Let it Bleed : the Rolling Stones

The 1960's are grinding to a violent, disorganized end. The war in Vietnam rages on. Riots in the streets. The Rolling Stones face a bit of their own mortality as first Brian Jones, one of the founders of the band who had left on a "leave of absence," dies on July 3, 1969 and then on December 4, 1969 the Stones play Altamont, a free concert in California, that turns into a disaster complete with a Hell's Angel stabbing of a drug addled, gun wielding concert goer.

The day after Altamont the album was released and The Rolling Stones established themselves even further as a band that could sum up the current atmosphere better than anyway else. The album opens with Gimme Shelter, arguably one of the band's greatest songs, it rests at # 38 on the Rolling Stone magazine list of 500 Top Songs. The song is a clear warning of the coming Apocalypse with the crumbling of the hippie era.

Next up the Robert Johnson song Love In Vain. This was the only song on the album that was not written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. The Stones version was a radical departure from the original and has a country feel to it.

Adding to the album's country feel is Country Honk. A gem of a song that was supposedly the original version of Honky Tonk Woman. There are arguments as to where the song was recorded but it is possible that the song was recorded first with Byron Berline laying the fiddle track on top at a latter date.

The band switches back effortlessly into rock with the next song Live With Me. The song is highly suggestive and is one of the first songs new Stones guitarist, Mick Taylor, plays on. The song also features a blistering sax solo from Bobby Keys who would contribute the sax lines to many future Stones songs. Keys a Texan had played on hundreds of songs including Dion's Run Around Sue and Elvis Presley's Return To Sender.

Next up was the mildly suggestive Let It Bleed the album's namesake. Obviously there was something the Stone's found amusing naming a song and an album Let It Bleed just before the release of the highly anticipated Beatles album and song Let It Be. No one has yet offered a coherent explanation for the similarity in names and I'll take an educated guess that with the passing of time there will be less clarity not more on the subject.

Flip the album over to side two and it opens with Midnight Rambler. The song is an almost seven minute reflection of the darker side of human nature and references the Boston Strangler. Just as side one opens with the dark Gimme Shelter, side two opens with the equally if not darker Midnight Rambler. Mick Jagger plays some great harmonica on this one and Keith Richards works through multiple guitar lines. The song is frequently performed live by the band over the years.

You Got The Silver, a country infused ballad is next. It's notable as Keith Richards handles the singing on the number.

The underrated classic Monkey Man is next. What the lyrics mean is open to debate. According to Wikipedia a Monkey Man is a man who will sleep with a married woman. At the time a man with a monkey on his back had a problem usually drug related. Either way the song features some of Keith Richards best guitar work.

The album closes with the mini opera You Can't Always Get What You Want. The song has a strong choral component provided by the London Bach Choir and seems through its lyrics to sum up the bands disillusionment as the decade came to a close.

The album was remastered and rereleased in 2002. The album also is amazing when you consider it was the fifth album in three years, all reflecting different style and element but combined nicely encapsulating the era. The others are Aftermath, Behind The Buttons, Their Satanic Majesties Request and Beggar's Banquet.

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