VIDEO: The Rolling Stones record Sympathy For The Devil

Mick Jagger at Olympic Sound Studios, 1968
Mick Jagger at Olympic Sound Studios, 1968 (Image credit: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS)

In June 1968, French "New Wave" director Jean-Luc Godard and his crew took their cameras to Olympic Sound Studios in London to shoot The Rolling Stones as they recorded the song Sympathy For The Devil.

Godard's footage of the Stones was part of a film titled after the song (done so by the producer; the unconvential filmmaker original called it One Plus One), which also included segments involving rifle-toting Black Panthers and used a voiceover promoting Marxism.

Now, the studio footage of the Stones (with a faraway-looking Brian Jones, and augmented with keyboardist Nicky Hopkins) has made its way online, and it's a fascinating time capsule. Check out the clips above and below, which depict the way that the song morphed from a mid-tempo country-folk number into the sinister, conga-and-maracas-heavy rocker we all know today.

Joe Bosso

Joe is a freelance journalist who has, over the past few decades, interviewed hundreds of guitarists for Guitar WorldGuitar PlayerMusicRadar and Classic Rock. He is also a former editor of Guitar World, contributing writer for Guitar Aficionado and VP of A&R for Island Records. He’s an enthusiastic guitarist, but he’s nowhere near the likes of the people he interviews. Surprisingly, his skills are more suited to the drums. If you need a drummer for your Beatles tribute band, look him up.