1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die - 149. Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed (1969)

149. Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed (1969)
Label – Decca
Producer – Jimmy Miller
Art Direction – Robert Brownjohn and Victor Kahn
Nationality – UK
Running Time – 43:26

Track Listing (standout tracks listed in bold)

1. Gimme Shelter
2. Love In Vain
3. Country Honk
4. Live With Me
5. Let It Bleed
6. Midnight Rambler
7. You Got The Silver
8. Monkey Man
9. You Can’t Always Get What You Want

This is an awesome record. “Let It Bleed”, is the eighth studio record by The Rolling Stones, and recorded and released while the band was in transition from Brian Jones (he plays on 2 tracks, autoharp on "You Got the Silver" and percussion on "Midnight Rambler" – and died several months before its release) to replacement guitarist Mick Taylor (who also plays on just two songs, "Country Honk" and "Live With Me"). It has a great sound and a great vibe about it. It’s dark, slightly demonic, rocking, sexual. It’s the Rolling Stones in the midst of their most creative peak.
The album contains many songs that rank among their very best. “Gimme Shelter," (with that “shimmering” guitar line) “Midnight Rambler" (has the harmonica EVER been used better in rock and roll?) and the stunning "You Can't Always Get What You Want," (complete with horns and the children’s choir!), the record is like a greatest hits. Some tracks that were not hits such as "You Got the Silver" (Keith Richards' first solo lead vocal – he had shared vocal duties with Mick Jagger on "Connection", "Something Happened to Me Yesterday", and "Salt of the Earth") and the cover of Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain," are just as good! Acoustic down-home blues. Just fantastic.
It’s not all as great. There is some filler. "Monkey Man" and a countrified remake of "Honky Tonk Woman" titled "Country Honk" are forgettable.
The album has been called “a great summing up of the dark underbelly of the 1960s” and is the second of the Stones' run of four studio LPs that are generally regarded as among their greatest achievements artistically. (The other three albums are Beggars Banquet (1968), Sticky Fingers (1971), and Exile on Main Street (1972). Released in December, it reached #1 in the UK and #3 in the US, where it eventually went double platinum. In 1998 Q magazine readers voted it 69th greatest album of all time, while in 2000 the same magazine placed it at #28 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2001, the TV network VH1 placed it at #24 on their best album survey. In 2003, it was listed as #32 on the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Even the cover is iconic, and was among the ten chosen by the Royal Mail for a set of "Classic Album Cover" postage stamps issued in January 2010.
It is HIGHLY recommended.