The 'Mistake' Guitar Solo on 'Sympathy for the Devil' from Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!

The Rolling Stones’ 1970 live album Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! captured their 1969 tour, with most tracks recorded at Madison Square Garden. One of the standout moments is Keith Richards’ guitar solo on “Sympathy for the Devil” — a jagged, bent-note run that has become the definitive live version of the song.

Richards later revealed that the solo was actually a mistake. He hit a wrong note, then bent it back into pitch out of sheer reflex. “I played a completely wrong note, and it sounded so good I kept it,” he said. The flub became the signature of the performance, proof that even a screw-up can become iconic when you commit to it. The solo appears at around the 3:20 mark on the album version.