Mick Jagger shares the story behind the recording of ‘Gimme Shelter’, with Merry Clayton delivering the haunting background vocals. It is a strange, sad tale. Made in Los Angeles in 1969, the track catches a time when dread weighed on everything. The Rolling Stones were closing their album Let It Bleed, while the world around them was coming apart.
Brian Jones, the band’s founder and multi-instrumentalist, had been fired in June of that year after his drug addiction and personality problems reached a critical stage. He died less than a month later. The album’s release was followed by violence at the Altamont Free Concert just a day after Let It Bleed came out. Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy had been assassinated, the Tet Offensive had broken out, and the Prague Spring had been brutally suppressed. No rock record, before or since, has captured that sense of dread as completely as Let It Bleed, as Stephen Davis writes in his book Old Gods Almost Dead: The 40-Year Odyssey of the Rolling Stones.
The Lyrics That Set the Tone
The record closes with “Gimme Shelter”, a track that captures its whole mood. Jagger sings about a fire raging through the streets, comparing the scene to a wild bull that has lost its way. The chorus returns again and again with a simple, terrible line: “Rape, murder / It’s just a shot away.” This is not a happy tune.
Recording the Track
During a conversation with Melissa Block on the NPR program All Things Considered, Jagger spoke about the creation of the track. He explained that the band had spent months developing Let It Bleed, wrestling with the record while Jones’s condition worsened. When they got to Los Angeles to mix it, they decided to add a woman’s voice to the “rape/murder verse.”
“We thought, ‘Well, it’d be great to have a woman come and do the rape/murder verse,’ or chorus or whatever you want to call it,” Jagger said. “We randomly phoned up this poor lady in the middle of the night, and she arrived in her curlers and proceeded to do that in one or two takes, which is pretty amazing. She came in and knocked off this rather odd lyric. It’s not the sort of lyric you give anyone—’Rape, murder/It’s just a shot away’—but she really got into it, as you can hear on the record.”
Merry Clayton’s Background
The person who picked up the telephone call was Merry Clayton. She comes from a family of ministers, and she sang in her father’s church in New Orleans from a young age. She first stepped into a recording studio at age 14, singing alongside Bobby Darin on a duet. Throughout her career, she has worked with The Supremes, Elvis Presley and a long list of other artists. She was part of Ray Charles’s group of backing singers, The Raelettes, and she shows up in the documentary film 20 Feet From Stardom.
The Midnight Call
In an interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air, Clayton told the story of that night. She was at home with her husband, very pregnant, around 11:30 or 12 o’clock at night. A dear friend and producer named Jack Nitzsche called.
Her husband was beside her in bed when the telephone rang. Nitzsche reported that a few men had arrived from England who required someone to sing alongside them, and no one else could be found to help. He recommended Clayton, and claimed it would be beneficial for her.
Her husband took the phone out of her hand. “Man, what is going on? This time of night you’re calling Merry to do a session? You know she’s pregnant,” he said. Nitzsche explained the situation, and Clayton drifted back to sleep. Then her husband nudged her again. “Honey, you know, you really should go and do this date.”
The Studio Session
When Clayton arrived at the studio, Keith Richards was already there. She had no idea who the Rolling Stones were, so he explained what he wanted her to do.
The Performance That Cracked
Heavy in her belly, she chose to sit upon a stool rather than stand. She sang the track and the band played it for her. Not the kind of words you hand over freely, yet she gave herself wholly to them. Her voice broke with feeling.
“I was just grateful that the crack was in tune,” she told Gross.
The isolated vocal recording carries the sound of the people in the studio calling out in wonder. It happened at a late hour, and she repeated the performance three times before she departed. After that, she was gone.
Clayton’s evening ended in tragedy when she left the studio and suffered a miscarriage shortly thereafter. The general assumption is that the emotional intensity of her performance combined with the lateness of the hour brought on the loss.
For a long time, Clayton found the song too difficult to bear, whether hearing it or singing it. “That was a dark, dark period for me,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 1986, “but God gave me the strength to overcome it. I turned it around. I took it as life, love and energy and directed it in another direction, so it doesn’t really bother me to sing ‘Gimme Shelter’ now. Life is short as it is and I can’t live on yesterday.”
What We Know
- Brian Jones was fired from the Rolling Stones in June 1969
- He died less than a month later
- The Altamont Free Concert broke out the day after Let It Bleed was released
- Clayton recorded her vocals in Los Angeles in 1969
- She lost her baby shortly after the session
A Dark Night That Paid Off
That moment defined her career, and the recording preserves it. Dread lingers in both the words and the delivery. Clayton’s performance is what makes it endure. She took the call and followed directions. She sang the words and let her voice break.
That is a remarkable thing, and it is worth remembering.
Key Facts Box
- Album: Let It Bleed
- Year: 1969
- Recording location: Los Angeles
- Brian Jones fired: June 1969
- Brian Jones died: Less than a month later
- Altamont Free Concert: Day after Let It Bleed released
- Clayton’s miscarriage: Shortly after the session
- Interviews: Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air, Melissa Block on All Things Considered
Merry Clayton entered a studio at night and departed with a voice that transformed a song, offering proof that some of the most powerful artistic achievements come from the bleakest circumstances. The tale of ‘Gimme Shelter’ serves as a reminder that darkness can give rise to extraordinary creation.
See the video the story is built around at Open Culture.
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