“Gimme Shelter” is the kind of song that gets used in movies and television shows to signify that some real shit is about to happen, or in a messy and hectic montage of violence and geography, like in the opening scene of The Departed, where Jack Nicholson’s character, Frank Costello, laments the New Boston and fantasizes about the Old Boston, while clips of riots and overhead shots of the rolling and roaring city jump to the screen. The song kicks in as Costello muses on power and respect. “That’s what the niggers don’t realize,” he says. “If I have one thing against the Black chappies, it’s
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