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Witness
I like to thank you, Doxa, for your criteria more or less and, Dandelion, for your nuancing remark. Doubting if I myself always or even usually will be able to use them. And also wondering myself if there are songs, where even those with ears for such are uncertain and may disagree as to who wrote them.
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DandelionPowderman
The thing with BS and Mick has a lot to do with how he played the song in that MSG-clip, I believe. It was very different from how the guitar played the studio version, although the chord sequence was there (not the intro, though).
But nothing is impossible, and we've certainly been surprised before, about who actually did what in Stones-songs.
I just learned that Waddy Wachtel played acoustic guitar on Always Suffering, for instance... Didn't know that
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DoxaQuote
DandelionPowderman
The thing with BS and Mick has a lot to do with how he played the song in that MSG-clip, I believe. It was very different from how the guitar played the studio version, although the chord sequence was there (not the intro, though).
But nothing is impossible, and we've certainly been surprised before, about who actually did what in Stones-songs.
I just learned that Waddy Wachtel played acoustic guitar on Always Suffering, for instance... Didn't know that
Yep. But in regard to "Brown Sugar" - while you posted I added a comment of Keith's role in the outcome. It is pretty limited what we can conclude from the base of that MSG clip. For example, that didn't Mick play the intro could also mean that he, as a natural performer knowing the context and audience, didn't find it appropriate to waste time with such things, but go more directly to the point, to entertain Ike & Tina with its lyrical wit (which worked). What we have ('know') is both Mick and Keith's accounts that the song, including the riff, is all Mick's. Keith only talks about having a contribution in "arrangement", but that can mean a rather many things, including, for example, the difference in playing the guitar part you mentioned.
Altogether I think what makes those old Jagger/Richards tunes (especially during the Golden Era) interesting is no matter who wrote the song initially - being Mick's or Keith's - the other had very strong contribution to the final outcome. The songs almost always went through the other's 'filter', adding something substantial to them, not just 'icing' them. I think that kind of tight co-work, and mutual dependence and trust on other's vision and opinion, disapperaed along the years, and the songs nowadays - or since the 80's, even if not earlier - are more strongly 'pure' Jagger or Richards deals.
- Doxa
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Doxa
Yeah, he did. And we are talking about a man who once wrote things like "As Tears Go By", "Lady Jane", "Sittin On A Fence" and "Ruby Tuesday". That's back in the sixties when a true Jagger/Richards colloboration existed (of course, not with "Ruby Tuesday"...), Keith being mostly in a charge of music and Mick of lyrics. As we know, the first ever Jagger/Richards songs were those bloody ballads a'la "That Girl Belongs To Yesterday", "Tell Me", etc. based on pretty conventional musical elements and structures. I can easily imagine them sitting in a bed of some hotel room or at their kitchen, hitting simple and obvious chord sequences from a guitar, and sing-a-longing catchy melodies to pop up, Mick quickly writing suitable lyrics... As the years go by, Keith adopted a pretty different way of writing, making songs out of riffs or other musical ideas. Plus started using a studio as his personal laboratorio to try things. Thank god he did, since for some time it resulted as the best rock music ever done, but still I sometimes think that he got a bit lost there... I wonder if Mick ever misses that 'young' Keith to work with - who was quick and effective, about daily offering new catchy tunes for Mick to finish...
- Doxa
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OpenG
Keith's biggest contribution on the early records was developing and exploring ways to play songs in open tunings - He took MJ chord progression on BS and put in open g and the rest is history.
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Rocky Dijon
I hate to be the one to bring us back to the new album and the dread wall, but I ran across something interesting on timeisonourside.com (not hard to do, since along with Nico's site, it's the best information on the band to be found online).
There are two quotes from Don Was on hitting the wall. The first I was familiar with, the second caught me off-guard.
We'd gone in the studio to start cutting some new songs. Around day three we just hit a wall and Keith suggested that, to cleanse the creative palette, we play Blue and Lonesome, the Little Walter song.
- Don Was, September 2016
We were recording some new songs and we just hit a wall on this one particular track. We needed to "cleanse the palate" and the ginger for the palate came about when Keith said, Let's play "Blue and Lonesome".
- Don Was, 2016
I'm curious which quote came first. I do wonder if the second remark was an attempt to clarify that the frustration was over "one particular track" and not "the new songs" which many fans quickly surmised was code for Mick's songs and quickly escalated conspiracy theories from there. Happily, the media has ignored this speculation as the behavior of obsessive, but otherwise harmless loons on a messageboard.
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RG
The Rolling Stones just posted a teaser on Twitter.. North american stout will be announced soon! No doubt
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MelBelli
On a scale of 1-10, how deflated is this board going to be if a new album isn't mentioned in tomorrow's tour announcement?
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Bashlets
Do we know for sure an announcement will be made tomorrow?
Not the album.maybe the usa tour.Quote
Bashlets
Do we know for sure an announcement will be made tomorrow?
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Hairball
Always Suffering...listening now to refresh memory...sort of like the weird older cousin of Streets of Love.
Micks singing is sort of off putting with the over-enunciating, etc., but I actually like the chorus even though it sounds like the Eagles or some other soft rock.
All in all I like it better than SOL, but will survive happily if I never hear either again.
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DandelionPowdermanQuote
DoxaQuote
DandelionPowderman
The thing with BS and Mick has a lot to do with how he played the song in that MSG-clip, I believe. It was very different from how the guitar played the studio version, although the chord sequence was there (not the intro, though).
But nothing is impossible, and we've certainly been surprised before, about who actually did what in Stones-songs.
I just learned that Waddy Wachtel played acoustic guitar on Always Suffering, for instance... Didn't know that
Yep. But in regard to "Brown Sugar" - while you posted I added a comment of Keith's role in the outcome. It is pretty limited what we can conclude from the base of that MSG clip. For example, that didn't Mick play the intro could also mean that he, as a natural performer knowing the context and audience, didn't find it appropriate to waste time with such things, but go more directly to the point, to entertain Ike & Tina with its lyrical wit (which worked). What we have ('know') is both Mick and Keith's accounts that the song, including the riff, is all Mick's. Keith only talks about having a contribution in "arrangement", but that can mean a rather many things, including, for example, the difference in playing the guitar part you mentioned.
Altogether I think what makes those old Jagger/Richards tunes (especially during the Golden Era) interesting is no matter who wrote the song initially - being Mick's or Keith's - the other had very strong contribution to the final outcome. The songs almost always went through the other's 'filter', adding something substantial to them, not just 'icing' them. I think that kind of tight co-work, and mutual dependence and trust on other's vision and opinion, disapperaed along the years, and the songs nowadays - or since the 80's, even if not earlier - are more strongly 'pure' Jagger or Richards deals.
- Doxa
A thing that's a bit different with BS is that the instrumental «riff» that they play in between the verses, really is a chord sequence and not a riff per se.
The intro sounds like it's added later, and had the I-IV-structure as well. If memory serves, Mick plays the chord sequence a bit closer to how YCAGWYW is played (when in open G), which I find interesting - both because it sounds good and because it sets a mood to the song.
However, if we listen closely, the guitar that ended up on the studio version plays a hybrid of what Mick played and what Keith usually plays in open G (I-IV). That's what makes that chord sequence genius, imo. It brings a certain sadness or mystique to it.
I don't know who it was that wrote the intro, or whose idea it was altering the chord sequence, but it wouldn't surprise me if the «arranging» that Keith mentioned happened there, with Mick's idea as the basis for it..
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maumau
I do prefer Keith's ballads to Mick's enormously. He might have abused of that skill in CH, filling it up with slow numbers but Illusion, Robbed Blind, Gift and the "musclesholianesque" Lovers plea are absolute gems.
Only exception by Mick in recent years has been imo Laugh, I nearly died. A ballad that has a great potential but - as many tunes on ABB - sound a bit too much sketched, not finished.
Already over me, I agree with whom said it is over the top, dramatic and also the lyrics are poor imo. A rehash of Out of tears which is better but nothing close to pearls like Slipping Away. In fact I can live without the former two but SA is up there among the best stones ballads
Always suffering is the crippled twin of Anyway you look at it, imo, and god knows why it landed on the album instead of the latter which no masterpiece but has at least the bonus of the duet and a good "retro" fill with the string arrangement.
Mick has grown a very limited palette when it comes to the ballad, always looking for the easy hook, never going too deep, always trying to "pump" something in a song, trying to make it "various" like Dont tear me up or Hang on to me on WS. Sorry for the imprecise words. I am no musician so I am trying to translate the feelings. Evening gown is probably his best ever, the only one that I could imagine being on record in the seventie. And I think it is so good because it is a simple quiet country ballad.
Keith's palette is also limited but he is both more relaxed and deep in his ballad songwriting. He does not fear to repeat himself, pretty much like Dylan, Cohen, Cave as mentioned earlier by Doxa. He has a "feel" for the ballad. Mick strives to find the good melody, the catchy hook, the surprising bridge, which usually does not surprise no one anymore and more likely sounds cheap instead. at least to my ears.
Mick pushes and adds, Keith pulls, subtracts, he knows how to hold and build a nice crescendo with very little elements. Sometimes in a couple of minutes like in The Worst sometimes doin it in big like in Thru and Thru (maybe not a ballad strictly speaking but an absolute height)
If there's one thing that I hope for the next album is Keith being able to contain Mick, convincing him to "keep it simple" maybe sticking to a genre (southern soul, folk, country) pretty much like sticking to the blues
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OpenG
osted by: MelBelli ()
Date: November 15, 2018 18:48
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OpenG
Keith's biggest contribution on the early records was developing and exploring ways to play songs in open tunings - He took MJ chord progression on BS and put in open g and the rest is history.
I don’t think that’s the case at all. Mick and Keith learned the tuning from Ry Cooder at more or less the same time. Mick wrote BS in open-g from the beginning.
That's news to me - I thought MJ was playing BS in the dressing room in standard tuning when he showed IKE and Tina the chord progression. Well if you are correct then Keith took it and made it his own on the studio recording is what I was trying to say . At that time Keith was a much better guitar player then MJ.
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Rocky Dijon
Apropos of nothing apart from the enthusiasm of so many of the posts in this thread, I revisited both CROSSEYED HEART and BLUE AND LONESOME this afternoon. First time I've played the discs in their entirety in awhile. I do think CROSSEYED HEART (like A BIGGER BANG and GODDESS IN THE DOORWAY before it) would have benefited from a different sequencing of the tracks, but my appreciation of it was almost as strong as when it was three years ago. BLUE AND LONESOME held together better than I expected. All of the criticisms that had developed in my mind over the past two years pretty much were invalidated. So thank you to my fellow iorrians. May the new album give us much to enjoy.