Glyn Johns' Live Clapping Technique on 'Sympathy for the Devil'

The most unusual thing about how Glyn Johns recorded “Sympathy for the Devil” wasn’t the samba whistle or the congas — it was that the entire band played live together while clapping along to their own rhythm. No click track, no overdubbed handclaps. Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, and Charlie Watts all stood around the studio floor at Olympic and slapped their hands in time while playing their instruments. That clapping became the backbone of the whole track.

Johns captured that live take with the cl