Check out The Rolling Stones’ first ever performance of ‘Sympathy For The Devil’

The Rolling Stones have dug through the archives and unearthed the first-ever performance of their 1968 track ‘Sympathy for the Devil’.

The performance is drawn from previously unreleased footage from the band’s 1996 concert film, Rock and Roll Circus, that didn’t make the final cut.

It marked the band’s last performance with their original lineup in 1968 —  Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Ian Stewart and Brian Jones. For ‘Sympathy For The Devil’, The Rolling Stones founding member Brian Jones — who would pass away just nine months later — swapped guitar duty for maracas.

Jones died shortly after being pulled unconscious out of the pool of his Hartfield home in the early morning hours of July 3rd, 1969, one month after departing the band.

The concert was originally a Michael Lindsey-Hogg-directed BBC special that saw performances from Yoko Ono, Marianne Faithfull, Jethro Tull, The Dirty Mac, Taj Mahal and The Who.

“It was an incredible shoot, I think, 36 hours or something,” Keith Richards reminisced. “I remember not remembering everything towards the end… but it was fun… we went through two audiences… wore one out… it was great!”

Director Lindsay-Hogg recalled his experience filming the shoot. “[Mick Jagger] used the last shred of the great performer that he is,” he added. “The camera was right there in front of him to use as he wanted. It wasn’t observing him from a distance; it was two feet away from him and he and the cameras were molded to each other almost because he used it so wonderfully.”

Check out The Rolling Stones performing ‘Sympathy For The Devil’:

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