The Rolling Stones and Philosophy_ It's Just a Thought Away - Luke Dick [124]
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Lucifer Rising and Falling
DAN DINELLO
Before, we were just innocent kids out for a good time, they’re saying, “They’re evil, they’re evil,” Oh, I’m evil, really? So that makes you start thinking about evil … What is evil? Half of it, I don’t know how much people think of Mick as the devil or as just a good rock performer or what? There are black magicians who think we are acting as unknown agents of Lucifer and others who think we are Lucifer. Everybody’s Lucifer.”
—KEITH RICHARDS, 1971
Keith Richards raises some good philosophical questions about the nature of evil and the meaning of the devil. Satan as the personification of evil emerged out of the Old Testament and became enshrined by theologian and demonologist St. Augustine (354–430 A.D.) as part of the traditional Christian worldview. His philosophy of evil begins with Lucifer’s expulsion from heaven for his disobedience. (I’m going to use ‘Satan’, ‘Lucifer”, and ‘the Devil’ interchangeably.)
Lucifer challenged the Almighty’s power and this prideful opposition made him the literal embodiment of sin. Amid the eternal flames of hell, Satan conspires with his sinister band of fallen angels to wreak vengeance on God by luring humans into their foul embrace. According to Augustine, the devil seduces God’s weak-willed children into evil actions that disobey the laws of God, the Church, and the State—the moral authorities.
Casting the Rolling Stones as “Satan’s Jesters” (Time, May 17th, 1971), the moral authorities of the 1960s—the press, the police, and the clergy—accused them of exhorting gullible young people to protest, riot, blaspheme, fornicate, and take drugs. In effect, they did the devil’s work by luring innocent youth astray. The Stones, however, embraced a different view of Satan’s work. Their music embraced a nineteenth-century Romantic vision of Lucifer as a rebellious angel fighting the forces of moral repression. The Stones’ interpretation of evil blamed the mob of hypocritical authorities for the world’s horrors.
Diabolical Beginnings
“I hope we’re not too messianic or a trifle too satanic,” sang Mick Jagger in “Monkey Man,” “We love to play the blues.” From its origins, blues music was denounced by the Christian community as disreputable—an angry music that opposed traditional values. It was sinful to play the blues, whose name derives from the term “blue devils,”58 meaning depression or sadness. Accused of being the “devil’s music,” the blues was feared as a social force that encouraged disruption, irresponsibility, violence, or sexual freedom.59
Taking their name from a song by Muddy Waters, The Rolling Stones immersed themselves in the devil’s blues of Elmore James, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, and others. One could say Satan also infiltrated The Stones’ musical subconscious when they first heard Robert Johnson’s 1930s recordings of “Me and the Devil Blues” and “Hell Hound on My Trail.” These songs fostered the legend that Robert Johnson met the devil at a lonely Mississippi Delta crossroads and sold his soul to become a great guitarist, writing songs that overflow with references to Satan.
The Stones played these artists’ songs, feeling part of a religious crusade to preach and live the blues. They had the disadvantage of being white, but Mick Jagger sounded black. Leering maniacally and dancing provocatively with arms over his head and hips thrust out, Jagger became a charismatic, sex-charged anti-Moses, leading the rhythm and blues horde into the promised land. The Stones evoked the blues’ anger and sexual aggression—grind, shake, rock, ride all night long!
They grew their hair longer than The Beatles, cultivated a funky grubbiness, swore, and behaved like monkey men. With the encouragement of their anti-conformist manager Andrew Loog Oldham (who’d been dumped by the cleaner-cut Beatles), they