Many posters here - myself included - are increasingly annoyed with the recent renditions of most of se so-called warhorses. That does not mean we dislike those songs as such, but we feel the arrangements and/or the vocal and instrumental performance leave something to desire. I have tried to figure out at which point of time (i.e. starting with which tour) the issues arose on a song-by-song basis:

Satisfaction - brass-heavy Vegas arrangement since 1989
HTW - fell apart in 2002 (2005 at the latest) because our guitar heroes can not be bothered anymore and Chuck Leavell is all over the place instead
SFTD - they turned it into a Karaoke number in 1994 with those samples they use
IORR - they just do not seem to get the idea of their own song, and that from the very beginning (1975); way too fast, to begin with
Miss You - guitars more or less absent since 1994 (at the latest), awkward singalong
Brown Sugar - family-friendly singalong since 1975
Gimme Shelter - on the edge of going down the SFTD road since 2002

What is your take on this? Are you aware of any "warhorse" that recovered again once they had ruined it?

not a bad summation...

to which i might add:

tumbling dice - always a fave warhorse, but one on which ronnie started playing some strange noises far too often on the last tour....couldn't really even call them leads or solos....just tuneless noise....

Jumpin' Jack Flash - way too fast, has strayed too too far away from the original riff, the chorus IS a Las Vegas/American Idol kind of thing now and the overall playing of it, with the BAH BAH part, is the only time it ever moves.

What was seemingly brilliant in 1989/90 with Sympathy For The Devil has indeed turned in to mall music or dentist office music because it's been the exact same way since. They're not actually playing the song, they're playing along with the samples and the piano. There's nothing sinister or moving to it or about it. It was way better when they just played it.

Satisfaction - It would be the end of the world if they played it with the sex and swagger that the original has. With some actual feeling. The dirtier version in 1969, of which they totally changed the song, was a fantastic example of changing a song for the better. But they can't play like that anymore. Time to slow it down, let Mick actually "sing" the damn thing and just do it right.

agree with you about sftd, skippy. arguably the singular highlight of the SW shows (drum-loop and all)...more recently a cringe-inducing embarrassment...might as well trot out the girl from ipanema if they gotta do a samba.....

Slowing things down would help with a lot of songs. Tumbling Dice live is always too fast. The other thing that would help would be for everyone, especially Mick, to keep the showmanship under control a little bit. You don't want them to stand still like a bunch of stiffs, but when the visuals become more important than the actual music, it's not good.

Quote
gimmelittledrink
Slowing things down would help with a lot of songs. Tumbling Dice live is always too fast. The other thing that would help would be for everyone, especially Mick, to keep the showmanship under control a little bit. You don't want them to stand still like a bunch of stiffs, but when the visuals become more important than the actual music, it's not good.

they should go back to basics and not try to perform like pink or lady gaga!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2010-08-05 18:09 by marchbaby.

Lots of thruth in what you say, even if I quite enjoyed satisfaction during the ABB tour (and in particular how Keith played the riff): dirty and essential.

True that HTW often fell a part, but it was the song played on the way back from the B to the main stage, and I have the impression that it was not the best situation to concentrate on the music.

The last good IORR was at the blind concert. What happened ever since I truly don't get it. Or, better, I know: they don't play that change on teh secon part of the verse ("Would it satisfy ya, would it slide on by ya"), but why?

C