Saturday Morning Soundtrack -- "Gimme Shelter" as performed by Patti Smith

Right now, in our rock and roll writing class my students are finding rock music that inspires them and creating flash nonfiction pieces we are calling "Liner Notes" where they try to capture their elusive, sometimes visceral reactions to the music, using lyrical language, a critical eye, and vivid imagery. I'll be joining them in this project over the next few months, posting video links to a few of my favorites and my responses to them. Some of these songs will be recent, some I'll be revisiting from a far way off. I don't claim to be a music critic, just a diehard fan. Hope you enjoy!

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"Gimme Shelter" -- Patti Smith (2007)

Covering the Rolling Stones is a dangerous proposition for any artist, especially when the song in question is so iconic, but if there is one musician who can pull this off, it's "Godmother of Punk" Patti Smith. For almost forty years, Smith's music has fused hard-edged guitar rock with spoken-word poetry to create a sound that is unique and influential. Here, she takes Vietnam era hit "Gimme Shelter" and manages to both remain faithful to the spirit of the original song, while also putting her own stamp on the song. 

The original Stones song gets its energy from Keith Richards's brooding guitar riff, Mick Jagger's chemistry with powerhouse guest vocalist Merry Clayton, and the song's end-of-times lyrics. Smith's version feels a little more smokey and mysterious, but it rocks every bit as loud (if not louder), rising from those haunting initial guitar notes and taking wing on Smith's distinctive voice. She doesn't try to emulate Jagger (or Carpenter, for that matter, whose vocal range is nearly impossible to surpass). Smith's delivery is still grounded in the blues/soul, more rough-hewn and diverse, with Smith's punk roots coming through--she wails, croons, cracks register, modulates, growls, hoots, sings through her nose one second and then down in her throat the next and the result is a vocal performance that feels loose and uninhibited and angry in ways that other versions of the song aspire to but never quite reach. It's almost sacrilegious to call a cover version of a classic song "better" than the original, and in the end there's no point to it really. What matters is this: Smith's rendition is very, very good (not to mention a lot more fun to sing along to than the Stones recording).

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Love the song? Hate it? Think I've got it all wrong? Please, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below. And, if you would like to write a Guest Entry for the "Saturday Morning Soundtrack" series where you creatively respond to one of your favorite rock songs, don't hesitate to contact me with queries.