Gimme Shelter has been with us for 45 years. Which is nearly as many times as Martin Scorsese has used it on one of his soundtracks. But it’s not just Marty who’s taken advantage of those top chords and raw vocals to seduce and shock, then propel along the action in groovily kinetic style. Here’s five examples of cracking track use – by aspirant Scorseses as well as the real deal.
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Goodfellas
Scorsese first took refuge in Gimme Shelter back in 1990, for the Goodfellas scene in which Henry (Ray Liotta) seems to have it made, watering down the coke and keeping his girlfriend, Sandy, cooking.
Layer Cake
Bang for the buck in Matthew Vaughn’s use of the track for Daniel Craig and Sienna Miller’s hotel room rendezvous. We actually get the whole tune, albeit cut slightly short at the end when pre-coital Craig is abducted by some baddies.
Flight
More alkie-in-downward-yet-undeniably-fun-spiral useage of Gimme Shelter in Robert Zemeckis’s story of a boozy pilot whose substance abuse is exposed in the wake of a heroic emergency landing.
Casino
Booze, coke, broads, someone getting sloppy … a recipe for a Scorsese. Add a tough voiceover and a bit of Gimme Shelter on the soundtrack and you’ve got a classic.
The Departed
We’re beginning to sound like a broken record. But here we go again: mobsters, flashbacks, gravelly voiceover, cash changing hands, bad things happening. The tune is so good you don’t even notice how dark they have to shoot Jack Nicholson so we don’t notice he’s 100 years old.
