This song is sung in first person form, with Mick Jagger playing no one else but Satan himself. He documents events through history that could be seen as “works of the devil.” The Rolling Stones took some serious heat for singing a song from the devil’s perspective, but the point of the song is more about the flaws in mankind. It was never intended as devil worship.

There was a rumor that this song was playing when a fan died at the Rolling Stones gig at the Altamont Free Concert, but it was actually “Under My Thumb.” Despite that, the Stones didn’t perform this song for at least 5 years (as they played it on tour in 1975) after the incident.

These lyrics were inspired by the book “The Master and Margarita” written by Mikhail Bulgakov. In this book Devil (and his ‘gang’) roam around Moscow in the 1930s and play tricks on stupid/greedy people.