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Rolling Stones songs: Let It Bleed
She said, “My breasts, they will always be open/ Baby, you can rest your weary head right on me/ And there will always be a space in my parking lot/ When you need a little coke and sympathy”…
Original title If You Need Someone Written by: Jagger/Richard Recorded: Olympic Sound Studios, London, England, June 5-July 3 1969 Guest musicians: Nicky Hopkins (piano) *Data taken from Martin Elliott’s book THE ROLLING STONES COMPLETE RECORDING SESSIONS 1962-2012
Legend has it that the title of this song came from a frustrated outburst by Keith Richards. After spending endless hours in the studio playing the same chords on repeat, his fingers were raw, his hands were bleeding, and he simply couldn’t go on. At that point, completely worn out, he supposedly snapped, shouting something along the lines of “Let it bleed!” as he put his guitar down.
But Keith’s exhaustion didn’t sit well with Mick Jagger and producer Jimmy Miller, who were both still fired up and eager to keep recording. An argument reportedly broke out, with Jagger and Miller pushing to continue while Keith was physically done for the night. Whether the phrase was meant literally or just a moment of frustration, it stuck—and ended up becoming not just the song’s title, but the name of one of the Stones’ most iconic albums.
Keith Richards has a different take on the story. According to him, “let it bleed” was simply a random lyric Mick Jagger had written for the song. “It was just one line in that song Mick wrote. It became the title—we just kicked a line out. We didn’t know what to call that song”, Keith pointed out.
Regardless of how the name came about, one thing was certain—the Glimmer Twins were once again pushing boundaries and ruffling feathers. With Let It Bleed they continued to challenge the status quo, stirring up the same conservative minds they had always enjoyed provoking.
This was recorded around the same period as The Beatles’ Let It Be, but the similarity in the titles was purely coincidental. At the time, both bands were in the middle of intense creative processes, and while the titles may seem to align thematically, there was no intentional connection between the two. The Rolling Stones were putting together their own masterpiece, while The Beatles were wrapping up what would be their final studio album (in fact the Let It Bleedalbum was released before Let It Be) It just so happened that both albums ended up with similarly memorable titles, even though the two projects were very different in sound, style, and tone.
Provocation was one of their favorite tools, and they wielded it like pros—there was no room for boring compromise in their world. Let It Bleed is clearly a song with a dark, drug-fueled vibe. It paints a gritty picture of a character snorting some coke, only to end up getting stabbed in a grimy, rundown basement by a worn-out, jaded nurse. The phrase “let it bleed” can also be seen as a junkie searching for a vein, adding another layer of meaning to the track.
But, more than anything, this track is about a shift in how sex is portrayed—it’s no longer just hinted at, but flat-out demanded for its healing powers. Take the lines: “She said ‘my breasts, they will always be open/Baby, you can rest your weary head right on me/And there will always be a space in my parking lot’…” It’s a pretty bold declaration. Then, just a few lines later: “You can be my rider, you can come all over me.” The lyrics leave nothing to the imagination—they’re as explicit as it gets.
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