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Gimme Shelter is a song by The Rolling Stones which is about the political and social unrest at the time. There was the war in Vietnam, race riots, and Charles Manson. Mick Jagger sings of needing shelter from this "Storm."
On Guitar, its 5-Star threshold is 107.260 points, and its Gold Star threshold is 145.432 points.
Difficulty
| INSTRUMENT | DIFFICULTY |
|---|---|
| Guitar |  
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| Vocals |
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| Drums |
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| Bass |
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| Keys | No Part |
| Pro Guitar | No Part |
| Harmonies |
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| Pro Drums |
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| Pro Bass | No Part |
| Pro Keys | No Part |
| Band |
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Trivia[]
Keith Richards wrote most of this song. He strummed the opening on an electric-acoustic guitar modeled after a Chuck Berry favorite. (Thanks, Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England)
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)
"Gimme Shelter" is the title of the movie that documented The Stones 1969 tour, including the Altamont concert where a fan was stabbed by a Hell's Angels security guard. The movie was rush released in 1970 to come out before the Woodstock documentary. It was released on video in 1992 and re-released in theaters in 2000 for the 30th anniversary. George Lucas of Star Wars fame was on the crew for the movie. (Thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)
The Stones recorded this song using old, worn-out Triumph amplifiers to get a distinctive sound.
This has been covered by the Goo Goo Dolls, Grand Funk Railroad, and the Sisters of Mercy (who swapped the locations the words "kiss" and "shot" - "War, children, it's just a kiss away" and "Love, sister, it's just a shot away"). Patti Smith recorded it for her 2007 album Twelve. (Thanks, Christopher - Vienna, Austria and Greg - Calgary, Canada)
Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese has used this song in 3 of his films: Goodfellas, Casino and The Departed.