Video Classics: 'Gimme Shelter'

To honor WNEW's legendary Firecracker 500, every day we are highlighting the music that populated the 1991 and 1996 lists, with classic videos, live performances and little-known facts about the songs and how they came to be...

1967 was the Summer of Love, arguably the high point of the American counterculture movement. 1968 was a year of tumult and chaos, unrest and sometimes riots. 1969 would be the year the '60s would come to an end not just in fact but figuratively, as a prevailing mindset and a cultural phenomenon. Gimme Shelter, recorded by the Rolling Stones for their 1969 album Let It Bleed is reflective of that year, and the growing realization that all of the talk of peace, love and understanding that flourished two years earlier wasn't the solution to the world's ills all by itself. To quote Mick Jagger,

"Well, it's a very rough, very violent era. The Vietnam War. Violence on the screens, pillage and burning. And Vietnam was not war as we knew it in the conventional sense..." On the song itself, he concluded, "That's a kind of end-of-the-world song, really. It's apocalypse; the whole record's like that."

Although Gimme Shelter was never released as a single, it quickly became a regular feature of the Stones' live shows. It has also been featured on a majority of their compilation albums and is considered one of their greatest hits. It comes in a quite consistent #57 and #54 on the 1991 and 1996 Firecracker 500 lists, respectively.

Gimme Shelter was also the title appropriated for use for the 1970 documentary of the Stones' 1969 tour that culminated in the infamous Altamont Free Concert, where four people died, including Meredith Hunter, who pulled a gun near the stage and was stabbed to death by the Hell's Angels, who were ostensibly providing security. Many have called that concert the moment the '60s era ended. (On an interesting trivia side note, a young George Lucas was a cameraman at Altamont, but his camera jammed after shooting only a small amount of film, none of which made it into the final cut of the documentary.)

The video below is from an early live telvision performance by the Stones. For the shorter, but more raw and driving version played at Altamont (considered by some the definitive rendition) check out after the jump.

Have memories of this song or the Firecracker 500? Add your thoughts to the comments below or take a look at Video Classics past...

Have memories of this song or the Firecracker 500? Add your thoughts to the comments below or take a look at Video Classics past...