"…Sometimes You Get
What You Need…"
In
the truly fantastic and illuminating 2013 movie "20 Feet From
Stardom" - one of the great unsung heroes of backing singers MERRY CLAYTON
recalls with a giggle being dragged into a Studio by The Rolling Stones in her
mink coat at some ungodly hour in the morning and told to scream "RAPE!
MURDER! IT'S JUST A SHOT AWAY..." into a microphone at the top of her
formidable lungs whilst heavily pregnant and with her hair-curlers still in.
The film isolates her vocal track where she went up an extra octave to get the
effect they needed - and you can hear her blowing the room out with her sheer power.
Mick Jagger - who is also interviewed in the film along with Springsteen and
many other rock beneficiaries - recalls it too and smiles wryly - Merry was
damn good. In fact perhaps Clayton stood out as much as he did.
But
whatever has passed into musical history since - nowadays both are quite
rightly proud of the fabulous song "Gimme Shelter" that opens 1969's
"Let It Bleed" by The Rolling Stones - what many lifetime fans feel
is one of their finest hairy-assed reprobate hours. Merry Clayton would go on
to have a short but sadly unnoticed Solo career of her own on Ode/A & M
Records - even naming her debut album "Gimme Shelter" after her most
famous moment with the grinning English boy (see separate review).
Back
to this CD reissue... When the Decca label side of the Stones catalogue first
came out on CD in 1986 on London - it was not the greatest moment for the new
format. This 2002 reissue acknowledges this and advises that after 'long and
painful' searches through tape vaults on both sides of the Atlantic - both time
and technology had caught up enough to warrant a proper stab at it again - and
man what a result.
Released
August 2002 on Abkco 90042 (Barcode 018771900429) - "Let It Bleed" by THE ROLLING STONES is a straightforward
transfer of the album (42:21 minutes):
1.
Gimme Shelter
2.
Love In Vain
3.
Midnight Rambler
4.
Live With Me
5.
Let It Bleed
6.
Midnight Rambler [Side 2]
7.
You Got The Silver
8.
Monkey Man
9.
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Tracks
1 to 9 are the album "Let It Bleed" - released November 1969 in the
USA on London NP 4 (Mono) and NPS 4 (Stereo) and December 1969 in the UK on
Decca LK 5025 (Mono) and SKL 5025 (Stereo). Only the Stereo mix is used.
Made
by Sony and Phillips - the SACD/DSD Hybrid Disc actually has two layers - the
first contains the normal CD playback - but the other layer has a SACD remaster
which will automatically come on if your machine has SACD playback facilities
(it doesn't require a special machine to play this disc). The three-way foldout
card digipak unfortunately doesn't reproduce the inner sleeve or the sticker
and poster that came with rare originals of the album. It does however take the
figurines off the cake and dot them across the digipak and CD. But the real
sweet tooth is the sound. Given a careful transfer/remaster/mastering job by
Steve Rosenthal, Teri Landi and Bob Ludwig - the sonic transformation of Jimmy
Miller's original production are awesome.
Right
from the opening moments of "Gimme Shelter" with its atmospheric
guitars and NICKY HOPKINS piano playing - you know you're in the presence of
something special. Things get even better with the largely acoustic cover of
Robert Johnson's "Love In Vain" featuring RY COODER on Mandolin to
great effect .The lead in car-horns and fiddle playing of BYRON BERLINE on
their countrified piss take of "Honky Tonk Women" (called
"Country Honk") sounds suitably ramshackle. Bill Wyman's Bass and
Charlie Watt's Drums kick in with power on "Live With Me" as does the
piano playing of LEON RUSSELL. The two acidic Side 1 finishers "Live With
Me" (with MICK TAYLOR) and "Let It Bleed" (with IAN STEWART)
have that fantastic British Rock 'n' Roll swagger that only the Faces seemed to
be able to get near with any conviction.
Side
2 opens with the killer "Midnight Rambler" - a concert pleaser to
this day. I love the wickedly sly "You Got The Silver" with Keith
giving it bottleneck slide and half-stoned half-jealous vocals. Reputedly about
the actress Anita Pallenberg immersed in the filming of "Performance"
with Mick Jagger - the song also turned up in the futuristic classic
"Zabriskie Point" - a notorious bomb at the box office in 1970. There
can't be many Stones who don't think "Monkey Man" one of their great,
unheralded Rocking masterpieces - a snotty little number perfectly placed
before the glorious symphony of "You Cant Always Get What You Want".
What can you say about this album finisher - how many times has its opening
magic been used in movies to elicit emotion - and worked! To this day the
7" single edit of it on the B-side of "Honky Tonk Women" can
only be found on the 3rd Stones Singles Box 1968-1971 (see separate review). As
Al Kooper bashes the keys and Doris Troy, Nanette Newman, Madeline Bell and The
London Bach Choir sing the song out - I'll admit to blubbing little Glimmer
Twin tears...absolute f***ing genius.
"This
Record Should Be Played Loud" it stated on the inner bag of the original
vinyl LP.
Whether
you go for the 2002 SACD/CD Hybrid issue or Japan's SHM-CD from 2010 (with all
the repro artwork and 2002 remaster) - I'd apply the same code to this
blindingly good remaster...CRANK IT!
PS:
A young Delia Smith baked the cake on the cover...swear to God...
