How 'Sympathy for the Devil' smuggled samba into rock and nudged Peter Gabriel toward world music

The most famous rock song with a samba beat wasn’t written by a Brazilian. It was the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” recorded in 1968. Keith Richards had been messing around with a bossa nova rhythm on acoustic guitar, and the band fell into a groove that sounded like a drum circle from Rio—complete with congas, maracas, and a cowbell. At the time, rock was still mostly rooted in blues and R&B; throwing a Latin carnival pulse into the middle of a song about Lucifer was bizarre and brilliant.

That percussive, polyrhythmic approach opened a door. Peter Gabriel, who started his solo career a few years later, has often cited the Stones’ willingness to pull from outside the Anglo-American blues tradition as a spark. By the time he made So and Passion, Gabriel was actively weaving in Brazilian samba, African highlife, and Middle Eastern textures—but the seed was planted in the late ’60s, when a demonic rock star showed that a samba beat could be rebellious, not just exotic.