Throughout the 1960's the Rolling Stones were basically a singles band who either felt compelled to or were urged by their manager to serve as the antithesis to the Beatles while simultaneously parodying their rivals' releases. Consider the sheer blatancy of "Their Satanic Majesties Request," the cover art of "Beggars Banquet" and, now, the title "Let It Bleed" juxtaposed with "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "The Beatles (aka the White Album)" and "Let It Be." Thankfully, with the Beatles' demise and Stones' manager Andrew Loog Oldham's departure, the group would begin to be more original until the late 1970's when they began to once again hop on the bandwagons of the day, be they punk, disco, etc. with the notable exception of the fantastic "Some Girls."

Long before that album, though, and shortly before the almost equally amazing "Sticky Fingers" comes "Let It Bleed," where the Stones enter the world of AOR as well as provide themselves with sure crowd pleasures along the lines of "Gimme Shelter," "Midnight Rambler" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want." This being more than an ample enough amount of "hits" for the traditional album of the period, the group would continue to provide meaningful listening with "Love In Vain," "Live With Me" and "Let It Bleed." Gram Parsons influenced take on "Country Honk" would round out a fantastic A-side to the original album, while Keith Richards' "You Got The Silver" keeps up with the high quality material on this, the group's farewell to their first golden era, brought about by the untimely passing of founding member Brian Jones, who is only present on two cuts from this album, but is clearly represented by the fallen blonde figure on top of the cake. Jones had, in fact, been fired from the group by this point, but was not expected to die so soon afterwards.

The Stones would continue to make music into the 1970's, through personnel changes of Jones' replacement Mick Taylor for Small Faces guitarist Ronnie Wood, eventually disbanding in the mid 1980's before coming back with a vengeance at the close of the decade and bassist Bill Wyman's ultimate resignation from the group.

Along with greatest hits package "Hot Rocks" and the aforementioned "Sticky Fingers" and "Some Girls," this is a definite Stones album to have in your rock and roll collection.

There was only one version of Let It Bleed. This is it. It was released simultaneously in the UK and US on Dec 5, 1969. The Stones had the guts to leave off their July megahit Honky Tonk Woman and instead (much to the chagrin of record company execs) put a countrified satire of their own hit on the album. The Let It Bleed sessions also produced 3 of their finest works that are not on the album (Honky Tonk Woman, Sweet Virginia, and Sister Morphine).

The album contains a huge chunk of the work that made the band famous for this era....Gimme Shelter, Love in Vain, Let It Bleed, Midnight Rambler, and You Can't Always Get What You Want have all pretty much defined not only the Stones but this era of English-speaking history to the world. The album is a staple in every serious rock collection.....it's that simple.

The album has several notable facts:
.....Brian Jones died the same day the last tracks were recorded in London
.....M.C. Escher and photographer Man Ray were both invited to design the cover (they declined)
.....it includes the 1st song not sung by Mick - You Got The Silver, sung by Keith (Mick's version was left in the can)
.....Gimme Shelter was written by Keith while he waited in his car for girlfriend Anita Pallenberg who was starring with Mick (and actually making love instead of only acting) on the set of Performance
.....the Stones have long been accused of stealing many of the song bits from Ry Cooder who was involved in the early sessions and laid down basic tracks that developed into many of the songs

The tracks were recorded between Feb 9 and Jul 2, 1969 at Olympic Sound, London, with final mixing done at Sunset Sound and Elektra Studios in L.A. between Oct 18 and Nov 3. You Can't Always Get What You Want dates slightly earlier, first recorded on Nov 17, 1968 at Olympic with Al Kooper on French horn, producer Jimmy Miller on drums instead of Charlie, and the 35 member London Bach Choir. In addition to the 9 tracks that made the album, the Let It Bleed sessions also produced:
.....the entire jam session on April 23, 1969 that became the album Jammin' With Edward
.....Honky Tonk Woman (released as a single - Mick Taylor's 1st session with the band)
.....All Down The Line (released on Exile On Main Street)
.....Stop Breaking Down (released on Exile On Main Street)
.....Sweet Virginia (released on Exile On Main Street)
.....Shine A Light (released on Exile On Main Street)
.....Loving Cup (released on Exile On Main Street)
.....Sister Morphine (released on Sticky Fingers)

This information comes from "It's Only Rock And Roll: The Ultimate Guide To The Rolling Stones" by Karnbach and Bernson and from my own collection.

Let It Bleed is the bluesiest of all the Stones' records and this probably has to do with the addition of former Bluesbreakers guitarist Mick Taylor to the band. He adds some fine slide and blues guitar work to the band. This album sounds like it could have been recorded in the Mississippi Delta. In fact "Love In Vain" is an old blues song that the band sings in a dirge-like fashion. "Midnight Rambler" sounds like something that Muddy Waters could have written. "Let It Bleed" contains just a simple guitar and drum backing, but is a great song. "You Got The Silver" has Keith singing lead and it is some of his best vocal work ever. "Country Honk" is a country reworking of their number one hit rocker "Honky Tonk Woman". There are some hard rockers on the album including the opening track "Gimme Shelter" and the scorching "Live with Me". "Monkey Man" is one the most underappreciated songs in the Stones catalog. Martin Scorcese used it brilliantly in the film "Goodfellas" and it contains some classic screeching by Jagger. Of course the most played track on the album is the last one, "You Can't Always Get What You Want". It's the Stones slap of reality to the hippie's love & peace movement and a foreshadowing of the violence that would pierce the country, including their own Altamont show.

Wow!

There are a lot of terrific rock and roll albums; this ranks among the best. There is great poignancy with this work. For one thing, some of the songs are poignant--"Love in Vain," "You Can't Always Get What You Want." For another, we see Brian Jones on only two cuts, and playing a minor role (autoharp on "You Got the Silver" and percussion on "Midnight Rambler"), with Mick Taylor (his successor) playing guitar ("Live with Me").

As a salad dressing apothegm has it, though: "'Tis the taste that tells the tale." And what a work!

It starts off with a great little rocker, "Gimme Shelter." There is a foreboding note at the outset (ironic given that this song, if memory serves, was being played when the Hell's Angels began their havoc at Altamont). Nice choral singing in the background. Key lines:

"A storm is threatening'
. . . .
If I don't get some shelter
I'm gonna fade away."

The rhythm section (Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman) plays well, and Keith Richards spews forth chunky guitar notes. Mick Jagger does a nice job on harmonica.

"Love in Vain": I risk the wrath of blues fans. . . . I like this version better than either of the multiple ones on Robert Johnson's 2 CD work. Keith's spare guitar work and Mick's vocals simply work extremely well. The Stones have done an estimable job over time covering blues classics--and even recording some of their own original blues-y works. Here, they show that they can do a credible job as compared with the originals.

"Country Honk": Interesting in its country sound, but listen to "Honky Tonk Women" for the real deal. This is a nice experiment, but. . . .

"Midnight Rambler": The album version is terrific, but after you listen to the live version on "Get Your Ya-Yas Out," this recedes into the background. And that's a compliment to the live version, since this is a great, haunting, disturbing rock and roll song. A song about Albert DiSalvo can only be described as "creepy." Still, the recorded version works well and is compelling rock theater. Mick's harmonica work is quite well done here. The presto close out is fabulous.

"You Can't always Get What You Want": Some of the most poignant lines in rock and roll:

"You can't always get what you want,
But if you try, sometime you just might find
You get what you need."

This song features the London Bach Choir in support! This is an interesting and intelligent (and poignant) song. Noteworthy: Al Kooper joins the Stones with some nice turns on French horn (kind of weird for rock and roll!), piano, and organ.

Simply, one of the classic rock and roll albums. . . .

This is another of my personal top ten favorite album/CDs. Coming on the heels of "Beggars Banquet", this set has been called one of the two most assured albums in rock history (the other was "Who's Next" by The Who). This recording also marked the end of Brian Jones' association with the Stones. Though his replacement, Mick Taylor, was certainly an excellent guitarist, some would argue that the band was never quite the same without Jones. He provided a versatility to the Stones arrangements that has since been unmatched.

This album is studded with gems. It opens with "Gimme Shelter", a great Stones rocker, and ends with "You Can't Always Get What You Want", another of their best-known songs. In between are the bluesy "Love In Vain", a countrified version of "Honky Tonk Women" called "Country Honk", and the fluid rock of "Live With Me" and "Let It Bleed". There is also the studio version of "Midnight Rambler", a dark piece that showcases Jagger's dramatic posturing at its most effective, and a couple of tunes that, in my opinion, are underrated. "You Got The Silver" is Keith at his best both playing and singing, while "Monkey Man" builds to a frenzy of wailing and gibbering by Mick at the end.

The Stones are one of the essential bands of rock and roll, and this recording, along with "Beggars Banquet", find them at the peak of their game. There are, of course, several other outstanding Stones recordings, but it just doesn't get any better than this. If you own any rock music, you've got to own these.