I think I have all the historical allusions in the song down, but I always wondered about the line:
“And I lay traps for troubadours, who get killed before they reach Bombay”
What the heck does it mean?
In general, Satan lays in wait for hippie-searcher types who are looking for higher truths in Eastern lands.
With all respect, is that your personal interpretation or the generally accepted reading? I can buy it, it makes sense in the cultural and historical context, but I’ve always had a hunch that it alluded to actual historical events.
Oh, hey, no worries. I typically am going from memory.
On NME’s music blog site, I found this:
And found a similar bit on Songfacts.
I’ve also heard explanations that it somehow refers to the Beatles (and their India trip) or even about the Dacoit or Thuggee cults. Mind you, I’m not exactly sure how it refers to either of those (ETA: actually, maybe the Hippie trail explanation ties in with the latter), but that’s two other explanations I’ve heard.
Maybe it doesn’t mean anything. I just sounds cool.
Contrary to what your English teacher told you, many lines in songs have no real meaning other than to find an interesting phrase that rhymes.
Well of course I know that (though my English teachers never uttered a word about that, I figured it all out by myself ;)), but the song has so many direct historical references and is all in all very straightforward, so I don’t think this line is pure abstraction
Why not? If he couldn’t think of a line that fit from actual events, why not just make something up?
Because, based on the rest of the lyrics, that explanation is less likely.
mmm
My perception was always that it was a reference to the 1948 assassination of Gandhi. That would fit in with the general references to the Tsar, Nazis and Kennedys.
Technically, it would have been better if the line had been “who get killed before they reach Delhi” but I won’t quibble.
That’s what I’ve always thought too, that it was a Gandhi reference, but I don’t know much more of his biography than the bits from the Attenborough movie and didn’t know if he ever was marching for Bombay. And I don’t think he ever had a reputation for being a singer ;).
I always assumed it was something from British history regarding soldiers fighting in (or occupying) India.
The lyrics were inspired by Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita.
I always assumed that the “troubadours” line was a reference to something in the book. If someone wants to take the time to read it and report back, that’d be great.
I’ve read that in the '60s, there were various bus tours that would take young Brits on a tour from London to southeast Asia, sampling all the big cities (and the drugs they had to offer) along the way. I assume those merry travelers were the ones the Stones were referring to.
IIRC, Rush’s song “A Passage To Bangkok” is about the same thing.
I read the book about a decade back, so it’s not exactly fresh in my mind, but I do not recall anything that would fit the reference. Great book, by the way, easily top five for me.
Well, in Rush’s song they’re starting in the New World: Bogota, Jamaica, Acapulco, before getting on a train in Morocco that stops in Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Kathmandu before going to Bangkok. Looking at it now I’m impressed that they managed to get the geography correct. The train isn’t mentioned until they’ve checked off all the places in the Americas, avoiding any definite implication they’ve taken the train from the Americas to Africa, and the stops mentioned from Morocco to Bangkok are in order going from the west to the east.
I’ve always thought it had something to do with the Thugee cults since it seemed to fit best with the other references to notorious groups of people (e.g., Nazis, Communists) in the song.