How Keith Richards Saved This Rolling Stones Track From an Engineer’s Potentially Disastrous “Total Incompetence”

Stakes were higher in the recording studio in the pre-digital era in more ways than one. No fancy DAWs or talent-boosting plug-ins meant that artists had to be on their A-game as soon as the tape started rolling. But as engineer Glyn Johns learned the hard way while working on The Rolling Stones’ 1969 track, “You Got the Silver”, the workers behind the board were under just as much pressure, if not more, to be perfect.

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So, we can only imagine the sinking feeling that dropped into Johns’ gut when he realized that he had just wiped a vocal take from Mick Jagger off the “You Got the Silver” recording…while Jagger was 10,000 miles away in Australia. Calling the incident “total incompetence” on his part, Johns wrote in his memoir, Sound Man, “Jimmy Miller and I were mixing ‘You Got the Silver’, and he had the idea of putting reverse echo on the lead guitar.”

“This is achieved by turning the tape upside down and playing it backwards while putting echo on the guitar and recording the return from the chamber on an empty track,” Johns continued. “I had never done it before, and I miscalculated which was the empty track to record on and succeeded in erasing Mick’s vocal. Unfortunately, Mick was 10,000 miles away in Australia, making the movie Ned Kelly. I was mortified.”

The Rolling Stones Had to Get Creative on “You Got the Silver”

With Mick Jagger halfway around the world, the band decided to take a different approach on “You Got the Silver”, which Glyn Johns would later say was the one silver lining about his rookie mistake. “Fortunately, there was a positive result,” he wrote. “We asked Keith to sing it. I think I am right in saying it is his first lead vocal on a Stones album, and he did a really fine job. From that moment on, I always wanted to make an acoustic album with him. He was an exceptional acoustic guitar player, and that instrument was the perfect vehicle for his voice.”

The creative choice was only appropriate, considering that Richards wrote “You Got the Silver” about his then-girlfriend, Anita Pallenberg. Interestingly, the band was still working on the album that featured the Richards-led track, Let It Bleed, when Jagger returned from Australia. He technically re-tracked his part. Jagger’s rendition of “You Got the Silver” became a ubiquitous bootleg recording, while Richards’ version made the final album cut. And Johns was right. This was the first time The Rolling Stones guitarist ever sang lead vocals throughout the entire track.

“You Got the Silver” was also a final milestone for the band as one of the last songs they recorded with Brian Jones. The multi-instrumentalist and ill-fated Stones member played autoharp, although his part is somewhat subdued on the album version. Ironically, it’s easier to hear Jones on the bootleg recording featuring Jagger on lead. In later live performances, “You Got the Silver” became a rare instance where Richards would perform behind a mic with no guitar.

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