This arrangement of one of Keith Richards’ signature songs with Ron Wood on acoustic slide guitar presents a quirky part of the Rolling Stones’ history – the sideman as star. The Stones have often employed top notch talent in their band onstage and in the studio, think Nicky Hopkins, Billy Preston, Bobby Keyes. Here, Mick Jagger has left the stage, turning it over to Keith. And then, Keith turns the spotlight over to Ron Wood for a tasty slide solo. Woody has been an official member of the Stones since the 1970s and he fit right in from the beginning. But he has always been a role player. In this version of “You Got The Silver,” he nearly steals the show.
The song is a shuffle in the key of E, with a tempo of about 94 bpm. The tempo picks up a little bit or slows down slightly at various points. The slide part is played in open E and Ron uses a metal slide on his middle finger. RW plays with a flatpick in his right hand and uses a lot of upstrokes, especially on the high strings.
The guitar lines are phrased around the 12/8 shuffle feel, with the long-short-long-short-long pulse dominating, except when Woody goes against the beat with syncopated phrases. This happens a lot, often in the even bars with nice resolutions in the odd bars. The solo begins and ends on the main guitar lick of the song and Ron uses some of Keith’s fills from the original version as the main material for the slide solo. The lick that is used the most is a “sus-4” kind of motion on one string as in measure three, going A – G# – E with a slide from E to G# and then a pull-off from G# to the open E. Woody does it later on the D string (tuned to E, of course) in measure six and at the end.
Woody with The Stones - Late '70s?
The original song features an acoustic guitar for the main lick but also an electric slide guitar as well, with a backwards tape effect. Ron Wood strikes a nice balance with an almost ‘clean electric’ tone from his Gibson Jumbo 200.One of the aspects to listen for is Wood’s extremely bluesy and subtle vibrato. It can be difficult to master the vibrato technique in slide, but it’s essential to the style. It can be advantageous to try and copy the vibrato of an accomplished player when you’re starting out. Does Ron Wood sound a bit like Mick Taylor or vice versa? Do you hear a little Earl Hooker in there? What do you hear? Think about it. It’s a damned good vibrato. Subtle, sly, but with an edge of weary emotion.
Before Ron Wood was a Stone he made his mark as a member of the Faces, one of the all-time champs of rock and roll. L-R: Rod Stewart, Kenney Jones, Ron Wood, Ian McLagan and Ronnie Lane. They're shown here in a rather demure state, a Beano-like pose, if you will. This version of their first album must be a very early one as you can see by the band name.
Here's the inside, gatefold picture from the album. Just had to share that. You can see better where the name is coming from - dig those threads!
Thanks to my student Paul Lederer for pointing me to this performance! -Christian Botta
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