Gimme Shelter by the Rolling Stones
This is probably one of the best Stones songs ever.
Image via WikipediaRecorded at the peak of the 60s rampage of sex, drugs and anti-war protesting, it encapsulates a lot of the elements of that time; it plucks a cord that draws you in, as if in listening you are somehow actually experiencing 1969 for a few minutes. The energy, the manic frenzy of youth, the anti-establishment theme and tone...everything in the song is working in tandem with our perceptions of what the times must have been like.
If you're in the right mood, the lonely slow guitar build up to the methodical twist of the ratchet can give you goose bumps.
To add to the mystique, they made a documentary by the same name and although I haven't seen it, it seems pretty wild. It is an hour and a half of really raw footage that follows Mick and Co. around at a few shows, ending with the Altamont Speedway Festival concert. This concert is famous for having had Hells Angels covering the concert security duty, who ending up knocking out Jefferson Airplane lead singer Marty Balin and an 18 yr old gun-toting concert-goer named Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death by the bikers as well.
Martin Scorsese used this song in Goodfellas, Casino and The Departed.
George Lucas was at the concert as one of the filmers of the documentary, but his camera jammed very early into the concert at Altamont and he hardly shot any footage--none which made the actual movie.
The documentary was also referenced riotously by Jim Carrey as the psychotic 'Cable Guy'
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