Listening on headphones last night to Sympathy for the Devil in a state of elevated insomnia, brought on by the consumption of trout and grappa, and a subsequent low-class drunken argument about Nobel prizes with Dr Wilkie. Perhaps it was me, perhaps it was the headphones, but I heard for the first time in god knows how many hundred listenings the extraordinary sexual teasing between Mick Jagger and Mick Taylor as the song builds up.
Practically every phrase that Taylor plays is responded to by Jagger, cooing, hollering, urging him to transports of sliding joy: he really does sound exactly as if he ‘s trying to tease an orgasm out of his partner. The only call and response that approaches this intensity in my music collection comes on the live Aretha Franklin gospel CDs. So I suppose it was irresistable to do Sympathy for the Devil in that style. And — Christ! — weren’t the results marvellous.