GIVE ANSWERS - English

100% GOOD (1 votes)AnsweredLanguage Question
Sympathy for the devil

In the song I don't understand what the sentence " I watched with glee while your kings and queens fought for ten decades for the gods they made"  is that something historical? 


PS: Take a look at these free English educational resources: Training: St Helena Timeline(a)round and aboutPhrasal Verbs UP!Learn English Free or Cheap in Paris

GIVE ANSWERS

-wolf- profile picture -wolf-December 2019
These lyrics are sung by the devil and he is happy about every monarchic person fighting in the name of god killing each other. On the one hand it could be historical as medieval was famous for wars in the name of church but on the other hand still nowadays religious wars are there.
AussieInBg profile picture AussieInBgOctober 2022

”I watched with glee while your kings and queens fought for ten decades for the gods they made” is an obvious reference to the Hundred Years’ War:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Years%27_War

”ten decades” = 100 years.

Throughout the verses of the song, Jagger references specific historical events where evil comes into play.

Incidentally, ”Sympathy for the devil” was written by Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones after he had read Michail Bulgakov’s ”Master and Margarita”. After this novel had been translated into English in the 1960s, it became one of the ”must read” items among the intellectual set in London in the late 1960s.

If you take a look at the official Rolling Stones clip for the song
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgnClrx8N2k

you'll see that they emulate the graffiti and form that you see outside of Bulgakov's flat and now museum in Moscow.