The Rolling Stones released Let It Bleed in the UK through Decca on December 5, 1969. Produced by Jimmy Miller, the nine-song album arrived during a change in guitarists, but its opening statement depended on a guest singer. On “Gimme Shelter,” Merry Clayton’s voice rises alongside Mick Jagger’s, turning the song’s warning into something close to a confrontation.
Clayton hadn’t been waiting for a call from the Stones. In a 2013 interview with NPR’s Fresh Air, she recalled being in bed when the request came late at night. She was pregnant, didn’t know who the band were and needed encouragement from her husband to take the session. Once she reached the studio, she wanted to hear the track, record her part and get home. The violent language initially puzzled her, so she asked what the song meant before continuing. She remembered singing it three times before leaving. The crack in her voice became part of the recording. “I was just grateful that the crack was in tune,” she said. Clayton also recalled that the Stones association increased demand for her session work.
Inside the band, Let It Bleed preserved a brief overlap between two eras. Brian Jones had left during the sessions and died before the album’s release. His contributions were limited to autoharp on “You Got the Silver” and percussion on “Midnight Rambler.” His replacement, Mick Taylor, also played on two songs, adding slide guitar to “Country Honk” and guitar to “Live With Me.” For most of the album, Keith Richards was responsible for both rhythm and lead guitar parts.
Richards also took a different place at the microphone. “You Got the Silver” was the first released Stones song on which he sang the entire lead vocal. He had previously shared leads with Jagger, including on “Salt of the Earth” from the previous year’s Beggars Banquet. Its acoustic blues setting gave the album a more intimate passage between “Midnight Rambler” and “Monkey Man.” Elsewhere, “Country Honk” revisited “Honky Tonk Women” in a country arrangement. The electric single had reached No. 1 in both the UK and US before listeners heard the album’s version.
The room grew considerably for the closing “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” which paired the band with the London Bach Choir. Al Kooper contributed piano, organ and French horn, while Miller played drums. Kooper had originally gone to London to escape recording work. Recalling the session for the television series Rock & Roll, he said a chance meeting with Jones helped persuade him to take part. Jagger and Richards then collected him from his hotel, and the musicians learned the song together on acoustic guitars before moving to their instruments.
Kooper’s contribution kept developing after that session. He offered to arrange horns, and Jagger later sent him the tape. Kooper recorded a full horn arrangement but was unhappy with much of the playing. Jagger ultimately retained the French horn introduction and discarded the rest of that brass arrangement. The entrance to the album’s finale was the surviving piece of a larger idea.
Let It Bleed went on to reach No. 1 in the UK and No. 3 in the US.
