How Keith Richards' Open G Tuning on 'Brown Sugar' Made the Rhythm Section Work Harder

Keith Richards had been messing with open G tuning (D–G–D–G–B–D, with the low E string removed) since the late ’60s, but “Brown Sugar” was the first Stones single to fully exploit its quirks in the studio. Capoed at the fifth fret to get the song in C, the five-string gave him a droning, almost pedal-steel-like resonance that sounded huge on tape—but it also created a rhythm-section headache. The open strings rang out longer than fretted notes, so the guitar’s sustain bled into the space normally reserved for the kick and snare.

Charlie Watts had to shorten his snare hits and lean into a crisper shuffle to avoid muddling that ringing chord. Instead of his usual back