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keefriff99
...how 11 or 12 years ago, the people who condemned the Stones for:
1. being a Vegas-style lounge act more reliant on spectacle than
2. lacking truly transcendent guitar magic
3. Mick's uber-precise, technically impressive yet strangely passionless live performances
used to be figuratively run out of town on a rail by the majority of Stones fans around here, yet, nowadays, the above three opinions seem to dominate.
I'm certainly not gloating, because I used to be one of their biggest defenders against the people that I viewed as eternal pessimists and sourpusses who couldn't simply enjoy the fact that the Stones were still around.
Yet after seeing them in 2005, almost like flipping a switch (no pun intended), the three opinions above suddenly made so much sense to me.
"Oh, there's Keith slashing away at his guitar, bum chords and all"
"Start Me Up? Wow, what an inspired choice for a show opener"
"There's Ronnie...can't hear him, but there he is...oh, big surprise...he botches the solo again"
Aside from one or two special moments, I was, dare I say, BORED at a Stones concert. It was my eighth time seeing them, and it was the same ol', same ol' once again, albeit with an over-the-top stage show that would make God himself envious.
If the Stones do tour in the upcoming year, I almost certainly will not spend ungodly amounts of money to see them unless they really do something special, which I am not going to hold my breath waiting for. Most of us here know what they need to do (strip it down, turn the guitars up, lose the spectacle, shuffle the setlists) but people have been pleading for these changes for over a decade, with little effect.
I dunno...I'm still a HUGE fan and they will always be my #1 musical love, but that concert 3 1/2 years ago represented a turning point for me...there are enough threads on this board which dwell on this topic, but I don't post here much anymore and I wanted to express my thoughts.
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Munichhilton
I just enjoy the fact that The Stones are still around
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bernardanderson
it's for people like mickscarey that the stones are still rolling. they don't care if the stones get up on stage and fart then leave, they'll still shell out the $$$ to sniff their gas.
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slew
I don't know I am mixed on it. Mick does not seem passionless to me. Keith and Ronnie are declining sadly and Charlie looks un-natural back there playing to a click track. I am happy to have them around but they need to re-think what they are doing or retire and its painful to say that believe me.
Absolutely.Quote
windmelody
11 or 12 years ago the Stones played one of their best tours ever, they pushed new songs and were devoted to playing, Mick Jagger's singing was lightyears better than in 75 or 81/82. I never understood why huge parts of the press tried to write them down back then. It is ironic indeed that the Stones played much worse on the ABB tour, but they got much better reviews than in the nineties.
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deuce
I used to be a "defender" as well and was of the mind that they still couldn't be beat live and that we should be lucky to have them around.
Then around the time ABB came out and I saw a show from that tour...and listened to many bootlegs from that tour...I realized that they really didn't sound that great. I had to stop lying to myself.
I'll still listen to anything new they put out, but as for going to a show? Probably not unless it's in a small venue. And even then, I'm not expecting much...and I hate saying that, trust me.
Okay, you got me...I have pulled an Alanis Morissette and used the word "ironic" imprecisely.Quote
jamesfdouglas
Okay, let me get this straight... the stones age, and age affects their performance. People start to call them out on their poorer playing/writing/whatever, and others live in fanboy denial. The older they get, the worse they get, the harder it is to deny it. More people collectively acknowledge their decay.
My question is, how is any of this ironic?
Is this somehow supposed to be 'ironic' in the true sense of the word? I don't see any irony at all, just a normal progession of performance and perception in a world of fandom. Maybe too may people don't know the meaning of the word 'ironic'? THANKS ALANIS!!!!! ha ha!