Quote
Naturalust

Quote
liddas

Quote
71Tele

Quote
DandelionPowderman

Quote
71Tele
Is that Chuck Leavell's twin brother on keyboards here? because this guy actually sounds semi-soulful.

When playing keys and hammond, I've always thought Chuck played nicely. It's that fake piano that.. well...

Agree completely. Elvis Costello's current solo tour must have 1% of the budget and crew as the Stones, and he played all of two songs on piano. Yet there it was, a beautiful black grand. Either Chuck is lazy or the Stones organization is, one or the other.

Got to say I've seen many many grands with an "electronic" inside (and I'm not saying this is the case for Costello).

The equivalent of the wall of marshalls ...

C

Not sure lazy is the right description. Chuck has talked about why he plays the gear he does and it I recall it has more to do with tuning, consistency and the fact that he likes the sound. I'm not disagreeing that an acoustic piano would sound better, just pointing out it seems to be Chuck's choice..he could obviously demand an acoustic piano if he wanted to.

Who knows, maybe he has some new gear this time out, the improvement on electronic pianos seems to get better every year and Chuck is indeed due for an upgrade.

peace

Well, it's a bad choice then. Maybe he should re-think it.

The biggest reason IMO Chuck rubs people the wrong way is because his FOH volume is always too high in the mix. This is a guitar driven band with piano/key enhancements and since Bridges to Babylon IMO the band has been much more keyboard centric live. Also, Ian was one of the best blues/boogie boogie players IMO, and this is just not Chuck's strong suit. He's fine for the ballads and country stuff. Keys and synth too.

Quote
jazzbass
The biggest reason IMO Chuck rubs people the wrong way is because his FOH volume is always too high in the mix. This is a guitar driven band with piano/key enhancements and since Bridges to Babylon IMO the band has been much more keyboard centric live. Also, Ian was one of the best blues/boogie boogie players IMO, and this is just not Chuck's strong suit. He's fine for the ballads and country stuff. Keys and synth too.

My take is slightly different (though I do think he is too high in the mix). I think he plays the mid-range parts of the keyboard too much, which competes sonically with the guitars but don't add anything to the arrangement. My guess is because he has tacitly taken over Keith's role as the main rhythm instrument and that pounding out midrangey chords is the best way for Mick and others to follow him. Unfortunately that works at cross-purposes to how keyboards have always functioned in the Rolling Stones, which is by adding high frequency textures and flourihes to the rock and blues flavored material. So Chuck the bandleader has to work against Chuck the musician. He is playing very cool stuff in the clip above because they are jamming. But onstage, he has to pound out those big bland chords.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2015-05-15 01:26 by 71Tele.

Quote
71Tele

Quote
jazzbass
The biggest reason IMO Chuck rubs people the wrong way is because his FOH volume is always too high in the mix. This is a guitar driven band with piano/key enhancements and since Bridges to Babylon IMO the band has been much more keyboard centric live. Also, Ian was one of the best blues/boogie boogie players IMO, and this is just not Chuck's strong suit. He's fine for the ballads and country stuff. Keys and synth too.

My take is slightly different (though I do think he is too high in the mix). I think he plays the mid-range parts of the keyboard too much, which competes sonically with the guitars but don't add anything to the arrangement. My guess is because he has tacitly taken over Keith's role as the main rhythm instrument and that pounding out midrangey chords is the best way for Mick and others to follow him. Unfortunately that works at cross-purposes to how keyboards have always functioned in the Rolling Stones, which is by adding high frequency textures and flourihes to the rock and blues flavored material. So Chuck the bandleader has to work against Chuck the musician. He is playing very cool stuff in the clip above because they are jamming. But onstage, he has to pound out those big bland chords.

I think I'd agree with all of that. Sad to think most of the above could be accomplished by properly integrating a third guitar into the mix to take a little pressure off Keith. Then Chuck would be free to riff on the higher end of the keyboard.