"Sympathy for the Devil" is rather unsettling when you take attention to its lyrics, as it's Satanbragging about his influence on humanity's vices and sins, with him showing no care for all the lives he's destroyed and all the damage he's done to the world. To be more specific, he takes full credit for condemning Jesus Christ to death by crucifixion, triggering the October Revolution and the rise of the USSR, aiding the Axis during World War II, pitting warring monarchs against each other for his personal amusement, assassinating the Kennedys, and turning murderous cultists loose on hapless travelers in India. It soon becomes clear that Lucifer was only half-serious in his confession of these crimes, arguing that humanity committed these atrocities to themselves through its blurring of the lines between good and evil, and he issues us this bone-chilling warning to those unfortunate enough to cross his path.
So if you meet me, have some courtesy Have some sympathy, and some taste Use all your well-learned politesse Or I'll lay your soul to waste
Mick's face on the album cover, his head caught in a veil, is not something claustrophobic people would like to endure.
"Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)":
The police in New York City Chased a boy right through the park In a case of mistaken identity They put a bullet through his heart
The song also describes an underage drug death:
A ten year old girl on a street corner Sticking needles in her arm She died in the dirt of an alleyway Her mother said she had no chance, no chance!
"Dancing With Mr. D.":
One night I was dancin' with a lady in black Wearin' black silk gloves and a black silk hat She looked at me longin' with black velvet eyes She gazed at me strange all cunning and wise Then I saw the flesh just fall off her bones The eyes in her skull was burning like coals
"Too Much Blood" is somewhat a comic violence song, about Jagger complaining there is too much blood today. But then he starts rapping about the real-life murder and cannibalisation of a young woman.
The song's music video shows a girl looking at real-life horrifying imagery in her magazines and zapping past images on her TV screen that frighten her, one of them being a scene from Basket Case. The scaryness is played up by Mick's wide eyes and open mouth coming close to the camera. At one point he opens his refrigerator and sees chopped-off heads inside. Cue to Richards and Wood chasing Jagger with chain saws after mowing down the door. Meanwhile the girl at home sees blood coming from her sink, telephone and her TV set.
Inside the booklet and on the cover of the single "You Got Me Rocking", a horned devil is depicted with a Slasher Smile in the presence of card-playing skeletons: [1]◊. The image is extracted from mid-19th century French diorama sculptures: [2].
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