Gimme Shelter

Original - The Rolling Stones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3rnxQBizoU

Cover1 -Grand Funk Railroad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M9E7BsbHd0

Cover2 - Hawkwind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLipryZKCgk

With the polling option, I couldn't resist doing three this time.

Grand Funk for me.

Really? Possibly the single greatest song the Stones ever produced? I'm sorry, but for me this is not even close to being a contest. I'm a fan of all things 70s, so this is not a stab at GFR. And I guess Hawkwind does a decent of trying to bring the song uptodate.

But that song is just so deeply embedded in the 1960s counter-culture movement and provides such a stark contrast to the "Make Love Not War" mindset of the era that I just can't vote against it. Richards is a freakin' virtuoso on this song and Jagger spits out the vocal with all the cynicism one man could hope to muster.

The Stones - not even close. Not even.

Ooh, I've gotta take my Jokers off the board and go with the Sisters of Mercy version ('70s game show reference for the win!).

Heh-heh.

Grand Funk...Hawkwind...

Yup, I see what you did there, RE, tryin' to get a rise out of us with those cover choices, instead of...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRnWe...eature=related

Yup. Good one.

That said...

The Original -- The Rolling Stones even if there were a spot for Merriment.

Now THAT's a cover! Wow. I like it. She belts out that lyric like she means it! Very cool. (Still prefer the original, but I prefer that cover to the others.)

GFR was my first ever concert and they powered through this at Madison Square Garden. Maybe the Stones version is better, but this one always rocks my socks off.

I was figuring you'd appreciate it!

After all, who better to do a cover of that classic than the lady who joins Mick on the original?

She did it a year later and it was released as her "debut" single.

I've heard that Bonnie Bramlett of Delaney & Bonnie had been the first choice to serve as a prominent female voice on the original, but -- much as I love Bonnie -- it's hard to imagine anyone doing a better job than Merry Clayton did.

Grand Funk did a respectable job, but Hawkwind doesn't rate at all.

Still, the original is, to me, the best thing that the Stones ever put on vinyl (and all of their best stuff was on vinyl), and none of these covers come close to even being in the same neighborhood to me.

It is a very exclusive neighborhood.

A fun fact, in 1969 or 1970 I bought the 2nd Grand Funk album (the red cover) at a Singer Sewing Machine Store downtown. Back then you mostly bought records at department stores, head shops, and the Sewing Machine store. There was one specialty music store with booths where you could sample albums, and eventually another one popped up with headphones, but they were priced so high. I actually remember that day, picking up one of my favorite heavy albums of all time (with Inside Looking Out!) with another long haired friend, while all around us were ladies buying cloth and thread. A bit surreal, but we got past it with some vegetative support.

But to the songs at hand, as much as I love SOME Stones songs, I really think this is one of their all time best, maybe the best. They own it, they kill it, and I've never heard a version that comes close to drawing you in like the original. Maybe Merry Clayton's comes real close, and is a GREAT version. Grand Funk's cover is good enough, Hawkwind and Sisters of Mercy not so much.

My vote is for the Original by The Rolling Stones.

Gonna change my vote
Merry wins this, GFR then Rolling Stones then Hawkwind.

Grand Funk!

Gimme Grand Funk, though it's far from a runaway. More like a coin flip

Gimme Shelter is tied with Can't You Hear Me Knockin' as my favorite Stones song. I nominated it for the Sixties Rock Wars TOC but it got knocked out in the first round. That shocked the hell out of me. A lot of what I see in these Rock Wars makes it easier to understand how Madonna can be in the Rock Hall of Fame while acts like Johnny Winter and Rush are nowhere to be found.

I liked both cover versions I posted a lot, but the bad reaction Neil Merryweather got earlier should have warned me that Hawkwind wasn't going to fly.

I didn't know Merry Clayton had done her own version. It's excellent. Too bad we didn't get a variation with Bonnie Bramlett so we could compare.