"Gimme Shelter" was written by the Rolling Stones' lead vocalist Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards. Although never released as a single, it is one of the Stones' most famous songs.

According to the Rolling Stones: "The use of the female voice was the producer's idea. It would be one of those moments along the lines of 'I hear a girl on this track – get one on the phone.'" Summoned from bed around midnight by the producer, Merry Clayton made her recording with just a few takes then returned home to bed. Clayton sings "Rape, murder. It's just a shot away. It's just a shot away," almost screaming the final stanza.

Though they sold millions of records in the ‘60s, poor management decisions left the Rolling Stones almost broke by 1971. Each of the Stones owed the British government a quarter of a million dollars in taxes, a huge sum at the time. They decided to move the band to France to avoid taxes and shelter their earnings in a Netherlands holding company.

“We had to leave England to acquire enough money to pay the taxes because in those days, in England, the high tax rate was 90 percent, so that’s very hard,” Jagger told CNN.

“The whole business thing is predicated a lot on the tax laws,” Richards told the New Yorker. He made no excuses or apologies about leaving Britain because of its tax rates. “We left, and they lost out. No taxes at all.”

The Stones got their shelter after all.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimme_Shelter
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/rock-bands-taxes/