Martin Scorsese would approve.
JOE continues to shine a light at some of our favourite classic songs with an in-depth look at one of the greatest rock ‘n roll songs of all-time.
Artist, album and year: The Rolling Stones, Let It Bleed, 1969.
Why is it a classic? It takes a very special song to be chosen by us from The Rolling Stones’ impressive back-catalogue but Gimme Shelter is the band at their brilliant bluesy best.
Jagger, Richards and company crafted a rock ‘n roll masterpiece by using one of the most violent and bleak periods in modern history.
Jagger attributed the song’s moody, sombre and ominous tone to a combination of the ongoing Vietnam War, the personal problems of Brian Jones in the studio and the assassinations of both Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy.
Lyrically, the song is extremely evocative but as a stand-alone piece of music it’s absolutely flawless .
Richards’ guitar intro is iconic because the opening chords are so seductive, subtle and mysterious that the song almost creeps up on you. The opening riff has such a hypnotic quality that you’re almost surprised when Jagger starts singing the first chorus.
The real star of this song though is the backing vocalist Merry Clayton, whose tragic story is told in the superb documentary 20 Feet from Stardom which is now available on Netflix.
Did You Know? Clayton arrived in the studio with her hair still in curls during the middle of the night and delivered such a stunning vocal performance that it caused her voice to crack twice on the finished track.
Clayton had previously worked with Bobby Darin, Elvis and Ray Charles to name but a few but her work on Gimme Shelter proved to be her most famous but personally tragic work.
Shortly after leaving the studio, she suffered a miscarriage and it was assumed that the stress from the intensity of her performance and the lateness of the hour were mitigating factors.
For many years Clayton found the song too painful to hear, let alone sing.
The lyrical hook: “If I don’t get some shelter, Oh yeah, I’m gonna fade away”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phxNVx3Jyq0
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