An early Rolling Stones acoustic extravaganza, starring Keith Richards and featuring guides to “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Street F

An early Rolling Stones acoustic extravaganza, starring Keith Richards and featuring guides to “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Street Fighting Man,”

C onsiderinby Jesse Gresschards’s first guitar heroes were Roy Rogers and his grandfather Gus, and that he spent a good chunk of his time in art school copping licks by Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie, it’s not surprising that the acoustic guitar has been a key component of the Stones’ sound throughout their career. Acoustics are the driving force on many of the band’s tracks and the hidden magic behind many others; it’s impossible to imag

In August of 2002, ABKCO released the Rolling Stones Remastered Series, comprising all of the band’s music issued by their British label, Decca, and Decca’s American counterpart, London, between the years 1963 and 1970. Thanks to the use of Direct Stream Digital encoding in the remastering process, the 22 titles in the series feature brilliant, crystal-clear sound that captures every nuance of the original master tapes. In addition, the releases are available as hybrid, dual-layer discs playable both in Super Audio CD and standard disc format.

In recognition of this mammoth undertaking, Guitar World Acoustic has selected to examine the guitar parts to six of the greatest acoustic-based tunes found on the reissued albums: “Street Fighting Man” (Beggars Banquet), “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” (Hot Rocks 1964-1971), “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” (Let It Bleed), “Paint It, Black” (Aftermath), “Prodigal Son” (Beggars Banquet) and “Wild Horses” (Hot Rocks 1964-1971), the last of which also features the acoustic playing of Mick Taylor.

STREET FIGHTING MAN

Although he played acoustic on many Stones originals in the band’s early years, Keith Richards really hit his acoustic stride in 1968 when he, in his words, “began messing about with different tunings.” While his interest in the tunings was sparked by his passionate interest in the guitar styles of the Everly Brothers’ Don Everly and, in particular, Delta bluesman Robert Johnson, Richards developed a deceptively simple chordal approach that was entirely his own. “Street Fighting Man” is an example of his elegant, economical playing in open D (low to high: D A D F# A D), which, along with its sister tuning open E (low to high: E B E G# B E), Richards used on many of the band’s greatest acoustic songs.

To get into D tuning from standard, drop your first and sixth strings down one whole step to D, lower the second string a whole step to A, tune the third string a half step to F#, and you’re ready to rock. To play along with the recording you’ll need to tune all six strings slightly flat of concert pitch.

Richards achieved the overdriven guitar tone that characterizes the song’s intro by taking the wired microphone of an early cassette recorder, dropping it into the soundhole of his Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar and then overloading the recorder’s input stage.

Before diving into “Street Fighting Man,” first check out FIGURE 1 to see the “I-IV,” or C-Fadd9/C chord change that appears throughout the song. This move practically defines the Keith Richards open D (and open E) sound.

FIGURE 2a illustrates Richards’s quirky rhythmic interaction with Stones drummer Charlie Watts during the song’s stately opening riff. Beginning with an upstroke, use eighth-note pendulum strumming to play this figure while observing the written accents. Feel the groove? And don’t worry about occasionally hitting a few additional strings on those three-note chords_they’ll sound fine. Listen to the recording, and you’ll also hear, at 0:12, an overdriven Nashville-strung acoustic splay into the mix. (A “Nashville-strung” guitar is one on which the bottom four strings are replaced with lighter gauge strings that are tuned one octave higher than normal, like the extra strings on a 12-string guitar.)

FIGURE 2b outlines part of the song’s verse section, wherein Richards chases Jagger’s vocal melody with the same two chords (C and Fadd9/C). The Fadd9/C hammer-on move that occurs in bars 3 and 4 is another Keith Richards trademark.

You’ll find the acoustic guitar part illustrated in FIGURE 2c, along with numerous drones and reverb-drenched percussion instruments, in the kaleidoscopic swirl of psychedelic textures that comprises the chorus of “Street Fighting Man.” A heavily effected acoustic piano (probably played by the late Ian Stewart) vamps along with this incredibly cool guitar figure. Warning: Playing the strummed octave melody and droning open strings shown in bar 6 could leave you limp with pleasure.

JUMPIN’ JACK FLASH

The intro to “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” featuring the same overdriven acoustic guitar sound as “Street Fighting Man,” has been a musical mystery for decades. While Richards has recalled using a Nashville-tuned acoustic on the original recording, even he is uncertain of exactly how many guitar tracks were in the mix, and whether he played the song’s main parts in open E tuning or in open D with a capo at the second fret. We’ve opted for open E. Once again, though, you’ll need to tune all your strings slightly flat to match the pitch of the recording.

FIGURE 3a depicts our best reckoning of how Richards, with the aid of a multitrack tape recorder, performed the song’s explosive intro. After much deliberation, we concluded that what we hear are three overdriven acoustic guitars in open E tuning, one of which, represented here as Guitar 1, is Nashville-strung. (This would explain the high B notes.) Note that Guitar 3 enters at the beginning of the second bar, on the E5 chord, and plays the B5 chord in the first position while Guitar 2 plays the same basic chord in the seventh position and Guitar 1 plays strummed octaves.

For those who wish to play the intro on one guitar, FIGURE 3b illustrates three chord shapes that when strummed on a conventionally strung acoustic in open E tuning successfully replicate the overall sound of the chord voicings produced by the three guitar parts in FIGURE 3a. The key to making each of these composite voicings sound authentic is to mute the idle second and third strings by lightly touching them with one of the fingers of your fretting hand as you strum all six strings. For the B5 and A5 chords, mute the strings with the side of your middle finger (the same finger that’s barring the bottom three strings); for the E5 chord use the side of your index finger.

FIGURE 3c is our rendering of the guitar parts that comprise the song’s classic verse riff. Here, Guitar 3 takes the lead with a first-position riff while Guitar 2 plays a supportive role in the seventh position. The solo player can do fine by playing the Guitar 3 part.

As in “Street Fighting Man,” Richards’s armada of layered guitars goes crazy in the chorus of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” FIGURE 3d is a composite arrangement of this section on just two guitars designed to let you play the main melodic and supportive parts. Again, remember that all the notes on the bottom four strings in the Nashville-strung Guitar 1 part sound an octave higher than they would on a conventionally strung acoustic in open E tuning. (The soloist can play this part on a standard six-string.)

Other Stones songs played by Keith in open D or open E that feature chord forms similar to those he used in “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Street Fighting Man” include “Salt of the Earth,” “You Got the Silver” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” which we’ll now examine.

YOU CAN’T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT

Richards’s acoustic guitar part in “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” is played in open E tuning with a capo at the eighth fret. FIGURE 4a depicts the I-IV chord vamp that commences at 0:50, after the song’s extended choral intro. As you check out this gorgeous part, keep in mind that since all chord shapes and tablature positions are notated in relation to the capo position (the capo being the “0” fret), all notes and chords sound a minor sixth higher than written, in the key of C. The chords labeled E and A actually sound as C and F chords, respectively.

Richards’s acoustic verse part (FIGURE 4b) is pretty much identical to the two-chord intro vamp. As the second verse gets under way and the full band joins in, Mick Taylor adds a complementary electric guitar part, performed without a capo and in standard tuning, to the proceedings (labeled Gtr. 2 in FIGURE 4b). The sliding sixth intervals of this tasteful part add some welcomed melodic interest and harmonic “sweetening” to the music. (Note that the C7 and F chord symbols indicated above the Guitar 2 part reflect the concert key harmonic analysis.)

The song’s second chorus (FIGURE 4c) continues the repeating two-chord vamp that echoes Richards’s acoustic intro and verse figures, minus the fills. Taylor’s electric (Gtr. 2) contributes choppy but propulsive eighth-position C and F chord “stabs.”

At the “release,” depicted in bars 3 and 4 of FIGURE 4c, both guitars hang on the chord changes (notated as F#sus4 and A for Gtr. 1, and D and F for Gtr. 2) with a minimum amount of fills, while regal-sounding piano and organ figures, with the two keyboard parts moving in contrary motion, swell into the mix. (Both keyboard parts are arranged here for acoustic guitar in open E tuning, to be played with a capo at the eighth fret.) The last two bars of this section serve as a re-intro to the ensuing verse and eventually function as the song’s extended outro vamp. Guitar 1 reverts back to the I-IV chord progression, while Guitar 2 plays a descending sequence of sliding diatonic sixths and the piano (Gtr. 3) lays down a funky two-bar figure.

PRODIGAL SON

“Prodigal Son” represents an entirely different approach to open E tuning, showcasing Richards’s prowess as a country blues player. From its repeating nine-bar song form to its unorthodox turnaround, “Prodigal Son” is a direct take on the Mississippi-born bluesman Reverend Robert Wilkins’s 1960’s version of the song, which in turn was based on Wilkins’s own harrowing “That’s No Way to Get Along,” recorded in 1929.

FIGURE 5a depicts Richards’s free-time acoustic intro, wherein a low-register single-note E blues lick is answered by a descending line played one octave higher. FIGURE 5b shows the opening I-chord riff that gets under way at 0:19. Here Richards embellishes a ringing open-string E chord with a combination of single-note #9 and double-stop b7/#9 inflections, adding soulful half-step and quarter-step bends to the notes at the third fret on the top two strings.

FIGURE 5c outlines the IV-I (A-E) change that follows at 0:25. The IV (A) chords on each downbeat in bar 1 are hammered-on from the preceding open-string E chords, each of which is strummed with an upstroke. The E chords in bar 2 are also embellished with hammer-ons from the fifth to the sixth of the chord (the open B note on the second string to C# at the second fret). Richards really brings these figures to life by imparting a subtle double-time (16th-note) swing feel to his strumming.

The two-bar turnaround at the end of the verse, illustrated here in FIGURE 5d, begins with a chromatically ascending bass line, C#-D-D#, that’s pitted against the open-string E chord_each bass note is followed by two strokes of the open second and third strings_producing a hauntingly beautiful dissonance. The progression ends with a reprise of the I-chord riff from bar 2 of FIGURE 5c.

PAINT IT, BLACK

On the raga-inflected “Paint It, Black,” Brian Jones’s legendary sitar line is backed by an orgy of droning acoustic and electric guitars, all played by Richards. The song is played in the approximate key of F minor_the actual key is somewhere between E and F minor_so to play along with the recording you’ll have to, as was the case with “Street Fighting Man” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” tune your strings a little flat.

Richards plays the song’s main guitar parts as if they were in D minor, with a capo placed at the third fret to transpose them to the actual pitch. FIGURE 6a shows the song’s pseudo-flamenco electric guitar intro “prelude.” Allow the open D string to ring beneath each melody note throughout bar 1 and the first beat of bar 2, take a short finger slide up to the fifth fret, then wrap up the phrase with those majestic triplet hammer-ons and pull-offs.

Following a brief pause on the last note of the “prelude,” Charlie Watts kicks the song into high gear with a two-bar, four-on-the-floor drum intro, after which the electric guitar reenters with the elegantly strummed open Dsus2 chord depicted in FIGURE 6b. It’s joined here by a capo-ed acoustic guitar (possibly played by the late Brian Jones) strumming an open D5 chord in a ska-like rhythm, with strums on the eighth-note upbeats, rests on the downbeats. Notice the use of upstrokes in both guitar parts.

FIGURE 6c illustrates the first half of the verse progression that commences at 0:14. Richards’s electric part (Gtr.1), which is similar to the intro prelude figure, reinforces the vocal melody and doubles Jones’s sitar part, transcribed here for electric or acoustic guitar (Gtr. 3). The background acoustic (Gtr. 2) continues the ska-like rhythm and nails every eighth-note upbeat in all four bars with open D5 and A5 chords, employing an interesting A(#5) substitution on the “and” of beat three in bars 3 and 4.

This tension-building eight-bar section gives way to the song’s first chorus at 0:26. At this point, both the acoustic and the electric guitar join forces to play the chords illustrated in FIGURE 6d, with each guitar played with a stock eighth-note “pendulum” strumming approach (downstrokes on the downbeats, upstrokes on the eighth-note upbeats, regardless of whether every eighth note is strummed) to pound out a slightly different and complementary rhythm.

During this section of the song, which follows each verse, both guitar parts also utilize what’s often referred to as the “all-purpose passing chord,” which is simply two or more open strings strummed with an upstroke on an upbeat while the fretting fingers are in the process of moving from one chord shape to another. This subtle, almost subliminal, device keeps the rhythm flowing seamlessly while buying the guitarist time as he switches from one chord grip to another.

The second time this release occurs in the song (at 1:14), Richards adds some melodic ornamentations to the Dm chord in the electric guitar part by alternating it with the Dsus2 and Dsus4 chords illustrated in FIGURE 6e.

During the song’s outro (beginning at 2:21), the acoustic guitar (Gtr. 2) alternates between two bars of Dm and two bars of A with variations on the traditional Spanish bolero rhythm depicted in FIGURE 7.

WILD HORSES

Some of the greatest Rolling Stones songs_“Honky Tonk Women,” “Brown Sugar,” “Tumbling Dice”_feature Richards’s electric guitar playing in open G, for which he famously removed the lowest string. But it is actually Mick Taylor who used the tuning_with that low sixth string_to spectacular effect on “Wild Horses.” In addition to the 12-string open G part on “Wild Horses,” Richards also overdubbed a six-string acoustic part in standard, which he performed on a guitar set up in Nashville tuning.

FIGURE 8a depicts the intro to “Wild Horses,” with both Taylor’s strummy Nashville-tuned six-string (Guitar 1) and melodic open-G-tuned 12-string (Guitar 2) parts shown, plus descending diatonic third intervals, performed on a clean electric guitar in standard tuning (Gtr. 3).

FIGURES 8b and 8c illustrate the open G and Nashville-tuned chord fingerings used by Taylor throughout the song’s verses and choruses. Plug these grips into the rhythm slashes in FIGURE 8d to play the verse progression. For the song’s eight-bar chorus, both acoustic guitars utilize the same basic strum pattern and chord shapes as the verse.

The bridge to “Wild Horses” (3:02_3:21) features an open G version of Richards’s classic I-IV move in open D and open E (FIGURE 8e). The achingly sweet sound produced here and throughout all of “Wild Horses’ ” gives the song the poignant quality that has made it one of the most popular songs in the Stones’ catalog.