"Gimme Shelter"

For me, this song is all about the intro, a slow-burning brushfire that gets slowly whipped up by the wind and breaks into a roaring, rushing wall of destruction. The backing voices sound a warning siren as the dried wood of the old world crackles and consumes itself before the songs kicks in, a lazy, threatening, apocalyptic slashing noise. "Oh, a storm is threat’ning/My very life today/If I don’t get some shelter/Oh yeah, I’m gonna fade away." The Stones were pretty apocalyptic in their pomp, Their Satanic Majesties indeed. This is how music can be used as a force of nature, a frightening glimpse into the heart of the monster.