Charlie Watts and The Rolling Stones’ Ya-Ya’s Cover (1970)

By Marcelo Sonaglioni on June 7, 2025 • ( 1 Comment )

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The Day The Rolling Stones’ Charlie Watts Did the Photo Shoot for the Cover of ‘Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!’

June 7, 1970: Charlie does the photo shoot for the cover of the Stones’ next live album Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! The Rolling Stones In Concert. Although the two photography sessions for the cover featuring Charlie and a donkey are depicted in the documentary film Gimme Shelter, showing Watts and Mick on a section of the M6 motorway adjacent to Bescot Rail Depot in Birmingham, England, posing with a donkey, the actual cover photo was taken in early February 1970 in London, and does not originate from the 1969 session.

Legendary photographer David Bailey took care of the photoshoot, featuring Charlie with guitars and bass drums hanging from the neck of a donkey, inspired by a line in Bob Dylan’s song Visions of Johanna (“Jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule…”). The band later revealed that “we originally wanted an elephant, but settled for a donkey”.

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rolling stones cover get yer ya ya's out charlie watts 1970 cover

rolling stones cover get yer ya ya's out charlie watts 1970

As Charlie Watts himself explained it in a 2017 interview: “It was David, who we worked with a lot in those days. I went to this place near where I used to live which was Hendon. It had a plane runway, an aerodrome. They brought the donkey along, put a drum on it. I was in my stage clothes and borrowed Mick’s hat in one of them. David was up a ladder shutting down, then on the floor shooting up. That’s about it”.

The Rolling Stones Unleashed: The Electrifying Legacy of Ya-Ya’s

A defiant celebration of rock ‘n’ roll swagger, Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! captures The Rolling Stones at a moment of transformation and triumph. Released in 1970, the live album channels the raw energy from their 1969 American tour, blending rebellion, tragedy, and rock bravado into one electrifying document. Recorded at Madison Square Garden and Chicago’s International Amphitheatre, the record immortalizes the chemistry between Mick Jagger’s fiery stage presence and the newly intensified guitar interplay of Keith Richards and Mick Taylor. Following the chaos of Altamont, the Stones returned to the stage with even greater urgency, reaffirming their status as rock’s most dangerous—and vital—band.

The album’s name is a cheeky nod to cutting loose, and that’s exactly what it delivers. With thunderous renditions of classics like Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Sympathy for the Devil, and Charlie Watts’ and Bill Wyman’s locked-in rhythm section, Ya-Ya’s roars with authenticity. It didn’t just dominate charts— Ya-Ya’s defined an era.

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