Well, we all know it's time for a new Stones-year (or two years). So here is my question to you all:

What are you more excited about, the new album or the new tour??

I am way more excited about the new album, I must admit. Apart from the fact that I'm not going to travel to the US to get any gig and therefore I'll wait for the European leg, I have a certain feeling that the tour will be somewhat pretty similar to the Licks one: I'm a little afraid that we'll get more or less the warhorses with (almost) the same arrangements and a few new songs in between. Some kind of deja-vu (or however our french friends write it).

On the other hand, eight years is way tooooooo much without anything new (except for the new songs on Forty Licks, which I truly hope don't set the mood for the new album). So I'm quite hungry for new Stones material, and I'd like to be able to tell my friends "go and buy the new Stones release, mate, it will surprise you possitively" (I admit I wasn't able to tell this since quite a long time).

So, what's your answer?

[There'll be no wedding today...]

Bruno, I'm with you. A Stones concert is ALWAYS exciting, but we've had quite a bit of that since BTB. Can't wait for the new album. Hope we get several songs from it at the shows.

"Take all the pain...It's yours anyway"

Well, there are not lots of things that can excite me as much as the Stones.
I cannot wait for the day when I hold the new album in my hands, put it in the CD player - and hear the first chords. I wonder if I manage to listen to all the songs in whole length at the first time, or if I will just listen through them quickly because I'm to excited to concentrate on one!

And about a month before the first concert in Europe that I will attend, the real Stones fever will set in. The Stones are the only thing I can think of then and when Keith hits the first chords I built up so much excitement that it's really like a mental orgasm (or what) - and that's true!

Edit: didn't answer the question - so, now I'm more excited about the album - but this will change with the tour in Europe!





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2005-06-30 22:44 by KeithRichards.

Killer question but the album wins out for me. It'll cost around $13 at Circuit City and will rock my face off the rest of my life. The tour will be amazing as always but the prospect of a new album where the style is 'back to basics' absolutely thrills me.

New album by a mile...although paradoxically I'll quite possibly enjoy the shows more than the record

I've seen over twenty shows since they last put out a record, so it gets a bit 'familiar'. That rush of excitement when you get the new album on the day it comes out (something I've done with every Stones album since 1980) is hard to beat. I've missed that novelty value over the last few years

New album! I am very excited for the tour but I can't wait to hear some new tunes. Lorenz, when Bridges came out I could not listen to all the songs all the way through, I was too excited and had to listen to maybe the first 15 seconds of each one and skim through it. Then I was able to give the whole thing a good listen. Did the same with Voodoo.

Listened in exactleyly the same way as Hound Dog to the last records and am very excited about the new one. I'm sure the tour is gonna be great (isn't a Stones concert always a great experience?), but it's time to turn up the volume of my stereo again to play songs I know are going to be part of the rest of my life. Sounds dramatic, but i mean that when I buy the new record I'm going to listen a helluva lot to it for the next years. Bring on the record!

Mr Edward

The new album....I mean, the shows will probably be the same. with the exception of the props, screens, and guest artists, "The show" itself has been the pretty much the same since 1981.

A new album means a new listening experience. The Stones Show? Brown Sugar, JJF, TD, a few oldies and new ones but pretty much the same stuff we've been seeing for years............which mind you is great!

surprise, surprise:

new tour by a mile. a new album isn't new after a couple of listens and the last few have been disappointing to me. a new tour, on the other hand, is always full of surprises and hopes each new day. they are much more like the Grateful Dead at this stage - new material is really only valuable inasmuch as it fodders new live presentations.

The Tour!
Nothing beats the excitement of Stones Day in your town.

both!

I'm as giddy as a school girl

Both, but if i must select one, i say: tour, by far!! I think this band is made for playing live. As Kurt says, "nothing beats the excitement of Stones Day in your town". Unfortunately, my town saw only two Stones Days, first in 1967, the second one 1998. I'm from Greece...

The new album by 2000 light years and I didn't see any show since April 1998...

At least for Europe the Licks Tour was the most variety we had since... well I would say the Stones are touring. I saw 11 shows with 53 different songs out of 210 played. Compare to 81 when I saw them 12 times with 264 songs and 24 different ones.
I look forward to the show as they are a live band, perhapy today you may even speak of a live orchestra? (sounds a bit obnoxoius), but also to the album. I like the video from the new song and if they play it that raw and sharp it will be a very good addition to the set.
Plesae don't expect to much. These guys have shown everything they can and the guitar and drumsticks are no more wonderlands. So take it or leave it, critizse it, but don't moan around, if it's not like on the "old"days. You are also not like the "old" days anymore.

The new album!

Album for me too.

By the way, I always listen to first 20 seconds of each song when I first get a new album. However, I do remember with B2B that this gave me a warped sense of what the album was like. For example, Out of Control - one of the best on the album - sounds dull when you only listen to 1st verse because the best thing about it is the contrast between verse and chorus. It kind of builds up an anticipation through the verse ready to explode. (Which is why it worked so well live IMHO).

So when I get the new album, I'll try to listen straight through, although it will be hard.

In ascending order of excitement:

3) New tour (lukewarm reaction, even a slight feeling of fatigue)
2) New album (warmer feeling, excitement growing with news about it, curious if they can still pull it off)
1) Opening up the vaults (now this will really get me excited: a complete '69 show in soundboard quality?..)

Like Bruno I definitely had a strong feeling of deja-vu (or 'deja-entendu') upon hearing the plans for a new tour and seeing the Juilliard mini show : 'so soon again!' was my initial reaction, finding the biggest change in Micks footwear. Hadn't they toured for 8 years and released a handful of albums the last ten years 2 and 3 would probably have been the other way around.

Funny thing is, when I will see them next year the excitement i'll feel the moment they hit the stage will be imcomparable to anything else in the world. There's some sort of primordial appeal in them...

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"Music is the frozen tapioca in the ice chest of history."

"Shit!... No shit, awright!"