Album of the week: The Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet

It’s very difficult to separate art from artist when it comes to the Rolling Stones. As much as I love their records (up until 1972), the list of hideous behavior they’re responsible for is a long and ugly one. The toughest ones to reconcile is Mick’s greed which led to the violent and lethal events of Altamont, and the continued beating of women by Brian Jones. Jones was a brilliant musician who I’ve drawn inspiration from for decades, but there’s simply no defending his violent behavior. The historians who’ve dug deep, Joel Selvin and Andrew Hickey (along with road dawg Sam Cutler, who was there) have blown the cover of who was to blame for the tragedy of Altamont. All signs point to Mick, as his greed in refusing to sign over film rights for use of the Sears Point Raceway (especially rich, as the free concert was a PR attempt to repair the Stones street cred after an outcry regarding ticket prices for their ‘69 US tour were double the current average), not listening to the locals who knew better, and pushing forward foolishly is completely on him.

But damnit, both Mick and Brian give the performances of their life here on this masterpiece.

Kicking off with their most misunderstood (and IMO, their greatest ever song), ‘Sympathy For The Devil’, the Stones confirm that their acid fried period was over; ‘Jumping Jack Flash’ (released as a single a few months earlier in ‘68) pointed to their future. Since its release, ‘Sympathy’ has been pegged by many as a song that encourages evil, or most ridiculously, as being a devil worshipping anthem. How anyone can come to that conclusion is beyond me; Mick makes the meaning clear. By recounting tragic, violent, and ugly acts that were spearheaded by humans, it’s graphically states that the real devil is inside those humans who commit these acts. It’s especially shocking to think that the initial lyric of ‘I shouted out who killed Kennedy’ had to be pluralized following the assassination of RFK while the Stones were working on the song.

A modern version could easily include a verse along these lines:

I cheer the pawns Who elect felons

Who they think are on their side

I cheer you on to simp for billionaires Whose greed gets glorified

Pleased to meet you Hope you guess my name

But what’s puzzling you is the nature of my game.

The amount of evil and sympathy for the devil(s) is at an all time high in 2025. Like to laugh and point fingers online while our city of Angels burns, and/ or just really enjoy trolling people on line who may live differently than you? Use the term ‘woke’ as a way to debase? Are you so hung up on your bigotry and ignorance that you’ll vote for a complete fool that doesn’t give a shit about anything other than money or power? Congratulations, you’re doing a truly fine job for the devil, no matter how deeply you hide behind your Christian identity or whatever other lies you tell yourself.

Following ‘Sympathy’ is the outstanding ‘No Expectations’; an earthy, acoustic based number, and one which features an achingly beautiful slide guitar solo from Brian Jones. The completely wasted Jones was barely functional at the time, and this performance was effective his swan song; the last time he was able to get it together to contribute something of note to a recording.

‘Dear Doctor’ and ‘Parachute Woman’ continue the lo-fi, dark blues vibe very effectively, with the electric slide guitar on ‘Parachute Woman’ sounding especially apocalyptic. The side ends with the weirdly compelling, autobiographical ‘Jigsaw Puzzle’ - a song that sounds unlike anything they recorded before or since.

Continuing in the formula of ‘Jumping Jack Flash’ (acoustic guitar recorded to an overloaded cassette recorder for lo-fi distorted haze), side 2 opener ‘Street Fighting Man’ also works as an answer of sorts to ‘Sympathy For The Devil’. The protagonist wants to fight societal evil, but feels trapped and incapable as a ‘poor boy’ rock n roll singer. Maybe the message is the music is more powerful than physically fighting and hitting the streets? I definitely agree with that.

As silly as Mick’s affected voice is on ‘Prodigal Son’, it’s an incredibly effective version, with Keith showing off how much he’d progressed on his rural acoustic blues chops. ‘Stray Cat Blues’ is one that I hate to like, as the buried and slurred vocals detail the singers disregard for seducing an underage girl. Yecch. At least the lyrics are garbled enough to where they don’t leap out, but come on. It wasn’t cool to lust after teenagers in 1968, either.

Thankfully, redemption comes with the final two, glorious tracks that ooze some actual empathy and salute the working class- ‘Factory Girl’ and ‘Salt Of The Earth’. Two of the most compelling songs of their career.

The Stones tapped in to some truly dark themes here and on the equally excellent followup, Let It Bleed. After the horror of Altamont, their music rarely tapped in to that kind of darkness, and while their personal lives continued the never ending drama, the music became far slicker and far safer within just a few short years, yet they’ve never been able to grow out of their stupid misogyny.