Song of the Day 12/6: The Rolling Stones, “You Got the Silver”
It was 50 years ago today that the Peace ‘n’ Love era ended with the free concert at Altamont Speedway outside Oakland, infamous for the stabbing death of a young fan at the hands of the Hell’s Angels. It was just one day earlier that the band dropped its classic “Let It Bleed” LP, which opened with the song that gave the Altamont documentary its name, “Gimme Shelter,” and ended with a song whose title summed up the end of the hippie era, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” Among its deep cuts is this Keith Richards-penned song that earned him his first lead vocal in the band’s eight-year history. It’s also the last recording to feature any contribution from the band’s founder, Brian Jones, who was a drug-ravaged wreck by 1969. He played autoharp on this, but the instrument is buried in the mix. Jones was fired in July and died a month later.
You can hear Jones better on this alternate version with Mick Jagger singing lead.
The band didn’t play it live until 1999, but has used the tune as a showcase for Richards on several tours since, allowing him to come out from behind his guitar to take over as front man for a song. This version was recorded in 2006.
That was probably Mick Jagger’s biggest professional mistake, hiring the Hell’s Angels for security. I recall the Angels were paid $500 plus several cases of beer. Earlier that summer the Stones hired the British contingent of H.A. for security at their free concert in London’s Hyde Park. Over there they were harmless blokes with missing teeth who ride M/C’s and spend a lot of time imbibing in pubs. I don’t think Mick realized they are a different breed over here.
If Woodstock was the zenith of the counter-culture movement then Altamont was the nadir.