Did Chuck cross the famous "unspoken line" here:

[www.rollingstone.com]

Rolling Stones' Chuck Leavell on Assembling Their Reunion Set List
'I can't remember the last time Charlie Watts or Ronnie Wood have offered suggestions,' says keyboardist


By Patrick Doyle
November 26, 2012 2:40 PM ET

Chuck Leavell performs during the Capricorn Experience at the Chastain Park Amphitheater in Atlanta, Georgia.Moses Robinson/Getty ImagesIf you were at the Rolling Stones' first major gig in five years at London's O2 Arena last night, you might have noticed the band glancing at the keyboards whenever they needed a cue. They were looking at Chuck Leavell, who's been playing with the band since 1982.

"It's nice to have a little responsibility and know they depend on me," Leavell tells Rolling Stone. Last spring, he was planning to tour with John Mayer when the guitarist scrapped his tour dates due to throat problems. Luckily, in July Leavell received an email from Mick Jagger, summoning him to Paris for rehearsals for the Stones' gigs in London, Brooklyn and Newark, New Jersey.

Rare and Intimate Pictures of the Rolling St0nes
He's used to switching gears; in addition to playing with the Stones, Leavell played for several years beginning in 1972 with the Allman Brothers Band, and he formed the jazz-rock fusion band Sea Level in the Seventies. Leavell also co-founded the major environmental news outlet the Mother Nature Network, and he owns a 2,500-acre tree farm with his wife outside Macon, Georgia. We checked in with Leavell to discuss the Stones, recording with John Mayer and the keyboardist's own new LP, Back to the Woods.

Got Live If You Want It
To prepare for the Stones' blistering 23-song set in London, Leavell acted as musical director during the Paris rehearsals, sifting through their rich 400-plus song catalog while fielding suggestions from Jagger and the rest of the band. "I can't remember the last time Charlie Watts or Ronnie Wood have come up and offered [set list] suggestions," he says. "Mick and I talked about it on several occasions, really, in the early stages of the rehearsals, and I made up varied lists. I make up a list every day of what I think the band should be rehearsing, and then I also had a separate list that is songs that we have yet to try to play that I think may have merit. We have tried to look very hard at all of the various eras of the band's career and tried as best as possible to represent those eras. Fifty years is a long time, man!"

In Paris, there was plenty of loose jamming. "We kicked up a jam a little bit here and there. I get bored in between takes, you know, so I may start something and people may join in . . . Ronnie Wood is in such good shape. Charlie has been playing a good bit with his boogie outfit and some of his jazz stuff, Keith [Richards] has been playing with Steve Jordan a lot. As you probably know, they've had that thing over the past year where they get together a couple times a week, so he's built his chops back up, and you know Mick is singing his ass off. It's been about five years, so when you do finally get together and get in the same room and get behind the instruments and crank it up, man, it just reminds you how much we all love this stuff."

For fans heading to future shows, looking at last night's set list may provide some spoilers. "The bottom line is that, only having a limited number of shows, obviously we're not gonna go crazy with swapping around songs in the set list," says Leavell. "In other words, we don't want to go too too deep at this juncture."

Born and Raised
Mayer may have canceled his tour, but he's not done working. The guitarist invited Leavell and his band back to his Montana home this summer to work on new music. "It's kind of a barn-like structure, a nice big open room and a separate control room upstairs," says Leavell. "Before he went in for this second treatment he wanted to get everybody together, because the cat can sing. He just can't stand the stress of the tour with the condition of his vocal chords, so he had us all come out there. We broke in the studio. We were there for two weeks, laid down some new stuff that he's been writing, which is great."

Back to the Woods
Leavell recently released Back to the Woods, a stripped-down tribute to blues piano pioneers including Leroy Carr, Little Brother Montgomery and Otis Spann. "It was important to me [to do] this project to expose the piano as an important instrument in blues history," says Leavell. Highlights include a rollicking take on Charlie Spand's "I Got to Go Blues" (featuring Col. Bruce Hampton) and Carr's smoky heartbreak ballad "Evening Train." Leavell practiced 30 songs at his Georgia home; when it came time to record, he invited some friends. One session featured Mayer and Richards in the studio at the same time, trading licks on Spann's "Boots and Shoes."

"Keith has a tremendous amount of respect for John, because he is carrying on the tradition of being a great guitar player, you know, of contemporary form . . . That made the day amazing. John watching Keith was fantastic, and Keith's eyebrows raising up at John's playing – it was very special."



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NOTE: There are just *some things* one does not say. Chuck crossed the line here in my own humble opinion.

Great post Cocaine Eyes..........

__________________________

For the love of god... just go...

I can't stand this bloke.

I'm surprised he can get his head behind the keyboards...

Now Chuck wants Ronnie and Charlie to help him earn his paycheck?
No way. Stay strong Charlie...you're the only Chuck that should be in the band...

I'll be shocked crazy if he doesn't get a huge slap on the wrist by 'the big guys'. A friend of mine "overstepped the unspoken line" and he paid dearly for it. And he paid for it in the public eye here in Toronto.

Surely the 'big guys' won't tolerate this crap.

What line was crossed?

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Dan
What line was crossed?

The line I've underlined in the article.

And for those who are insiders, we all know what we are able to say and what must be left silent.

OK?

Left silent with furtive glances

There's an english saying... "he's taking a liberty"....

The paid employee just needs to keep his gob shut and turn his organ down and stop taking unwanted solos.

HEY MICK... I know you read this forum.. have a word is 'is shell-like.

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GravityBoy
For the love of god... just go...

I can't stand this bloke.

The poster or Chuck?

If he needs suggestions just come on over here. We will tell him really needs to be played.

"The bottom line is that, only having a limited number of shows, obviously we're not gonna go crazy with swapping around songs in the set list," says Leavell. "In other words, we don't want to go too too deep at this juncture."

No balls. Got it.

"we".

The unspoken line.

Right there.

If he doesn't behave Chuck will be the next Víctor Jara... ><

He counts them in, they need him.

I'm not suprised ron&charlie don't offer suggestions for the setlist. Charlie prefers jazz and boogie music, and ron figures it's mick and keith's concern.

bring back Mac !

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Cocaine Eyes

Quote
Dan
What line was crossed?

The line I've underlined in the article.

And for those who are insiders, we all know what we are able to say and what must be left silent.

OK?

It means nothing. The vast majority of the people in the crowd don't care how the sausage is made. Other than being pissed for not getting Satisfaction, only a small fraction of the audience, (or non-audience since most posters here aren't even seeing a show) are agonizing over every minor detail of the setlist or how it gets to be what it is.

If anything we can thank Chuck for actually doing the research as it's obvious the band doesn't have the same relationship with the back catalog that the rest of us do.

Gee, you must have really sweat over making that list Chuck. Miss You, Brown Sugar JJF, Tumblin Dice, Only Rock n Roll. Must have taken months to dig out those forgotten nuggets.

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Cocaine Eyes
I'll be shocked crazy if he doesn't get a huge slap on the wrist by 'the big guys'. A friend of mine "overstepped the unspoken line" and he paid dearly for it. And he paid for it in the public eye here in Toronto.

Surely the 'big guys' won't tolerate this crap.

The Mayor is a friend of yours?!?

I'm sure he can cross all the lines he wants, just so long as he doesn't snort anyone's lines--then there would be hell to pay for sure.

Publicly putting himself slightly above Charlie and Ronnie is one thing already, but there's also this quote which takes it even further:

"It's nice to have a little responsibility and know they depend on me"

The Stones, Mick in particular, depending on someone???

This may be an already tough statement for any hired hand, in any business, but for a hired hand in the Stones it definitely raises some eyebrows within the core band.

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alimente
Publicly putting himself slightly above Charlie and Ronnie is one thing already, but there's also this quote which takes it even further:

"It's nice to have a little responsibility and know they depend on me"

The Stones, Mick in particular, depending on someone???

This may be an already tough statement for any hired hand, in any business, but for a hired hand in the Stones it definitely raises some eyebrows within the core band.

Right. This is a job for GravityBoy. GB, your Photoshopping talents are needed. Can you graft a Superman cape and shirt with logo onto Chuck Leavell?

I remember reading over the years that Ronnie has made suggestions. Leavell being unaware of that says something.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-11-27 02:07 by WeLoveToPlayTheBlues.

Quote
Dan

Quote
Cocaine Eyes

Quote
Dan
What line was crossed?

The line I've underlined in the article.

And for those who are insiders, we all know what we are able to say and what must be left silent.

OK?

It means nothing. The vast majority of the people in the crowd don't care how the sausage is made. Other than being pissed for not getting Satisfaction, only a small fraction of the audience, (or non-audience since most posters here aren't even seeing a show) are agonizing over every minor detail of the setlist or how it gets to be what it is.

If anything we can thank Chuck for actually doing the research as it's obvious the band doesn't have the same relationship with the back catalog that the rest of us do.

I agree. It's crazy to think we aren't going to get the hits, or that they're going to play five completely differnt setlists in a five show run. I'm just glad to get two new songs and a few rarely played ones like It's All Over Now, I Wanna Be Your Man, Out Of Control and I'm Going Down.

At some point we will get The Last Time and that is encouraging. I really just hope to hear a Chuck Berry number. Don't care which one, just really want to hear them do one..

No line was crossed, and even if it were, Chuck is too important to the Stones and too successful in his own right to kowtow to some arcane code or walk on egg shells lest the wrath of the Glimmer Twins rain down on him.

I'm most definitely not an apologist for the Stones machine and all. But what I think - honestly - that Chuck was trying to say was, "everyone in the band is into it and having fun, and offering ideas. I can't remember the last time Ronnie and Charlie were so into it and were offering suggestions like they are now."

I know this sounds silly, and I'm not a particular fan or detractor of Chuck's, but I really do think that's what he was getting at.

Yes and I'm pretty sure I read that in another article at least a month ago.

As for directions yesterday, surprisingly enough Mick looked at him a lot less than at the Trabendo, which makes sense since they're better rehearsed anyway. At the end of SFTD Mick showed two with his fingers to Chuck to tell him when the song would be ending. There wasn't a lot of other interaction than that.

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