“Gimme Shelter” is written on top of the political and social unrest of its time. The Vietnam War, race riots, the shadow of Charles Manson, a world that felt like it was slipping. Mick Jagger has described it as an “apocalypse” song, and he sings the need for “shelter” against a “storm” that threatens to break you apart. There is also his own way of placing its birth inside the Vietnam War, as the awareness that war is always present, back then it was present in every part of life.