened to it since it was mixed. It's not like it was lousy guitar playing or anything; I think it's how it went down. If people like it, then fine. I haven't gone to see the movie again because I don't think I could bear it.

Kerrang! January, 1995

If you've ever wanted to know what the sound of a band breaking up sounds like, listen to Guns N' Roses cover of 'Sympathy For The Devil' (...). If there's one Guns track I'd like to never hear again, it is that one.

Bozza, Anthony, & Slash (2007). Slash. Harper Entertainment: New York, p.379

[Talking about the atmosphere when recording 'Sympathy for the Devil']: It wasn’t good. The huge difference for me was, I was sober, so I was rising, you know? I was really focused on reclaiming my life, and I knew very much that I just survived something. I really gave up. At 29 years old, I told myself “If I live ’til I’m 30, I’ll be lucky,” and I was cool with it. It wasn’t a morbid thought. I was like, “Fuck it, live fast, die young.” And I realized at 30 or 31 that I had a chance to become the guy the 14-year-old me had envisioned. So the band was secondary to that goal at that point. It wasn’t the band first and me second, it was me first. So my whole outlook on what was happening in the session didn’t take over my whole fuckin’ thing. I saw it for what it was. Paul [Huge], Axl’s friend, the guitar-player guy, really saw an opportunity. I saw opportunities being taken advantage of, I saw management freaking out, I saw Slash in a fucking awful, black, and darkened malaise, and Matt had gotten sober. A lot of people were coming to me, management and the record company. I didn’t get a second to be sober, and [they said], “Now that you’re sober, you gotta save this thing.” And I really kinda thought I did for the first year or two, because so many people were saying that to me. I started to figure out in my second year of sobriety, “Oh, I don’t have to do shit".

The Onion A.V. Club, May 2011

That was the last track we recorded together. Duff, Slash and myself cut that the day before and Axl tracked separate. I liked our version but felt that song had already been recorded perfectly by the Stones.

Rolling Stone, November 23, 2016

by **Soulmonster** Sat Jun 10, 2023 10:17 am

That was the last track we recorded together. Duff, Slash and myself cut that the day before and Axl tracked separate. I liked our version but felt that song had already been recorded perfectly by the Stones.

Rolling Stone, November 23, 2016

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