One of the Rolling Stones’ most controversial hits is “Sympathy for the Devil,” which is appropriate since controversial writers inspired the song. “Sympathy for the Devil” is one of the best rock songs about the devil. Timely, Mick Jagger cited two authors known for writing about satanic as influences on the track.
The poet who inspired the Rolling Stones ‘Sympathy for the Devil’
From the beginning, some viewed rock ‘n’ roll as satanic. “Sympathy for the devil” goes the extra mile by really being about the devil. Interestingly, the origins of the song are well known.
“I think it was taken from an old idea of [Charles] Baudelaire, I think, but I could be wrong, “Jagger told Rolling Stone in 1995.” Sometimes when I look at my Baudelaire books I can’t see it there. But it was an idea I got from French writing. And I just took a couple of lines and expanded them. I wrote it as a kind of Bob Dylan song. “
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Baudelaire was a French author who translated some of Edgar Allan Poe’s works into French. Furthermore, Baudelaire wrote a controversial book of poems called The flowers of Evil. One of the poems in the book is called “The Litanies of Satan”, a poem that twists elements of Catholicism into something satanic. Baudelaire also wrote a poem called “The Generous Gambler” that features the devil as a character. The Rolling Stones’ book Beggars Banquet and the Rock and Roll Revolution says Jagger cited this poem as an inspiration for “Sympathy for the Devil”.
The novel about Satan that inspired ‘Sympathy for the devil’
However, Baudelaire was not the only writer to influence “Sympathy for the Devil”. Mikhail Bulgakov, another famous author who wrote about the devil, is famous for his novel. The teacher and daisy. The book is about Satan visiting the officially atheistic Soviet Union.
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According to the book A Reader’s Companion to Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, Marianne Faithfull gave Jagger a copy of The teacher and daisy in 1966. The novel had recently been published in English at the time. The book Beggars Banquet and the Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Revolution says The teacher and daisy influenced Jagger while writing “Sympathy for the Devil”. Both of them The teacher and daisy and “Sympathy and the Devil” portray Satan as a wealthy knight.
The role of the film that Mick Jagger never played
Jagger then had a girlfriend named Jerry Hall. Hall heard about a possible film adaptation of The teacher and daisy. Hall felt that Jagger should have a role in it as The teacher and daisy It was his favorite book. Jagger never appeared in such a film, but he certainly drew more attention to the classic writings of Baudelaire and Bulgakov.
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