by Adam Mincks

Created on: November 24, 2010

In 1968, the Stones kissed goodbye to hippy-dippy psychedelia and got back to what they did best: being the dirtiest, nastiest, bluesiest rock and roll band in the world.  After the disappointment that greeted "Their Satanic Majesties' Request" (which I happen to quite like, actually), their attempt at "Sgt. Pepper", the Stones, much like the Beatles would later do, got back to where they once belonged.  They hired a new producer in Jimmy Miller, who would stick with the band during their impressive run of albums and singles from 1968-73, and got back to the rock, blues, and country sounds that they loved, that they bonded over, that inspired them.  The first fruit of this re-birth was the landmark single "Jumpin' Jack Flash", one of their greatest singles releases, and a taste of what was to come on "Beggar's Banquet", their first front-to-back perfect album, but also sadly the last album to feature any kind of significant input from the Stones' talented but fragile lead guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones.  The events of 1967 (involving copious amounts of drug use and a drug bust) had left the already fragile Jones in an even more emotionally fraught state, meaning he wasn't as creative or as active in the group's artistic process as he once was.  In a year's time, Jones would become a rock and roll casualty, drowning in his own swimming pool at age twenty-seven.  But before all of this tragedy, was triumph, and "Beggar's Banquet" was a triumphant comeback of sorts for the Stones.

One of the band's most notorious tunes and also one of their undisputed masterpieces, "Sympathy for the Devil", kicks off "Beggar's Banquet".  A dark, funky, Latin American-tinged groover, "Sympathy" was Mick under the influence of Bob Dylan, playing Satan himself, proudly taking credit for many of history's great tragedies (the Passion of the Christ; the Russian Revolution; the Kennedy assassinations; the Crusades; World War II).  From the chilling opening line ("Please allow me to introduce myself/I'm a man of wealth and taste") onwards, the song casts an evil, hypnotic spell on the listener, even after all this time.  Over an uncomfortably dance-able groove set by some congas and Charlie Watts' steady beat, Nicky Hopkins adds a disturbingly upbeat piano line; Bill Wyman plays maracas; Jagger, Richards, and Miller sing the unsettling, never-ending falsetto "woo woo"'s; and Richards lays down a killer bass line and guitar solo.

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