Let It Bleed Released: November 29, 1969

Let It Bleed in depth

From the first haunting guitar riffs of Gimme Shelter to the angelic gospel fade out of You Can’t Always Get What You Want, Let It Bleed is a stone solid rock classic.

This is the blues, black and white, shaded with mellow country tones, shot through with blood-red and night-dark horror stories, lifted and lit with silver linings; and powered at all times by an inherent good humour that comes from the confidence of a band of hard-living, hard-playing, hard-rocking, hard-working musicians who are back on top of their game and aware of the fact.

(There's an exception, of course: Brian Jones contributed nothing meaningful to Let It Bleed, was too out of it to play his instruments anymore, even when he did try to turn up to sessions, and died long before the album was released. So it goes.)

The Rolling Stones got their mojo back with Beggars Banquet, and on Let It Bleed, guided by an irrepressible Jimmy Miller who was also coming into his full power as producer, they give themselves the time, the space and the tunes to give it full expression. The inherent contradiction and tension that lies at the heart of the blues – groovy, feel-good music about painful experiences – is never better expressed than on this wonderful record.

As always with The Stones, it's all about the songs and the transformational power of music to deal with the best and the worst, and to make them both equally enjoyable and valuable experiences.

Example: the cheerful tale of a psychopathic mass-murderer is parlayed into one of the Stones’ best and best-loved songs, in the toe-tapping, shuffling, boogie form of Midnight Rambler.

Another example: Let It Bleed. The title track, in itself not the most encouraging message for the flower people who inhabit the tripped-out, fag-end of the sixties, is actually a fantastically uplifting, hip-grinding, fundamentally lewd anthem to the messy but realistic values of mutual support and togetherness – of love actual, rather than love imaginary. We all need someone we can bleed on.

Live With Me comes on like a nasty old down and dirty rocker: whip crack drums, strutting bass, sneering vocals, honking horns, snarling guitars and sublime piano; the whole ensemble knocking the tune around like The Champ working out on a journeyman sparring partner.

For contrast, the pure yearning of You Got The Silver is the simple cry of a man too far gone in love to care about material riches – one of Keith Richards’ finer moments in a fifty year career that’s not lacking in highlights.

Love In Vain, Country Honk and Monkey Man – authentic blues, country pastiche and straight-up raucous rock and roll respectively - round out Let It Bleed to perfection. The arguments about the identity of the greatest ever Rolling Stones album will continue forever; and while they do, Let It Bleed will continue to be championed as a leading contender for the title.