Gimme Shelter - Inspiration and Recording

Inspiration and Recording

Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Gimme Shelter" was created from the combined efforts of the singer and the guitarist. Richards had been working on the song's signature opening in London while Jagger was working on the film Performance. The song is a churning mid-tempo rocker and begins with a rhythm guitar intro by Richards, followed by Jagger's lead vocal. On the recording of the album, Jagger said in a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone, "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..." On the song itself, he concluded, "That's a kind of end-of-the-world song, really. It's apocalypse; the whole record's like that." Similarly, on NPR in 2012: "It was a very moody piece about the world closing in on you a bit ... When it was recorded, early '69 or something, it was a time of war and tension, so that's reflected in this tune. It's still wheeled out when big storms happen, as they did the other week . It's been used a lot to evoke natural disaster."

A higher-pitched second vocal track is sung by the guest vocalist Merry Clayton. Of her inclusion, Jagger said in the 2003 book According to the Rolling Stones: "The use of the female voice was the producer's idea. It would be one of those moments along the lines of 'I hear a girl on this track - get one on the phone.'" Clayton gives her solo performance, and one of the song's most famous pieces, after a solo performed by Richards, repeatedly singing "Rape, murder; It's just a shot away, It's just a shot away," and finally screaming the final stanza. She and Jagger finish the song with the line, "Love, sister, it's just a kiss away." To date it remains one of the most prominent contributions to a Rolling Stones track by a female vocalist.

At about 2:59 into the song, Clayton's voice cracks twice from the strain of her powerful singing; once during the second refrain, on the word "shot" from the last line, and then again during the first line of the third and final refrain, on the word "murder", after which Jagger can be heard saying "Whoo!" in response to Clayton's emotional delivery. She suffered a miscarriage upon returning home, attributed by some sources to the strain involved in reaching the highest notes. Merry Clayton's name was erroneously written on the original release, appearing as 'Mary'.

The song was first recorded in London at Olympic Studios in February and March 1969; the version with Clayton was recorded in Los Angeles at Sunset Sound & Elektra Studios in October and November of that same year. Nicky Hopkins played piano; the Rolling Stones' producer Jimmy Miller played percussion; Charlie Watts played drums; Bill Wyman played bass; Jagger played harmonica and sang backup vocals with Richards and Clayton. Guitarist Brian Jones was absent from these sessions, Richards being credited with both rhythm and lead guitars on the album sleeve. An unreleased version features only Richards providing vocals, and an extended remix version has also been created using isolated tracks ripped from the Rock Band video game, it features the bass much more in the forefront of the mix and the original unfaded outro.