# Sympathy for the Devil **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 29, 2000, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil/16604 "2000-04-29T19:14:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2000, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil/16604/1 "2000-04-29T19:14:11Z")
Given that the other references in the Stones song “Sympathy for the Devil” make sense, what the heck does “I lay traps for troubadors who get killed before they reach Bombay” mean? If you play it backwards it is the Gettysburg Address, but is there something else? ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2000, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil/16604/2 "2000-04-30T23:04:03Z")
I’m bumping this up to the top because I’m curious about it myself. IIRC, a few troubadours went on crusade (and probably never came back), but surely none of them would have gone as far as Bombay? ---
**Author:** ![Satan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Satan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil/16604/3 "2000-05-01T04:34:29Z")
Thanks! 😃 * * * Yer pal, Satan [http://homepages.go.com/~cmcinternationalrecords/devil.gif](http://homepages.go.com/~cmcinternationalrecords/devil.gif) _TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING: Three weeks, one day, 2 hours, 33 minutes and 6 seconds. 884 cigarettes not smoked, saving $110.53. Life saved: 3 days, 1 hour, 40 minutes._ ---
**Author:** ![2sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e47774/32.png) [@2sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2sense)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil/16604/4 "2000-05-01T05:35:52Z")
I don’t think that the song is refering to you **Satan**. I seem to recall something about: _I’m a man of **wealth** and **taste**._ Just before the troubador line. Nah, couldn’t be you. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![mipsman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mipsman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mipsman)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil/16604/5 "2000-05-01T15:41:20Z")
I always assumed it was a reference to Brian Jones. Anybody know what his travel plans were before he died? Was he planning a trip to India when they found him in the pool? ---
**Author:** ![Nurlman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Nurlman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nurlman)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil/16604/6 "2000-05-01T16:03:48Z")
Might it have some relevance to the Beatles going to India with the Maharishi? That gets you “troubadors” and “Bombay” (kinda). The Beatles took off in the summer of 1968, and the Stones released _Beggar’s Banquet_ in November '68. The references in SFTD are mostly chronological, with the Kennnedys being the event immediately preceeding it, which puts us in a late 60’s timeframe. Maybe the “killing” is metaphorical-- that Jagger figured some goofy religious stunt like that would “kill” the Beatles’ popularity. Anyone know enough about the Beatles ( **Pepperlandgirl** , I’m looking in your direction) to say whether there was a noticable decline in their popularity a few months after the India bit? Enough for Jagger to read as an end to those pesky Liverpudlians? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil/16604/7 "2000-05-01T16:10:04Z")
Beggar’s Banquet with Sympathy for the Devil as he says was released in 1968; Brain Jones died in 1969. Darn, that would have been cool. ---
**Author:** ![KeithB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@KeithB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KeithB)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil/16604/8 "2000-05-01T19:31:11Z")
The song is based on a book called “The Master and Margarita” by a famous russian who is not Tolstoy, Dosteyvski, or Nobakov. It has been a _long_ time since I read the book, but all of the references in the song come from the book ---
**Author:** ![Nurlman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Nurlman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nurlman)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil/16604/9 "2000-05-01T19:43:59Z")
> [@](#): > > The song is based on a book called “The Master and Margarita” by a famous russian who is not Tolstoy, Dosteyvski, or Nobakov. > > It has been a _long_ time since I read the book, but all of the references in the song come from the book. Huh? According to [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com): > [@](#): > > Surely no stranger work exists in the annals of protest literature than _The Master and Margarita_. Written during the Soviet crackdown of the 1930s, when Mikhail Bulgakov’s works were effectively banned, it wraps its anti-Stalinist message in a complex allegory of good and evil. Or would that be the other way around? Needless to say, a book written in the 1930’s wouldn’t have anything to say about how “the Blitzkrieg raged” during World War II, much less the Kennedy assasinations in the 1960s. Unless it was written by Mikhail Bulgakov Nostradamus, that is. ---
**Author:** ![jayron\_32](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/41988e/32.png) [@jayron\_32](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayron_32)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil/16604/10 "2000-05-01T20:04:19Z")
> [@](#): > > Might it have some relevance to the Beatles going to India with the Maharishi? That gets you “troubadors” and “Bombay” (kinda). The Beatles took off in the summer of 1968, and the Stones released Beggar’s Banquet in November '68. Or maybe the Troubadour is Paul McCartney, since he was supposed to have “died” in the 60’s. Yet another piece of “evidence” for the Paul Is Dead crowd… ---
**Author:** ![KeithB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@KeithB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KeithB)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil/16604/11 "2000-05-01T20:05:43Z")
Not only has it been a long time since I read the book, it has been a long time since I heard the _song._ I guess that some of the more modern references are the Stones extrapolating the Devil’s effect into our times. The book actually goes into the most detail about Jesus and Pilate. ---
**Author:** ![mipsman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mipsman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mipsman)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2000, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sympathy-for-the-devil/16604/12 "2000-05-01T21:21:04Z")
O carnivorous one, you are correct, Sympathy … came before Jones’ death. I should have checked that.