I'm always been a friend of Ron Woods guitar work, particularly on blues numbers, but what I heard on the Columbus 2005 CD on "Tumbling Dice", "She is so Cold", "Sway", "All Down the Line" is nothing but terrible, there isn't any music but a series of notes that he is playing, terrible, and you can hear that he is searching for the right place for his fingers on the guitar. Simply poor ...

Sad but true ,he's becomed a liability to the band.

I thought All Down The Line from that show sounded fantastic, but I'm not musically savvy enough to figure out which part Keith is playing and which part is Woody. It all sounds pretty good to me, though.

Ronnie's guitar work has been minimized within the band on this tour at least so far. Mostly fills and rhythm. Nothing like the early Fall 2002 shows. Ronnie's playing as evident by CD's and DVD's regressed throughout the 2002/2003 shows. I don't know if it was due to substance abuse or what. I think I had heard that he had gone thru rehab just before the start of this most recent tour.

That being said perhaps the band does not want to put undue pressure on Ronnie with these early shows by asking him to take extended solos like he did early on in 2002 with songs like "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" which he blazed thru at the MSG 9/26/02 show. But even with that excuse in hand I can't for the life of me figure out why the guy would play out of key on a song he has played thousands of times before, which appeared to be the case on one of the early songs played at the MCI Center in DC.

I hope Ronnie is okay and that his playing improves as the tour moves along because I hope to attend several more shows this year and next year.

Yesterday for the first time I listened a 2005 boot at max volume.
RW is a mistery: there are moments when he is completely out of it, others when he playes some truly beautiful leads (i.e. back of my hand)

C

Right, a mystery, just heard "Sympathy for the Devil" from Columbus, there is a quite good work of Ronnie in assisting Keith's solo, but then: please hear his "solo" on "Start Me Up", that's no music, but simply nonsense which anyone can play, if he/she has about 10 Guitar lessons ...

Here's an original topic.

Yeah, but it just won't cease to mystefy. Here's a guy who is not a babbling fool, right? He knows how to handle a guitar. Pretty well actually. Now here comes the tune "Tumbling Dice". He has played it a million times. He is supposed to solo for a couple of bars on ONE chord. Just grab that damn G note and hold it! But no...he is wondering "could it be E flat? Or maybe lower???" What is the thought p[rocess here?

Did anybody know, that Ron used to stand in for Mick T in consert, when Mick T played for the Gods.... it was because of Mick's shyness - he was too shy to be on stage....

Quite interesting that Ronnie and Mick crossed their ways already in the 60'ies .....

On this moment I hear the audience recording of Philadelphia, the same thing, the solo of Ronnie on "Start Me Up" is pure nonsense like "how can I hold my guitar without falling off the stage". I'm sorry but this is no music. It sounds as if he had never played guitar. On "You Got Me Rocking" he missed the right thrown to the end of the song, the solo on "She so cold" is a desaster as well as on "Tumbling Dice", a song he did thousand times. In the outro section of this song he plays many wrong notes. It seems to me as if he were a beginner. He is getting worser and worser. What's going on?

Well, I saw Ronnie live in Chicago and he played very well - also on SMU.....

Ronnie's "sloppiness" is integral to the Stones' sound.
I love it!

THANK GOD FOR RONNIE! He is my hero.

Ron Wood was a Rolling Stone even before '75. The first time i saw him with the Faces in '72, I felt that he was born to be in the Stones. I never thought of him as Mick Taylor replacement, I thought it would be cool to have him join as third guitarist. Ron Wood has that feel that the old blues players have when they play,-soul- not a virtuoso like Mick Taylor .The mistakes are a part of Rock and Roll.That's what i love about it.In Atlanta this past Saturday i thought Ron's playing was dead on. His playing on Wild Horses was worth the trip along.I guess sometimes it's easy to find something wrong than its easier to find something right. You know the old saying......... Misery loves company.Yeah..I'm a Ron Wood fan.Just my rambling two cents on the subject.

"He is getting worser and worser. What's going on?"

RobertJohnson, you tend to exaggerate... The general level of Ronnie's playing on this tour is much higher than his job during the european leg of Licks Tour. Now he has some great moments. Also, i think that Ronnie on the american leg of Licks Tour was clearly better than Ronnie in 1997-98. So i don't think that "he is getting worser and worser".

If a few mistakes or a few weak moments on stage are meaning "tragedy", then band's history is full of "tragedies". How many bad moments had they at Hyde Park in 1969? I say "quite a few". How played Keith at Knebworth, 1976? I say "almost badly". What well-known version of Tumbling Dice is the weakest ever? I say the version from "Love You Live". How many times Mick was singing out of tune during the "golden years" of middle 70s and early 80s? I say "a lot". Just listen to SFTD from LYL album or to the Still Life's version of SMU. How many times, in the same "glory days", Mick was singing ...without singing? I say "quite a few". For example: HTW and YCAGWYW from LYL...

The band never had been perfect, but always was great. And still performs great. Energy, high standards, rock feeling, nice "team spirit". And i think Ronnie is a useful part especially of that good team-spirit...

I saw them twice this tour so far.......MSG 9/13 and Giants Stadium 9/15 and Ronnie was playing EXTREMELY good. No Bullshit. If he sucked I would say so.

Is he smoking on-stage lately? If he is smoking on-stage that means he boozin or drugging again. In the 2 shows I saw, Ronnie did not have one.....not one smoke on-stage.

The cigarette tells whether he is sober or not.

Milo, NYC
Look what the cat dragged in

Have checked quite some pictures and non of them show him smoking.... so according to Milo's theory he is sober....

Is it only me? If I go to a concert I hardly notice when they f9*k up. And I don't care. The Stones simply do that. So what!