“Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out” - The Rolling Stones

Get Yer Ya-Yas Out was recorded in Baltimore and NYC on the Stones ‘69 US tour, just 9 days before their infamous Altamont free concert. This was their first tour of the states since ‘66 and featured the addition of Mick Taylor on guitar, replacing Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones who died in July of that year. In my opinion Taylor’s guitar work greatly enhanced the band and certainly shines on this live album.

I couldn’t get enough of this record as a teenager in the early 70’s. This was raw, larger than life, garage band stuff, born to be played loud. I can never forget the opening of side two and “Sympathy for the Devil”, with the young fan pleading with Jagger “Paint it Black… Paint it Black… Paint it Black you Devil”. This arrangement of Sympathy was the inspiration for countless covers by “Stixx & Stonz”, almost always closing our set and gig. If there was ever a guitar solo I tried to copy, it was Mick Taylor’s on this track. This was by far, my favorite song to play with Ant, Pauline, Michael, Elisa, Daniel and Jim.

Covering the Stones in general and especially the four tracks we stole from this album, probably taught me more about guitar playing than any other songs we did. It took me until 50th year to realize the genius of Keith Richards. “Keef” lead me to Open G tuning. I thought… Damn, that’s why they sound the way they do. I learned that if you’re going to cover the Stones, you’d better learn Keith’s parts in Open G. I’m still learning and this is the record that inspired me from the start.