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DoomandGloom
Ronnie gets lost in the sauce, the better the band gets the more he needs to step up his parts and get some lead guitar tone, play something a tad spontaneous. True that on MR ending, the redundant throwaway solo in DF, the same loop part over and over for JJF and the slide butchery of ADTL.. If Taylor were dead he'd be spinning. The single worst guitar part played in this band is Wood's nonsense on Happy. I've seen Ronnie do some great stuff in my life and wish he'd lift the band from time to time. I've written before, much of the Taylorites craze is due to Wood being unspectacular half of the time.
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RollingFreak
That Midnight Rambler was sick! Haven't seen once since last year and its amazing how each performance truly is better than the last. And with every viewing, it makes it harder to imagine they aren't using Taylor more. I mean, they KNOW it makes them exponentially better.
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User
MT also fell during MR.
Some naughty folks caught this on instagram. Poor Mick.
[instagram.com]
Yup, I've seen Ronnie play real well in The Faces and at The Jimmy Reed tribute. I've long thought his troubles are in his head trying to compete with Taylor's work. Keith for all his frailty plays from the heart and his solos other than SFD perhaps contain a coherent story telling approach. Listening to Wood's "Dead Flowers" solo from this show is a perfect example. He finds a safe place to riff and seems afraid to move away and tell a story in his solo, instead it ends as an incoherent statement. For the Stones apparently it's just another show, a space filled before Mick goes back to singing, for us it's another waste of a precious moment. Admittedly Taylor has been inconsistent since his "return", suddenly he's rounding out notes and sounding frighteningly close to his brave, vintage self. Will this be ignored while Ronnie continues to play licks of nothingness? In the meantime be thankful for Bobby Keys....Quote
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DoomandGloom
Ronnie gets lost in the sauce, the better the band gets the more he needs to step up his parts and get some lead guitar tone, play something a tad spontaneous. True that on MR ending, the redundant throwaway solo in DF, the same loop part over and over for JJF and the slide butchery of ADTL.. If Taylor were dead he'd be spinning. The single worst guitar part played in this band is Wood's nonsense on Happy. I've seen Ronnie do some great stuff in my life and wish he'd lift the band from time to time. I've written before, much of the Taylorites craze is due to Wood being unspectacular half of the time.
+1. Unspectacular is putting it mildly. Half of this board talks about Ronnie being in the form of his life and I usually wonder if they're listening to different shows than I am. Take the Shanghai version of Street Fighting Man, where Wood's sole contribution is to repeatedly butcher the same extraordinarily simple pentatonic lick that runs throughout the song (and which sounded mindblowing in Taylor's hands on the Ya-Ya's recording). His slide solos on All Down The Line, and Sway when they've played it, are atrocious, tuneless garbage, completely out of time and played without a shred of basic slide technique. And these are rare cases of him being audible - most of the time with the Stones, I genuinely have no idea what Wood is playing, if anything.
It's bizarre, because in different circumstances - with the Faces, on the Atlantic City solo show, the Jimmy Reed shows - he's really good, basically a different player. Something about the Stones has a bad effect on him. But any fans who think that Wood is either playing well at the moment or is an effective substitute for Mick Taylor are hearing what they want to hear - nothing more, nothing less. Whether you don't like Taylor's tone, you think he overplays, you think the guitar interplay with Keith isn't there - none of that changes the fact that Taylor is a polished guitarist with a fine command of his instrument, and Ronnie Wood is not.
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DandelionPowderman
kleerie, you must have really good eyes, because I can't see Taylor at all from 3:55
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kleermakerQuote
DandelionPowderman
kleerie, you must have really good eyes, because I can't see Taylor at all from 3:55
Are you kidding?? He's walking to one of the amps and is fumbling with it. Have a second look at the video I posted. If you can't see it nonetheless, then you need better glasses!
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DandelionPowderman
kleerie, you must have really good eyes, because I can't see Taylor at all from 3:55
Are you kidding?? He's walking to one of the amps and is fumbling with it. Have a second look at the video I posted. If you can't see it nonetheless, then you need better glasses!
That's (EDIT: up to 4:02) 3:54. After that (when he fell), he's not in the picture at all. Check for yourself
What he plays is cool, though.
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DoomandGloom
Admittedly Taylor has been inconsistent since his "return", suddenly he's rounding out notes and sounding frighteningly close to his brave, vintage self. Will this be ignored while Ronnie continues to play licks of nothingness? In the meantime be thankful for Bobby Keys....
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DoomandGloom
Admittedly Taylor has been inconsistent since his "return", suddenly he's rounding out notes and sounding frighteningly close to his brave, vintage self. Will this be ignored while Ronnie continues to play licks of nothingness? In the meantime be thankful for Bobby Keys....
I've seen two of Taylor's solo gigs over the past couple of years, both times in London (he was playing with Max Middleton, Jeff Allen et al). I really enjoyed both shows - and I'm as committed a Taylorite as you'll come across - but I got the distinct impression both times that he didn't spend very much time practicing guitar, if any. (To be fair, he's barely needed to practice throughout the last two decades of his career, since the setlist for his solo shows changes very, very little.) But I think things are different now. Taylor increasingly sounds, and plays, like someone who usually has a guitar and a small amplifier with him, and actually works on his stuff.
Obviously he's working through some issues as far as his "new normal". Being an arena guitarist is a different role than a night club guy, I've been there and the size is overwhelming when unaccustomed to it. MR has more of The Stones' Taylor and I expect him to get more confident as he acclimates. My feeling on this subject is not simply "More Taylor" but "Less Wood". If Ron were kicking butt, there'd be little to say but it's not true,never been true. His big moment on Love You Live, YCAGWUW is unlistenable by todays standards yet Taylor's best live moments are masterpieces. I love this band and their songs but in my lifetime I've watched Ronnie struggle and stumble and me making excuses to myself, being charmed by a second rate player, grand rockstar and terrific guy. Now "sober" Ron's giving it his best shot and to me he's only slightly better now. He should be "eating up" these simple songs, instead he ruins the end of "Rambler", I'm sorry, music always has been put up or shut up, I accept he's got a free ride but there is a Rolling Stone that can actually play phrases and shake a note properly..Quote
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DoomandGloom
Admittedly Taylor has been inconsistent since his "return", suddenly he's rounding out notes and sounding frighteningly close to his brave, vintage self. Will this be ignored while Ronnie continues to play licks of nothingness? In the meantime be thankful for Bobby Keys....
I've seen two of Taylor's solo gigs over the past couple of years, both times in London (he was playing with Max Middleton, Jeff Allen et al). I really enjoyed both shows - and I'm as committed a Taylorite as you'll come across - but I got the distinct impression both times that he didn't spend very much time practicing guitar, if any. (To be fair, he's barely needed to practice throughout the last two decades of his career, since the setlist for his solo shows changes very, very little.) But I think things are different now. Taylor increasingly sounds, and plays, like someone who usually has a guitar and a small amplifier with him, and actually works on his stuff.
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DoomandGloom
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2014-03-17 23:15 by DoomandGloom.
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DoomandGloom
My feeling on this subject is not simply "More Taylor" but "Less Wood". If Ron were kicking butt, there'd be little to say but it's not true,never been true. His big moment on Love You Live, YCAGWUW is unlistenable by todays standards yet Taylor's best live moments are masterpieces. I love this band and their songs but in my lifetime I've watched Ronnie struggle and stumble and me making excuses to myself, being charmed by a second rate player, grand rockstar and terrific guy. Now "sober" Ron's giving it his best shot and to me he's only slightly better now. He should be "eating up" these simple songs, instead he ruins the end of "Rambler", I'm sorry, music always has been put up or shut up, I accept he's got a free ride but there is a Rolling Stone that can actually play phrases and shake a note properly..
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coldturkey
Hi
I am glad you mentioned this - in the 48 years I have been following the boys that rates as one of the best versions of Midnight Rambler - Taylor was awesome - hope to find an excellent recording of this one day, hopefully visual as well as sound