Keith has often talked about the challenge of ageing in public. He has also talked a lot about using his music to express things he cannot say in words and how in concert he is always asking the audience the question " do you recognise this feeling ?"

"Slipping away" is not his most memorable song but, in the midst of Mick and Ronnie defying age and technical decline, it does seem to encapsulate the idea of a different ways to age in public something like :

" look I know my playing and singing is not what it once was and I am getting old but I think I can still tell you about this in an interesting way, I'm telling you about what's important to me and how it feels in the only way I know how- can I still connect to you ?"

Looking at the videos, I think he pulls it off but I see that some in the audience and on the board disagree and think it is just embarrassing. I'm interested in whether IORRians have any views on this

pS On the other hand, it could just be a song he felt like playing and was suitable for Mick Taylor to join in !

He loves it AND he thinks it's appropriate?

"It seems I've lost my touch..."

....... it's gives him the chance ta sing ssssssssshhhhhlippin' ......



ROCKMAN

I wouldn't overstate this song selection. Being played in 1995, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2014, Slippin' Away has been Keith's most regular "first-song" (you know what I mean) since it does exist. It just seems to me as if he feels able to play and sing this song without serious trouble in contrast to Can't Be Seen, The Worst or This Place is Empty perhaps. Same for his "second-song-selection": I would love to get Little T&A once more live but I don't expect him to put his back into it again. There are 4 songs he can do right now and that's enough for a two song set in my opinion.

Good point - it's tempting to overanalyse !

In other words, other songs would be a slippery slope...

Cause it is one Hell of a Beautiful song!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jeroen

it's a beautifull keith'song !

the version in abu dhabi wasn't good but he will do better in the next concert
if you really want to know why I'm not keith but I have to tell you something.

when the band arrived in paris few weeks ago i asked to chuck leavell if keith could play this song ..this one and the worst! .
I don't know if chuck gave the message to keith but in my request I have this one in the Keith's set.

nothing wrong with this song. a highlight of steel wheels.

I think it is one of Keith's best songsand trust me you can't really judge it by phone youtube videos!

What is it that makes it so good and why does it divide opinion so much ?

Its tough to sing Happy when Mick is running the show...in fact its tough to be Happy...

The only highlight I remember from Steel Wheels was...oh yeah, Talk Is Cheap

It's simple: It's just a great song.

It is a great song and Keith sings and plays it beautifully. I hope I'm lucky enough to get to see him slip away in the not to distant future.

I haven't dug through all of the recent threads, but, regardless of the merits of this song in general, has anyone posed the obvious question of why, with such an ENORMOUS canon of material to choose from, Keith/the Stones have chosen THIS song to be one of the few to feature Mick Taylor?????

Boggles my mind I know that.

J

It's easy for him to play

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JMARKO
I haven't dug through all of the recent threads, but, regardless of the merits of this song in general, has anyone posed the obvious question of why, with such an ENORMOUS canon of material to choose from, Keith/the Stones have chosen THIS song to be one of the few to feature Mick Taylor?????

Boggles my mind I know that.

J

Well, there are some obvious reasons. It doesn't smack of nostalgia. It doesn't feature MT on a warhorse to show how much better it sounds with him. It treats MT like a current guest musician instead of just a curio. It allows Keith to have more of a rich musical cushion to sing and solo over. They rehearsed it and it sounded good. They aren't so much looking for songs for MT to play on as they are making a setlist for a show. They did rehearse Silver Train as a specific song to feature MT's slide playing, which is an obscure song that will only please the small group of fanatics, and I bet Ronnie will play slide on as well.I could go on.

Coming Down Again would have been my preferred song.He could pull it off.

Because studies have shown that Slipping Away is the perfect pee break song?

Why has Keith chosen slipping away for his set ?

God knows, but I wish he'd deselect it with immediate effect and replace with something that isn't quite so painful to the ears.

[ I want to shout, but I can hardly speak ]

I was really hoping he'd do We Had It All for his set. One of my favorite songs since I first heard it on bootleg back in the early 80's!

Because it's a beautiful number that he performs brilliantly. You can feel it on your skin -
You can stand in a stadium or an arena or a freakin mudfield and feel on your skin how Keith fills it all up with his music.

I'd say I don't know how he does it, but I do know: He's Keith Richards, that's how.

Slipping Away, Before They Make Me Run ...



...

I wonder if any of the younger members of the audience connect at all to slipping away (as opposed to Happy or BTMMR which are much more about the concerns of being young)

How can some of you lot slag off Slipping Away?? Don't you have blood running in the veins??

I am baffled at some fellow countrymen, calling it a piss-break tune(?!?!?!)


It's a Beautiful tune that fits in perfectly with what surely will be the boys last big tour.

I wish Infamy would return as the first song. I like the tempo/groove. Not as much energy of show is sucked out of the arena/stadium but I think Keith is proud of Slipping Away and he should be. It is a very good song but not the best for a show.

Honestly, why not switch it up. Play Before they make me run, then slipping away with MT and them have Jagger come out as Time Waits for No One begins followed by Midnight Rambler. Let MT hang out awhile before they go into the last five songs that seem to end every show.

Slipping Away is perhaps the most memorable of his post-1980 songs on which he sings. It was written at a time when the future of the Stones was unceratin what with the fallout of WWIII and Jagger's solo career, and he was reflecting on the possible loss of everything he'd worked all those years to work for and maintain, and hence a huge part of his life.

Also, it is the last of his straight-ahead guitar based, band-sounding songs with the Stones (with the exception of Theif in the Night) that he sings on before the years and years of acoustic guitar and piano ballad noodlings where he would not so much as sing as growl nonmelodically (a la Losing My Lunch).

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treaclefingers
a highlight of steel wheels.

And the live renditions strip the song of the ugly dated over-production that marred the SW version...

Do you need to be a hard core stones fan to enjoy this song ?

Yes, EJM. That kind of hard core Stones fan who likes everything with the band...