"Gimme Shelter"

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Toker Villain

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
Topic Author's Reply - Oct 19, 2013 - 01:02pm PT
When the rest of my class was still lounging in their senior year I had graduated HS and went right to work in NYC as an intern at a NASA subcontractor that published technical manuals.
I had a one room walk up in the East Village, and a landlord that didn't mind my music.

Once when my dad was in town he came to visit.

Now,.. I should explain; my dad was a rock star before the term existed.
He was like a Justin Beiber with a classical violin. He was selling out venues in Buenos Aires as a kid in short pants. In the mid twentieth century classical music was still the heavy hitter in the recording industry. My dad came to the US on tour, met my mom (who taught him english), was given one of the finest violins in the world, and did a series of tours.

As a kid I saw him mobbed for autographs.

But that started to change.
Elvis, then the Beatles, then all the others were making huge coin in the recording industry, and classical music fell by the wayside.

By the time he visited he was a teacher at U Mass.

I played him some Stones and the Allman Brothers Live (recorded at the Filmore only 7 blocks away).
His response was that the music was just a fad and would never last.
Sour grapes?

I last saw him less than ten years later.

I wonder how he would see things now.
He has a grandson that is a successful musician, but now the recording industry is turned upside down.
Butts in seats is where the money is.
A lot of his 43 records are out on disc.

He might be surprised to see teenagers into Led Zeppelin forty years on.

The Stones still have relevance.

And rock and roll will never die.
Gary Carpenter

climber
SF Bay Area
Oct 19, 2013 - 03:12pm PT
[quote]God that was a bastard time, a bastard decade, the Sixties.

Peter that is so true!

Ed...Your playlist is worthy for a drive to the Valley
hamersorethumb

Trad climber
Menlo Park, CA
Oct 19, 2013 - 04:17pm PT
Isolated vocals of Mick and Merry Clayton on Gimme Shelter. Jump to 2:30 mark to hear Merry Clayton's incredible solo.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
Dave Davis

Social climber
Seattle, WA
Oct 19, 2013 - 04:44pm PT
Thanks for the posts. Absolutely my favoritet Stones number and the version that Peter posted is also my favorite . Lisa Fisher just knocks my sox off. The look on Keith Richard's face after her solo says it all.
Fletcher

Gym climber
The great state of advaita
Oct 19, 2013 - 05:00pm PT
Merry Clayton is amazing. Her vocals in this song have always given me the shivers. Then I saw Twenty Feet from Stardom and realized just what an amazing story lies in the actual recording of the piece. I highly recommend the film.

Eric
Risk

Mountain climber
Olympia, WA
Oct 19, 2013 - 09:26pm PT
My feelings about this number vary depending on when and where I hear it. My brother witnessed the murder at Altamont, and he has reiterated details of the crime and the concert in detail many times over the years. Horrible, and a turning point in concerts unfortunately.

Every time I hear it, accounts of events are recalled with varying emotions. But, art is successful if it causes emotions, good or bad. So this number it pretty high up there.

Charlie D.

Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
Oct 19, 2013 - 09:52pm PT
Like most disasters it started with someone's idea and in this case to hire the Hell's Angles for "security" then came a collective endorsement.......yikes!
What an iconic song, I'll never forget the context in which it was inspired.
Risk

Mountain climber
Olympia, WA
Oct 19, 2013 - 09:56pm PT
a naked lesson in art as it applied to the Vietnam War

No question. I'm thankful I was naive to those connotations for most of my life. Recalling that terrible era of history today is wrenchingly painful.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Oct 19, 2013 - 11:24pm PT
Wow Hammer, thanks for that!
WBraun

climber
Oct 19, 2013 - 11:28pm PT
Altamont

I was there live and in person to witness the event.

1000 hitch hikers on I-580 afterwards was the competition to get back to the bay area.

18 wheeler flatbed stopped and we piled on it 50 people deep right in front of CHP who didn't even care.

Took me all the way to Hayward and the next ride home across the San Mateo Bridge ......
Charlie D.

Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
Oct 19, 2013 - 11:34pm PT
zBrown

Ice climber
Brujo de La Playa
Oct 20, 2013 - 12:06am PT
Well if the hells angels were hired, then somebody hired them, right? Who?

Did those looking for free stuff contribute?

In the Wake of Altamont: Who Hired the Hell's Angels?

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2010/08/in_the_wake_of_1.php


Driving back to the city in a hammering rain, I couldn't help recalling what somebody had remarked to Ralph Gleason early in the week: "There was no love, no joy at Altamont. It wasn't just the Angels. It was everybody. In 24 hours, we created all the problems of our society in one confined area -- congestion, violence, dehumanization."



I was living in Berkeley at the time and made the deliberate decision not to go out there.

In retrospect, it seems like a good choice.
Jaybro

Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
Oct 20, 2013 - 01:05am PT
Two things.
1) I always thought the stones were playing Sympathy for the Devil when the angels offed Meredith Hunter. Was I, mistaken?
2) legend has it that that band that lived at 710 Ashbury street came up with the idea of having the Hell's angels there, though I've heard arguments on both sides of that.

Edit;
Both of which are addressed in z's link above that I didn't read first...um, consider this a clif notes kinda deal....
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Oct 20, 2013 - 04:19pm PT
The creation of Gimme Shelter

«Lounging with his guitar in a room decorated with Tibetan skulls, tantric art and Moroccan tapestries, chain-smoking and depressed at the thought of Anita being with Mick, Keith began to strum as lightening flashed across the London sky. «It was just a terrible f*#king day», he recalls in his memoir, Life, «this incredible storm over London. So I got into that mode – looking at all these people… running like hell.» Leaning on the same open chords that had become his signature, he crooned. «Oh, a storm is threatening my very life today». Sounded good. He continued to strum, added another line: «If I don’t get some shelter, oh yeah, I’m gonna fade away…»

Six months later, when the Stones reconvened to begin work on their next album, Let It Bleed, the song of ultimate doom Keith had begun that stormy day, now titled Gimme Shelter, was among the first he and Jagger began working on with producer Jimmy Miller.

….

Miller argued there was something missing from Gimme Shelter, something that would turn good into great.

They found what they were looking for in 20-year-old Merry Layton. … She laughingly recalls how she was about to go to bed when she got Jack Nitzsche’s call: «It was almost midnight. I was pregnant at the time and I thought, there is no way in the world I’m getting out of bed down to some studio in the middle of the night».

But her husband, jazz saxophonist Curtis Amy, talked her into it. «I’m wearing these beautiful pink pyjamas, my hair was up in rollers. But I took this Chanel scarf, wrapped it round the rollers so it looked really cute, went to the bathroom and put on a little lip blush – ‘cos there’s no way I’m going to the studio other than beautiful!» Throwing her fur coat around her shoulders, she turned up at the studio «ready to work». She admits to being somewhat nonplussed when she read the lyrics Jagger handed to her. «I’m like, «Rape, murder…?» You sure that’s what you want me to sing, honey? He’s just laughing. Him and Keith.

They began the session, and the effect was instant. «You listen to the original tape you can hear Mick whooping and hollering in the background,» Merry says.



It became the most praised album-only track in the Stones canon – «The cleverest amalgam of powerful sounds the Stones have yet created,» reconed International Times. «Ecstatic, ironic, all-powerful, an erotic exorcism for a doomed decade,» claimed Newsweek – it also became the emblem of the moment when the 60s dream flared into the 70s nightmare.

Mick Wall in Classic Rock 188
Deekaid

climber
Oct 20, 2013 - 06:13pm PT
Jay bro I believe it was sympathy for the devil which is one of many strange aspects to the incident
mouse from merced

Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
Oct 20, 2013 - 06:38pm PT
Bleeding STones!

Beefheart bones!

(Apathy House being shelter for The Flames in Pacific Groove.)
Risk

Mountain climber
Olympia, WA
Oct 20, 2013 - 08:38pm PT
My brother says it was Sympathy for the Devil at the time of the murder.

[Click to View YouTube Video]

Pretty obvious something bad happens during this.
drljefe

climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
Oct 20, 2013 - 10:56pm PT
I read it was during "Under My Thumb".

The Angel was acquitted after a review of the footage which shows Meredith Hunter pulling a gun.

Regardless...

"One way or another, this darkness got to give."

Great song, fascinating history, and some nice shares here.
Deekaid

climber
Oct 21, 2013 - 11:10am PT
There were multiple incidents during multiple songs but I think Jefe is right.
ms55401

Trad climber
minneapolis, mn
Jan 17, 2014 - 12:21am PT
Beautiful ice climb, Kevin Doyle and Tim Friesen were two of the greats.

yeah, no doubt. Has this even seen a handful of subsequent ascents?

not a Stones fan, per se, but this is strong,
Messages 21 - 40 of total 51 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
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