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Rating:
Ok, I know. "Let It Bleed" has already been commented on. Alright, fine. Don't get upset, stay calm, everything is fine. After all, reviewing the Rolling Stones (the four charming Anglo-Saxon oldies who sing and play much better than many pseudo low-level artists in their twenties with, alas, immense success: do the Blue mean nothing to you?) is always a source of pleasure and enjoyment.
Given that today these four lively and tenacious oldies have inevitably lost some of their edge and genius (their latest album, "A Bigger Bang", is neither great nor anything special), and that perhaps, musically, their last great album is "It's only rock'n' roll" dated 1974, I cannot say I don't love them or have never loved them. "Let It Bleed" is dated 1969 and represents a sort of watershed between the vibrant sounds of "Satisfaction" and the more complex and harmonious ones of "Angie".
"Let It Bleed" is a masterpiece, perhaps it is the best album by the Rolling Stones (certainly the most complex both musically and vocally) and it is composed of only six songs. Between a guitar riff by Keith Richards and a fake do-gooder scream of that devil Jagger, "Let It Bleed" pierces your heart and shreds your brain. The Rolling Stones, inhuman musicians descended from Heaven (or perhaps from Hell) to disrupt our rigor and our very banal daily life, choose to hit hard and leave a mark: scorching hot guitars, extremely powerful screams, ferocious drum rolls, breathtaking bass lines. The four frenzied Brits shatter, in one fell swoop, the certainties and fantasies of mid 20th century: a potent gesture of rebellion against the austere mediocrity of so many fake revolutionaries (see, for example, Jefferson Airplane).
"Let It Bleed" is epochal as much as it is grandiose. Have you ever felt a shiver down your spine after yet another listen to "Monkey Man"? Have you ever danced, (or perhaps twirled), to the pounding and vibrant notes of "Gimme Shelter"? And don't come to tell me that "Streets of Love" is better than "Let It Bleed"!
Noteworthy is the clever commercial ploy that the Stones implemented to facilitate the release of the album: in the UK, the Beatles had just released "Let It Be" in the record market (translated as "Let it be"), the Rolling, to exploit the success of the Beatles' record, decided to respond to the four Liverpudlian beetles with "Let It Bleed" (translated as "Let it bleed"). Provocation or commercial shrewdness?
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Gimme Shelter (04:34)
Ooh, a storm is threat'ning
My very life today
If I don't get some shelter
Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away
War, children, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
War, children, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
Ooh, see the fire is sweepin'
Our very street today
Burns like a red coal carpet
Mad bull lost its way
War, children, yes, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
War, children, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
Rape, murder, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
Rape, murder, yeah, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
Rape, murder, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
Mmm, the floods is threat'ning
My very life today
Gimme, gimme shelter
Or I'm gonna fade away
War, children, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
I tell you love, sister, it's just a kiss away
It's just a kiss away
It's just a kiss away
It's just a kiss away
It's just a kiss away
Kiss away, kiss away
03 Country Honk (03:09)
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)
I'm sittin' in a bar tippling a jar in Jackson
And on the street the summer sun it shines
There's many a bar-room queen
I've had in Jackson
But I just can't seem to drink you off my mind
It's the honky tonk women
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues
I laid a divorcee in New York City
I had to put up some kind of a fight
The lady she all dressed me up in roses
She blew my nose and then she blew my mind
It's the honky tonk women
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues
It's the honky tonk women
Gimme, gimme, gimme the honky tonk blues
It's the honky tonk women
Gimme, gimme, gimme thse honky tonk blues
04 Live With Me (03:36)
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)
I got nasty habits, I take tea at three
Yes, and the meat I eat for dinner
Must be hung up for a week
My best friend, he shoots water rats
And feeds them to his geese
Don'cha think there's a place for you
In between the sheets?
Come on now, honey
We can build a home for three
Come on now, honey
Don't you wanna live with me?
And there's a score of harebrained children
They're all locked in the nursery
They got earphone heads they got dirty necks
They're so 20th century
Well they queue up for the bathroom
'Round about 7:35
Don'cha think we need a woman's touch to make it come alive?
You'd look good pram pushing
Down the high street
Come on now, honey
Don't you wanna live with me?
Whoa, the servants they're so helpful, dear
The cook she is a whore
Yes, the butler has a place for her
Behind the pantry door
The maid, she's French, she's got no sense
She's wild for Crazy Horse
And when she strips, the chauffeur flips
The footman's eyes get crossed
Don'cha think there's a place for us
Right across the street
Don'cha think there's a place for you,
In between the sheets?
06 Midnight Rambler (06:55)
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)
Did you hear about the midnight rambler
Everybody got to go
Did you hear about the midnight rambler
The one that shut the kitchen door
He don't give a hoot of warning
Wrapped up in a black cat cloak
He don't go in the light of the morning
He split the time the cock'rel crows
Talkin' about the midnight gambler
The one you never seen before
Talkin' about the midnight gambler
Did you see him jump the garden wall
Sighin' down the wind so sadly
Listen and you'll hear him moan
Talkin' about the midnight gambler
Everybody got to go
Did you hear about the midnight rambler
Well, honey, it's no rock 'n' roll show
Well, I'm talkin' about the midnight gambler
Yeah, everybody got to go
Well did ya hear about the midnight gambler?
Well honey its no rock-in' roll show
Well I'm talking about the midnight gambler
The one you never seen before
Oh don't do that, oh don't do that, oh don't do that
Don't you do that, don't you do that (repeat)
Oh don't do that, oh don't do that
Well you heard about the Boston...
It's not one of those
Well, talkin' 'bout the midnight...sh...
The one that closed the bedroom door
I'm called the hit-and-run raper in anger
The knife-sharpened tippie-toe...
Or just the shoot 'em dead, brainbell jangler
You know, the one you never seen before
So if you ever meet the midnight rambler
Coming down your marble hall
Well he's pouncing like proud black panther
Well, you can say I, I told you so
Well, don't you listen for the midnight rambler
Play it easy, as you go
I'm gonna smash down all your plate glass windows
Put a fist, put a fist through your steel-plated door
Did you hear about the midnight rambler
He'll leave his footprints up and down your hall
And did you hear about the midnight gambler
And did you see me make my midnight call
And if you ever catch the midnight rambler
I'll steal your mistress from under your nose
I'll go easy with your cold fanged anger
I'll stick my knife right down your throat, baby
And it hurts!
07 You Got the Silver (02:54)
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)
Hey babe, what's in your eyes?
I saw them flashing like airplane lights
You fill my cup, babe, that's for sure
I must come back for a little more
You got my heart you got my soul
You got the silver you got the gold
You got the diamonds from the mine
Well that's all right, it'll buy some time
Tell me, honey, what will I do
When I'm hungry and thirsty too
Feeling foolish (and that's for sure)
Just waiting here at your kitchen door?
Hey baby, what's in your eyes?
Is that the diamonds from the mine?
What's that laughing in your smile?
I don't care, no, I don't care
Oh babe, you got my soul
You got the silver you got the gold
A flash of love, has made me blind
I don't care, no, that's no big surprise
09 You Can't Always Get What You Want (07:30)
I saw her today at the reception
A glass of wine in her hand
I knew she would meet her connection
At her feet was her footloose man
No, you can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometime, you'll find
You get what you need
I saw her today at the reception
A glass of wine in her hand
I knew she would meet her connection
At her feet was her footloose man
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometime, well you might find
You get what you need
I went down to the demonstration
To get my fair share of abuse
Singin' we're gonna vent our frustration
If we don't we're gonna blow a 50-amp fuse
Sing it to me
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, well you just might find
You get what you need
I went down to the Chelsea drug store
To get your prescription filled
I was standin' in line with Mr. Jimmy
And man, did he look pretty ill
We decided that we would have a soda
My favourite flavour, cherry red
I sung my song to Mr. Jimmy
Yeah, and he said one word to me, and that was "dead"
I said to him
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, you just might find
You get what you need
You get what you need
I saw her today at the reception
In her glass was a bleeding man
She was practiced at the art of deception
Well I could tell by her blood-stained hands
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, you just might find, you just might find
You get what you need
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, you just might find, you just might find
You get what you need
15 Memo From Turner (03:54)
(Jagger/Richards)
Didn't I see you down in San Antone on a hot and dusty night?
We were eating eggs in Sammy's when the black man there drew his knife.
Aw, you drowned that Jew in Rampton as he washed his sleeveless shirt,
You know, that Spanish-speaking gentlemen, the one we all called "Kurt."
Come now, gentleman, I know there's some mistake.
How forgetful I'm becoming, now you fixed your bus'ness straight.
I remember you in Hemlock Road in nineteen fifty-six.
You're a faggy little leather boy with a smaller piece of stick.
You're a lashing, smashing hunk of man;
Your sweat shines sweet and strong.
Your organs working perfectly, but there's a part that's not screwed on.
Weren't you at the Coke convention back on nineteen sixty-five
You're the misbred, grey executive I've seen heavily advertised.
You're the great, gray man whose daughter licks policemen's buttons clean.
You're the man who squats behind the man who works the soft machine.
Come now, gentleman, your love is all I crave.
You'll still be in the circus when I'm laughing, laughing on my grave.
When the old men do the fighting and the young men all look on.
And the young girls eat their mothers meat from tubes of plasticon.
Be wary of these my gentle friends of all the skins you breed.
They have a tasty habit - they eat the hands that bleed.
So remember who you say you are and keep your noses clean.
Boys will be boys and play with toys so be strong with your beast.
Oh Rosie dear, doncha think it's queer, so stop me if you please.
The baby is dead, my lady said, "You gentlemen, why you all work for me?"
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Other reviews
By tiziocaio
Let It Bleed lays the groundwork for that indestructible pillar that never seems to fade.
If you really want a starting point for the Stones that you are used to hearing, you have no choice but to start here.
By carlo cimmino
I had never stopped loving her from the first moment I had caught her gaze.
At least that damn record still sounded like it used to.
By Davide1990
"Gimmie Shelter is one of the greatest Rock tracks of the '60s, absolutely epic and full of vitality."
The album marked an era for the Stones and for Rock, possibly their most successful alongside Exile on Main Street.
