Just giving "Losing My Touch" a few spins here and forgetting how much of a sweet song it is with some strong musicianship. Tender melody and effective guitar playing and solo. I forgot how good/passable it actually was.

Comparing it to Keith's other "after-hours" piano-driven ballad, "This Place Is Empty"...I have more respect for "Losing My Touch"...something about "This Place Is Empty" that never did catch on for me, was never a fan since I heard it.

Any thoughts? I know it'll be hard to actually give a seconds thought to two of these later-Stones "throwaway" tracks but you can't ignore that they're part of the canon.

Love 'em both, but This Place Is Empty is the best one for me. Why would they be throwaways? They're great. It can't be Chuck Berry covers forever....

JumpingKentFlash

IMO Losing my touch was written on the back of a fag packet and knocked out in about half n hour. Keef by numbers.

I much prefer This Place Is Empty. MEZ

This Place Is Empty is one of the only songs I listen to from ABB these days. And Rain Fall Down, that one stuck with me, too. Losing My Touch I don't really care for at all.

Those Keith songs do age well.

Guess I'll be the only one that likes Losing My Touch better.
Loved it from the first listen.

Keep an eye on on your front door, baby
I'll be slipping in round the back
I just need a little cab fare
And then I'll let you hit the sack

Even Keith by numbers is beautifully written music.
Its in the same breath as Coming Down Again!

"Its in the same breath as Coming Down Again!"

Oh please! Do you really believe that?

I think "Losing My Touch" suits very well to FORTY LICKS. A kind of reflective, "after-hours" moment after and contrast to all that incredible series of legendary music that happend prior to it. Like a final statement before closing the lights. But as far as "This Place is Empty" go - well that is one of those mediocre songs in the series of mediocre songs that constitute an album called A BIGGER BANG. A Keith Richards by-numbers-ballad.

But taken out of context - neither of the songs has the caliber of "All About You" - if one really wants true "after-hours" feelings... (we could easily live without either of them but "All About You" is a true contribution to Stones musical vocabulary)

- Doxa



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2010-10-23 14:00 by Doxa.

...Both I love dearly.

["I can hear the Bullfrog calling me..."]

But taken out of context - neither of the songs has the caliber of "All About You" - if one really wants true "after-hours" feelings...

Or thief in the night for that matter.

I don't have Forty Licks, and I've only bothered to listen to 'Losing My Touch' once and thought it was absolute puss. However, I love Keith's songs on Stones albums and 'This Place Is Empty' is one of my favourites. I'll have to give 'Losing My Touch' another listen.

Whoever said 'All About You' was one of the Stones' best is right on the mark. Stunningly beautiful song with sharp, dark(ish) lyrics.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-10-23 15:33 by OneHit.

This Place Is Empty has more of an upbeat feel to it and can listen to it on occasion.

Loosing My Touch I really struggle with. I can hear why many would like it, but it doesn't work for me - and this is coming from someone who loves Keith's ballads.

Similar to others ... I also like This Place Is Empty a lot, and don't care for Losing My Touch. Still I'm quite annoyed that Keith never seems to have a rockin' track anymore (like Happy, Before They Make Me Run, T&A, or even Wanna Hold You) -- nothing makes me wanna jump up and dance more than when I hear one of these Keith rocking tracks!

This Place Is Empty.

Both boring as hell...you would not listen to this shit from other artists. Honestly, when there's You Got The Silver or Coming Down Again, who needs stinkers like these?

Both songs are - as said here - boring as hell. I remember when first hearing "Losing my touch" I douldn't believe it. This a Keith Richards song? Never! But yes, it was. For me it marks Keith's absolute lowpoint and he hasn't written too much of worth since then (maybe one or two songs on "A bigger bang") but that's all. The only thing he seems to do nowadays is strumming along with the Rolling Stones and some of his friends, sometimes even sporting his uneven voice. But Keith Richards as a songwriter is virtually no more existing. At least none of his more recent stuff has found the way out of his basement if he should actually have written some.

Losing My Touch is, musically and vocal delivery wise, way better than This Place Is Empty. It also fits in with the Keith tunes from Bridges To Babylon.

If you want You Got The Silver and Coming Down Again and All About You then piss off and listen to those songs. Goddamn. The last rocker we got from Keith was Wanna Hold You. It's been ballads, soul smokers and reggae ever since. If anything, BOTH of these songs are a million times better than that jar of mayonnaise left out to rot of a song of Thru And Thru.

Yer gonna complain about and compare these songs to those old songs when they keep putting out such mule shit as Rain Falls Down, Sweet Neo Con and Streets Of Love?

YAWN.

skipstone - Even though I somewhat agree with you come on why belittle people for what they like and don't like musically??? I pretty much like all of Keith's stuff except his reggae Too Rude and Feel On Baby. Thru and Thru is a hidden gem for me. Oh and I don't care for Infamy either.

Losing My Touch I like better than This Place Is Empty.

All of you who expect Keith just to go out and play Berry inspired tunes all the time should remember that he's always liked ballads, country and reggae as well as bock and blues. Remember the unreleased tracks We Had It All and Let's Go Steady those are phenomenal even though they are covers. Its not Chuck Berry all the time and I'm glad for that!

This Place Is Empty. Losing My Touch doesn't really go anywhere for me.

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alimente
Both boring as hell...you would not listen to this shit from other artists. Honestly, when there's You Got The Silver or Coming Down Again, who needs stinkers like these?

Actually I prefer both TPIE and LMT to Coming Down Again. Never got why that was so loved. Probably because it's from the early 70s.

JumpingKentFlash

Surprised more people didn't come out of the woodwork, showing some love for "Losing My Touch."

Just gave 'Losing My Touch' another listen; it's crap.

Thru & Thru, This Place is Empty, All About You, Thief in the Night/How Can I Stop....these are all smoking tunes. I'll go out on a limb and say Sleep Tonight is better than all of then though.

Thief In The Night is Keith at his best. And that's not to say it's better than anything he could do now. That model, the slow burner song, it's harder to do those and make them real and Keith has always done it. This Place is Empty is another song that's here to stay. His songs are like himself. Just as soon as you think you have him figured out, he's here for another decade and then another.

Losing My Touch is better for me than TPIE, which is plain boring. Zzzz

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JumpingKentFlash

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alimente
Both boring as hell...you would not listen to this shit from other artists. Honestly, when there's You Got The Silver or Coming Down Again, who needs stinkers like these?

Actually I prefer both TPIE and LMT to Coming Down Again. Never got why that was so loved. Probably because it's from the early 70s.

CDA is so loved because it's great. That you don't get it does not really surprise me because from reading a lot of your posts I get the impression that you generally don't get why the early 70's stuff is so good.

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slew
All of you who expect Keith just to go out and play Berry inspired tunes all the time should remember that he's always liked ballads, country and reggae as well as bock and blues. Remember the unreleased tracks We Had It All and Let's Go Steady those are phenomenal even though they are covers. Its not Chuck Berry all the time and I'm glad for that!

We Had It All, Let's Go Steady .... add the unreleased Toronto 1977 tracks to these and it shows that Keith was a great balladeer - as long as his voice was intact and the songs were great, covers or not.

Chuck Berry inspired stuff is just one part of the whole picture that is Keith Richards, and I don't reduce him to just that stuff. Hate it When you Leave, pretty much all of Talk Is Cheap, his cover of The Harder They Come, I could go on and on....

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skipstone
Yer gonna complain about and compare these songs to those old songs when they keep putting out such mule shit as Rain Falls Down, Sweet Neo Con and Streets Of Love?

YAWN.

Don't get me started on recent Stones output!

I go with loosing my touch. Musically its better and the lyrics make it feel more personal even though they're not specific. compared to LMT, This place is empty just feels like its full of cliches.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2010-10-25 01:04 by ryanpow.

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alimente

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JumpingKentFlash

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alimente
Both boring as hell...you would not listen to this shit from other artists. Honestly, when there's You Got The Silver or Coming Down Again, who needs stinkers like these?

Actually I prefer both TPIE and LMT to Coming Down Again. Never got why that was so loved. Probably because it's from the early 70s.

CDA is so loved because it's great. That you don't get it does not really surprise me because from reading a lot of your posts I get the impression that you generally don't get why the early 70's stuff is so good.

Then you got the wrong impression. You do know that I think like everybody else here? That the '68 - ´72 years were the best ever. In other words that's my favourite period. So how did you get to think that I dislike that period? Because if you like the early 70s stuff, you absolutely must bash the latter day stuff (I don't do that because I can see that the albums of today were never supposed to sound like Sticky Fingers)? Because I didn't live in the period when those albums was released? Is that some of your reasons?
You think that CDA is great, so hallelujah and stick it up yer arse. I don't like it much. To me it's kindda boring and bland. Are you judging my love for the Stones on one song? There's no way to "get" why the early 70s were so great. It's all about how YOU feel about it. You can't just say "This song is great" and think that everybody agrees with you. How'd you explain Nana Mouskouri?

JumpingKentFlash