# Sympathy for the Devil and some enigmatic lyrics **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [March 21, 2025, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915 "2025-03-21T15:39:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/41 "2025-03-21T22:49:38Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I don’t think there’s any question about how deep the song is. Look at the lines: > > > Just as every cop is a criminal > > And all the sinners saints > > As heads is tails, just call me Lucifer > > The world is not as you see it. Mine, says Satan, is the true perspective. Shove that up your loathsome and hypocritical middle-class morality. I see it as a commentary on the duality of existence; the yin and the yang of life. Every extreme carries the seed of its opposite. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > SftD is one of the premiere songs of all rock and roll. I agree with @EinsteinsHund that it “probably has the best lyrics of any Stones song.” And among the best of any rock song. I wholeheartedly third this! ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/42 "2025-03-21T23:01:18Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > The singer is on the road through the Far East and is pleased to have run into a fellow Aussie, that’s all. Far East? I thought Brussels was in Belgium. Is Bombay in the far East too? (Maybe he was on the same Hippie Trail) > [Verse 2] > Buyin’ bread from a man in **Brussels** > He was six-foot-four and full of muscle > I said, “Do you speak-a my language?” > He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich > And he said > [Chorus] > “I come from a land down under > Where beer does flow and men chunder > Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder? > You better run, you better take cover”, yeah > [Verse 3] > Lyin’ in a den in **Bombay** > With a slack jaw, and not much to say > I said to the man, “Are you trying to tempt me? > Because I come from the land of plenty” > And he said > Oh, do you come from a land down under?" Oh yeah, yeah > “Where women glow and men plunder > Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder? Oh > You better run, you better take cover” > _Chunder_: To puke > Vegemite: A yeast based spread that sometimes works on toast & butter. Sometimes compared to British Marmite, which is some kind of sticky goo. > _Down Under:_ Australia. Almost nobody calls it that. And they picked up Shrimp on the Barbie (Barbecue) as Paul Hogan somehow sold them on that and Foster’s being “Australian for beer mate” > _Flora & Faunae:_ Fruits, vegetables, frogs. The Australian Customs absolutely take imports of outside critters or plants seriouslty. Do not test them. > _Tasmanian Devils:_ They are nasty critters. But only in Tasmania and zoos. > _Kangaroos_: They will generally scamper away from you. Mess with a Joey (a male) and he might kill you. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/43 "2025-03-21T23:05:01Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > Far East? I thought Brussels was in Belgium. I’m pretty sure Brussels was a stop on the London-to-Bombay route. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/44 "2025-03-21T23:07:24Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I’m pretty sure Brussels was a stop on the London-to-Bombay route. Via Peking? Am I being whooshed? Have you played knifey-spooney before? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/45 "2025-03-21T23:09:20Z")
I don’t recall Men At Work mentioning Peking. I suppose they could’ve been hankering for a succulent Chinese meal. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/46 "2025-03-21T23:15:04Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Peking Now called Beijing and still in the Far East and Colin Hay found a fellow Aussie in Brussels and Bombay, and as Australia was a culinary wasteland till the Thai’s and Chinese showed up, they are aware of their global position. Are we doing a comic bit here? I’ve no problem you being the straight man (Bud Abbot) and me being Lou Costello. “Who’s on First?” ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/47 "2025-03-21T23:21:28Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > Are we doing a comic bit here? Well, that last bit I threw in was a reference to a famous video of a petty gangster from Brisbane being arrested after being mistaken for a credit card fraudster. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/XebF2cgmFmU/hqdefault.jpg "Charles Dozsa: eating a meal... a succulent chinese meal...") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XebF2cgmFmU) ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/48 "2025-03-21T23:42:29Z")
He’s definitely doing a comic bit. In my time in Melbourne I never had a run in with the cops, yet here they are treating him with kid’s gloves and a lot of what he’s saying is rather funny. Australian’s like jokes. ETA: That is a definite British accent I just flew into Brisbane from Brussels via Beijing, and boy are my arms tired! I reckon you’ve not played knifey-spoony before > **[That’s not a knife | Crocodile Dundee (1986)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uetJhWPLIho%2F)** > > \#movie #movies #australia #moviescene ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/49 "2025-03-21T23:43:18Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Hah, actually I asked almost the exact same question almost 9 years ago: Hah! Why do you think I @'d you? > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > In the song, the devil doesn’t stand for a religious entity, but the inherent evil in our mundane, (in)human world. > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > It’s a stroll through all of human history, and how evil has always been an inherent part of it. > [@solost](#): > > Every extreme carries the seed of its opposite. > [@Coriolanus](#): > > singing in first person as Lucifer is both ballsy and it is a great song. It can be argued that the narrator is actually God. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/50 "2025-03-21T23:51:14Z")
> **[Knifey Spoony Original Clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcE0aAhbVFc%2F)** > > Knifey Spoony The Simpsons Original ClipBart Vs Australiahttp://imgur.com/a/dwNqQ > [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > actually God. “The argument goes something like this: ‘I refuse to prove that I exist,’ says God, ‘for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.’ “ But,’ says Man, ‘the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn’t it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don’t. QED.’ “ ‘Oh dear,’ says God, ‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic. “ ‘Oh, that was easy,’ says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.” ― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/51 "2025-03-21T23:54:27Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Yeah, rock is a giant continuum True but I’d argue the median is pretty facile and not particularly deep. Not complaining, though, my life was never ever changed by a banging philosophy thesis. Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus has gotten me through zero bad break ups (in fairness I’ve never read that or any other great work of philosophy maybe my bad break ups would have gone better if I’d tried 😉 ) I’d agree with other posters though that Sympathy for the Devil is an outlier as it does give a clever nuanced philosophical take on the nature of evil, and is a frekkin awesome tune. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/52 "2025-03-21T23:57:50Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > He’s definitely doing a comic bit. According to an interview he did years later, he was hoping he’d be able to convince the cops he was insane and put him in a mental institution, because he knew from prior experience that those are easier to break out of. (He wound up being let go the next day after it turned out they had the wrong guy.) > **[Democracy Manifest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Manifest)** > > "Democracy Manifest" (also known as "Succulent Chinese Meal", amongst other names) is an October 1991 Australian news segment video by reporter Chris Reason. The Guardian, in 2019, called it "perhaps the pre-eminent Australian meme of the past 10 years". YouTube has several postings of the video with more than a million views each. > The video shows a man being arrested by Queensland police at a Chinese restaurant. As the police forcibly detain him, he remarks in a stentorian tone, "Gentlemen, ... ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2025, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/53 "2025-03-21T23:59:29Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus has gotten me through zero bad break ups (in fairness I’ve never read that or any other great work of philosophy maybe my bad break ups would have gone better if I’d tried 😉 ) Don’t even try to read Wittgenstein. I foolishly bought one his books after having read a biography of him which fascinated me, but in his own words (or rather, words mixed with symbols) he’s incomprehensible. Or maybe I’m just too dumb, so I prefer the philosophy of Mick Jagger. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2025, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/54 "2025-03-22T00:04:12Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > > > Hah, actually I asked almost the exact same question almost 9 years ago: > > Hah! Why do you think I @'d you? I wouldn’t have thought that anybody would remember that ancient thread. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2025, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/55 "2025-03-22T00:24:33Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Or maybe I’m just too dumb, so I prefer the philosophy of Mick Jagger As I was reading this Spiritualized Floating in Space came on my playlist, which has gotten me through a bad break up or two, and more frequent periods of having no girlfriend, and having some serious feelings about it. Good luck matching that Wittgenstein 😉 [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/EOL1291ryKM/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AG-AoAC8AGKAgwIABABGDogXChyMA8=&rs=AOn4CLAv-GSRrlnVlhV30YF7mGZ8HzY0Kg "Spiritualized-Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOL1291ryKM) ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2025, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/56 "2025-03-22T00:32:10Z")
“Forcibly detain him” The British absolutely think they are superior to the Australians. “Australian Meme, me arse”. Try that shit in NYC and see how quick you’'re cuffed and gently placed into the backseat of a radio car. He was not really resisting and was sounding too funny and maybe the police figured they were being played. You want to be crazy, do DeNiro in Taxi Driver, “I say, officer art thee talking to me? I do not see anyone else here so you must be talking to me!”; then headbutt the glass window on the back window, maybe till you bleed. Now your brilliant plan is in motion. Get booked, say even more crazy things and next you better be Houdini as you’re in a strait-jacket in a padded cell, Maybe they’ll all have a good laugh and let you go off and meme at their expense. Or, maybe they’ll treat you as they would in NYC, “Journalist, eh? A funny joke? What are you a Brit? The judge has just sent his wig off to the cleaners, so it’ll be Monday or maybe Tuesday. In a couple hours you will get today’s succulent menu: Chipped beef, potatoes and carrots. And if there’s anything else we can do for you, Sir Reason, just ring the little bell. Oh, rats, we’re out of bells.So just yell really loud, that’lll work. Enjoy!” _door slams_ ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2025, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/57 "2025-03-22T00:39:02Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > As I was reading this Spiritualized Floating in Space came on my playlist, which has gotten me through a bad break up or two, and more frequent periods of having no girlfriend, and having some serious feelings about it. Good luck matching that Wittgenstein 😉 Love that album. I’m just listening to the Buzzcocks’ “Singles Going Steady”, and they also have plain philosophies I can comprehend. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2025, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/58 "2025-03-22T00:57:20Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > It can be argued that the narrator is actually God. I’d like to see that argument. If I had to defend the proposition I’d say that inventing Satan was a ludicrous tipetoeing around the reality that if God - we’re talking the Christian God here - created the heavens and earth, then he created evil as well and is just as much responsible for everything wrong in the world as well as everything that is right. No fallen angel nonsense gets around that. So “Satan” is “really” God just as much as Jesus “really” is. ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2025, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/59 "2025-03-22T02:49:49Z")
Yes, the Sex Pistols were a real band. Do you think their crap was written by professional songwriters? And then what, the company picked musicians that couldn’t play? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2025, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915/60 "2025-03-22T03:30:05Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Just as every cop is a criminal > And all the sinners saints > As heads is tails, just call me Lucifer > [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > It can be argued that the narrator is actually God. From last year: > [@What’s puzzling you is the nature of my game](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-puzzling-you-is-the-nature-of-my-game/1006229/14): > > You wanted something deeper? Okay. The singer makes a big deal out of the listener guessing his name. Late in the song, he says “call me Lucifer”. But notice he doesn’t say his name actually is Lucifer. And even after he tells the listener to call him that, he still makes a point about the listener guessing his name. So here’s a possibility; the singer isn’t Satan. He’s God. It was God not Satan who did all the violent things the singer describes. The listener is supposed to understand this a… > [@Smapti](#): > > The singer is on the road through the Far East and is pleased to have run into a fellow Aussie, that’s all. I think you have it 180 degrees out. the song is lamenting that, wherever the singer goes, no matter how remote or distant, he can’t help but keep running into Australians. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil-and-some-enigmatic-lyrics/1015915.md?page=4)