How Brian Jones Overdubbed Sitar on 'Paint It Black' at Olympic Studios

The big takeaway: Brian Jones essentially taught himself sitar in a few weeks after hearing George Harrison’s work on “Norwegian Wood,” then walked into Olympic Studios and nailed the part for “Paint It Black” in a single overdub take. The song had already been recorded as a fairly standard pop-rock number with a Hammond organ riff, but producer Andrew Loog Oldham thought it needed something weird and Eastern to match the lyrics about loss and depression.

Jones set up in the main room at Olympic with a cheap sitar he’d bought at a London import shop. The basic track — drums, bass, acoustic guitar — was already on the four-track tape. Jones listened to a playback, then overdubbed the iconic descending line that opens the song, playing it live with no click track or double-tracking. Engineered by Glyn Johns, the sitar was miked close with a Neumann U67, and the tape was running at 15 ips. The result was so present that the Stones bumped the organ part and stuck the sitar right up front in the mix. It became the first time a sitar was used as a lead instrument on a Western rock single, not just a texture.