Let It Bleed was a turning point for The Rolling Stones. Their original musical leader, Brian Jones, made his last, albeit minor, contributions to an album and his replacement, Mick Taylor, contributed for the first time on just two of the tracks. Keith Richards had stepped up his game on Beggars Banquet but he redoubled his efforts for the follow up. He is the only Stone to play on all nine songs, solidifying his reputation as one of the most versatile and imaginative Rock guitarists of his generation in the process and Let It Bleed as his finest work.
On the whole, it follows the template of its predecessor but Let It Bleed is far more than a transitional album or a Beggars Banquet part two. During 1969, The Beatles were in their bubble, busy obsessing over themselves, whereas The Stones captured the zeitgeist on an album full of dread and the threat of violence, not to mention all the sex and the drugs. Released with just one month of the decade to go, the day before Meredith Hunter was murdered at Altamont and just as the Manson Family were arrested, it sounded like a funeral bell for the sixties.
By: Tiggerlion