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strat72
If I want to piss myself with laughter.....The Gaga wins. She is shockingly bad, but hilarious!

Lisa does a much better job!

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dhinkle555
It was just Mick and U2, but I thought Fergie did a great job at the 25th anniversary concert for the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.

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DD

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dhinkle555
It was just Mick and U2, but I thought Fergie did a great job at the 25th anniversary concert for the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.

Although that performance gives credence to Bono's own assertion that U2 are the world's worst wedding band. Useless at covering other acts. Bloody terrible version of the song.

Declan

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Brstonesfan
Not even close, Gaga made that song finally come alive again. Seeing her live that night made me a fan..a real talent who obviously is a fan of the band dancing in isles ...Fischer let herself go and it is no longer a thrilling duo ....truthfully, Mick is not singing it that well either this tour...he seems winded.

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NoCode0680

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DD

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dhinkle555
It was just Mick and U2, but I thought Fergie did a great job at the 25th anniversary concert for the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.

Although that performance gives credence to Bono's own assertion that U2 are the world's worst wedding band. Useless at covering other acts. Bloody terrible version of the song.

Declan

I've never heard that comment, but most of their covers have been pretty terrible in my opinion. The only exception I can think of is All Along The Watchtower from Rattle And Hum. It's not mind-blowing or anything (nobody's going to top Jimi's cover, and there have been other good ones), but a solid cover that doesn't sound like some U2 B-side that they just added popular lyrics to. Which is what many of their other covers sound like to me. I was a pretty big U2 fan as a teenager, and I bought one of their singles because of a Paint It Black cover on the B-Side (which was probably my #1 song at the time), and I thought it was garbage. I thought a lot of their original songs were good, but the covers were always a letdown.

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Naturalust
It is totally strange to watch Lisa strut out the runway, exuding sexuality and then start singing Rape, Murder, War with a smile on her face and diva like delivery. The visual of that doesn't fit the dark intensity of the song. Then the sexual dancing around with Mick and leaning into Keith further takes away from the nature and mood of the song.

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Naturalust
Perhaps she actually is trying to convey the violation of all those heinous acts better with her all our screaming these days, I certainly feel violated by her but I think it would be better to feel the violation of the subject matter than the singing.

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Naturalust
<snip>But can you expect someone to be any thing but happy and delighted when it's their turn in the spotlight performing with the Stones? And lastly, few of the great dark Stones studio tunes have ever expressed the true intensity and mood when played live.

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swiss
And, of course, I muse on how much of that ability and desire to channel dark intensity and mood shifted after the 1969 tour...

-swiss

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swiss
Merry Clayton.

I've always felt Lisa was somewhat over the top with her approach to this song.

Lady Gaga (tho I both really like and respect her as an artist) seemed to come at it from left field, waving her arms around and spinning, like that's maybe what she imagines you're supposed to do with "hippie music," and overall her choreography was out of sync with the content of what she was singing--her voice is strong and her energy is electric, which is cool to see--but, to me, the best part of this song is its emotional and literal crescendo and resolution, and she starts out bellowing out the gate and there's nowhere to go from there. And although this song is at its rudiments about tension, and that plays itself out musically, vocally, and lyrically--in the Lady Gaga version the tension between her and Mick is strange, and, to me, not entirely appealing or working in service to the actual song.

Fergie...I don't have a problem with her, and at least she brought some dark sexiness to the number, which Lady Gaga did not bring, but she maybe didn't have much chance to shine, and/or also is somewhat confined by her vocal abilities, to soar and rip and hit high notes. It also felt like she probably got up to speed on Gimme Shelter quickly, and didn't really own it. She was singing things like "War AND children -- just a shot away," which, again seems to underscore a lack of familiarity with the piece.

The latter two trot out "Rape Murder" with the 21st Century sensibility of those things being so commonplace in the media (and perhaps in life) as to mean almost next to nothing. Certainly nothing shocking. When the song was written...the point is that the narrator is feeling incredibly vulnerable and unsteady, both in his own life, and regarding the extreme volatility in the external world -- and on the brink of truly not being able to take much more. You can go from relative peace to mayhem in an instant, a shot.

And the other voice says not only is full-fledged, literal "war" a moment away from this one--divided by and catalyzed by as little as one single tipping point action, like the shot heard around the world--any kind of chaos is. The second speaker brings it from the relative abstraction of "War" to interpersonal mayhem of "Rape" and "Murder." Before Gimme Shelter, when else had anyone sang the word "Rape," calling out how mundane and horrific it is in one breath? And pressing the point how rape and/or murder can be upon us in the matter of a mere instant?

The song, to me, has always been about the despair that comes arising from this reality -- especially for one who is sensing complete unleashed mayhem around him.

For me, Merry Clayton's interpretation of this perfectly reflects the sheer horror of that reality. When she sings "murder" -- any of the times she sings that word -- the terrible reality of taking someone's life is abundantly clear. Not just a word. She sings frantically, almost shattering into pieces--reflecting, echoing, taking on another dimension of the narrator's proclamation that if shit doesn't calm down soon --if he doesn't fine some respite from it -- he's straight-up going to lose it.

And the final "kiss away" verse---the narrator (Mick only somewhat convincingly) at least tries to offer up the Stones' versions of "Love is all you need." Suggesting that in the same way evil can set upon us and cause profound destruction in a moment's time, so too can love. It's just as close. It's just as powerful. It's just as urgent. And Merry, in that moment, does not temper her delivery (tho Mick does soften his) -- she is far too keyed up and the topic is too urgent.

The interplay between Merry Clayton and Mick is fascinating in itself, musically and interpersonally. In some ways, Merry Clayton's intense, spot-on delivery unintentionally "bests" Mick -- it ratchets things up a big notch, musically and emotionally. And when he returns to the song and they duet, he has a new strength of conviction and voice. I don't see it as a traditional "competition" -- the way it seems always to have been played out with Lisa and Mick -- and this whole sexual (and male vs. female strength) thing. I find that a little gratuitous.

The tension is important--and if you're a sexy man as Mick is, and a sexy woman as Lisa or Fergie is, there will be some of that in there, but mostly in terms of sheer raw talent, lifeforce, and animus (which is related to libido and sexiness, but different too).

So, I love this song---and I don't think the female part has to mimic Merry Clayton, at all, but I do think she got it right in every way, and it's perfect for the song. And I feel many subsequent live versions of it (when a woman is singing the 2nd part) are cartoonish and a little silly. Fun to watch, but, to me, doesn't really give me chills the way the original does---because there is so much "camp" and faux-sexual-one-up-manship going on.

- swiss