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TeddyB1018
When I got the Let it Bleed album as a kid, a few weeks after seeing the Stones for the first time, I couldn't get last playing the introduction of Gimme Shelter. I listened the intro before allowing the needle to continue into the song maybe twenty times. Though there's some obviously stiff competition, and it might be quite my favorite song, I think Gimme Shelter is the greatest record in the canon of rock music.

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keefriffhards

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Naturalust
No doubt Keith was probably high on heroin when he wrote GS, he was in Robert Frasers apt. after all....but was the song about heroin? I seriously don't think so. At that point in his use of the drug it was a harmless warm blanket not a mad bull or any of the other dark sentiments expressed in the song.

Keith talks about writing the song and specifically says "My thought was storms on other people's minds, not mine. It just happened to hit the moment." He describes watching people struggling with an actual weather storm. Other elements like the Vietnam war crept into it too.

Yeah the Stones have a few drug songs but this isn't one of them. People who are into drugs tend to find drug references in just about everything.

correct. of all the posters you seem the most insightful. yes in 69 he was new to heroin. the point i made was not that the lyrics or the song was about heroin, but that the song is the sound of heroin. that's what people have said. as i say i would not know, drink is my thing. part of the fascination with the stones when i got into them was the drugs. sorry to be politically incorrect but most of the good stuff was written on them. a lot or what the stones and rock and roll was and is about includes drink and drugs . surely its ok to talk about them or is big brother watching here as well as everywhere else. that would be a shame.

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Naturalust

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keefriffhards

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Naturalust
No doubt Keith was probably high on heroin when he wrote GS, he was in Robert Frasers apt. after all....but was the song about heroin? I seriously don't think so. At that point in his use of the drug it was a harmless warm blanket not a mad bull or any of the other dark sentiments expressed in the song.

Keith talks about writing the song and specifically says "My thought was storms on other people's minds, not mine. It just happened to hit the moment." He describes watching people struggling with an actual weather storm. Other elements like the Vietnam war crept into it too.

Yeah the Stones have a few drug songs but this isn't one of them. People who are into drugs tend to find drug references in just about everything.

correct. of all the posters you seem the most insightful. yes in 69 he was new to heroin. the point i made was not that the lyrics or the song was about heroin, but that the song is the sound of heroin. that's what people have said. as i say i would not know, drink is my thing. part of the fascination with the stones when i got into them was the drugs. sorry to be politically incorrect but most of the good stuff was written on them. a lot or what the stones and rock and roll was and is about includes drink and drugs . surely its ok to talk about them or is big brother watching here as well as everywhere else. that would be a shame.

Big brother is probably alive and well and smiling at you behind your own web cam But I don't think he cares too much about Keith's drug use 46 years ago or us talking about it. Thankfully I don't know enough about heroin to be truly insightful about it. If you say GS sounds like it I'll take you word for it. I guess I misunderstood your post but I do find it interesting to know the story behind great songs. Keith has talked pretty extensively about this one.

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keefriffhards
its my fav stones song. its my fav song in the world..
it was written at his peak of his powers. i cant go a day without listening to it on various live shows.
its my desert Island disk. what's yours ??

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keefriffhards
on the last side on rolled gold. you got sympathy, SFM, shelter and rambler, it basically changed my life forever when i was 16. music never got any better than that.. except for live renditions. been obsessed ever since..

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muffie

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keefriffhards
on the last side on rolled gold. you got sympathy, SFM, shelter and rambler, it basically changed my life forever when i was 16. music never got any better than that.. except for live renditions. been obsessed ever since..

Wow, your experience mirrors mine exactly. That last side of rolled gold was a dose of realism when 80s bubble gum pop didn't do it for me. It was only until Nirvana came on the scene that those bubbling emotions got an outlet. Still, the Stones present them with sophistication, letting them trickle out and replace with sunshine "it's just a shot away.. love, sisters it's just a kiss away". Nirvana blew in a storm but left no kisses.

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Lipsgogreen
Gimme Shelter= Heroin. Intentional or not. It becomes part of your soul and your being. Keith was whacked on smack. Many, many things he did during those days soaked of Heroin. It consumes you. There are times when, if you have to choose between air and heroin, you would learn how to hold your breath.

Please don't tell a heroin addict about heroin. You could never imagine the degradation to your inner being. GS is always a positive way out for me, because there is hope that you will Get That Shelter.

Its just a shot away.

Thanks.

Tim

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GasLightStreet
Keith mentioned the looking out the window at the storm bit so obviously he came up with that line and the title. And from what Mick says he wrote the rest.

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2120Wolf
John Lennon wrote the best song in the world..."Dig It"

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Turner68

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GasLightStreet
Keith mentioned the looking out the window at the storm bit so obviously he came up with that line and the title. And from what Mick says he wrote the rest.

yes, it's clear mick has thought about it and is very carefully choosing his words when i says " i wrote a lot of the words".

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Turner68

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2120Wolf
John Lennon wrote the best song in the world..."Dig It"

hmm, have you heard "you know my name"? it's also a contender. brian jones on sax too.... it's the b-side of "let it be". i think they put it on just to prove they could put any damn thing on.

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Turner68

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2120Wolf
John Lennon wrote the best song in the world..."Dig It"

hmm, have you heard "you know my name"? it's also a contender. brian jones on sax too.... it's the b-side of "let it be". i think they put it on just to prove they could put any damn thing on.

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keefriffhards
i see it like this. if you listen to the original recording of GS.
its woven with so many of Keith's guitars, that the sound of the song is KR
he may of shared the lyrics with MJ, but IM still handing this one over to Keith.
with BS his guitar is so dominant on it from start to finish that although he did not write it he still seems to own it lol.
im biased but to a great extent i think Keith is the sound of the stones.
i can write a great lyric but without the music what is it. a poem or words on paper. words on paper are ten a penny. keiths sound is unique. but MJ vocals are equally so. what a chemistry they have.

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keefriffhards
its my fav stones song. its my fav song in the world..
it was written at his peak of his powers. i cant go a day without listening to it on various live shows.
its my desert Island disk. what's yours ??

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keefriffhards

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Lipsgogreen
Gimme Shelter= Heroin. Intentional or not. It becomes part of your soul and your being. Keith was whacked on smack. Many, many things he did during those days soaked of Heroin. It consumes you. There are times when, if you have to choose between air and heroin, you would learn how to hold your breath.

Please don't tell a heroin addict about heroin. You could never imagine the degradation to your inner being. GS is always a positive way out for me, because there is hope that you will Get That Shelter.

Its just a shot away.

Thanks.

Tim

think i misjudged you lipsaregreen . that was spine chilling honesty. it makes GS seem even deeper than ever now with the connection you made with it, and it to you.
i remember a bbc radio interview years ago on the release of undercover. keith was asked about heroin . he said '' its so insidious and so seductive, it covers all the angle's, until its got you. and by the time its got you, your already thinking differently. dont know why i remember that.

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LongBeachArena72

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keefriffhards
its my fav stones song. its my fav song in the world..
it was written at his peak of his powers. i cant go a day without listening to it on various live shows.
its my desert Island disk. what's yours ??

Either this:

[www.youtube.com]

Or this:

[www.youtube.com]

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keefriffhards

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Lipsgogreen
Gimme Shelter= Heroin. Intentional or not. It becomes part of your soul and your being. Keith was whacked on smack. Many, many things he did during those days soaked of Heroin. It consumes you. There are times when, if you have to choose between air and heroin, you would learn how to hold your breath.

Please don't tell a heroin addict about heroin. You could never imagine the degradation to your inner being. GS is always a positive way out for me, because there is hope that you will Get That Shelter.

Its just a shot away.

Thanks.

Tim

think i misjudged you lipsaregreen . that was spine chilling honesty. it makes GS seem even deeper than ever now with the connection you made with it, and it to you.
i remember a bbc radio interview years ago on the release of undercover. keith was asked about heroin . he said '' its so insidious and so seductive, it covers all the angle's, until its got you. and by the time its got you, your already thinking differently. dont know why i remember that.

While I would never presume to tell a heroin addict about heroin I would certainly argue with a heroin addict that '"Gimme Shelter" = heroin.'

There's ample evidence that many of the various inspirations for both the writers of the song are outside the realm of the pharmacological. I can certainly see that the overall "mood" of the song may provide a portrait of and perhaps even an escape from the terrors of heroin abuse ... but that in no way means that the song "equals" heroin.

"Gimme Shelter," like all great pieces of music, means many things to many people, is both evocative of its times and in a certain sense timeless.