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The Rolling Stones’ 1969 tour was not given a formal name although it could certainly have been the “Let It Bleed” tour since it was promoting the album of that title. But if I had to name it, it would have been the “Gimme Shelter” tour, since that song, almost more than any other, branded that tour for me: the slinky introductory guitar line from Mick Taylor across from Keith’s vibrato as the song builds leading into the signature Taylor-Richards interplay. That duo was among my favorite of Stones’ line-ups. I’m a sucker for the guitar line played through the pounding chunk of the band.
I would come to appreciate how the English were removed from the reality of the American war and so Mick’s “War, children, is just a shot away is inevitably more academic for them. It wasn’t for us and the Americans who were living it. By the end of that tour—Altamont—the song came home to roost.
It pains me to say it because I was so happy when the draft was ended, so now we have the wars fought for us by professionals and the pain and suffering kept as far from us as possible. I have grown up and know our soldiers deserve to be honored. But it’s the same death and dying, a world away. And the stories I hear about our soldiers coming home, psychologically shattered… it’s just a shot away…
(From ETHAN RUSSELL:AN AMERICAN STORY )
