The Rolling Stones
Let It Bleed

Over since I put myself in this terrible predicament by assaulting asshole teenagers at a Jethro Tull concert last summer, I’ve had a lot of time to think about a very important question: Do I take music too seriously? Of course, the eventual answer is always “no.” On many occasions, I’ve dug up all this philosophical bullshit like “Rock Will Save the World,” “Music Changed My Pathetic Little Life,” or even, “The Rolling Stones Have Made Me Evil.” This is where I got the idea for this month’s Deek Magazine Hall of Fame entry: The Stones’ immortal (and aptly titled) Let It Bleed.

Let It Bleed was born out of turmoil, fame, sex and violence and set a paradigm for the transition between the peace and flowery bullshit-happiness of the 1960s and the death of rock in the 1970s. Founding guitarist Brian Jones had been fired from the band early in recording, Mick Jagger was off being a movie star in Australia, Mick Taylor was just entering the never-ending circus that was the Rolling Stones and Keith Richards was doing more heroin than everyone else in the world combined. The only thing that could possibly arise from this situation was a tremendous bare-bones rock album. There is no majesty in this music – only haunting fervor and desperate pain.

“Now we all need someone we can bleed on, and if you want it, babe, you can bleed on me.” This line from the title track, and its subsequent metaphors “dream” and “cream,” are applicable to just about every aspect of polite society: The physical, unconscious and sexual. The Stones are one of the few great rock bands to simply come out and say what everyone else wishes that they personally had the balls to say. I mean, the refrain of the opening song, “Gimme Shelter” features a wicked nightingale wailing “Bloody murder: It’s just a shot away.” Personally, I’ve always thought that this would be a great slogan for a cut rate healthcare company, but that’s just me, and I’m in jail. From this madness, they turn Robert Johnson delta blues into square-dancin’, sloppiness in the beautiful “Love in Vain.” Beleaguered bassist Bill Wyman even gets in on the action with his best performance since marrying a “very young girl” on “Live with Me.” Shockingly, the next three tracks “Midnight Rambler,” “You Got the Silver” and “Monkey Man” reek of rampant substance abuse. Most surprising, however, is the final track, the magnum-opus “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” If you’re ever as fucked up as I am right now and listen to this song – you may get dangerously close to crossing the threshold between existence and nirvana. This song has fucking everything: Little castrato kids singing the refrain in the intro, intense symphonic arrangements and, of course, Mick laying everything on the line – you can feel him bouncing off the walls in the studio. I could tell by his blood-stained hands.

So take note, my young friends, that if someday you find yourself taking music too seriously, pull your copy of Let It Bleed (I know you have at least one) and it’ll make you feel a flawless evil that can only be cultivated by the Rolling Stones.

– WHITEY McGEE