Let It Bleed by The Rolling Stones (1969), № 42 in The Lead-In’s 100 greatest albums. The Stones recover from Brian Jones's death by writing the meanest album about America ever cut by a British band. Keith plays five-string open-G on every song; everybody learns.
The Rolling Stones' final 1960s album. Brian Jones's last contribution before death; Mick Taylor's first. Released December 5, 1969 (UK).
Recorded across 1969 at Olympic Sound, Elektra, Sunset Sound. The album that bridges Brian Jones-era Stones and Mick Taylor-era Stones. The album that includes 'Gimme Shelter' and 'You Can't Always Get What You Want.'
By 1969, the Rolling Stones were in transition. Brian Jones, the band's founder and original musical leader, had become unreliable; the band fired him in June 1969 and replaced him with Mick Taylor. Jones died in his swimming pool on July 3, 1969, less than four weeks after his firing.
Let It Bleed was recorded across 1969 in parallel with these events. The sessions included Jones's final contributions (autoharp on 'You Got the Silver,' percussion on 'Midnight Rambler') and Taylor's first appearances on 'Country Honk' and 'Live with Me.' Jimmy Miller produced. The Stones were at peak playing strength.
The album's signature feature is its bleakness. The Vietnam War was at its peak; Altamont happened a week after the album's release. 'Gimme Shelter' opens the album with one of the most-cited rock vocal performances (Merry Clayton's backing scream).
The album's nine tracks include 'Gimme Shelter,' 'Love in Vain' (Robert Johnson cover), 'Country Honk' (acoustic 'Honky Tonk Women'), 'Live with Me,' 'Let It Bleed,' 'Midnight Rambler,' 'You Got the Silver,' 'Monkey Man,' 'You Can't Always Get What You Want.'
Let It Bleed belongs at number forty-two because it is the album that documents the Stones' Brian-Jones-to-Mick-Taylor transition while producing two of the band's most-cited songs.
The 1969 UK Decca original came in both stereo (SKL 5025) and the far scarcer mono (LK 5025); the mono is the true collector grail. It is a single front-laminated sleeve (no gatefold) and the first issue included a full-colour fold-out poster, advertised by a black sticker on the front. The earliest printed inner sleeves carry the uncensored 'With the London Bach Choir' credit, which Decca later blacked out, and a back-cover indicator hole shows the inner colour. Wideband unboxed Decca labels are generally the earliest, though boxed-logo copies of the period are also originals.
© The Lead-In · an independent, reader-supported music publication.
