i think this would work much better live with a guitar intro. the current arrangement with chuck's piano doesn't work at all.

It is KR and RW refreshment, cigarette break.

As much as I am more sympathetic to Chuck's piano playing than most people here I have to agree with you on this one. Especially with the flames on all the screen it is kind of a letdown to hear just the piano starting this one.

I understand they are trying for a build on this one and are somewhat successful but I'd actually like to see Mick playing the guitar intro on this. It's his song and of course anything to tether him down a bit usually makes for better singing.

peace

Quote
DoomandGloom
It is KR and RW refreshment, cigarette break.

ah yes. "performance debugging" in the middle of the performance. totally understandable.

"eh, mick - ronnie and i are going to step off and do a little performance debugging while you start off this next number"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-06-04 23:12 by Turner68.

For sure!!!

I can't get enough of Keith and Ronnie's playing.

I will always prefer the Ya Ya's arrangement for this one.

The simple guitar intro has always been weak and underwhelming, the drum track they have now sounds great live, but a bit weak on youtube videos.

I really doubt a simple guitar intro could save this song, It simply needs to be scratched from the setlist. They can add it in the song vote list in three years for one concert, and see how much people have missed it.

For gods sake play 2000 Light Years From Home instead, Sympathy is worn out.

I think they should go back to this intro.

Quote
Shawn20
I will always prefer the Ya Ya's arrangement for this one.

Yep. But quite beyond the current abilities of the two guitarists.

Quote
Turner68

Quote
DoomandGloom
It is KR and RW refreshment, cigarette break.

ah yes. "performance debugging" in the middle of the performance. totally understandable.

"eh, mick - ronnie and i are going to step off and do a little performance debugging while you start off this next number"

lol. This is going to catch on Turner. No doubt the more serious debugging happens after the show. I wonder if Keith is even drinking alcohol during the concert these days? Maybe not due to Ronnie's sobriety or perhaps he's just slowed down. It would be an interesting question to pose to Keith during an interview...something like:

"Keith we obviously know you have somewhat of a history and reputation for altering your state of mind. Do you still find mild intoxication a necessary or favorable condition to perform in 2015?"

probable answers:

a. I've done so many drugs I'm still intoxicated whether I want to be or not. Doc says it's going to be another 20 years before I'm going to be clean, it's all relative man. (raspy chuckle)

b. (raspy chuckle) I get high just walking out on that stage and seeing the audience smiling back at me...when I hit the opening chords of Flash I'm a goner, man. Who needs drugs?


peace

Quote
Naturalust

Quote
Turner68

Quote
DoomandGloom
It is KR and RW refreshment, cigarette break.

ah yes. "performance debugging" in the middle of the performance. totally understandable.

"eh, mick - ronnie and i are going to step off and do a little performance debugging while you start off this next number"

lol. This is going to catch on Turner.


peace

I'm already seriously regretting my "debug" thread.

Quote
Turner68

Quote
DoomandGloom
It is KR and RW refreshment, cigarette break.

ah yes. "performance debugging" in the middle of the performance. totally understandable.

"eh, mick - ronnie and i are going to step off and do a little performance debugging while you start off this next number"

no joke, they need a break, take a pee get the guitar off their backs. MJ gets his break for 2 KR tunes. Those few minutes can give them a second wind. Just give them a pass on this one.

It might be too late for the guitar intro in the 1970 style. The last thing that they might be able to do with "Sympathy" would be to use the song to open some concerts with but,the current post-1999 or post 2002 / 2003 versions may not be strong enough for that. Also,they like to open with the guitars but,like I said,probably cannot pull it off these days. I would like to be proven wrong,however.

More than anything, get away from the audience participation, like an adult Kindergarten, doing those sing along "ooh- ooh"s. It spoils whatever remains of the once menacing aspects of this originally grand song.

Quote
Witness
More than anything, get away from the audience participation, like an adult Kindergarten, doing those sing along "ooh- ooh"s. It spoils whatever remains of the once menacing aspects of this originally grand song.

Ye sit has become a very stiff nursing home version. And it doesnt have to. They can change it.

Don't like the sampled congas, the over dramatic piano chords at the beginning, the plink plonk fest right before Jagger starts to sing, the "Guns&Roses" chorus with all the guitarist slashing chords while posing, the solos.

So, to put it short, anything would be better than the current version.

C

Yeah definitely go back to the ya yas guitar driven version of the 69 tour, that was a real beauty><

Everyone seems to agree. I like idea about Mick Jagger playing the guitar on intro.

But the audiences love it as it is ....

Riiiiight, because we ALL KNOW the Stones are about shaking things up and taking chances nowadays.

Zero chance. ZERO chance.

Quote
desertblues68
Yeah definitely go back to the ya yas guitar driven version of the 69 tour, that was a real beauty><

If they have to go back to a guitar version, I hope it is the Love You Live one!

C

Quote
liddas

Quote
desertblues68
Yeah definitely go back to the ya yas guitar driven version of the 69 tour, that was a real beauty><

If they have to go back to a guitar version, I hope it is the Love You Live one!

C

The LYL one was such a big disappointment for me back in the day it was released. The whole album, actually.

Quote
kleermaker

Quote
liddas

Quote
desertblues68
Yeah definitely go back to the ya yas guitar driven version of the 69 tour, that was a real beauty><

If they have to go back to a guitar version, I hope it is the Love You Live one!

C

The LYL one was such a big disappointment for me back in the day it was released. The whole album, actually.

That's your problem


C

It occurs to me that Keith hasn't played a simple, lick-free chord progression in standard tuning on electric guitar since ... when? I can't even remember when.

I'd love to hear that funky bass intro that Keith played when Clapton took a turn on guitar in the '75 SFTD.

What I really would have loved, was for the band to go back to some of the early versions from the One Plus One film, for instance one slower version with organ, and have remade the song in that direction. Then an old song that almost everybody knows, might have acquired an unheard freshness and at the same time most certainly would have continued to be easily recognisable.

Edit: Addition of a word fallen out



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-06-05 19:44 by Witness.

Quote
Mel Belli
It occurs to me that Keith hasn't played a simple, lick-free chord progression in standard tuning on electric guitar since ... when? I can't even remember when.

This is a plus for me!

C

Quote
Witness
What I really would have loved, was for the band to go back to some of the early versions from the One Plus One film, for instance one slower version with organ, and remade the song in that direction. Then an old song that almost everybody knows, might have acquired an unheard freshness and at the same time most certainly would have continued to be easily recognisable.

Interesting suggestion. I never thought Jagger got the right delivery for the lyrics at that slower speed so would require some rework. Would be potentially a spookier, bluesier version, but nothing like the crowd-pleasing (?) sing-along spectacle it has become today.

Just watched a few mins of the SFTD from the Minneapolis show. It's hard for me to imagine a band taking any song further from its roots than The Stones have done with "Sympathy." It's basically now the kind of thing you could expect to see in a Celine Dion show at Caesar's Palace.

Those onscreen flames, that sulfurous mist, that gorilla suit. My god, the song is not about the devil. It's about the banality of evil, the fact that evil exists in you and me, and how it's a cop-out to blame awful things on some entity other than ourselves.

But getting back to a treatment of the song that would treat its message with even a hint of subtlety would probably mean losing the "woo-woo's" and the prerecorded conga bullshit that obscures the funkiest drummer in rock'n'roll.

Sigh ...

It's so bad. You're right.

I think I'm blaming chuck too much. He's really just playing to fit the mood of the song in its current incarnation. Cheap Vegas tinkles.

Either version - GYYYO! or LYL - would suffice as a style of playing it now but Charlie can't and won't drum of that essence anymore. The song is beyond too long in the tooth with the 1989 version of it being done on every tour. It needs to be dropped from the set.