I’ve never knowingly listened to Merry Clayton before today, but she was featured singing along with Mick Jagger in The Rolling Stones’ hit tune “Gimme Shelter” off their 1969 album, Let It Bleed. This album features a number of covers of hit rock and roll tunes as well as tunes in tangential genres, such as Clayton’s own version of “Gimme Shelter”, a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, and even a cover of The Doors’ song “Tell All the People”, originally written by Robby Krieger.
The first track on the album is “Country Road”, and my it’s already filled with quite a bit of soul. Clayton really lets loose, pushing her voice to limits at times and really driving some force behind the track. The piano really adds to the track well with some soulful rock and roll piano that delicately dances behind everything.
“Tell All the People” is up now, and it’s definitely an interesting take. She does a great job of selling the song to the listener, really not holding back at all. There’s inflections of The Doors in the song, but it sounds like a soul-funk rework of the track. Clayton really is impressive in her force she can put out in her vocals.
“Bridge Over Troubled Water” is up now, and it’s a slow steady grooving version of Simon & Garfunkel’s song. Clayton really has great vocal range too, hitting lower notes than the previous songs and really surprising me in doing so. The piano is also really great in doing little jam-y versions of the original chords to the song. The drums are really great too, really serving as an incredible driving force behind Clayton’s smooth vocals. The song keeps building on itself and coalesces to a magnificent piece of music. There’s not much guitar in the song, but it really jams along with the vocals and the piano well, as well as the electric organ, extremely well as the song comes to a close.
“I’ve Got Life” is up now, and I’m pretty hooked into the album at this point. Wow, I’m focusing on the bass and it’s just rocking around the whole song with its beat, and that electric guitar comes in at just the right times to really complement the whole thing. Cap that all off with Clayton’s extraordinarily impressive singing, and you’ve got one heck of a song.
Clayton’s version of “Gimmie Shelter” is up now, and it’s totally different than the original Stones’ version. It’s almost jarring at first when it comes on because of what I’ve come to expect from that song in particular, but the soul is absolutely dripping from the track. It’s more of a soulful jam-piece than a polished piece of rock and roll, but that’s pretty rock and roll if you ask me. I can’t help but tap along. Holy crap, the electric guitar just came in strong with some wah-wah effects, and it’s so juicy to listen to. Wow. Incredible track.
“Here Comes Those Heartaches Again” is up now, and I’m absolutely floating away in the soulfulness of the track and the entire album at this point. Clayton’s performance is absolutely incredible. I can’t find who else played on the album, unfortunately, because they’re doing an incredible job. Her little brother is Sam Clayton, the long time drummer for jam band Little Feat, but he was a bit young when this album came out.
“Forget It I Got It” has a super sweet bass line to it. It’s probably the most funky track on the album thus far, but still definitely more soul than funk. That percussion absolutely drives the track home too.
“You’ve Been Acting Strange” starts out with some orchestra horns that have been used very well throughout the album, and this track really starts to boogie as it goes on. The electric guitar does its own mini jam-y solos behind the chorus of backup vocals and behind Clayton’s impressively strong vocal performance.
“I Ani’t Gonna Worry My Life Away” is an incredible bluesy song. Wow, that slow but strong rhythm, coupled with little bluesy piano licks and that crying guitar sound absolutely blows me away, and that’s not even taking into account Merry’s vocals. That orchestral string background part really adds a lot of soul, and there was a saxophone for a hot sec that really pulled me further down this soul train’s tracks.
“Good Girls”, the next track, has a tough act to follow, but it really gets into a soulful groove that absolutely keeps that soul train rolling. The bass and percussion really shine in this track in my opinion, giving things a fast-paced, light-hearted soulful vibe.
The final song, “Glad Tidings”, is on now. It starts with some studio chatter to really give that light-hearted feel. It sounds incredibly jubilant – like a Mardi Gras type of song – filled with more soul than I can do justice with words, and many glad tidings as well. The electric organ and the bass really jam and mesh together really well, while the electric guitar adds some accentuation to the songs, and Merry Clayton brings the electricity, bringing the track to life.
An incredibly soulful 40 minutes, and if you have that amount of time, listening to this album will almost certainly lift your spirits.
-A