"The Rolling Stones" Thread

[FORD]

Here's an example of a total wanker drummer. "Look at me! I'm a drumming god!"

Apparently he's trying to be Keith Moon.... and failing miserably.

[Nitro Express]

Keith staggers the beat in his rhythm playing, sometimes hitting the chord just a little bit later than anybody else would in the context of the four-count. Listening to his phrasing and dynamics is just as important as using the Fender amp. It's attention to detail. I guess the best example of this off the top of my head is the intro to Monkey Man, during and after the piano arpeggios as it builds to the main riff. Not as much what he does but how he does it. Great tension building.
Same thing with the guitar part to Can't You Hear me Knockin with him playing slightly off the beat, but incredibly effective.

He also uses a different tuning and that varies for different songs. What his guitar tech was describing in the video I posted is exactly what I did. I tried to play Keef riffs in standard A 440 tuning playing to sheet music and it sounded all wrong. It sounded horrible in fact. When you think about it do you really hear cover bands playing Rolling Stones songs? I can't remember hearing any. The reason why is they can't pull it off.

[twonabomber]

Don't know if this has been mentioned here already, but I heard on the radio last night that the four remaining Stones are planning on meeting in the next couple of weeks to hammer out details for their 50th anniversary tour. DJ said the rumor is there will only be about 18 dates in the US. I'm thinking of taking my 9-year-old to this one, just so she can say she saw The Rolling Stones (if I can convince mom to let me spend $250 for nosebleed tickets...)

There may be an announcement soon. I read at Shidoobee it will be an 18 date tour, multiple nights per city. As in, we go to them instead of them hitting 30 cities.

If there is no Ohio show I will gladly go to Toronto.

[Zing!]

I'm thinking the "band meeting to hammer out details" probably means: "how soon can we squeeze Ronnie dry so we can prop him up on stage?"

[Jack68]

Here's an example of a total wanker drummer. "Look at me! I'm a drumming god!"

Thankyou for that.What a douche..
Hell yeah im gonna check out the Stones.Are the ticketprices set?I just want to get in the building.

[Jack68]

I'm thinking the "band meeting to hammer out details" probably means: "how soon can we squeeze Ronnie dry so we can prop him up on stage?"

I thought Ronnie was dry?His playing seems better than ever..Keef not so much.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Here's an example of a total wanker drummer. "Look at me! I'm a drumming god!"

I posted this a while ago in the Covers thread. This guy is just hilarious.

I doubt he can play the drums that way for a whole 2-hour set though.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Keith will never ever carry on with the Stones without Ronnie - the nicest comrade in rock history, they say, and Keith always says he found what he'd been looking for with Ronnie, that guitar interaction...

And Mick Taylor, as great a guitarist he's been with the Stones - and still is -, is a weird guy - watch him drag his 300 lb around on stage on Midnight Rambler after Jagger... who could care less...

I saw Mick Taylor on stage in Lille (northern France) in 1999. He played slide guitar like a god, but backstage he was just awful. We were a dozen waiting for him, and none of us got a single word from him. He was pissed because he only drew 60 peeps in a 500 seat venue. I had a 15-mn chat with his rhythm guitar player from India or Pakistan, a real cool man, who I asked about their next gigs. There weren't any that were scheduled, and poor guy didn't know if there would be any at all...

"A Stone's throw" (1998) was Taylor's second studio album in 20 years, after his 1979 solo debut.
A fine album, despite Taylor's drawling voice, with great guitar parts.

But Mick Taylor is such a really unpleasant, self-conceited nasty character.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

I know it's been posted before, but just to illustrate... Notice how tight Keith and Ronnie keep together to Charlie's kit. It says a lot IMO.

[Terry]

He also uses a different tuning and that varies for different songs. What his guitar tech was describing in the video I posted is exactly what I did. I tried to play Keef riffs in standard A 440 tuning playing to sheet music and it sounded all wrong. It sounded horrible in fact. When you think about it do you really hear cover bands playing Rolling Stones songs? I can't remember hearing any. The reason why is they can't pull it off.

I was in exactly the same quandry for years in the 1980s, where I'd try figuring out Stones tunes in standard tuning (because that was the only tuning I knew) and was never able to get them to sound right: it'd be in the right key, but the sound was off. Around the time when Steel Wheels was released, I remember a Guitar Player magazine interview where Keith talked about his tunings (the...what the fuck is it...DGDGBE...something like that), and as soon as I tuned down to that, riff after riff started sounding like they should: Brown Sugar, Start Me Up, Can't You Hear Me Knocking, etc.

There was another variation besides the one mentioned above he mentioned in the article that unlocked the correct way to play a whole other rash of Stones tunes correctly. It was the mix of those open tunings with standard tunings used by Jones/Taylor/Wood that gave the Stones guitars that great sound. From there, I learned about that low E-string drop-D tuning Van Halen used, and all of a sudden a whole bunch of Van Halen songs that never sounded quite right when I was trying to figure them out in standard (like, the first 5 songs on Fair Warning, for starters) sounded as they should have.

[twonabomber]

Hell yeah im gonna check out the Stones.Are the ticketprices set?I just want to get in the building.

I'm planning on spending no more than $250. None of my friends will go at that price. I've gone by myself to all the Stones shows I've seen since Bridges to Babylon.

[Nitro Express]

I was in exactly the same quandry for years in the 1980s, where I'd try figuring out Stones tunes in standard tuning (because that was the only tuning I knew) and was never able to get them to sound right: it'd be in the right key, but the sound was off. Around the time when Steel Wheels was released, I remember a Guitar Player magazine interview where Keith talked about his tunings (the...what the fuck is it...DGDGBE...something like that), and as soon as I tuned down to that, riff after riff started sounding like they should: Brown Sugar, Start Me Up, Can't You Hear Me Knocking, etc.

There was another variation besides the one mentioned above he mentioned in the article that unlocked the correct way to play a whole other rash of Stones tunes correctly. It was the mix of those open tunings with standard tunings used by Jones/Taylor/Wood that gave the Stones guitars that great sound. From there, I learned about that low E-string drop-D tuning Van Halen used, and all of a sudden a whole bunch of Van Halen songs that never sounded quite right when I was trying to figure them out in standard (like, the first 5 songs on Fair Warning, for starters) sounded as they should have.

Tuning is a major part of it but also you have to hit the strings the way Keef does. You have to play over that back pickup. With Eddie I learned you really have to whack the hell out of the strings when you do the hammer ons. He does it effortlessly and it doesn't look like he is hitting the strings hard but he is. To get the sound you have to whack the bugger. Actually playing slap funk on a bass helped me figure out some on Eddie's playing techniques. It finally hit me a lot of what he does is slap funk on a guitar.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

We play 3 Stones covers with my band during gigs, between our own tunes. The lead guitarist uses a guitar he specially uses for "Brown Sugar", in open G. We also do "Get off of my Cloud" and "Sympathy for the Devil" (I wish we'd play "Crazy Mama", "Before they make me run", "If you can't rock me" or "Happy" instead, but the others will go "we'd better play the tunes everybody knows by ear" - they rather know little about good old stuff in France and Switzerland, apart from end-aisle display - which pisses me as what I think we should do is play what we feel like playing first and foreall), but I think on the latter two both our guitar players play normally tuned.

I remember back in the late 70s, early 80s when I started digging the Stones a damn lot, I thought they played a little out of tune but loved it.
Later, when I heard about Keith playing open tunings inspired by high time blues artists, I loved the Stones' music even more.

[twonabomber]

Today's tweet: "Five days and counting," along with a "live" version of Doom and Gloom:

<object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AeTfQw1dIx0?hl=en_US&amp;version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AeTfQw1dIx0?hl=en_US&amp;version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

[twonabomber]

and now