Monday, November 27, 2017

My Music Monday

I'd say I'd shuffled through the liberry for this, but in fact it came on satellite radio yesterday and it stuck with me every since.

"Gimme Shelter" is far and away my favourite Rolling Stones song ever.

I was just a lad of 6 when it was released in 1969 (that's right - grab your abacuses and start figuring it out), so I wasn't really attuned to it back then, but by the late '70s I was.

I love the mix of Rock and R&B.  Clearly there is a late '60s, anti-war vibe with this. The irony of the song of course is that it would become the title for the film chronicling the Stones' concert at Altamont where there was any number of violent acts and the band's "security", the Hells Angels, would end up killing one person at said concert - and there would be additional accidental deaths. 

Altamont thus ended the "summer of love".

Still, it's a great song.


...and if you haven't seen 20 Feet from Stardom, check it out on Netflix. While it has a number of stories regarding (mostly) backing vocalists, they have great tales to tell. There is a segment on Merry Clayton and her one evening with the Rolling Stones and "Gimme Shelter".  I embedded it below.




1 comment:

Deedles said...

At last, a song and group that I recognize! I was 13 in '69 and into Motown and country ( Daddy said there was always one in his family that liked country). I do remember liking the Stones more than the Beatles.