The Leslie Speaker Piano Trick on 'No Expectations' – Spontaneous Slide Guitar Simulation

That keening, slide-guitar sound that opens the Beggars Banquet track? It’s not a guitar at all. The band ran a piano through a rotating Leslie speaker cabinet, and the whole thing was a happy accident. The Leslie speaker—usually used for organs—creates a Doppler effect as its internal horn and baffle spin, bending the pitch just like a bottleneck slide. On that day in 1968, they didn’t