Beggars Banquet - "Sympathy For The Devil" & "No Expectations" Album Reaction (Part 1)
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- čas přidán 29. 05. 2023
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![ROLLING STONES -- SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL [REACTION/ANALYSIS]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/8ppEoK5WVok/mqdefault.jpg)
Look up the hippy trail of the 1960’s. That’s what he’s referring to in “I laid traps for troubadours “
Keith played bass as well as guitar, a fact often overlooked. Nicky Hopkins, best rock piano player of the period.
One of my favorite all time albums. Incredible songs and musicianship. To me, this is when the Stones really became the Stones.
Well put Scotty ❗🎵 Agree. Such a great ERA.
Piano played by Nicky Hopkins. A really great album you're getting into, Syed.
No Expectations is a beautiful track and Brian's swan song of sorts with the group.
We can't forget about Bill Wyman on that bass. Beggars Banquet is the best album they've recorded in my opinion
Or Brian Jones... 😉 His slide on No Expectations or his percussion on Jimi Hendrix's All Along the Watchtower or his Sax playing on the Beatles You Know My Name or ...well you get the picture 😏
Keith Richards played bass on this track.
Keith plays bass on "Sympathy", and he's always great at it.
@@scottlbroco He also played bass on one of my favorite songs featuring Mick Taylor, "Hide Your Love."
@@podgornik Yes, that's a good one that I sometimes overlook. J J Flash, Street Fighting Man, Casino Boogie, Happy, If You Can't Rock Me, Some Girls , ... so many.
The man was born to be a musician; not every musician is.
Now you are talking, Buckle Up Syed, one of the very best rock albums, certainly in their top 3 for me. Ditching psychedelia and back to basic brilliance, Enjoy! 🎵🎸🎤🎸🎶
one of the great albums.
Bulgakov’s “Master and Margarita” is a great book. The satiric retelling of the Faust legend in Soviet Russia is hysterical
Stones are top 3,,,,,glad you like them. 💥💥💥👍😎
Woo,,,woo,,,,👹
No Expectations is a great song. Glad to see you're listening to some full albums, man.
African percussion. Well written. Keith Richards classic guitar riff...screeching on the guitar was the best guitar playing he has done on a track along with "Gimme Shelter."
Sympathy is such an infamous song. So much has been said. Only the Stones could write this song at the time and have it be accepted as commercially viable. It was a monster! Keith on fire!! No Expectations draws upon old Blues ( Railroad music ) Ronnie Wood, Brian Jones' replacement, will bring back the slide guitar brilliantly on Far Away Eyes, 10 years later.
From "Beggars Banquet" to "Exile on Main Street" the Stones were at the peak of their creative powers. While I love Ronnie Wood's playing, the Mick Taylor years were their peak.
Totally agree, Mick's solo on Dead Flowers to me is still one of the best guitar solos I've ever heard and there are many great ones from the legends like Hendrix, Clapton, Page etc.
Mick Taylor had a good grounding in John Mayall's Blues Breakers.
But Mick Taylor had nothing to do with Beggars, and his involvement was extremely minimal on Let it Bleed-only playing on “Live with Me” and “Country Honk.”
Yes but great solo from Keith
@@Dan-zq5wt all the sources I can find have Mick Taylor doing the Dead Flowers solo and it certainly sounds like Mick and not Keef.
Country blues on slide acoustic guitar, music that originated in the Mississippi Delta in the 1930's and was brought back to our attention by the Stones, among other Brits.
So good that you're doing "Beggars Banquet", an album which is often considered to be the start of the Stones' incredible run followed by "Let It Bleed", "Sticky Fingers" und "Exile on Main St.". All four of them a 10/10 for me.
I've always loved their witty, raw and rebellious nature in songwriting, especially on songs like "Sympathy for the Devil" and see them, Jagger and Richards in that case, pretty underrated as well in terms of their created narrative.
My conclusion is, after all these years listening to them, that this duo doesn't need to be standing behind Lennon/McCartney, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, John Fogerty, Joni Mitchell, Chuck Berry, Ray Davies and more A+ songwriters.
Yes❗ Well put. Such great talent you just listed.
Marvin, you are correct, sir. The greatest of all the greatest songwriters in rock and roll history is the team of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.
Two great songs. This is my third favorite Stones album. I think it’s their best lyrics album, overall. There are some really interesting characters and perspectives yet to come.
Anastasia was a daughter of the tsar. She was killed with his family in the communist revolution. Look up the black hole of Calcutta, the 100 years war. There's a reason The Beatles and The Stones were the best groups out of England in the sixties. Agree with you that Mick and Keith were great songwriters.
To add just a bit about Anastasia: for a long time rumors abounded that Anastasia had survived when the rest of the Tsar's family had been executed by the Bolsheviks. So her "scream in vain" indicates that she, in fact, did not survive. A Devilish thing, for sure. The other indication that the song was an indictment of all of humanity, not just the devil, is the line "I shouted out, who killed the Kennedy's, but after all, it was you and me." Maybe human beings just blame this figure of The Devil for our own evil natures
I just read an article regarding an AI program rewriting this song. It wasn't nearly half as good!
p.s. Mick for sure, and probably Keith, was raised in the upper class, well educated, well read.
@jordimoore2167 Absolutely not upper class! Post WW2 Dartford was already going downhill towards one of most multiple deprivation areas of UK. Very ordinary homes. They met and went to each other's birthday parties at nursery and primary school. Jagger passed 11-Plus and got to Dartford Grammar School when state funded and brilliant, superior to private schools of the time. Richards to secondary modern sink school where he excelled in choir (sang at QE2 coronation) which made the school look good but meant he missed classes so failed O-Levels and CSEs - he resented that being used ever afterwards.
The percussion in this era is all the influence of their producer, Jimmy Miller. He's a brilliant drummer and percussionist. He also brought in the bongo player Rocky Dijon.
When this album first came out I bought it, and played it over and over …..couldn’t get enough of it. The start of a great run of albums for The Stones. .
One of my favorite albums by the Stones- it’s very eclectic. Really enjoy your reactions and commentary. Can’t wait to hear more from this album.
Wow, now this was an unexpected development! Syed, you're now diving deep into the greatest period of music the Rolling Stones have ever made. (Or any rock and roll artist, in my opinion!)
Beggars Banquet, along with the standalone "Jumpin' Jack Flash" single that preceded it, is the point when the Stones reached maturity as a band, when their evolution into the musical identity that they've since been known as was complete.
The Stones had worked almost non stop touring and recording from 1964 to 1967, building success. While on the road, Keith Richards bought tons of blues and country albums, and in 1967, he finally had a chance to listen to all of them. That inspired the direction that he led the band in making this album.
"Sympathy for the Devil", in its original form was written by Mick Jagger, who was inspired by Bob Dylan's song, "Desolation Row". It began as a slow acoustic guitar based song, but the Stones couldn't breathe any life into it. Keith imagined the bass riff that would be underneath the guitar chords and he realized the song would come alive if they made it into a samba. On the foundational recording, Keith plays the bass, Charlie on drums, Bill on shaker, Mick on a bongo, Brian on an (inaudible) acoustic guitar, and the great Nicky Hopkins plays the piano that is the centerpiece of the music.
Keith later overdubbed a brilliant electric guitar solo. He could have been one of rock's greatest ever lead guitarists, instead he chose to become rock's greatest ever rhythm guitarist. Mick's brilliant lead vocal and the backing vocals by all 5 Rolling Stones and Mick's and Keith's girlfriends were overdubbed onto the the finished music.
"No Expectations" is a beautiful country ballad, done not as as an imitation of country blues music, but authentically, as the Stones would continue to do with other types of music. In 1969, the phrase "the greatest rock and roll band in the world" began being used to describe them, in part because they were so versatile.
Brian Jones, guitarist and harmonica player, founded the band, chose the members and the band's name, and was their original leader before the Jagger/Richards partnership usurped control from him. He plays a beautiful acoustic slide guitar on this song. Sadly, he began fading from the band for good on this album. This is his final gigantic contribution to a Rolling Stones song.
Bravo, Syed! You're going to love this album!
Great narration you just wrote Scott ❗ Are you a Music writer❓🎵 Your critique and info was SPOT ON. Thank you.
@@elisaabolafia9542 Thank you, Elisa, I appreciate your kind words. I was a journalism major in college, and I've been a writer ever since.
When I was 10 years old in 1971, a radio station dj gave a lecture about current rock music in my school's auditorium. I'd never heard music so clear and so loud before, and I was mesmerized.
The dj said, "I've saved the best for last, and here's the brand new single by the greatest rock and roll band in the world!" I was stunned as I heard "Brown Sugar" for the first time and I fell instantly in love with the music of the Rolling Stones.
I earned all the money I could and bought the album's "Hot Rocks" and "Sticky Fingers". Within a year, I also got "Beggars Banquet", "Let it Bleed" and "Get Yer Ya Ya's Out", and got "Exile On Main Street" for Christmas.
I also started reading everything I could about the Stones, and I still do. I know it's only rock and roll, but...
.
Sublime track
You are the most intuitive and understanding reviewer on CZcams. Man you get it. Smart analysis and you really get what’s going on inside these tracks.
Troubadours and trouvères were often more than poets, but wandering minstrels in the middle ages, trying to live off their compositions.
There was a club in Los Angeles called Troubadour that started with the folk scene, but got slowly overtaken by the burgeoning rock-
psychedelic scene of the latter part of the 60's.
Stones fan since 1964, really appreciate you reviews.
Troubadour >>>>a French medieval lyric poet composing and singing in Provençal in the 11th to 13th centuries, especially on the theme of courtly love and most European medieval societies had them......Their exist in the 20th Century Troubadour: Bob Dylan. Jackson Brown. Tom Petty. Stevie Nicks(female version of a Troubadour). Dave Matthew. Don McLean.
Yes, that is true, but why were they killed before they reached Bombay?
@@Pepeekeo808 It's a reference to the Thugee cult in India, who were said to be like highwaymen who robbed and killed travellers.
Troubadours are singers also. They used to travel around and entertain people for food and a place to sleep usually. Yes, and write poems about the happenings and people of the kingdom. Singers are troubadors.
Yes, that is true, but why were they killed before they reached Bombay?
Well put Sidney. I knew that already ,but nice description for Syed to know. Thanks.
Yes!! Been waiting for you to listen to this masterpiece 🥳
This whole album review format is great. I’ve listened to this and other Stones albums a bazillion times but I really appreciated your reactions. Now go do their next three albums (although you’ve done A LOT of Sticky Fingers already!).
Nicky Hopkins on piano holding it all together.
An English journalist, looking back years later, called Beggar's Banquet "the beginning of their Imperial Years"....
The initial lyrics was "who killed Kennedy" but then Bobby Kennedy was assassinated while they were working on the song, so it was changed to "who killed the Kennedys."
A brilliant album - it still sounds fresh and unique today. And I totally agree with you re: songwriting - Jagger / Richards deserve as much credit as Lennon / McCartney IMO.
There's a documentary filming the recording of Sympathy for the Devil, I believe by Jean-Luc Godard. Saw it in 1970's so my memory of it is a little hazy, but I remember being surprised that most of the instruments were not played by the Stones. I don't believe that's Bill Wyman playing bass. I remember all of the Stones getting together to sing the " woo-woos " into one microphone. I need to see it again to see if my memory is correct.
You are incorrect. Nicky Hopkins on piano, a percussionist and all 5 Stones on the various instruments.
@@scottlbroco Well, it's been 50 years since I've seen the documentary so my memory is faulty on the details, but I remember Keith playing the bass and Charlie Watts not playing drums. In any case, this is an iconic Stones song for the ages. Have you seen the movie? I need to check it out again just to see how faulty my memory is ( I do remember Nicky Hopkins on the piano ).
@@johnsilva9139 Hi, John. Charlie does play the main drums on this song, but they may have been more like bongo type drums on which he used sticks, I just can't remember. Bill, Mick and an additional percussionist added to the infectious rhythm; and of course, Keith's bass is the second most important instrument in this song after Nicky Hopkins' stellar piano.
I did see the film, originally titled "One Plus One", and later changed to the title "Sympathy for the Devil".
Brilliant creative process that resulted in one of the greatest rock songs ever.
Troubadoes who reached Bombay could be a reference to the Beatles sojourn to India in 1967. Morocco, Afghanistan and India were way stations on the hippie trail in the sixties
One of the Stones best LP's. Your first time hearing "No Expectations - an experienced to be envied.
_Thanks Nicky!_
Sympathy just hits the mark, in regards to the dark side. We all have that darker side and so relate to the draw, much as we "may" try to bury it.
I often wonder what happened overnight, at the home of Mick or Keith. Because on Day 1 we see this song more like a Folk dirge, with all acoustic guitars; and a slow back beat. On Day 2 Keith takes over on Bass, Bill on shaker, Rocky on Congas. Nicky on piano - the feel completely shifts.
This is the Stones vindication... before this, they were referred to as the bad boy beatles😊
Nicky Hopkins on piano...just sayin':)
I'll never forget as a kid sitting in my dad's truck. I was just getting into rock music and this song happened to be on the local rock station (94.1) and at just about the same point that you did, he called out the bass and had me listen for it. It was the first time i listened specifically for the bass and it opened my ears and mind in a way I can't even explain.
100% agreed on the lyric writing. Don't sleep on Keith though. He's responsible for some great lyrics as well. I can't wait til you get to Salt of the Earth and You Got the Silver. SO GOOD!
Thats the Stones locomotion train getting up a head of steam going down the track , they alway increase in intensity as move along ...
NoExpectations involve a laptop steel guitar with a slide. This guitar is tuned to the base chord of the song
Possibly my favorite Stones album. Epic.
100% agree with Syed’s comment about Mick Jagger as a lyricist. I think he’s on par with Bob Dylan not only for his brilliant allusions, but also his wry sense of humor and he’s also very evocative, even poetic sometimes. Mick Jagger is a brilliant man.
This is the Stones at the start of their incredible run of albums up to and including Exile on Main Street, although for me the run starts with a North American release called December's Children" and includes another one called Flowers... but most people diss the North American releases and also Their Satanic Majesties Request, which I also love, and so start the run with Beggar's Banquet.
Both "December's Children" and "Flowers" weren't official albums, but were instead compilations by their record label of songs left off of their U.S. album releases. These songs were previously on the complete U.K. albums.
Beginning with "Satanic Majesty's Request", their U.S. albums were identical in content to their U.K. albums.
@@scottlbroco pretty much what I said... the albums released in the North American market and elsewhere were different for a while.. many people diss the North American releases, and many people diss Satanic Majesties. Many of us like these albums that others diss.
@@1967PONTIACGTO Gotcha, I misunderstood you. I prefer a mix of both. I much prefer the U.S. "Aftermath" album because it has "Paint it Black", and I prefer the U.S. "Between the Buttons" album because it has "Let's Spend the Night Together" and "Ruby Tuesday". Without those 2 songs, it's much weaker imo. I think it's their most overrated album, it lacks their typical edginess.
And I think "Goats Head Soup" is their most underrated album. Both Micks are great on that one, though Keith's presence is too light for me.
I appreciate your Stones reactions as not to many people really understand their greatness. They have never been the most popular or technically superior band but to us Stones fans as a group they were always the best.
Perfect album to start with, this is where The Stones began to define their own unique sound. And it was quite a run from Beggar's Banquet to Some Girls imo. I like their later albums from Emotional Rescue to Bridges To Babylon but they don't have the same magic. The Stones began to get more into 'a formula' and away from experimentation after the Some Girls album imo.
great bass on SWTD.
i always smile when i hear the line about Pilate washing his hands and sealing his fate. that bastard. i hate that guy
Saw the Stones in 82, 88, and 03, long after Brian’s death. His slide-playing was beautiful and this song is one of my all time favorites. The line “As I watch you leaving me you pack my peace of mind” is one that hit me like a sledgehammer after the break up of my own 25 year marriage. Great work with the analysis brother. (Although I always looked at “your heart is like a diamond” as to mean HARD. Like a diamond is the hardest mineral?) I think it’s about Anita Pallenberg: Brian’s girlfriend who was stolen away by Keith. 🤷🏻❤️🫡
his is a great idea - hopping back and forth between classic albums - it certainly keeps me on the hook for more videos! Please put Neil Young's "Tonight's the Night" - in your rotation. It is as harrowing and dark as anything in the annals of rock and roll. A singular album built around the overdose deaths of one of Neil's band mates and a roadie. A unforgettable document.
The best story about Brian Jones: "he came to the studio and asked what can i play? yes what can you play brian?"
Pearls before swine; giving to people who don't deserve what you have to offer.
Soulsavers did a great cover of No Expectations on their first album with Mark Lanegan. I highly recommend.
The next reaction should be fun as Dear Doctor introduces you to the firmly tongue-in-cheek country songs that the Stones loved to do. And, if it's a two-song reaction again, you'll get Parachute Woman which will give you the dirty Stones you seem to like. Great stuff, Syed, love your reactions. So fun, yet so very thoughtful. Thanks!
I love No Expectations. It’s so mournful and moving.
Don't underestimate Keith Richards as part of that song writing team, while MJ was brilliant with words, Keith was as brilliant with the sounds and the mood and both contributed enough in the other part of the song and the other members of the band too
If you subscribe to the "less-is-more" beauty of minimalist art, as I do, "Sympathy for the Devil" delivers two of the greatest guitar solos in rock history. And again, great reaction.
An amazing album, essential listening. Piano, by the way, has always been the Stones’ secret weapon. I especially love “Jigsaw Puzzle.”
You should listen to Appetite By Prefab Sprout, sung that at karaoke the other day and everyone was amazed.
Beggars Banquet was their best.
Oh yes it was!!
The song wasn't working so Keith put the band on percussion and he picked up the bass and with the great Nicky Hopkins on piano they took the song to a whole new level.
"Beggars Banquet" is my favourite Rolling Stones album. "Sympathy For The Devil" one of their best tunes. "No Expectations" close behind. The Lyrics are a big part of that greatness. I Love your in-depth reviews of the Lyrics.
This may be their best song. That's saying a lot. Jagger has a relativistic view of good and bad. It comes out in other songs. In other words nothing is intrinsically good or evil. Good and evil are labels humanity put upon events which are, in reality, neutral. It's spelled out in the line "just as every cop is a criminal and all the sinners [are] saints". Even more so with the line that is at the core of the song "I shouted out 'Who killed the Kennedys?' when after all it was you and me."
Yes David ❗The lyrics of this Masterpiece Stones song are brilliant. Well put ❗What an ERA of rock music.
The song is so damn good, I bought the CD, Beggars Banquet toilet edition...
stones live in texas 1972-all down the line-official video on you tube. you'll love it since your a fan. i read a comment on it once and the person said if aliens came to earth and asked what rock and roll is you should play them this song. i agree.
After this album do either Exile or sticky fingers
He should do Let it Bleed, Get Yer Ya Ya's Out, Sticky Fingers and then Exile On Main Street, in chronological order. Greatest run in rock history imo.
0:34 Read the Master and the Margarita bro. 😜
Also remember that England governed India for a long while. Not sure if that had anything to do with the reference to the troubadours.
What he is singing is "They killed before they reach MY NAME". Bombay is a transcription error.
No, you are wrong. "Bombay" is not a transcription error. The full lyric is " I lay traps for troubadours who get killed before they reach Bombay..." Listen again carefully...
Hey Syed, I know you've been epxloring the classic rock side of things lately with all the greats & legends but I think a reaction to "Pisces" by Jinjer would be really cool.
They play ith the zodiac sign in an auditory fantasy type of song it's quite philosophical & the band is killer too.
👍🏼
Pilot didn't condemn him. He gave the people a choice of whom to crucify.
Yes, he wasn't a judge, he was the Roman ruler in place at that time for Jerusalem. He offered the crowd the choice between Jesus or Barabbas. Neither Pilate or the Jewish officials wanted to be the one who actually condemned Jesus... Or so goes the story.
Without a doubt one of the best songs ever written!
Keith on the bass, playing it like a lead guitar.
The final piece in recording "Sympathy for the Devil"
czcams.com/video/xQKkCxYIGPc/video.html
Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t Sympathy for the devil the song that the Stones were playing when the knife fight broke out at Altamont?
No, that's a myth because it makes a better story. They were actually playing "Under My Thumb".
I always thought the “troubadours” were referring to the Stones themselves, because even the band cannot escape the Devil’s danger.
Hearing this for 50+ years, just had a thought. The ending, with its manic screeching for recognition, hints at the narcissistic psychopathic desperation to be recognised seen in likes of Boris Johnson, Trump, et al. And the incel mass shootings, especially in USA. And the daddy issues behind so many terrorist attackers whether ultra-white, Islamic, far left anarchist, etc. If you can't make an impact through positivity, then do it negatively. The dark side of existentialism and the death of God as sketched out in Sartre and Camus novels and in the final chapter of Jaques Monod, Chance and Necessity.
Have you stopped doing the Beatles or.just taken a break?
I wonder if this was written about his breakup with Marianne Faithful. Anybody know? He speaks of “our music”…..and she was a singer as well.
Anastasia was Tsar Nicholas's youngest daughter. The entire family was executed.
try the live version of sympathy from ya yas 69
the troubadours before Bombay is a reference to the Thuggie cult
Brian played sly guitbox ?
Sings ooh ooh 124 or 126 times. Counted many times. Long time since I counted so forget if it’s 124 or 126.
just split the difference and make it 125
@@tomloft2000 yeah, we can go for 125.
Still only one song in my life to use the word “politesse.”
There’s honestly not a bad track on this album. Enjoy!
It isn't sitar; it's slide guitar.
Please listen to Elvis' 68 comeback performance of "If I Can Dream" before you decide he's not your cup of tea. Please
Matthew 7:6
“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you”
Jesus Christ
This was the first Stones album I bought, way back at 16 y old. Still regard as a great album.
Though I must say Syed that having starting first Led Zeppelin, the Beatles and then Dylan from the first album release you are doing yourself a dis-service by skipping the early catalogue of the Stones. These 4 are all important in the story of modern music and need to be heard for rock music evolution, into the other bands who were largely imitators of one of these 4 until they found their own sound. Cheers✌
Can you please listen to Rival Sons song “Too Bad”
awesome! but the Rolling Stones Circus version is 100percent better! also you can watch John Lennon, Robert Townsend, etc dancing along. You Cant Always Get What version also the BEST!!!
Always considered Mick an underrated lyricist. I like him more than Plant or McCartney.
You've misunderstood most of this.
The devil is our creation: IMO it’s a commentary on the convenient externality that Satan represents for human evil. “After all it was you and me.” WE are the devil. We just blame the devil for our own foibles. It’s like “pleased to meet you, you already know me pretty well tho.”
No, it’s an excuse that Satan, the master of lies and deception would make
@@jacklee5807 the fictional character Satan you mean?
@@loadedorygun take off your atheistic glasses for a second, let your mind see things from other perspectives.
The song is from the perspective of Satan (whether you believe or not, it’s not important), Biblically speaking, Satan is the master of lies and deception, he’s also extremely prideful (wanted to put himself above God). The song fits with that perspective purposefully “I’m a man of wealth and taste”.
That’s the point of the song, it’s literally a first person narration from Satans point of view.