Get The FunderCast Direct to Your Device Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Pandora | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | TuneIn | Deezer | RSS | More
“It has a very hypnotic groove, a samba, which has a tremendous hypnotic power, rather like good dance music. It doesn’t speed up or slow down. It keeps this constant groove. Plus, the actual samba rhythm is a great one to sing on, but it’s also got some other suggestions in it, an undercurrent of being primitive. Because it is a primitive African, South American, Afro-whatever-you-call-that rhythm.”What are we talkin’ about here?
Obviously a song. But what song? There are basically countless songs to choose from that fit that description. And so many of them entice your toes to tap, your fingers to snap, and your heart to chance a little dance.
But this particular hypnotic groove is asking for a little sympathy.
Well, if you care about your fellow man (aka: love your neighbor as yourself), then it’s probably easy to prepare to offer sympathy. Especially if it can help ease someone’s pain and suffering. Right?
Yeah, fair enough. But the hypnotic groove I refer to, here, isn’t asking for sympathy for your neighbor or fellow man. Far from it.
In fact, the lyrics request sympathy for the one who has NO sympathy for you, me, or any human being. Rather ironic, to say the least.
The song, with the so-called hypnotic groove, takes the first person narrative perspective. And the “person” it represents is your most dangerous enemy. The one who wants your soul to endure eternal torment in a place so awful that mere words fail to thoroughly describe it.
Does that sound like someone you wanna show sympathy?
I don’t.
But Mick Jagger (and possibly Keith Richards) thought there might be reason enough to show Sympathy For The Devil. So, way back in 1968 they recorded the song with that title.
Actually, on a certain level, their lyrics revealed truth.
Of course, that truth is overshadowed by the songwriter’s bias. But the overall concept is that Lucifer, or Satan, or the Devil, was around for all the worst atrocities in history. And that’s basically true.
But take this verse, for example:
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
I don’t take issue with any of those lyrics except the word, doubt. So, some truth peppered with some misinformation. Then, some blame game lyrics that lack wisdom:
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?”
Well, 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 troubadours
Who get killed before they reach Bombay.
Yes, humans are to blame for much of the evil in this world. But individually. Not corporately. You commit your crimes and sins. And I commit mine. So, somebody “killed the Kennedys.” But it wasn’t you. And it wasn’t me. Also, the devil is not a man. So, he has no wealth and taste. Unless you count the souls he’s destroyed as wealth and his attention to chaos, confusion, and corruption as taste.
After all of my sort of negative review, here’s a curve ball for you.
I enjoy the percussive, samba beat to the song. And the instrumentation, too. I’ve never been a fan of Mick’s vocals. So, even if the song wasn’t peppered with bias and misinformation, it still wouldn’t be hit material in my world. Clear up those lyrical problems and insert Michael McDonald’s voice or Kenny Loggins voice, and then you got the goods.
And I most likely wouldn’t have talked about this song at all except it popped up on my radar, that it’s Mick Jagger’s 80th birthday. I don’t know this for a fact, but my guess is the 80 year old Mick probably still has the same perspective as the 25 year old Mick. I hope, for his sake, that he comes to realize his misplaced sympathy. And wouldn’t it be cool if he came up with a hypnotic groove for the One who will defeat the devil once and for all?
Yeah, it’s enjoyable to daydream.
Before you go, share this link with everybody you know. Tell ’em to jump on the The FunderFlash AND get some music and other good stuff, for Fa-Ree.
Stay tuned,
