This is in contention for the worst album cover of all time, hotly contested by the dreadful Captain Beefheart and Zappa.  However, the music which is a mix of let’s say Honky Tonk Country Blues Rock is just wonderful.  The Rolling Stones are in full flight here in the middle of the Beggars, Bleed, Sticky, triptych.  Mick Taylor has joined the band from the wonderful Blues Breakers (scoring a

Little Red Rooster features on this live Stones recording

creditable 8.3, though I have lost the link to this one) and we are nearing peak Stones, which will be reached, arguably, with Exile on Main Street.

The idea that Let it Be/Let it Bleed came out at a similar juncture only serves to highlight the end of The Beatles’ era but the ascent of the Stones.  Here, Jagger and Richards are still being encouraged by manager Andrew Oldham to write their own songs, with Gimmie Shelter forming a possibly intended anti-war axis with Fortunate Son at the height of the Vietnam War. Mick Jagger has referred to the juxtaposition of the album and Vietnam as feeling like a time at ‘the end of the world’.

The female vocal on Gimmie Shelter is recorded by Merry Clayton, an American gospel singer who seems to have sung with everybody over many decades.  She is, incidentally credited on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama.

Country Honk (which is a country version of the single Honky Tonk Woman) is the most obvious move by the Stones back to Country and their Blues heritage. Honky Tonk Woman opens the fantastic 1977 El Mocambo Live album which then sent me off to the fantastic Little Red Rooster.
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Track Listing – Let It Bleed

Side 1

1 Gimme Shelter 04:31
2 Love in Vain 04:19
3 Country Honk 03:09
4 Live with Me 03:33
5 Let It Bleed 05:26

Side 2

1 Midnight Rambler 06:52
2 You Got the Silver 02:51
3 Monkey Man 04:12
4 You Can’t Always Get What You Want 07:28

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Album – Let It Bleed
Artist – The Rolling Stones
Record Label – Decca
Producer – Jimmy Miller
My favourite Tracks – Let it Bleed, Gimmie Shelter, Country Honk
Released – 1969
My Rating – 9.2
Time – 42m, 18s
Tracks – 9
Genre – Blues Rock
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Source – Qobuz (24-bit, 192kHz)
Player/Streamers/DAC/Preamplifier –Auralic Aries G1 transport/iFi Pro iDSD DAC
USB Interconnect – Atlas Arran USB with Grun
Interconnect – Atlas Mavros Interconnect with Grun
Preamplifier  – Moor Amps Angel-Pre
Power Amplifier – Moor Amps Angel 6
Loudspeaker Cable – Atlas Mavros with Grun
Loudspeaker – Kudos Titan 505
Next Album – 153 – Five Leaves Left, Nick Drake