Just noticed on the new Fort Worth '78 dvd, the Stones are doing "Tumbling Dice" and "Happy" in the key of Bb. Never realised this before. I thought both songs were always performed in the key of B. Anybody else notice this? Seems odd as I was sure they were always performed in B on other tours? Any other exceptions that anyone knows of?

I noticed it as well. The Stones played Tumbling Dice in Bb on at least some of the '81 shows. The Winos played Happy in A, and the Stones may have at various times since '02. But both songs sound best in B.

also in 76 in Paris and London

Really? Didn't know that either. Whenever I would download a bootleg recording of a live show, I would usually check the speed of the recording with my guitar by just playing along with a random song. Makes me wonder if I ever put on a '78 show and played along to "Tumbling Dice" and ended up doing an un-neccessary speed correction because of it.

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jpasc95
also in 76 in Paris and London

So that would mean the Love You Live version is in Bb?

Sometimes the keyboards tuning will determine such 1/2 or 1/4 step tuning things as they are difficult to retune quickly and everyone has to tune to em. But I'll bet MJ's vocal requirements were the cause for the 1/2 step detune you guys are talking about.

For the more scientifically minded, tension pitch and mass are related to each other for vibrating strings and vocal cords. This is why they wrap the heavier guage guitar strings, to get more mass on the string to allow fairly even tension across the chorus of strings. For example , pluck a string and then clamp a split BB fishing line sinker on it and heard the pitch go way down. In 1976 MJ's vocal cord were heavy with all the blow running down his throat and , well the song's gotta go down to Bb tonight guys. peace.