Vox Hunt: Song In The Key Of Life -GIMME SHELTER
Audio: Share a song that fits the moment you're living right now.
Inspired by cherè.
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| Keith Richards wrote most of this. |
| Merry Clayton is the female vocalist. She was a Gospel singer who did backup vocals for various artists, including Ray Charles. She had a regular role on the '80s TV show Cagney and Lacey, and played a maid in the movie Maid To Order. She released her own version of this song. |
| At about the 3:04 mark, when Merry Clayton sings the high note on "Murder," you can hear Mick Jagger in the background saying "Whoo!" (thanks, Ben - Hilton, NY) |
| Jagger: "That song was written during the Vietnam War and so it's very much about the awareness that war is always present; it was very present in life at that point. Mary Clayton who did the backing vocals, was a background singer who was known to one of the producers. Suddenly, we wanted someone to sing in the middle of the night. And she was around. She came with her curlers in, straight from bed, and had to sing this really odd lyric. For her it was a little odd - for anyone, in the middle of the night, to sing this one verse I would have been odd. She was great." (thanks, bertrand - Paris, France) |
This girl can sing. Cagney and Lacey? That's alright, she sings something that produces a feeling inside that nothing else does. Cabin Fever has set in. Cold, closed in. Confined. Forget about the shelter, give me a blue sky and a hot dry day. A glass of sweet tea and a garden hose. I crave the heat. I need sun.
Comments
This is passion only barely controlled. Mary Clayton's singing here always gave me chills, especially when Jagger says that 'Whoo!" because it's like I'm there, witnessing the session, feeling all of that creativity and fear.
Angry and beautiful. Thanks DB!