As the 60's were coming to a close , The Stones released their dark, sexual , political driven love letter to the decade. The result? It's the band's most respected studio album lyrically and musically and captured the decade in 9 songs .
The band started the recording for the album 1o months prior . The Stones were in a state of turmoil because of original member and founder Brian Jones . Since the previous two recordings of Between The Buttons and 68's Beggars Banquet , Jones became increasingly unreliable which lead to Keith Richards providing all of the guitar parts for every track. With Brian Jones passing on July 3rd, 1969, he was eventually replaced with guitarist Mick Taylor , who only appeared on two tracks which were "Country Honk" and 'Live With Me" . Taylor did appear however appeared on the bands chart topping single "Honky Tonk Woman" (which is Country Honk, just amped-up and is lyrically different)released during the summer of 1969 . Recording took place at Olympic Studios in London.
To date, Let It Bleed remains the bands most darkest album in their entire catalog. However, even with multiple listens , one wouldn't think . Each of the 9 tracks as I mentioned earlier explores a wide range of topics including politics , sex, and happiness and depression . For starters , 'Gimme Shelter" is the Stones at their most political . The song is a social cry due to the Vietnam War, race riots and Charles Manson. Jagger refers to these 3 hot topics as the "storm". Musically , the song is creative , majestic , mysterious and throws off not only a political statement, but a wild ride . Keith Richards guitar playing is melodic , punctual and his tone is majestic . The stand out though for this song however is guest gospel vocalist Merry Clayton . Legend has it that Clayton was called in the middle of the night to record the vocal . She showed up in pajamas and curlers in her hair . She was instructed to sing the now famous lines "rape, murder, its just a shot away" She blew away everybody with her octave shriek and decided to belt "murder!" and you can hear an impressed Jagger in the background . By far, Gimme Shelter is the most powerful opening track in rock n roll history.
"Midnight Rambler" is The Rolling Stones at their blues peak and is completely their own composition . Clocking in at nearly 7 minutes , it's the band love letter to the blues and Mick Jagger's best harmonica performance on wax. Lyrically , the song is from the mind of a serial-killer , which is a infamous nod to Manson. Regardless of the lyrical context, it's a romping good time and a killer blues in B.
"You Can't Always Get What You Want" the final song on the LP is a musical spectacle for it's opening because of the London Bach Choir . The choir was comprised of 60 singers and in the studio they double tracked their voices to sound as if there was even more members . Musically , the song is a standout for Keith Richards playing because of open E tuning which would become common in future rock n roll songs like The Black Crows "She Talks to Angels" and made famous by Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band . Lyrically , Jagger and Richards wrote about how hard it is to find happiness and no matter how much you have, you always want more . It's remarkable that a rock song can teach you a life lesson.
50 years on, this album has aged like a fine wine and with today's political climate , it might be the answer we need.
