Merry Clayton on Singing on ‘Gimme Shelter’ and ‘Tapestry’

Singer Merry Clayton recorded her first album in over 25 years with the release of Beautiful Scars in 2021, on Motown Gospel/Capitol Records. Produced by longtime producer/songwriter/entrepreneur and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Lou Adler, the album features new compositions by Chris Martin and Diane Warren, and covers of classic songs by Sam Cooke, Leon Russell and others.

Beautiful Scars is a gospel-influenced project that brings Clayton—perhaps best known for her vocal contribution to the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter”—back to her roots as a church singer in her hometown of New Orleans.

Listen to her cover of a Sam Cooke classic from Beautiful Scars

In 2014, mere months after 20 Feet From Stardom, the Oscar-winning documentary in which she stars, Clayton was involved in a devastating car accident that claimed both of her legs and required a five-month stay in the hospital.

Clayton—who also sang with Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin, Ray Charles, Joe Cocker and others earlier in her career—was first introduced to the Rolling Stones in 1964 when the band, along with its manager/record producer, Andrew Loog Oldham, first arrived in Hollywood. In 1969, the Stones had already prepared the basic rhythm track for “Gimme Shelter” in England at Olympic Studios. It was musician/composer/arranger Jack Nitzsche, who’d worked with the Stones, who suggested Clayton for the slot to augment the hypnotic and weaving guitar efforts of Keith Richards.

“Jack called me at home from the studio in Los Angeles one night,” Clayton said in a 2008 telephone interview. “I was pregnant, but Jack insisted that he had to talk to me about this Stones session immediately. He said, ‘Merry, I really need you to do this part. There is no other singer who can do this. Please.’ I was really tired that night, but I got up, put on my coat, got in the car with [my husband] Curtis and we drove up La Cienega from L.A. to Hollywood later that evening, where the studio was located.”

When she arrived, Clayton was warmly greeted by Richards, and then checked out Mick Jagger in the flesh. “Man, I thought you was a man, but you nothing but a skinny little boy!” she remembered telling him. “They played me the song and asked if I could put a little somethin’ on it…I said, ‘Stop the song and tell me what all this stuff means before I go any further. “It’s just a shout or shot away” was something in the lyrics.’ I said, ‘I’m gonna put my vocal on it and I’m gonna leave, ’cause this is a real high part and I will be wettin’ myself if I sing any higher!’ My stomach was a little bit heavy…So, we went in and did it. Matter of fact, I did it three times. I didn’t do an overdub. Mick’s vocal was already on it when I heard it and I recall he did a bit of touching up after I left. But they got what they wanted. That was the ‘Gimme Shelter’ session. My dad, who was a bishop, heard it and said, ‘Merry, what is this line in the song about rape and the murder?’ ‘Well dad, that’s part of the song.’ And he laughed.”

Related: Our Album Rewind of the Stones’ Let it Bleed

“Gimme Shelter” debuted on the Rolling Stones’ 1969 U.S. tour. Subsequently, Adler produced a version of “Gimme Shelter” with Clayton herself in 1970 for his Ode Records label. In 1971, Clayton also sang some background vocals on Adler’s production of the Carole King landmark album Tapestry, including “You’ve Got a Friend” and “Way Over Yonder.”

“I walked into that big main hallway and here comes Carole King,” said Clayton. “‘Merry! Come in. You gotta do this song [“Way Over Yonder”] with me. You gotta do this one little part on this song for me.’ I walked in the studio and I will never forget her hanging over the piano writing musical notes. The song was so fabulous and so churchy to me. And I walked in and nailed it. Tapestry was an anointed project. It had God all over it as far as I was concerned, because I could feel it. You know, I can feel that music and I can get a little tingle from the back of my neck and up my back. It had magic. It was absolutely magic.”

Listen to the isolated vocal of Clayton’s “Gimme Shelter” solo

On the 2021 album, Beautiful Scars, Clayton goes back to her roots, growing up singing at New Zion Baptist Church in New Orleans, her father Reverend A.G. Williams Sr. Clayton’s parish.

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Harvey Kubernik

Harvey Kubernik is the author of 19 books, including 'Canyon Of Dreams: The Magic And The Music Of Laurel Canyon' and 'Turn Up The Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll In Los Angeles 1956-1972.' Sterling/Barnes and Noble in 2018 published Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik’s 'The Story Of The Band: From Big Pink To The Last Waltz.' For October 2021 the duo has written a multi-narrative volume on Jimi Hendrix for the publisher. In 2015 Palazzo Editions published Harvey’s 'Leonard Cohen: Everybody Knows,' and 'Neil Young, Heart of Gold,' published in 2016. Otherworld Cottage Industries in 2020 published Harvey’s book, 'Docs That Rock, Music That Matters,' featuring interviews with D.A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus, Albert Maysles, Murray Lerner, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Andrew Loog Oldham, Eddie Kramer, Dick Clark, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Robby Krieger, Allan Arkush, and David Leaf, among others. In 2015, the University Press of Mississippi published a Harvey Kubernik Dylan-centric interview with Oscar-winning director and photographer D.A. Pennebaker in their book series, 'Conversations with Filmmakers, edited by Dr. Keith Beattie.' This century Kubernik has lectured and conducted courses on the music business and music documentary films in Southern California at UCLA and USC. In 2017 Harvey appeared at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, in their Library & Archives Author Series. Kubernik’s writings are housed in book anthologies, most notably 'The Rolling Stone Book Of The Beats' and 'Drinking With Bukowski.' Harvey wrote the liner note booklets to the CD re-releases of Carole King’s 'Tapestry,' Allen Ginsberg’s 'Kaddish,' Elvis Presley 'The ’68 Comeback Special' and the Ramones’ 'End of the Century.' During 2020 Harvey Kubernik served as a consultant on the two-part documentary television series 'Laurel Canyon: A Place in Time,' directed by Alison Ellwood. Harvey is working on a documentary about Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member singer/songwriter Del Shannon.

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