Anyone see The Departed? It’s the first movie in which Nicholson sports a dildo, and the umpteenth (okay, third) time Martin Scorcese scores with “Gimme Shelter.” EW asks the director about it.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You’ve used it before in GoodFellas and Casino. What is it with you and that song?
MARTIN SCORSESE: I guess I’m repeating myself. [Laughs] The riff at the beginning of ”Gimme Shelter” is dangerous. You know something’s going to happen. Also, there is no shelter in this film. Nobody has shelter. When I was thinking of the music for this film, I was sitting in a traffic jam on 57th Street. And I saw a beat-up car with a guy behind the wheel with long hair screaming along to ”Gimme Shelter,” slamming his fists on the steering wheel, and I went, ”That’s it!”

Fair enough. Here, from Paint It Black: The Compilation Of Rolling Stones Cover Tracks is Grand Funk Railroad’s take. To paraphrase Homer Simpson, we recommend if you like Mark Farner’s wild, shirtless vocals, the bong-rattling bass of Mel Schacher, and the competent drum work of Don Brewer.

OK, let’s go get some cookies.

Comments (15)
  1. That’s not grand funk railroad. Incidentally, grand funk railroad do gimme shelter on that cd.

  2. derek  |   Posted on Oct 19th, 2006

    Ever heard the Hawkwind version? Double/triple-whoa.

  3. cohendal  |   Posted on Oct 19th, 2006

    i love that he uses the the van morrison/roger waters live version of comfortably numb in the film as well.

  4. Yeah Ian, uploaded the wrong song by accident. Fixed now.

  5. thanks, that grand funk railroad song is good, but then again I think I’m the only one who likes their cover of the loco-motion

  6. The Hellacopters one is rather good, too.

  7. The way that he used Gimme Shelter in the opening was great. That with Nicholson’s voice-over perfectly set the stage for the rest of the film.

  8. Joan  |   Posted on Oct 19th, 2006

    Woah, thanks for pointing out that was a dildo. I was a little freaked out.

  9. corey  |   Posted on Oct 19th, 2006

    that movie kicked some serious ass.

  10. Chris  |   Posted on Oct 19th, 2006

    I don’t care if he uses it every five minutes, as long as he keeps making movies!

  11. Bernard  |   Posted on Oct 19th, 2006

    Hey Mr. Stereogum,

    How about you post the Merry Clayton version of “Gimme Shelter.” I’m jonesing bad to hear it, but her record is out of print.

  12. this was also the first scorcese flick to use a rap song, namely “Theifs Theme” by Nas.

  13. janine  |   Posted on Oct 20th, 2006

    My fav use of Gimme Shelter remains Adventures in Babysitting.

  14. alvysinger  |   Posted on Oct 20th, 2006

    that is a hilarious Rosie Perez.

  15. ‘scuse me, sports a dildo?

Leave a Reply

Login

You must be logged in to post, reply to, or rate a comment.

%s1 / %s2