"Take cover, immediately!"
115. Rolling Stones "Gimme Shelter"
The Rolling Stones swaggered through the 1960's as rock and roll's ultimate bad boys, but as the decade wore on with riots, assassinations, seemingly unending war in southeast Asia, and drugs and alcohol decimating the music scene, doubt began to creep in as the apocalyptic tone of the times began to take it's toll (amazingly, this song was written before the concert disaster at Altamont, but the Stones must've sensed doom in the air or something) and self-doubt began creeping in. And no other song in rock expresses pure catacylsmic fear and terror like "Gimme Shelter."
Kicking off with an eerie vocal from guest singer Merry Clayton and a shivery guitar line that erupts periodically into a siren-like wail and bellow over drums that boom like distant artillery, Jagger delivers his most frayed and desperate vocal followed by Clayton's harrowing solo at the mike. The 60's may have past and the Stones may have become rich old men, but the atmosphere they decribe here has remained the constant backdrop of the modern world, and when any disaster occurs,(especially on 9/11) the chorus of this song echoes in my head. Jagger's final verse about love isn't so much an affirmation as a plea.
The Rolling Stones swaggered through the 1960's as rock and roll's ultimate bad boys, but as the decade wore on with riots, assassinations, seemingly unending war in southeast Asia, and drugs and alcohol decimating the music scene, doubt began to creep in as the apocalyptic tone of the times began to take it's toll (amazingly, this song was written before the concert disaster at Altamont, but the Stones must've sensed doom in the air or something) and self-doubt began creeping in. And no other song in rock expresses pure catacylsmic fear and terror like "Gimme Shelter."
Kicking off with an eerie vocal from guest singer Merry Clayton and a shivery guitar line that erupts periodically into a siren-like wail and bellow over drums that boom like distant artillery, Jagger delivers his most frayed and desperate vocal followed by Clayton's harrowing solo at the mike. The 60's may have past and the Stones may have become rich old men, but the atmosphere they decribe here has remained the constant backdrop of the modern world, and when any disaster occurs,(especially on 9/11) the chorus of this song echoes in my head. Jagger's final verse about love isn't so much an affirmation as a plea.
Comments