The Rolling Stones

[Toka]

I was at the Friday show in Philly as well...I purchased the $85 tickets, so I only knew where I was sitting once I picked them up at at the venue. Ended up in Sec 112 row 3 (so if it were a hockey game it would be center ice, 3 rows behind the glass, essentially). GREAT seats, especially for the price. Completely unobstructed views, great sound. Jagger is simply from another planet...don't know how else to explain it. Very, very glad I went (first time seeing them).

Setlist I found elsewhere:


Get Off of My Cloud
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)
Paint It Black
Gimme Shelter
Under the Boardwalk
(The Drifters cover) (with Aaron Neville) (live debut)
When the Whip Comes Down
Emotional Rescue
Doom and Gloom
One More Shot
Can't You Hear Me Knocking
(with Mick Taylor) (by request)
Honky Tonk Women
You Got the Silver
(Keith Richards on lead vocals)
Happy
(Keith Richards on lead vocals)
Midnight Rambler
(with Mick Taylor)
Miss You
Start Me Up
Tumbling Dice
Brown Sugar
Sympathy for the Devil

Encore:
You Can't Always Get What You Want
(with The Crossing Choir)
Jumpin' Jack Flash
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
(with Mick Taylor)

[Jerjo]

I was wondering if they would finally roll out "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" being Mick is there for every show. Shit, now I have a reason to buy the eventual DVD.

[Adm.Kirk]

"(The Drifters cover) (with Aaron Neville) (live debut)"

Actually, this was not the live debut. They played this in 1965. It was the live debut for this tour, however.

Bill

[Toka]

"(The Drifters cover) (with Aaron Neville) (live debut)"

Actually, this was not the live debut. They played this in 1965. It was the live debut for this tour, however.

Hey, I'm just the copy/paste guy.

[Guitarplyrjvb]

How is Mick Taylor's playing and his health? I'm so glad the Stones let him in on a piece of the action for this tour. I feel that many of his health-related problems are a direct result of his tenure with them!

[Toka]

He played great as far as I could tell (never saw him play before so no comparisons can be made). Granted, he would probably displace the same amount of water when submerged as the other 4 guys combined, but I'm not sure if that is a bad thing.

[Jerjo]

Well, there was a day when he could burn a blues rock solo that was as good as anyone living.

[Rufus]

Well, there was a day when he could burn a blues rock solo that was as good as anyone living.

He's a few notches above Richards & Woods from what I heard at the Glastonbury gig !

[JKL2000]

Was just reading about the Stones' "Their Satanic Majesties Request," and that in South Africa and the Philippines it was released as "The Stones Are Rolling" because of the word "Satanic." Crazy!

[Mister Triscuits]

Was just reading about the Stones' "Their Satanic Majesties Request," and that in South Africa and the Philippines it was released as "The Stones Are Rolling" because of the word "Satanic." Crazy!

Interesting cover variation, too...based on the gatefold interior of the original. Can't say I've ever seen a copy of this.

[arabicadabra]

Why is that so crazy Jed? Smell The Glove had to have a black cover because the original picture was too lurid and that was in the 80s.

Was just reading about the Stones' "Their Satanic Majesties Request," and that in South Africa and the Philippines it was released as "The Stones Are Rolling" because of the word "Satanic." Crazy!

[GuitarGeek]

The Sympathy For The Devil film was on one of the premium channels last week. Strange film, but I guess that's to be expected when someone like Jean-Luc Godard sits in the director's chair. Godard basically filmed the band in the recording studio, and just by dumb luck, he captures them working on Sympathy For The Devil.

But instead of just releasing a straight documentary of The Stones working up one of their must celebrated songs, he cuts in all this pointless footage of people spray painting stuff on buildings, bridges, etc, and stuff that apparently is supposed to be "anarchist revolutionaries" or whatever rambling incoherently, along with other bits of "artsy fartsy" nonsense. I'd always heard about this picture, so I kinda knew what to expect, but I was surprised how dull the film is. Even the bits of the Stones working in the studio seem to go on for long stretches without much going on.

[Jerjo]

The only part of that movie that appealed to me was where they were working on that song. Gimme Shelter and Crossfire Hurricane are much better Stones films.

I never seriously listened to Satanic Majesties until a few years ago, mostly because of all the bad press. If you remove a few stinkers it's not a bad album, kind of Sunshine Pop in the Darkness. If you pair it with a few of the singles released in the same period you get a pretty decent record. But Mick and Keith considered it enough of a failure that they took the band in a different direction which kind of worked out for them. Beggars Banquet is still awesome.

[Vic2012]

I only started buying Rolling Stones albums about ten years ago. I'm kind of all over the place with them, going back and forth in their discography. Not sure what album I'd consider my favorite. Sometimes it's Sticky Fingers, sometimes it's Exile On Main Street. Of their early stuff I have a couple of compilations and Aftermath (the British release). I also like Black And Blue too.

[Jerjo]

The Stones Facebook page just posted a video of "Brown Sugar" at the Fonda Theatre in LA - I think it was a couple years ago. Mick is working hard but the band seemed a little rote. I did some searching on YT and found a show from '72. Let's just say that that old warhorse had a lot more sting and urgency back then. There was a reason they had a reputation back in the day. When the drugs were working they were working really really well.

[Adm.Kirk]

I don't care much for all of the backing vocals either. Let Keith and Woody do them like in '81.

Bill

[Zeuhlmate]

Kudos because they still can stand on a stage, but after 'Let it Bleed' their albums didn't so anything for me. That was in 1969.

[mogrooves]

.... after 'Let it Bleed' their albums didn't so anything for me.

I dig Sticky Fingers, and finally came around on Exile.... But that's it.

[Adm.Kirk]

Right. Jagger wanted them to be that way. That's fine. Not denying the talents of those singers either. Bernard Fowler is really good but when they got Blondie Chaplin along with the rest it was too much. I think they've now cut it back to two singers. Fowler and one female. The Stones need some raggedness to the sound or it's not really the Stones. My biggest complaint is the lack of studio work over the last 20 years. Blue & Lonesome was excellent but it was 12 years between ABB and B & L. Hopefully, the new album will be done by summer, if Mick and Keith can agree on direction and songs. I think they need to let Wood contribute a tune or two. The guy has now been in the band for 43 years. Give him a song or two.

Bill

[Jerjo]

Mick always seems to want slick songs you can dance to and Keef wants it all rough and sticking to his tried and true blend of rock/blues/reggae/country. Maybe the last album will inspire them to something closer to Keef's version. Only time will tell.

[Mister Triscuits]

one female.

Was going to chide you for not naming the awesome Lisa Fischer, but I see she's been replaced on the last few jaunts by Sasha Allen.

[GuitarGeek]

Mick always seems to want slick songs you can dance to and Keef wants it all rough and sticking to his tried and true blend of rock/blues/reggae/country. Maybe the last album will inspire them to something closer to Keef's version. Only time will tell.

Keith once said that "Mick always wants to do what he heard in the night club the night before", suggesting that Mick was the one responsible for things like Miss You or Undercover Of The Night. I'm thus inclined Mick may have had something to do why they went in the direction they did on Satanic Majesties. I think maybe Mick wants to the band to be "relevant to what's happening now", and maybe Keith's thinking "fuck relevance, let's just do what we've always done!".

Lisa Fischer at least offered something on the likes of 'Gimme Shelter'.

Yeah, I was gonna say, a song like Gimme Shelter is lifted to another level if you can get someone who can...not necessarily recreate Merry Clayton's performance from the studio version, but at least offer something similar. I know some might say the song doesn't necessarily need the female vocal, and I suppose it doesn't, actually, but it does take it to another level if you can get that power in there.

Chuck Leavell is also divisive amongst Stones fans and I too think he overplays and gets into very 'tinkly' (!) territory at times- something like 'Dead Flowers' on Stripped, for instance.

Haven't heard him playing with the Stones too much, so I can't comment on it. I know I've seen a couple different concerts they shot on the Steel Wheels tour. One was shown on TV at the time, and had a "3-D" segment, where you had to put on those damn glasses, and they had all these 3-D video effects mixed in. Then the other I think was a more straight forward concert, I think it might have been the I-Max thing they did, which I saw just a few yeras ago on PBS.

Now that I think about it, I think there was a pay per view thing they did too, from that time frame, where they had people like Eric Clapton and Axl Rose and I think a few others jamming with them, but I can't remember if I've ever actually seen that one or not.

The best keyboardists The Stones ever had were Ian Stewart and Ian McLagen. Stu was kinda picky about which songs he played on, I gather he wasn't fond of playing minor chords, so any song that was in a minor key, he wouldn't play, so they'd need someone else to do those songs, which is why they had Ian McLagen on the Some Girls and Tattoo You tours (I forget who played on the 72-73 or 75-76 tours).

BTW, I remember seeing that film that Martin Scorscese directed, about 10 or so years ago, basically it's a concert film, but there's sort of a "making of" aspect to it, as I recall there's a bit where Martin is going over song lists with Mick, to decide what songs the band was going to play. Anyway, as I recall, they had a whole phalanx of backup singers, a fourth guitarist (Mick played on a few songs too, as he's done since the mid 70's), a percussionist, etc. It's like, wait, what band is this?!

[Jerjo]

I would respectfully disagree. Nicky Hopkins was the best of the lot. So many of those quintessential Stones classics feature his piano. I love Ian Stewart but he was only comfortable playing boogie woogie major chords, which he freely admitted.

[Jerjo]

That '75 tour was a real mess. Some critics thought the Preston set was actually a relief because the four or five songs before it sucked the energy out of the room. But yeah, Billy's big contribution was exposing Mick to gospel in LA resulting in the final take of "Shine a Light". It was all downhill from there. But Mick was desperate for collaborators at that point. Keith was in and out of consciousness, Mick Taylor was only good for a couple songs an album, adding Woody only brought on one hit single... Keith's addictions really sucked the air out of the band.

For all his love of funk and dance music, Mick is still at his best when he digs further back. At the risk of going Svetonio, here's a couple examples. Here's this performance at the Grammys a few years ago where he is just plain having fun with a Solomon Burke classic that used to be in the Stones repertoire



This is an old folk song that was on the actually decent Wandering Spirit album. Again, going back to something timeless seems to awaken something in the old man. If I'm not mistaken, that's the Chieftains backing him up. There's a Chieftains album where Mick sings "Long Black Veil" and more of the Stones join in on "Rocky Road to Dublin".



And then there's the blues, which is really at the core of the band, what put them together in the first place. That's what made the Blue & Lonesome album so special. There's not just a new energy crackling through the wires, it sounds like they're having a good time playing this stuff. Mick is playing harp again which he hadn't for what, decades? Just queue up "Just Your Fool" or "Ride 'Em on Down". It sure doesn't feel like a bunch of old men going through the motions.

I will now slip out of Svetonio mode. If I start posting vids of anemic East European metal bands, please kill me. Or ban me.

[Adm.Kirk]

Was going to chide you for not naming the awesome Lisa Fischer, but I see she's been replaced on the last few jaunts by Sasha Allen.

I could not remember Sasha Allen's name. Lisa Fischer was a force of nature. I think though, she was ready for other things after nearly 30 years of working with the Stones.

Bill