The Recording Of The Album

Sessions for the album, or at least one track, probably began in the late autumn of 1968, just as the release of Beggars Banquet was imminent. There are conflicting theories about 'You Got The Silver', taped at Olympic Studios, Barnes, London, under the original title of 'You Got Some Silver Now'. Some sources say it was recorded or at least started around May and June that year, others that it was not begun until February 1969 or perhaps slightly earlier. What is certain is that by now the group had got in the habit of recording more tracks for an album that they needed at any one set of sessions, especially as the limitations of the long-playing record allowed for only twenty minutes or so of music per side before sound quality and volume began to deteriorate. The 26 minutes on each side of Aftermath in 1966, the UK release, was an interesting (and rare if not unique) outlier. Songs would often be shelved and appear on an album some years later, often but not always reworked to some extent and sometimes completely renamed in the process. A few tracks on Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main St had been started much earlier, and either took a little longer to see the light of day or else underwent a certain amount of fine-tuning and development before they were considered ready for release.

None of the recent remastered reissues of Let It Bleed have included any early demos or alternate versions, outtakes and the like. While The Beatles supplemented a 50th anniversary reissue of their 'White Album' in 2018 with an additional 27-track CD of 'Esher Demos' and further discs containing previously unavailable material, as well as having put out other long-archived items on the three Anthology releases in 1995 and 1996, there was little if anything left in the Rolling Stones' vaults from the 1968-69 period, after the appearance in 1975 of Metamorphosis, a 16-track collection of odds and ends taped between 1964 and 1969. Another reason is that both bands went about recording albums of original material in a very different way. Most new Beatles songs had been wholly or partly written by John Lennon, Paul McCartney or George Harrison, and their creator would bring them to the studio so that the other three, and producer-cum- arranger George Martin, could help guide and shape each one through several recorded versions, up to 20 or more, transforming the basic lyrics and melody into a fully-fledged single or album cut. The Stones had a more free and easy approach in that they would start jamming in the studio, throwing in ideas, riffs and so on, as a basic song gradually developed. Most of them would make some contribution, although the end result was nearly always credited to Jagger and Richards, sometimes much to the frustration of Wyman or Taylor, whose input, had they belonged to any other band, would almost certainly have resulted in their name appearing on the record label in brackets afterwards and thus composers' royalties. Richards would claim that he used to set up the riffs, the hook and sometimes the title, and it was Mick's job as a wordsmith to fill in the rest. As a result, few out- takes or discards were left over, and almost everything not used for the next album was kept to be reworked, recycled or taken to pieces and started again.

When asked in 1995, in the wake of The Beatles' Anthology, why there was no unreleased Stones material being put out, their former manager Allen Klein said there wasn't any. He only wanted their fans to hear what was worth hearing. If it wasn't made available at the time, then it probably wasn't worth doing so at all. How many early versions or remixes did the most devoted listener really want? 'Collectors want every scrap to come out. I don't'. In the case of Let It Bleed, there had been one unique exception, a tape of jams made one day that Richards unusually absented himself, that would be selected for standalone release a couple of years later as Jamming With Edward!

Sessions for the album began in earnest on 16 November, three weeks before the release of Beggars Banquet, with the basic track of 'You Can't Always Get What You Want'. It was recorded with Richards on acoustic guitar, Al Kooper on piano, Wyman on bass, and Miller on drums, with Jagger singing what everyone assumed was just a guide vocal. Kooper's contribution to the song would be pivotal, and his presence in the right place at the right time was the result of a happy accident. He was already a legendary figure in America after having contributed organ to Bob Dylan's 'Like a Rolling Stone', playing with Dylan's band at the historic Newport Folk Festival in 1965, at which the songwriter was almost booed off stage, and then for production work with his own two bands, Blues Project and Blood, Sweat and Tears, and nalso with The Zombies on Odessey And Oracle. Exhausted and in need of a vacation, he took himself to London for a spell, during which he had decided he would have nothing to do with music. On arriving in England, he was picked up by his friend, fellow producer Denny Cordell, who told him that The Rolling Stones had heard he was coming and wanted to book him for two days' worth of studio work. He firmly refused, but while walking down Kings Road, he bumped into Brian Jones, who told him they were all expecting him and really excited at the prospect of being able to work together. With that, he decided he could hardly let them down.

Kooper listened to a run-through of the song, which he thought sounded quite folky at first, and immediately put forward a few suggestions. He said it would be better with more of an R'n'B style, similar to that of Etta James's version of the Sonny and Cher hit 'I Got You Babe', and some samba percussion. Also at the studio that day were Doris Troy and Madeline Bell, both of whom were among the most in-demand session backing vocalists of the time, and Nanette Workman, a friend of assistant engineer Vic Smith, all available to contribute. Ironically, according to Kooper, as Jagger and Richards were really producing everything themselves, Miller wasn't really adding anything to justify the credit he was being given. He did, however, play the drums on this song. Frustrated in getting the feel he wanted for the track, he approached Watts, who was having some difficulty in playing exactly what Miller had suggested. In retrospect, it seems strange that a producer should be trying to tell one of Britain's most respected rock and jazz musicians how to do his own job, but early in the session, Miller asked if he could sit at the drums for a minute to show him exactly what he had in mind. Watts agreed to let him, stood and watched, and said quite placidly, 'Well, why don't you just play it?' Kooper was amazed, saying afterwards that he thought Miller was determined to be credited on the recording somehow as musician as well as producer, and it would, therefore, have made no difference how well Watts had played.

After the basic track was done, they began overdubbing, with Richards adding more electric guitar, and Kooper organ to supplement what he had already put down on piano. These additions, the latter said, 'brought it up a few notches', and afterwards, he told Jagger to let him know if he wanted horns on it. However, at the time, everyone assumed that the track was more or less done, apart from the lead vocal. Subsequent work would transform it into one of the most epic recordings of the decade, but at this stage, it was put on one side for further development. Kooper also suggested adding French horn, which he did himself and scored arrangements for further horns, trumpets and saxophone. He added them to the backing track after returning to Los Angeles, and was puzzled when he heard the completed album and found they had only kept the French horn.

A break for other activities, including rehearsals for and filming of The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus at Intertel Studios, Wembley, in December, put sessions on hold for several weeks. 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' was about to receive its public premiere at the start of their seven-song set, a spirited performance but as yet giving little idea of its potential, of what the finished recording would sound like. They were all fired up when they returned to Olympic on 10 February 1969 for weeks of solid work that included several of the basic tracks for the rest of the album (and some for the next two after that), as well as for the 'Honky Tonk Women' single.

'You Got the Silver' had been started the previous year, and was first on the list for working on further. A gentle, relaxed love song, it was written entirely by Richards, and the subject was Anita Pallenberg. Marianne Faithfull confirmed as much; 'the depth of his attachment to her was just flowing out of him'. In his memoir Life, some thirty years later, he confirmed that it was all his own work, and sang it solo 'simply because we had to spread the workload'. Almost from the start, he and Jagger had been singing harmonies, like the Everly Brothers, so for him to take the lead vocal should hardly have been a surprise to anyone. It also featured autoharp played by Jones, one of the last contributions he ever made to the band. It had been agreed by Jagger and Richards that if Jones really wanted to try and play anything on a track, no matter how strange or experimental it might seem at the time, they would let him. It...