In the fall of 1969 the Rolling Stones were in Los Angeles recording the album "Let It Bleed". They had been working on this album for nearly a year. This was an emotional time having just lost founding member Brian Jones to a drowning accident.

Gimme Shelter is a song about the troubles of the time. Assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, Vietnam, Invasion of Prague and ongoing street violence were all current events.

The lyrics of Gimme Shelter contains the lines "Rape, murder! it's just a shot away" . Mick and Keith decided it would be good to have a woman sing that line. They looked and couldn't find anyone available. Finally Merry Clayton was suggested by Jack Nitzsche and he called her about midnight and inquired "Merry, are you busy". Even though she had no idea who the stones were she arrived, very pregnant, still wearing curlers, and knocked the song out in three takes.

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