# What's behind the lyrics to the Rolling Stones' 'Sympathy for the Devil'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 22, 2002, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068 "2002-09-22T02:05:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2002, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/1 "2002-09-22T02:05:14Z")
Ok, so I understand most of the lyrics. You have mention of Jesus on the cross, and of the execution of the Russian czar and family, and the deaths of the Kennedies. But then you have a line that goes: > [@](#): > > I lay traps for troubadours who get killed before they reach Bombay What does that refer to? ---
**Author:** ![partly\_warmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@partly\_warmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/partly_warmer)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2002, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/2 "2002-09-22T02:26:30Z")
Did they say that? I must say I had almost given up on them by that point. If so then this: The Beatles, and company, going to India to receive enlightenment from the Maharishi. Just a guess. Jagger and company weren’t the most educated, literate, or clever people in the intellectual world. Bombay was probably seen as being the “capital” of India, and therefore spiritualism. I.e., a shrewd commentary on how the Beatles (and others) fell away from a spiritual path. I’m curious that you have an idea what they meant by “who killed the Kennedys”. That has always seemed like one of the Stones’ most deadly truthful arrows. What do you think that means? ---
**Author:** ![WSLer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@WSLer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WSLer)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2002, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/3 "2002-09-22T02:36:29Z")
Obviously it’s about Satan laying traps for troubadors so that they are killed before they reach their vacation destination, which happens to be Bombay. What else could it refer to, the Vietnam War? ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2002, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/4 "2002-09-22T02:37:52Z")
We’ve been here before: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=82385](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=82385) and [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=63168](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=63168) and [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=21449](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=21449) The best guess would seem to be the “hippie trail”, but the explanation seems unsatisfactory to me, though it would have been contemporary with the song. And an allegorical thing concerning the Beatles doesn’t seem likely, given that the rest of the references are so concretely historical. ---
**Author:** ![Lockfist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/838e76/32.png) [@Lockfist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lockfist)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2002, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/5 "2002-09-22T07:19:49Z")
Sorry I don’t have anything new to add, but this is an intriguing question I must admit. I can’t imagine that somewhere along the line no one has asked the band about this. Anyone have access to the Stones to get this thing resolved once and for all ? ---
**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:** [September 22, 2002, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/6 "2002-09-22T07:47:33Z")
Googol turns up nothing. Troubadours are musicians, right? Yet that’s gotta be a french term. I doubt Mick or Keith would reveal anything of these long-ago lyrics, any more than Don McLean ever did about his ‘American Pie’ > [@](#): > > But what’s puzzling you > is the nature of my game ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2002, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/7 "2002-09-22T17:07:18Z")
Partly Warmer wrote: > [@](#): > > \*\*Jagger and company weren’t the most educated, literate, or clever people in the intellectual world. \*\* Mick Jagger started his music career while he was a student at the London School of Economics. By rock star standards, this guy is MENSA material. ---
**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:** [September 22, 2002, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/8 "2002-09-22T18:09:35Z")
Now, a very great man once said That some people rob you with a fountain pen. It didn’t take too long to find out Just what he was talkin’ about. A lot of people don’t have much food on their table, But they got a lot of forks Ôn’ knives, And they gotta cut somethin’. - Bob Dylan ‘Talking New York Blues’ Thanks **Krokodil** ---
**Author:** ![WSLer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@WSLer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WSLer)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2002, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/9 "2002-09-22T18:19:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Corbomite \* > \*\*Googol turns up nothing. > > Troubadours are musicians, right? Yet that’s gotta be a french term. > > I doubt Mick or Keith would reveal anything of these long-ago lyrics, any more than Don McLean ever did about his ‘American Pie’ > > \*\* Don McLean has made it at least kind sorta clear that American Pie was an homage of sorts to Buddy Holly, and he decided to toss in as much about the 60’s as he could. As far as Mick telling what they lyrics are about, keep in mind that when asked what **the actual lyrics** to Brown Sugar are, he said, “God knows what I’m about on that one.” 😕 😕 😕 Whaaaaaaaa? You wrote the fucking lyrics, and you’ve been singing the fucking song in concert for 30 fucking years, so how the fuck could you not know what the fuck the lyrics are?!!? Fuck. ---
**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:** [September 22, 2002, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/10 "2002-09-22T18:32:25Z")
_LOL_ Don McLean won’t even say that much! One of his songs – was it called ‘Vincent’? – was about an artist who knew nobody ‘got’ him. If Mick wants to go on VH-1 Storytellers - then maybe he’ll tell the story. Bob Dylan isn’t gonna explain his songs. Don McLean isn’t going to say this lyric: in a coat he borrowed from James Dean and a voice that came from you and me is about Bob Dylan. Look at the cover of Bob Dylan’s first album - he’s wearing that rust colored jacket that James Dean wears in _Rebel Without a Cause_ ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2002, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/11 "2002-09-22T18:41:11Z")
Sounds like he interpreted the question as a request to EXPLAIN what he’s been singing for 30 years, whatever the interviewer’s intent was. Which puts me in mind of a quote attributed to Robert Browning when asked to explain a line in a poem he had written many years earlier - “Madam, when I wrote that line, God and Browning knew what it meant. Now only God knows.”. Of course, I don’t know if Browning was in the habit of giving recitations of that particular poem having forgotten exactly what he was on about. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2002, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/12 "2002-09-22T18:58:28Z")
BTW, the “James Dean” jacket was worn by Dylan on the cover of “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”, which was his second album. His first album, published a year earlier, was simply titled “Bob Dylan”, and shows him wearing a pile-lined winter coat: [http://www.eartothesound.fsnet.co.uk/bob/bobdylan.html](http://www.eartothesound.fsnet.co.uk/bob/bobdylan.html) Freewheeling: [http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?style=music&PID=1085214](http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?style=music&PID=1085214) Doesn’t change the relevence to the McLean lyric, of course. ---
**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:** [September 22, 2002, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/13 "2002-09-22T19:08:26Z")
What _is_ a troubadour? I know it’s a musician of a sort. The lyric of the song makes it sound like they’re storming the beach and Mick/Beelzebub is stopping them. Or is it just something that sounded good? And somewhat anti-british? One song I know and is about a Motel on Long Island is Memory Motel. It’s a Keith song. It’s pretty damn straightforward and features a nice duet between Keith and the other guy. The Memory Motel is still out there on Montauk, Long Island. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2002, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/14 "2002-09-22T19:12:05Z")
" … and shows him wearing a pile-lined winter coat …" At least that’s what it appears to be. I can’t find anything better than a thumbnail of the cover. Anyway, it’s “Freewheelin’” that evokes the James Dean image. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2002, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/15 "2002-09-22T19:18:12Z")
" … and shows him wearing a pile-lined winter coat …" At least that’s what it appears to be. I can’t find anything better than a thumbnail of the cover. Anyway, it’s “Freewheelin’” that evokes the James Dean image. ---
**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:** [September 22, 2002, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/16 "2002-09-22T19:36:30Z")
Argh. It’s his second album ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’ and ATM I can only provide a link with a smallish image. [http://www.discographynet.com/dylan/bdtfbd.html](http://www.discographynet.com/dylan/bdtfbd.html) That is a cool album cover. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2002, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/17 "2002-09-22T19:37:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Corbomite \* > **What _is_ a troubadour? I know it’s a musician of a sort. The lyric of the song makes it sound like they’re storming the beach and Mick/Beelzebub is stopping them.** From [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com) : > [@](#): > > ## trou·ba·dour Pronunciation Key (trb-dôr, -dr, -dr) n. One of a class of 12th-century and 13th-century lyric poets in Southern France, northern Italy, and northern Spain, who composed songs in langue d’oc often about courtly love. A strolling minstrel. > > [French, from Provençal trobador, from Old Provençal, from trobar, to compose, perhaps from Vulgar Latin \*tropre, from Late Latin tropus, trope, song, from Latin, trope. See trope.] As far as the meaning goes, it is about European hippies that decided that a trip to India was \* so cool, man\*, packed everything they had in the VW van or hitchhiked there, only to be imprisoned for drug use/trafficking, die from overdose, killed by bandits/diseases, joined a cult, etc. on the way there. ---
**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:** [September 22, 2002, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/18 "2002-09-22T19:44:11Z")
I was at least right about the French origins. That Microbus encountered traps before it reached Bombay. ---
**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:** [September 22, 2002, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/19 "2002-09-22T19:51:41Z")
Duh. Missed your post **yabob** I _want_ that “pile-lined winter coat” ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2002, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068/20 "2002-09-22T20:46:47Z")
The song ‘Vincent’ isn’t about ‘some artist the people didn’t get’ - it’s about Vincent Van Gogh. “Starry Starry Night” is a reference to “Starry Night”, one of Van Gogh’s more well-known paintings. I think “Vincent” might be a superior song to “American Pie”, although both of them are great. And Don McLean should have had a much more popular career than he has. The man has a gift. As for Jagger, I believe he has an undergrad degree in economics, and studied at the London School of Economics, as someone else pointed out. He is NOT a stupid man. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-behind-the-lyrics-to-the-rolling-stones-sympathy-for-the-devil/129068.md?page=2)