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jazzbass
Always wondered why the entire set was played in standard tuning? Was it because Keith's now standard practice of changing guitars (of various tunings) every song, or every few songs had not yet been developed?
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ovalvox
Keith should have used Brian's Gibson Firebird which was tuned to open E to play Flash. Brian should have used it for YCAGWYW with a capo on the 8th fret turning it to an open C. Both songs would have ended up sounding better. Brian would have had an easier time trying to play it that way instead of standard tuning using barre chords.
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flacnvinylQuote
His Majesty
No harmonising from Brian on JJF, he's shown playing a very basic version of the riff and just bar chords during the chorus.
Keith is in standard tuning for the whole set. Maybe the harmonising you hear is from Nicky's piano.
Brian plays basic Chuck Berry rhythm on PW and it's audible, but mixed low, if I remember correctly it's placed more to the left speaker.
On YCAGWYW he plays the low 3 strings playing partial chords, then moves to first position D chord and then back to the C low 3 string version of C chord. Basically just basic strumming on unimportant low notes of C and F chords for the majority of the track, mixed low.
He's shown playing during the intro, but his guitar isn't actually audible until the band comes in on the D chord "try some time..." . The bass mostly drowns out his guitar even when it is brought in.
There's actually a very quiet overdubbed guitar playing during the intro doing a different variation of what Brian is shown playing. This goes away when the band kicks in.
Imagine giving a beginner guitarist some basic parts to play along with the stones, that's kinda the extent of Brians guitar playing at R&R Circus.
Thank you for the clarification. You confirmed what I had thought since I first heard the recording. The harmonizing I am referring to is the twangs that occur at the very very end of JJFlash. The riff is all Keith but I believe I hear a 3rd note in there. Two are clearly from Keith's guitar. The third seems to have different timing and bending. Probably just my overactive imagination. Keith is compensating for lacking someone to duel with.
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His MajestyQuote
ovalvox
Keith should have used Brian's Gibson Firebird which was tuned to open E to play Flash. Brian should have used it for YCAGWYW with a capo on the 8th fret turning it to an open C. Both songs would have ended up sounding better. Brian would have had an easier time trying to play it that way instead of standard tuning using barre chords.
The Firebird was tuned to open A and Brian didn't use bar chords on YCAGWYW at the R&R Circus.
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DGA35
In a thread several years ago, Brian's guitar playing in R'n'R Circus was discussed. In the VHS video of 25x5, when they play the intro to YCAGWYW, you could clearly hear his guitar strumming although on the R'n'R Circus DVD, it's inaudible. I believe it was mentioned in the thread that Keith might have overdubbed the guitar on the 25x5.
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ovalvox
Looks to me like Brian is barring the C chord on the 8th fret playing an augmented 7th. Or trying to anyways. Even though he was turned low Brian wasn't quite fretting it making his part out of tune. Just my observation. I play it like Keith. Open E capo 8th fret. Much easier. Or standard tuning using a regular unbarred C chord. I never really paid attention to what key they did NE in on Circus. Just assummed it was in E. Always found watching Brian on Circus painful. Even his slide guitar was shaky. I always thought Mick's vocals at Circus sucked as well. Mick took forever to release it because he knew that Brian wasn't the only one who didn't perform well. And Brian was turned up more on Flash than he gets credit for. He makes the same mistake twice just before the bridge. Very audible. He jumps into it to quick. Take away the same mistake I thought he did OK on Flash considering he looked a mess. Same with PW. Again just my observation.
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His Majesty
The official release does not truly present the band as it was. Altered history.
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retired_dogQuote
His Majesty
The official release does not truly present the band as it was. Altered history.
Maybe or even most likely that's the case, but why? Unless we hear Brian's guitar tracks in full glory, it is impossible to judge the merits of his playing from the poor quality outtake recordings available on bootlegs. I'd like to be placed in front of a mixing desk with the Circus multitracks running, playing with the channel faders...!
Until that happens, I am simply in no position to come up with a final verdict wether they kept Brian low in the released mix to make the best out of a spoiled performance or made a deliberate decision to mix an otherwise "ok" performance lower than necessary to highlight the "Brian was in a state of decay"-version.
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His MajestyQuote
retired_dogQuote
His Majesty
The official release does not truly present the band as it was. Altered history.
Maybe or even most likely that's the case, but why? Unless we hear Brian's guitar tracks in full glory, it is impossible to judge the merits of his playing from the poor quality outtake recordings available on bootlegs. I'd like to be placed in front of a mixing desk with the Circus multitracks running, playing with the channel faders...!
Until that happens, I am simply in no position to come up with a final verdict wether they kept Brian low in the released mix to make the best out of a spoiled performance or made a deliberate decision to mix an otherwise "ok" performance lower than necessary to highlight the "Brian was in a state of decay"-version.
Quite possible actually.
The notes on both the bootleg takes and the official release can, with close listening and also the use of OOPS, be heard enough to be able to judge how well and in tune his playing was and it was all ok. His guitar parts do not get in the way or detract from what Keith plays. His guitar parts merely provide a very basic rhythmic backdrop.
He is not low in the mix because he played badly or because he was actually anymore out of tune than other members of the band.
Full glory is not needed, a small increase in volume would benefit the official release and take away some of the oddness of seeing, but not really hearing him playing.
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retired_dog
What happened at the Circus is no rocket science really:
We have professional musicians who did not jump on stage unprepared, no, they even rehearsed the set in they days before the event.
We have a handful of songs with extremely simple structures, each consisting of only a handful of chords. We're really not talking about complex classical music works here.
There really is no excuse for anybody to deliver subpar performances for "not knowing the songs properly" or other protective rubbish that was mentioned here in this thread, mostly in favour of Brian. The Circus shows the sad state of affairs of a two guitar band when one guitar player is not able to deliver anything worthwile besides a relatively simple slide solo ("No Expectations") and the other guitar player consequently is forced to cover up the mess to save the band sound.
Mick's inital decision to shelve the project was right. He did not want the Stones to be shown on TV in this sad state. Maybe he was even protective of Brian, not wanting him being shown on TV in the sad state he in particular was in and the effects it had on the whole band sound. Give or take, this was not the Stones at their best, ready and suitable for a TV broadcast!
Decades later, the focus was different when the Circus was finally released. It did not show the contemporary Stones, but the ancient Stones at a certain point in time - an interesting historical artefact despite its obvious shortcomings. Even then, the decision was made to have Brian low in the mix. A protective decision, I would say.
That said, the performance has its charms.
But, as it stands, it helps to understand the development that finally lead to the band's decision to fire Brian.