This song has helped me through one of the worst crises of my life. It helped me so much. Therefore a 10. I love this song.
Agreed on the 10 rate, and the feeling/meaning of this song is/was important to me even before Forest Gump.
It's too bad when good becomes overplayed and therefore somehow bad. I respect those who just don't like it; for those who've just heard it too many times not so much.
Call me a clueless rube, if you will, but it 's difficult to appreciate the depth, soul and intelligence of Bob Dylan's lyrics and music with that horrendously painful voice.
That's part of his brilliance! How should one sound when pouring their soul? Peace
Your comment sounds like so many other comments on every single song in this gosh darn Radio Paradise thing.
I think this sounds very Stone Roses-ish. The singer sounds exactly like Ian Brown, and the guitar sounds just like something John Squire would do. In fact, I don't think this sounds like anything other than the Stone Roses. And even if I did, I can't imagine anyone would find it the least bit interesting to hear my opinion on who else it may sound like!
....but sometimes a band is influenced by other bands, and on purpose try to sound like them. What's the harm in saying you hear those influences?
Wow, I'm honestly surprised at the low avg rating of this track. Other than the harmonica, I would have thought this would have an average of at least 7.5. Oh well, I suppose different strokes for different folks.
This is one of my 11s, of which I have 11 (11 happens to be my number)
When Bob dies, assuming I'm still kicking, his funeral will be the only celebrity funeral I'll want to attend. Long live BobD, BillG and RebeccaG!
There's an extensive Wikipedia article on Bulgakov's novel, with external references to where you can read the book online or download it. Like yourself, I've not managed to read the thing myself, but it is on my To Read list.
Thanks! The book is great, and knowing more analysis is available is awesome.
I think you miss the point. It's from the point of view of the devil saying 'Don't blame me. You did it all yourselves.' and yet he seems to take all the rap for man's crimes with religious nut-jobs first in the queue to point the finger. Meanwhile their own god gives children cancer.
Just as every cop is a criminal And all the sinners saints As heads is tails Just call me Lucifer 'Cause I'm in need of some restraint (Who who, who who)
He's saying god and Lucifer are one and the same.
Tell me baby, what's my name Tell me honey, can ya guess my name Tell me baby, what's my name I tell you one time, you're to blame
It's not the devil to blame for all the ills in the world. Jagger is saying the line from those who are religious is nonsense, blaming an imaginary devil for the ills when the real culprits are human beings.
The title of the song - Sympathy For the Devil, he has sympathy because he gets blamed for a helluva lot when the real blame lies at the door of people.
Not that I think for one minute Jagger is religious, but is using this topic as an allegory.
Awesome rebuttal! Read The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov, then the song means even more!
... I truly think that there is a saturation point. When you know every note by heart, there are no more surprises. Time to move along, nothing more to see here. ...
colt4x5 wrote:
The best music keeps revealing new values as you experience it in your new frames of mind and reference. It's only second-tier work that wears out.
@Colt4x5 - you're so right about finding new things - especially true when one has an excellent set of speakers/phones.
Your still missed Joe! thanks for the music memories!
True that! I was only a kid back in the day (early 80s) when my dad partied with Cocker in Carpinteria, CA. And yes, late 70s/early 80s parties did include the Peruvian dancing dust.
And a few years before good old Joe left us, my wife and I got to see him live at a local casino, which I rate way up there with the smaller venue shows we've seen. He had a great energy and was literally spitting it out like a blessed madman. He was awesome!
My other favorite memory of this is because of the Huey Lewis character in Duets hustling fools with his pre-made karaoke disk. I met a real life example of this character during my 7 year post-college partying stretch (because 7 years of in college partying wasn't enough) when I started going to smaller bars than bigger clubs. Anyways, the guy's name was Rick and he absolutely LOVED this song. He sang all the common covers, esp the Duets cover. He NEVER sang the original Traffic version though, and his reasoning was interesting. Basically, he said that it was such a great song that he just got too damn excited while singing it to make it through perfectly. And that's exactly how Cocker's version sounds to me.
What an amazingly complex soundscape. I just heard this an a high end sound system and I was truly impressed. I totally overlooked it up until now.
So true!
Also, this song is a perfect example of how context while listening can really change the meaning...either having a house party or a pre-game/test/whatev listening to get jamming...this tune rocks!
Interesting viewpoints.
Politics: A show... behind the curtains lurk the wizards. Dorothy and Toto are worried about witches and the Wizard gives them hope... until they see that he was always a charlatan and the solution was in front of them all along.
The ONLY reason politicians have so much power is that we GIVE them power.
War. Why do YOU fight? WHO do you fight? Is it your wife? Is it your boss? Is it your father? Does it make a difference whether it's Germans, Japs, Russians or Islamic extremists? Not really. War is war. Ready to kill in the name of Right. Ready to slam someone because they wronged you.
So when a thief makes a grab for something that's 'yours', do you hurt them?
When you stand with THE POWER OF YOUR SOUL (or your spirit or your true self or your best character... fill in the blank) the thief can't harm you. They are only stealing from themselves. This is the only way to end war (be who your are with compassion for others). They can't actually take something real from you.
Freedom is what it always comes down to. Look at all the Chinese who are pissed off at the West right now because their idea of Freedom is different from ours!
The best thing each of us can do is look out for our own freedom and let others do the same... sending armies in rarely helps. Of course there are extreme exceptions (liberating the concentration camps in Nazi Germany), but by and large, military 'solutions' don't work.
Sound hippie-liberal? It's not. Sound Christian fundamentalist? It's not. It's just true.
The politicians are always making a grab for this or that. They think their 'village' is in need. Whether their 'village' is the board of directors of Haliburton or some small town in Idaho, taking from others to give them what they 'need' is still a form of war. 'Protecting' them from the grabs of 'others' is war as well.
Look. The musicians we are talking about are only pointing out the pain that comes from all these mistakes. They are singing about looking above all this...
...and so we talk and think and feel. Thank God for Texas.
Steve
I've been listening to JJ more than normal lately. I find his music to be perfect in the morning, to help pick up the pace to get out the door on time.
I just love how laid back his groove is.
I'm wouldn't have thought people would give this a 1, 2 or 3. I'm ashamed that this song only has an average rating of 7.
Keep on singin Janis. If there's an afterlife, I hope you still can sing the blues there.
Agreed on the 10 rate, and the feeling/meaning of this song is/was important to me even before Forest Gump.
It's too bad when good becomes overplayed and therefore somehow bad. I respect those who just don't like it; for those who've just heard it too many times not so much.
That's part of his brilliance! How should one sound when pouring their soul?
Peace
Wow, I'm honestly surprised at the low avg rating of this track. Other than the harmonica, I would have thought this would have an average of at least 7.5. Oh well, I suppose different strokes for different folks.
This is one of my 11s, of which I have 11 (11 happens to be my number)
When Bob dies, assuming I'm still kicking, his funeral will be the only celebrity funeral I'll want to attend. Long live BobD, BillG and RebeccaG!
There's an extensive Wikipedia article on Bulgakov's novel, with external references to where you can read the book online or download it. Like yourself, I've not managed to read the thing myself, but it is on my To Read list.
Thanks! The book is great, and knowing more analysis is available is awesome.
I think you miss the point. It's from the point of view of the devil saying 'Don't blame me. You did it all yourselves.' and yet he seems to take all the rap for man's crimes with religious nut-jobs first in the queue to point the finger. Meanwhile their own god gives children cancer.
Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners saints
As heads is tails
Just call me Lucifer
'Cause I'm in need of some restraint
(Who who, who who)
He's saying god and Lucifer are one and the same.
Tell me baby, what's my name
Tell me honey, can ya guess my name
Tell me baby, what's my name
I tell you one time, you're to blame
It's not the devil to blame for all the ills in the world. Jagger is saying the line from those who are religious is nonsense, blaming an imaginary devil for the ills when the real culprits are human beings.
The title of the song - Sympathy For the Devil, he has sympathy because he gets blamed for a helluva lot when the real blame lies at the door of people.
Not that I think for one minute Jagger is religious, but is using this topic as an allegory.
Awesome rebuttal!
Read The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov, then the song means even more!
bronorb wrote:
Time to move along, nothing more to see here. ...
The best music keeps revealing new values as you experience it in your new frames of mind and reference.
It's only second-tier work that wears out.
@Colt4x5 - you're so right about finding new things - especially true when one has an excellent set of speakers/phones.
True that! I was only a kid back in the day (early 80s) when my dad partied with Cocker in Carpinteria, CA. And yes, late 70s/early 80s parties did include the Peruvian dancing dust.
And a few years before good old Joe left us, my wife and I got to see him live at a local casino, which I rate way up there with the smaller venue shows we've seen. He had a great energy and was literally spitting it out like a blessed madman. He was awesome!
My other favorite memory of this is because of the Huey Lewis character in Duets hustling fools with his pre-made karaoke disk. I met a real life example of this character during my 7 year post-college partying stretch (because 7 years of in college partying wasn't enough) when I started going to smaller bars than bigger clubs. Anyways, the guy's name was Rick and he absolutely LOVED this song. He sang all the common covers, esp the Duets cover. He NEVER sang the original Traffic version though, and his reasoning was interesting. Basically, he said that it was such a great song that he just got too damn excited while singing it to make it through perfectly. And that's exactly how Cocker's version sounds to me.
So true!
Also, this song is a perfect example of how context while listening can really change the meaning...either having a house party or a pre-game/test/whatev listening to get jamming...this tune rocks!