Watch The Rolling Stones debut ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ in 1968 #fec #rollingstones #fyp #fypage

By: Tyler Golsen Mainstream British culture had become well-acquainted with The Rolling Stones by 1968. The blues rockers had taken on the image of ‘The World’s Most Dangerous Band’ by this point, giving music fans a more ragged and edgy alternative to The Beatles. At their core, the Stones were no more than a bunch of art school students leaning into their love of black American blues artists. But for a contingent of the British general public, the Stones were truly something to be feared. A notorious 1967 drug bust at Keith Richards’ Redlands home solidified the outlaw image of the band. Never ones to lean away from attention, the Stones had the perfect retort ready to go by the following year. Even though it had nothing to do with their personal lives or public image, ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ was made with the understanding of how the outside world viewed The Rolling Stones in the late 1960s. “That was taken from an old idea of Baudelaire’s, I think, but I could be wrong,” Mick Jagger told Rolling Stone in 1995. “Sometimes when I look at my Baudelaire books, I can’t see it in there. But it was an idea I got from French writing. And I just took a couple of lines and expanded on it. I wrote it as sort of like a Bob Dylan song.” “Before, we were just innocent kids out for a good time, they’re saying, ‘They’re evil, they’re evil.’ Oh, I’m evil, really? So that makes you start thinking about evil … What is evil?” Richards told Rolling Stone in 1971. “Half of it, I don’t know how many people think of Mick as the devil or as just a good rock performer or what? There are black magicians who think we are acting as unknown agents of Lucifer and others who think we are Lucifer. Everybody’s Lucifer.” The band had completed the recording of ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ in early June 1968. The song’s accompanying album, Beggars Banquet, wouldn’t be released until December of that year, but the Stones decided to preview ‘Sympathy’ for British television audiences a month early. In November, the band made an appearance on Frost on Saturday, a news programme hosted by David Frost. The performance, which also featured percussionist Rocky Dijon, was recorded at the tail end of Brian Jones’ involvement with the band. The entire band mimes to the pre-recorded backing track, with Jones giving some flamboyant flourishes to Nicky Hopkins’ piano part. Jagger is the only one playing live, singing his vocal in real-time while the rest of the band make varying attempts to look like they’re playing along. For most of the performance, Richards simply sits and plays a tambourine, only picking up his Gibson Les Paul to bash out his brief solo.