Let It Bleed

The album includes 'Gimme Shelter,' 'You Can't Always Get What You Want,' 'Midnight Rambler,' 'Monkey Man,' and the title track 'Let It Bleed.' It also includes 'You Got the Silver,' one of the first Stones tracks to feature Keith Richards as lead vocalist on an entire song.

Brian Jones, who had been the Stones' founding guitarist, contributed only loosely to the sessions before his death on July 3, 1969. The album prominently features Mick Taylor, who had just joined the band as Jones's replacement, particularly on the tracks 'Country Honk' and 'Live with Me.'

Let It Bleed was released on December 5, 1969, in the UK and the US, just one day after the Altamont Free Concert that became a defining and tragic moment for the era. It was the last Rolling Stones album to feature Brian Jones (on two tracks) and the first to feature Mick Taylor.

The album cover, designed by Robert Brownjohn, depicts a surreal stack topped by a cake—reportedly baked by Delia Smith, who later became one of Britain's most famous cookbook authors and television chefs. The stack also includes a record player spindle, a clock face, a pizza, and a tire, replacing parts as they topple in the gatefold interior.