“GIMME SHELTER” is regarded as a socio-political anthem, but Keith Richards’s tale of writing it is at once highly personal and also quite literal. It was penned during a storm while Anita was off with Mick filming Performance. Keith knew they were having an affair. And depending on whose account you read, he was either devastated or quite blasé about it. We’ll go with Keith on this one. From Life:
KEITH RICHARDS: I didn’t find out for ages about Mick and Anita, but I smelled it . . . I never expected anything from Anita. I mean, hey, I’d stolen her from Brian.
Keith is then quick to point out that he’d had an affair with Marianne as well. He goes on to explain the song:
KEITH RICHARDS: Of course, it becomes much more metaphorical with all the other contexts and everything, but at the time, I wasn’t thinking about, oh my God, there’s my old lady shooting a movie in a bath with Mick Jagger. My thought was storms on other people’s minds, not mine . . . Only later did I realize, this will have more meaning than I thought at the time.
Bringing in a female foil for Mick on “Gimme Shelter” was Jack Nitzsche’s brilliant idea. Merry Clayton, a former backup singer for Ray Charles, got the gig.
MERRY CLAYTON: Jack called me at home from the studio in the Los Angeles area one night where I lived with my husband, Curtis Amy. Jack called our home and Curtis told him I was just about ready to go to sleep. See, I was pregnant, but Jack insisted that he had to talk to me about this Stones’ session immediately as I was about to go to sleep. Curtis then woke me up. Jack was on the line. “Merry, I really need you to do this part. There is no other singer who can do this. Please.” I always loved Jack; like Lou Adler, he always took a chance on me. And I worked with Jack on the Performance soundtrack he did and I had worked with Jack earlier on a record he did with Neil Young in 1968 or ’69. OK . . . I was really tired that night, but I got up, put on my coat, got in the car with Curtis and we drove up La Cienega from LA to Hollywood later that evening where the studio was located.
They played me the song and asked if I could put a little somethin’ on it . . . I said, stop the song and tell me what all this stuff meant before I went any further. “It’s just a shout or shot away” was something in the lyrics. I said, “I’m gonna put my vocal on it and I’m gonna leave. ’Cause this is a real high part and I will be wettin’ myself if I sing any higher!” ’Cause my stomach was a little bit heavy . . .
So, we went in and did it. Matter of fact, I did it three times. I didn’t do an overdub. Mick’s vocal was already on it when I heard it and I recall he did a bit of touching up after I left. But they got what they wanted. “It was so nice meeting you guys.” “Oh Merry you sound incredible. We just love you. We’re gonna work with you” . . . I was walkin’ out the door as they were talkin’. “OK, love you guys, too! See you some other time.” And I got in the car with my husband who took me right home and I went right upstairs to bed. And that was the “Gimme Shelter” session.
The song has a legion of admirers, including a certain well-known film director. After the release of Shine a Light, Martin Scorsese was asked to compare the subject matter of the Stones with another of his familiar subject matters—gangsters.
MARTIN SCORSESE: It reminds me of when I went to see Threepenny Opera back in 1959, 1960, at the Theater de Lys, and how the music affected me and what that was saying, and what that play said, and the lyrics. The lyrics were so important to me. I grew up in an area that was, in a sense, like The Threepenny Opera, and I think at times, the music, the Rolling Stones’ music, had a similar effect on me. It dealt with aspects of a life that was growing up around me, that I was experiencing and trying to make sense of. And so it was tougher, it had an edge, it was beautiful, honest, brutal at times, and powerful. And it’s always stayed with me and become a well of inspiration to this day. Mick said to me in Berlin, “I want you to know that Shine a Light is your only film that ‘Gimme Shelter’ is not played in.” And when I use “Gimme Shelter” in a film, it’s just as apropos today; and when I use it in a film I don’t remember that I did it before. Someone might say, you did it before, and I say, that’s alright, let’s put it in. It’s something that has been very important to me over the years.