How a Mobile Truck Caught the Stones’ 1970 Live Sound on ‘Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!’

The Stones wanted a live album that captured their actual stage sound—not a re-recorded studio gloss. So for the 1969 US tour that became Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!, they parked the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio (a converted truck built by their engineer) right outside the venues. The truck recorded 16-track direct from the board and a few room mics, giving everything a dry, punchy immediacy with no crowd bleed into the instruments.

Glyn Johns mixed the album after the tour, and he did something unusual: he treated the live tapes like a studio session but kept the mistakes. He narrowed the stereo image, pushed the vocals and Keith’s rhythm guitar forward, and often faded the audience in only at song endings—making the band sound huge but the crowd feel like a distant afterthought. That clarity, especially on “Midnight Rambler” and “Love in Vain,” made the album a benchmark for how a live record could be both raw and crisp.