10 Mistakes That Made It Onto Famous Rock Songs
5. Less Cowbell - The Rolling Stones' Honky Tonk Woman
A cowbell is a percussion instrument played by striking a metal object with a stick. They're quite easy to play, unless your name is Jimmy Miller.
Miller was The Rolling Stones' producer for some of their biggest albums, including Goats Head Soup, Exile on Main St., and Sticky Fingers. He also produced work for the likes of Steve Winwood and Motörhead, but it was with the Stones that he made his biggest impact.
You can actually hear Miller's work firsthand on the song Honky Tonk Woman, a single released in 1969. Jimmy is responsible for playing cowbell on the track, a memorable part of this memorable song, which makes it even more of a shame that he got it completely wrong.
Drummer Charlie Watts said in the book The Rolling Stones: All the Songs that "either he [Milller] comes in wrong or I come in wrong… It’s actually a mistake, but from my point of view, it works.”
Watts doesn't outwardly admit that this was Miller's fault, but considering that he had a reputation for being one of the steadiest drummers to ever sit behind a kit, it's safe to assume he was just being modest.