"Flashpoint" has always been my least favorite Livealbum. It probabaly still is (with Still Life) but I used to be merciless about it. I just listened to it and have to conced that there are some very good tracts on this record. The guitars are excellent. The solos are all great. I don't care if they were o/d in studio or live. For soem odd reason the best one IMo is Ron on "Start me Up". There are some really interesting choices of notes; just strong melodic phrases that suprised me. The sound on Keith's guitars is cooln Sad Sad. Ron again on YCAGWYW. Then keith just rips it up oin SFTD.Satisfaction also rocks. On JJf towars the end there are some terrible BU vox parts. What is with that "oh oh oh" chant that appears 4 times? before they start doing the "JJF it's a gas" thing? Even Leavell gets a few good bars in on Satisfaction.
"Factory Girl" is great. I wish they always did this good when dusting off a forgotten classic. makes me still wish for soem "Between the Buttons".

We now have BtB, BB, B&B, B2B and ABB.

I really like this album...the guitars are powerful on this cd...
the 'oh oh oh oh' part on JJF is pretty lame i thought.
they couldve took that out during the overdubs.

Flashpoint stinks!

FlashPoint is GREAT!

Flashpoint is good. Certainly better than the Got Live If You Want It suckfest.

JumpingKentFlash

Flashpoint is the worst of Stones "lively" albums. This does not mean that it is a bad album. Simply I prefer the others (Still Life is my fav. Yes even more than Ya Ya's. But you have to understand that I grew up with still life!).

What annoys me most is the sound of the guitars, mainly of the acoustics.

Also all those synths are soooo cheesy!

The set list is not bad, but it misses 2000lyfh, the true highlight of the tour.

Great tour, anyway!

I was listening to the July 1990 London show the other day: and as Chelsea pointed out, there are is some truly great stuff coming from the guitar section!


C

p.s. In the section in between 2000 and Devil there is a short Van Halen like solo. I truly can't remember: who played that? Was it actually played?

"Flashpoint" has great moments, right, "Ruby Tuesday", "YCAGWYW", "Factory Girl", "Little Red Rooster", but the sound level is to low, particularly Bill Wymans work on bass is not represented well. Further there seems to be many overdubs or corrections, I guess that the solo of Ron Wood on "Start Me Up" is a studio overdub, it doesn't fit to the atmosphere of the song. Please, hear the solo on the same song on the boot "Atlantic City 89", it's great. Generally I prefer the Wembley boot and Atlantic ...

IMO, the ONLY redeeming moment of Flashpoint is the start of Brown Sugar. Amazing riffage.

The very beginning of this album is poor: keith totally rushes the intro to "Start Me Up," and charlie goes right along with him. Terrible phrasing, he's playing the second part of the riff without pausing.

I don't remember much else except for the terrible sound of the acoustics, you're right. Acoustics are still recorded poorly live, and I don't mean just by the stones.

The cool guitar on "Sad Sad Sad" might be mick.

Mick played rhythm on Sad Sad Sad...that said, I love the brass on HTW and Satisfaction...small, well placed accents...a great record for working out on an elyptical trainer!

SFTD is good Rtuesday, good......but what do you want.....

F..#%@#%@& great album!!! Still, the sound is thin and pains my ears therefore. But the songs are great. Miss You, best live performance since period 1978/1981.
Great bonus tracks, Highwire is really rocking, and Sexdrive, great song.

Yeah I like it a lot, except for the sound. It should be warmer.

JumpingKentFlash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Flashpoint is good. Certainly better than the Got
> Live If You Want It suckfest.
>
>
> "Better than suicide"


totally disagree with you on this JumpinKentFlash..."Got Live" was the stones in their youthful, adrenalin filled glory....punk rock before there term was coined...and anthem after anthem....they pushed their raw energy to the limit...Flashpoint is "tame" compared to "got live"...no comparison really



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2005-10-12 18:31 by Leonard Keringer.

Factory Girl is the only redeemer on this piece of crap. THE highlight of the tour was KR's blistering lead on SFTD - and they cut the guts of this out on Flashpoint - someone should be flogged for such an atrocity.

I Like it...I think SFTD is one of the best versions I've heard...OD'd or not

Flashpoint is a great live album. It was my first Stones cd ever. I think it has the best version of Start Me Up; better than the studio or any live version before or since. It just @#$%& rocks.

jumpinjackgreg Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Flashpoint is a great live album. It was my first
> Stones cd ever. I think it has the best version of
> Start Me Up; better than the studio or any live
> version before or since. It just @#$%& rocks.

True. Haven't heard any better version to date either.

Flashpoint played loud is just like being there live, its a very real sound, who really cares if they od it some where else, just enjoy the music, be true to the music not a negative critics.

It a great live cd

I've never really liked Flashpoint, but I've known younger listeners who rave about it because it was the first live Stones album for their generation that they tuned into when it was released.

Personally, I was brought up on Ya Yas, and so I've always found that to be the best of the official releases, but I know many fans who'd say the same thing about Love You Live, Still Life, and Flashpoint--simply because it was their access point to a contemporary live Stones show. I even know of video babies who think Flicks is the greatest simply because its a kick ass dvd version of the concerts. Hard to argue with that, Flicks is pretty damn good.

The amazing thing (to me) is that we're talking about official live releases from the 60's, 70's 80's 90's, and 00's for different generations of fans. As much as Flashpoint doesn't work for me, I have a hard time criticizing any of these live recordings too harshly when I put things in the context of five decades of work. That's a head-shaking thing, that is.

i remember getting ya-yas on vinyl for the 1st time around the time that "love you live" came out.....and the difference was staggering!.....ya-yas by a country mile!!!

I was sixteen when I bought this album and became a fan because of it - so you will never hear me talk negative about this album! I had heard Start Me Up before, but it did not hit me. The live version just blew me away... Also I liked Highwire, which got quite a lot of airplay on MTV at that time.

I was very much into Nirvana and all that grunge stuff when I was sixteen. Flashpoint was a sign for me that there is even more good music...

I saw many shows of the "Urban Jungle" Tour, and I'm sorry to say that "Flashpoint" doesn't represent, what was going on on stage. "Atlantic City 89", "7th of July" e.g. are complete concerts and sound even better sometimes. I never understood why the solo on "Sympathy" was shortened, maybe it is an overdub, "Little Red Rooster" is complete on "Atlantic" with Eric Clapton, on "Flashpoint" it was shortened, and absolute highlights of this tour like "Gimme Shelter" are totally lacking, hear it on the Toronto bootleg, and you know what I mean.

I read what people are saying about the accoustic guitars. I agree. I actually skip over Ruby Tuesday live always because I can not bear that acc. guitar sound from Keith. And it is usually mixed way up from too. What is even funnier is that that particular acc guitar sound was regarded as something of a breakthrough in the way acc could be presented on a mega live stage. They have this very solid-body sound. Absolutely no sound from a hollow body. He might as well play a Strat or Tele and put it through an effect. You can get that effect on any guitar you want nowadays. Don't know why he even bothers to hook up an accoustic guitar. A $3000 accoustic guitar for that matter.
My fave part on RT is that to this day Keith still sings his low harmony on the chorus. "Who could hang a name on you.."
And the cutting out of much of Keith's solo on SFTD has to rank as one of the worst edits on a Stoneslive disc. Right up there with the latest "Rocks Off".

Flashpoint is a POS.

Great album, but sound quality could have been better.

camper88 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've never really liked Flashpoint, but I've known
> younger listeners who rave about it because it was
> the first live Stones album for their generation
> that they tuned into when it was released.
>
> Personally, I was brought up on Ya Yas, and so
> I've always found that to be the best of the
> official releases, but I know many fans who'd say
> the same thing about Love You Live, Still Life,
> and Flashpoint--simply because it was their access
> point to a contemporary live Stones show. I even
> know of video babies who think Flicks is the
> greatest simply because its a kick ass dvd version
> of the concerts. Hard to argue with that, Flicks
> is pretty damn good.
>
> The amazing thing (to me) is that we're talking
> about official live releases from the 60's, 70's
> 80's 90's, and 00's for different generations of
> fans. As much as Flashpoint doesn't work for me,
> I have a hard time criticizing any of these live
> recordings too harshly when I put things in the
> context of five decades of work. That's a
> head-shaking thing, that is.
>
>
>
>

The voice of reason speaks!


the shoot 'em dead, brainbell jangler!

You have a point there. Love you live made me love the groove, the spirit, the druginess and danger and the feel of a telecaster custom '72 etc. Keith is a God on that record and Ronnie never sounded better. And then there is that side three from the coolest club gig ever. I'd listened to the Stones long before that but I didnt get deep into them until I got LYL for christmas.

Leonard Keringer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> totally disagree with you on this
> JumpinKentFlash..."Got Live" was the stones in
> their youthful, adrenalin filled glory....punk
> rock before there term was coined...and anthem
> after anthem....they pushed their raw energy to
> the limit...Flashpoint is "tame" compared to "got
> live"...no comparison really

I know (I don't agree that this was their prime BTW). But the whole record sounds so awful. That's what I mean by suckfest. The GLIYWI EP is much better.




JumpingKentFlash

<I actually skip over Ruby Tuesday live always because I can not bear that acc. guitar sound from Keith.>

Yeah, that was some experiment Keith did there - putting nylon strings on an electric guitar. I loved it in 1990 - can't stand it today (maybe except for Paint It Black). On Angie and Ruby Tuesday - it doesn't work at all!

Does anybody know if something else came out of the sessions that produced Highwire and Sex Drive? So Young maybe, since its producer credit goes to Chris Kimsey?

And I really like that arrangement of Factory Girl.