Let it Bleed

Description

As the ’60s drained into the ’70s, theRolling Stoneswent on a creative run that rivals any in popular music.Beggars Banquet(1968),Let It Bleed(1969),Sticky Fingers(1971) andExile on Main Street(1972) routinely turn up on lists of the greatest albums of all time, and deservedly so. All done with American producerJimmy Miller “an incredible rhythm man,” in Keith Richards’ terse description those records shake like the culture itself was shaking.

As the Stones were working on 1969’sLet It Bleed, Brian Jones mysteriously died, and the band replaced him with Mick Taylor, a profoundly gifted guitarist whose lyricism and melodic flair counterbalanced Richards’ insistent, irreducible rhythmic drive, adding an element to the band’s sound that hadn’t been there before. Like its groundbreaking predecessor,Let It Bleedwas once again produced by Miller and it’s also similar in that both sides of the LP open with two stone cold classics, “Gimme Shelter,” with Merry Clayton’s wonderful backing vocal, and “Midnight Rambler,” songs that have been a part of Stones live shows ever since.

In another similarity to the band’s previous studio album it also features a blues cover, this time, “Love in Vain,” written by the King of the Delta Blues Singers, Robert Johnson. The last track on the record is the ambitious and divergent “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” featuring the London Bach Choir arranged byJack NitzscheandAl Kooper, of Blood Sweat & Tears on keyboards and French horn.

1. Gimme Shelter
2. Love In Vain
3. Country Honk
4. Live With Me
5. Let It Bleed
6. Midnight Rambler
7. You Got The Silver
8. Monkey Man
9. You Can’t Always Get What You Want