The entire idea of “Gimme Shelter” and its chorus is that sometimes it is just the one thing. A shot fired can unleash a country’s desire for violence, or a fist thrown can incite a riot. All of us are just hanging on the edge of someone else’s lust for power. That needle moves from time to time, depending on who the “us” is and who the person eager for power is. But the entire song was driving the point home. There is no reprieve from the machinery of violence, and everyone is a tripwire away from setting off the wrong type of explosion.
