10 Classic Guitar Riffs That Were Created By Accident
3. Jumpin Jack Flash - The Rolling Stones
When it comes to the darker side of rock and roll, it all tends to come back to the Rolling Stones. Being the polar antithesis of the Beatles in the British Invasion, the Stones' bluesy souls brought an extra level of menace into rock and roll, which could be seen everywhere from Paint it Black to Sympathy for the Devil. Though the entire Stones' ethos is wrapped up in Jumpin Jack Flash, the actual guitar sound is actually the stuff of most guitarists' nightmares.
Starting off the song with a disorienting wall of noise, something about the guitar riff almost doesn't sound right when listening back to it with fresh ears. While there's nothing wrong with the tuning or anything, the actual setup of the guitar just sounds off, like it's a scratch take before getting to the real version.
The real story though is that it's not even an electric guitar...it's a tinny acoustic that the Stones were messing around with while on tour. As they made their way across the world, the final riff of what you hear on Jack Flash is actually an acoustic recorded in a hotel room and then distorted once they got back into the studio to master the final recording. Even though the heart of rock and roll has always been about not having things be perfect, the dirtiness on this recording is almost Frank Zappa levels of I don't give a s*it.