A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

by Hanif Abdurraqib

This perfect storm is what got Merry Clayton’s phone ringing at midnight in the fall of 1969, while Mick Jagger stared at the words “rape, murder” and knew he couldn’t bring the terror of them to life. Stones producer Jack Nitzsche woke Clayton up out of bed and asked her to come to the studio. There was a group there from England, and they needed a singer bad. Clayton didn’t necessarily need the work, but her husband urged her to go. Clayton showed up to the studio in silk pajamas, with her hair still in rollers. She put on a fur coat because she refused to show up to the studio not looking at least a little bit fly. Clayton was also very pregnant. When she got to the studio to sing, a stool had to be set up in the booth for her to sit on, since it was late, and the weight of her pregnant belly felt especially heavy at that hour. She was skeptical of the lyrics Jagger showed her, but she did one take of her part and got ready to go home. And then, after a playback, Mick Jagger asked her if she wanted to do just one more and really give it everything she had. And when you can sing like Merry Clayton can sing, you don’t turn away from an offer like that.