The Rolling Stones – Gimme Shelter

First of all, the song itself:

And the lyrics:

Why did I choose this song in particular?

This is one of the songs that defined my late childhood (high schools days), as it was probably my most listened song because of various (and maybe obvious) reasons.

Why obvious?

Because it takes no genius to tell that sing song is a masterpiece.

‘Gimme Shelter’ has absolutely phenomenal vocal performances (both by Mick Jagger and Merry Clayton, the female escorting singer), incredible use of musical instruments, such as the guitar being played by Keith Richards and the harmonica (which is very noticeable in the song) by Mick Jagger, the lyrics and their rather deep meaning (about which I will write in further detail later on) and, of course, the absolutely impossible-to-resist, feet moving rhythm and groove of the song.

This song is definitely one of my favorite “Rolling Stones” songs of all time (and choosing one particular song by a legendary band such as The Rolling Stones is a very hard task).

Now, about the song itself..

‘Gimme Shelter’ is the opening song of the 1969 album “Let it bleed” by The Rolling Stones, the album itself being arguably one of the most successful and influential albums of the british rock band.

Fun fact – the song is rated number 34 on the ‘Best songs of all time’ list by the “Rolling Stone” magazine, which is considered the most highly acclaimed music magazine in the world.

As I previously mentioned, the song has very noticeable and critical lyrics. The lyrics are heavily influenced by the violence that occurred in the Vietnam War, but the song’s initial inspiration, as mentioned by Jagger, was the sight of people seeking shelter from a heavy rain that suddenly started in London, while he was in a friend’s apartment working on his music. Mick Jagger, in an interview for the magazine ‘Rolling Stone’ in 1995 said:

“Well, it’s a very rough, very violent era. The Vietnam War. Violence on the screens, pillage and burning. And Vietnam was not war as we knew it in the conventional sense. The thing about Vietnam was that it wasn’t like World War II, and it wasn’t like Korea, and it wasn’t like the Gulf War. It was a real nasty war, and people didn’t like it. People objected, and people didn’t want to fight it … That’s a kind of end-of-the-world song, really. It’s apocalypse; the whole record’s like that.”

The song is speaking about war, and how rape and murder being just “a shot away” from it, and what a necessity it is to seek shelter from it – “the storm”.

Interesting story about the recording of the song and about Merry Clayton, the co-lead singer…

Merry Clayton’s powerful singing is present during most of the song, especially during the three verses following the first verse. After Mick Jagger’s harmonica solo and Keith Richards’ guitar solo, she is heard singing, from the bottom of her heart: “Rape, Murder! Is just a shot away, is just a shot away!”, which is arguably the climax of the song. During this phase of the song, Clayton’s voice can be heard cracking twice under the weight of her powerful singing. It is said, that after returning home, Clayton suffered a miscarriage (her exertions in the song contributed to that). Clayton’s session was recorded at the last minute during a late hour at night, after the band’s producer, Jack Nitzsche, suggested adding a female voice to the song (a decision I am sure no one regretted).

Here is an amazing video taken from a documentary about backup singers regarding Clayton’s part of the song. Watching the video is highly recommended… also watching the entire movie! It’s incredible, and it also won an Oscar.

The movie’s name is “20 feet from Stardom”.

And to end my eBook, here is the list of my personal top 5 favorite Stone’s songs (as much as it was hard to make such a list out of all their great songs…). Also I just want to say that I had the pleasure of being in their concert that was held is Park HaYarkon in 2013!!!!

Sympathy for the Devil

Wild Horses

Angie

Start Me Up

Monkey Man