It’s hard to imagine that anyone could upstage both U2 and Mick Jagger, but give Black Eyed Peas’ siren Fergie credit where it’s due: she’s the real star of this dynamic performance of The Rolling Stones classic “Gimme Shelter.”
With three generations of rock and roll onstage together, Fergie proves perfect for the firey female vocal part of the song that turned original back-up singer Merry Clayton into, if not a household name, certainly an iconic rock voice. Fergie equally emerges from, indeed radiates out of, Jagger’s shadow, blazing haunting lines like “Rape, murder, it’s just a shot away!”
Delivering a tour de force cameo, she is also an ideal foil for the strutting Stones’ frontman, every bit as good as another one of Jagger’s transcendent former partners, Tina Turner.
The performance comes from the 25th Anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert at Madison Square Gardens in New York on Oct. 30, 2009, and such is the energy and chemistry between the two leads that Bono – frontman extraordinaire in his own right – and the boys are essentially relegated to back-up band status.
Think about it: How good is that?
Lyrics
Ooh, a storm is threatening
My very life today
If I don’t get some shelter
Ooh yeah I’m gonna fade away
War, children
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
War, children
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
Ooh, see the fire is sweepin’
Our streets today
Burns like a red coal carpet
Mad bull lost its way
War, children
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
War, children
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
Rape, murder, it’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
Rape, murder, yeah, it’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
Rape, murder, it’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
Mmm, a flood is threatening
My very life today
Gimme, gimme shelter
Or I’m gonna fade away
War, children
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
I tell you love, sister
It’s just a kiss away
It’s just a kiss away
It’s just a kiss away
It’s just a kiss away
It’s just a kiss away
Kiss away, kiss away