A track that featured in a multitude of films, television advertisements and games (from Goodfellas to Call of Duty: Black Ops), “Gimme Shelter” is one of legendary British Rock band The Rolling Stones’ most popular song.
Written by band members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, “Gimme Shelter” is the opening track off of The Rolling Stones’ eighth studio album: “Let It Bleed” released in 1969. Mick Jagger paints a bleak picture when discussing the track. “Well, it’s a very rough, very violent era. The Vietnam war”, Jagger reminisces on the track in an interview in the late nineties. “And Vietnam was not war as we knew it in the conventional sense. The things about Vietnam was that it wasn’t like World War II, and it wasn’t like Korea, and it wasn’t like the Gulf War. It was a real nasty war, and people didn’t like it. People objected, and people didn’t want to fight it…”. With controversial bridge lyrics like “Rape, murder!”, the brutally honest track about society and war culture has deservedly landed its place has a firm fan favourite – and is Barack Obama’s favourite Stones song. It also became a staple at the Rolling Stone’s live shows.
Official music videos for the track are hard to find, but the band’s record label did upload the official lyric video for the track in May 2016, which has now amassed over 35 million views.
Release Date: 5th December 1969
Songwriter/s: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards
Producer/s: Jimmy Miller
Label/s: Decca/ABKCO
Certifications: Certified Gold in both Italy and the UK.
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