Over the years there's been some posts mentioning that Brian's guitar may have been, aside from No Expectations, turned off during the Rock & Roll Circus filming. This isn't true!

Through careful OCD analysis of both the official DVD,CD and bootleg recordings such as the alternative versions of Parachute Woman and YCAGWYW I managed to work out what Brian played. 

I believe Brian's guitar would have been fairly audible to the live audience, but on the official releases it is mixed way down. The bootleg recordings allow us to hear his guitar that little bit clearer though, but even then it is still quite low in the mix in comparison to the other players.

Anyway, here is some recordings I did to give a general idea of what Brian played. These are not note for note transcriptions, but a summary of what I've managed to work out. 

For each respective track you will hear an approximation of what Brian played on it's own, following that you will hear Brian's part with an approximation of what Keith played together. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77CDkxwK0Sk

That's cool man....thanks for posting.

I could be totally imagining this, but years ago on late night television while in a 'haze' I saw a version of 'You can't always get what you want' from the Rock'n'roll circus that had the acoustic guitar from the 'Let it bleed' album version on very audible playback at the start of the song, and Brian's guitar was also very audible.... problem was he was a bit out of time and out of tune a bit too..... I think this is why he was faded down on the finished mix..... but as i say, I may have imagined all this..... in any case the combination of Keith's '57 Les Paul Custom black beauty and Brians Goldtop should have sounded great together... all things going well.

I love the '56 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop Brian used the for the R'R circus. Great guitars and worth a fortune now. I was wondering Philip, what guitars did you use for the Youtube samples? Very good approximation of the tones used by Keith and Brian.

And Philip..... THAT'S what I call POSTIN' !!!!!!!!!

I didn't realise that Brian's Goldtop was the '68 reissue..... how did you find that out? I'm no expert but the 50's models looked pretty similar to Brian's.

The amp sound you pulled was great! Do you play in a band at all, or have any released music? You should. Thanks for that info.....

Guitar wise I have a Rickenbacker 330/12, the same model that Brian is playing above, but a year 2000 job. I also have an original '63 Firebird V - similar to Brian's but mine is the two pickup version. It is a killer guitar. Johnny Winter uses this model as his main slide guitar as you probably know. Plus a couple of other electrics.... the 'Pete Townsend' machines I call them.... a '72 Les Paul Deluxe (with a Seymour Duncan '59 pickup in the bridge position) and a Fender Stratocaster Eric Clapton signature model from '90, which has the lace sensor pickups and is the guitar that Pete has been using live for years now. I love The Who as well.

stones67 wrote on Dec 6^th, 2008 at 2:02am:


The 67/68 gold tops had different vol/tone knobs.

These are fantastic! Thanks for sharing!

Glad folks are finding this interesting.  I wasn't sure what kind of reception it was going to get as it shows that what Brian played was very basic.

If you watch the DVD, towards the end of YCAGWYW when Keith starts riffing heavier and Mick is facing the band, wiggling his ass with his hands together/arms above his head Brian goes to the D chord too early... Proof that he can be heard on the official release is right there as you hear this mistake.

Good work Philip 

I must admit though, I wasn't aware this particular Brian contribution was was viewed with suspicion. I always thought Brain was audiable enough on the slide, though perhaps that is because I just haven't heard it in a good while.

Thanks Philip, for the recording differance between Keith & Brian, I think both of them were up for days, on top of being totally wasted, that The Stones decided never to release R&R Circus, for years, they said their performance was never up to par, The Who Blew them of the stage, on because The Who Had Been performing for years on stage, & were very talented, where about's The Stones never practised for years, they have been up for days, take a look at the footage of Salt of The Earth, Brain is so wasted & drunk, that it's pathetic, it's like he has lost his way, & this was in Nov. of '68, he died July '69, I'm very sorry for Brian fans, but he was going to die, unless he does something about it, & in those days, there was nothing, no Celebrity Rehab, no nothing, the most disturbing about The R & R Circus is Brian's state,he was wasted, but in a bad way, like he's not going live very long.

You know...after years of hearing how sub-par Mick thought the Stones sounded that night, I was more than pleasantly surprised at how GOOD I thought they sounded! Too bad we were deprived of this show for so long---but thankfully the powers that be reconsidered and allowed the R&R Circus to be released!

Sioux wrote on Dec 9^th, 2008 at 10:59pm:


I agree.  I think that Parachute Woman is worth the price of the disc alone.