Midnight Rambler
The band releases their song, Midnight Rambler, from the album, Let It Bleed. Jagger:
That’s a song Keith and I really wrote together. We were on a holiday in Italy. In this very beautiful hill town, Positano, for a few nights. Why we should write such a dark song in this beautiful, sunny place, I really don’t know. We wrote everything there – the tempo changes, everything. And I’m playing the harmonica in these little cafés, and there’s Keith with the guitar.
Gimme Shelter
The band releases, Gimme Shelter, featuring Clayton, from, Let It Bleed. Jagger:
That song was written during the Vietnam War and so it’s very much about the awareness that war is always present; it was very present in life at that point. Mary Clayton who did the backing vocals, was a background singer who was known to one of the producers. Suddenly, we wanted someone to sing in the middle of the night. And she was around. She came with her curlers in, straight from bed, and had to sing this really odd lyric. For her it was a little odd – for anyone, in the middle of the night, to sing this one verse I would have been odd. She was great.
You Can’t Always Get What You Want
The band releases, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, from the album, Let It Bleed. Jagger:
It’s a good song, even if I say so myself. It’s got a very sing-along chorus, and people can identify with it: No one gets what they always want. It’s got a very good melody. It’s got very good orchestral touches that Jack Nitzsche helped with. So it’s got all the ingredients.
Street Fighting Man
The band releases their song, Street Fighting Man, from the album, Beggars Banquet. Jagger:
It was a very strange time in France. But not only in France but also in America, because of the Vietnam War and these endless disruptions…. I wrote a lot of the melody and all the words, and Keith and I sat around and made this wonderful track, with Dave Mason playing the shelani on it live. It’s a kind of Indian reed instrument a bit like a primitive clarinet. It comes in at the end of the tune. It has a very wailing, strange sound.
Court appearance
Jagger and Richards appear before magistrates in Chichester, West Sussex, charged with drug offences. Jagger, 24, is accused of illegally possessing four tablets containing amphetamine sulphate and methylamphetamine hydrochloride. Richards, also 24, is charged with allowing his house to be used for the purpose of smoking cannabis. Both plead not guilty and are released on bail to appear for trial at West Sussex Quarter Sessions on 22 June.