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gotdablouse

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Rocky Dijon

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Hairball

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TeddyB1018
Krish Sharma.

Ahh yeah - I think I recall him working with Mick and/or the Stones a couple of years ago on something...

Krishna was an Assistant Engineer on VOODOO LOUNGE and Chief Recording Engineer on A BIGGER BANG, the re-done EXILE and SOME GIRLS overdubs, and the two new tracks on GRRR. He also recorded and mixed BLUE AND LONESOME (his first mixing credit with the band, I believe).

Interestingly, he was NOT involved with "Gotta Get a Grip" or "England Lost." I suspect that's because when Matt Clifford has a producing credit with the Stones (as he does here), it's because he produces the pre-production demo track which is then used to build the finished track on with overdubs. Krishna Sharma is Don Was' guy. Since Keith vetoed those two songs (despite Ronnie and Charlie's participation), Don and Krishna never touched them.

Just guesswork, but it seems logical to me.

Like TeddyB1018 wrote a few pages ago I'm of the opinion that unlike many Mick tracks over the years Clifford may have been involved more recently on LIAGT, especially after hearing Mick's explanations on how that song came to be in the iTunes interview. A Mick idea -> fleshed out with Keith and Steve (Jordan) (so no demo pre-production by Clifford) -> band recordings (including the backing vocals seen in the video) and then "enhancements" over the past month by Mick and Clifford in France.

Is anyone hearing the "Flugelhorn, French Horn, Saxophone" Clifford is credited with ?

As for the auto-tune Im' struggling to hear it and in any case really not distracting unless someone can point me to a part where it is ? Yeah sure Mick's voice in not sraight fom mic to desk but that's been done for years, even on B&L.

Definitely hear the sax, maybe all three are played simultaneously

We’re all just Living In A Ghost Town… listen now on Amazon Music
the-rolling-stones.lnk.to/GTAmazonSo
@amazonmusic @amazonmusicuk
#LivingInAGhostTown

[twitter.com]

Hey Dandelion, a real humanitarian work you see

It's a good tune, sorry to have annoyed you IORR members.

***
I'm just a Bad Boy Boogie

Is it a Hit yet?

Rockandroll,
Mops

In UK the Stones have to beat this number one of the single charts: Captain Tom Moore's version of You’ll Never Walk Alone has hit Number 1 on the UK’s Official Singles Chart! (BBC)

Great, great tune. Been listening it for almost two days, and each listening just makes me apprecipeate the song more and more. What first sounded even a bit annoying starts now to make sense (here I think mostly the boy-band choir, and some of Jagger's over-the-top vocals and a partial banality of the lyrics). It contains a lot, a multitude Bobby might say. It is produced very well in the sense of all of these different components are used very well as functioning parts of the whole. Some random notes:

1. The first thing that impressed me in the very first listening was the very bottom: the way the drums and the bass, together with minimal, but tasty guitar(s) lay the foundation. That swings, man! Could be Darryl's finest recorded hour with the Stones - he really sounds being a distinctive but cohesive part of the sound of the band. Bill Wyman should be proud. This theoritical and technical simplicity of laying the groove is something 'kids, don't try this at home'. And Charlie is the Charlie @#$%& Watts.

2. Damn it, the Stones and Keith does it again! - it took some listenings but jeez that intro is simply irrestible. By the sec it starts, you know you are into something. Those little but meaningful licks and riffs by Keith and that idosyncratic timing of his. Pure genius. The less is more, dudes - appreciating the silence is musician's best forte! And it is unique - but still belonging and adding to to the great legacy and family of all those gimmeshelters, jumpingjackflashes, etc. You know, the intros which hook one everytime one starts to listen them. Makes me even wonder, if this belongs to the 'three dynamite riffs' he talked about a few years ago. Was him adding that to an already Jagger-written song, or did Mick wrote the song to go along with it, I don't know. Doesn't matter: this is The Glimmer Twins. Like Keith said "Great minds think alike" - that's not always the case (haha), but the 'miracle' and 'magic' when those two minds happen to 'click', well, it happens here.

3. The structure of the song is fascinating. The band knows how to build up a drama, and keep it going on to the very end of it. There is no any sense of repetition or a feel that they are not going anywhere. The song basically is a simple blues number, but as we are used to reggae-influenced tasty groove, we are attacked by the jam-based aggressive middle eight (sort of), then the mood is varied by the pure blues-harp solo, the minimal dub elements of the reggae taking a lead sometime, and all that jazz. It sounds like the Stones are using there everything they know, and they are in the very charge of everything they do. Not over-doing anything, but letting it all flow naturally.

4. Then we have the most distinguished instrument which sets apart any Stones recording from anyone else: Jagger's voice. A bit like Dylan's: it is controversial by nature and you either love it or hate it. Mick continues from where he stopped in BLUE & LONESOME, knowing that no matter what a wonderful groove the band offers, the success and uniqueness of a Stones recording - how it will make a difference - is based on the very performance of his. First I thought that Mick is trying too hard - the voice stands apart too strong, having too much teatrics or something, but the more I listen to it, the more I admire its pure power, vitality and brilliance. He puts all his persona there. In most of the performance he is using so much of his vocal resources with all its rich nuances and tricks with no shame. He is like standing naked - knowing it is his very performance, which will take all the glory or all the blame. It is, however, the very middle eight that I think most evidently represents the very latter-day Jagger: him shouting out it with such an aggression - leaving, interestingly, all typical irony and sarcasm outside - that it reminds me of his very young days (think of the young angry man of "Not Fade Away", "Get Off of My Cloud", "Paint It Black", etc.). That's the continuum of tracks like "Doom & Gloom", "Hate to See You Go" and, especially, "Gotta Get A Grip". With his aged voice, its sheer power and conviction is simply incredible.

5. The lyrics first sound me half-baked and lazy, showing a lack of true inspiration, but little by little I started to used to them. The words are topical, but like always it is with best Stones lyrics, it is the sounds they create that makes them work. The words only are just meant to mean something, they are made to sound good in a musical context. The statement based on these two things going hand in hand is laid there. Mick is master in that. He is not any Dylan, but a simple pragmatic pop writer with no much artistic ambition an sich actually. A kind of banality of the key phrase is actually a catchy and a clever one to cover all the feels we are surrounded by a coronavirus crisis. A single line like "Life was so beautiful/Then we all got locked down" captures all that needs to be said now. We will see if the song turns to be a kind of anthem to the life we now live in. Probably at least for us Stones fans, but it looks like that the Stones are catching a bigger audience this time.

6. So how "Living in A Ghost Town" will be rated in the long run? A modern Stones classic or more like a forgotten contextual song like "Highwire"? Of course it is not any "Gimem Shelter" or "Miss You", but it is way too soon to reflect anything like that. In its own context, I think the song is a succesfull attempt to continue their recorded saga - as a way to partly update or mildly re-invent their sound and musical vocabulary, something they have not always succeed with. It with a class sounds like vintage Stones, with all its musical references to their past (pointed out nicely in this thread), but at the same time not taking too much obvious memory lane, but being fresh, modern and forward-looking. A nice coctail of the old and the new. Knowing the past and having all the experience of all that, but still living in this very moment, being contemporary, even almost 'relevant'. The song has a point in many ways. Makes me proud to be a Rolling Stones fan.

7. More to come...

- Doxa



Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 2020-04-25 15:25 by Doxa.

Just ordered the vinyl version

Amazingly from the UK it is cheaper to buy from rollingstones.com than from my usual online retailers, plus there is a nifty purple pressing

[store.digitalstores.co.uk]

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crholmstrom
Finally listened. I really like the song & performance. IMHO, bodes well for the new record.

I agree!

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Librarian
Only critique is the tongue image, c'mon a tongue covered by a mask is obvious or at least gray black/tone. I don't get the rehash of burnt orange. Maybe a tongue with a thermometer.

I actually love the "burnt orange" color ... but a tongue covered by a mask, that would have been hilarious!

A bit of a pity that they have two versions. The one with the videoclip is the short version with only one single "loud climax" part. The long one has a second "loud climax" part just after the harmonica solo and before the reggae-dub break. I like the longer version better, because, hell, it's longer.

I never thought I'd say this, after so many years of mediocrity, but I am glad they brought this out. Both Mick and Keith are great in it, the who-ho-ho just gives it that extra push it needs and the hint to the reggae influence without actually playing reggae works very well.

Okay, positive things first:

- It's good to hear something from them after such a long time.
- A fitting theme for the song. Suits the times. I will get a lot of radio spin.
- Only good reviews from the press so far. Which is a good indicator. Someone even called it Spätkunst...
- The timing to release this single is good.

Some personal reflections: To me it sounds like a latter day Sir Michael song. Which seems to be the way The Stones work these days.
Sir Michael brings the material. He seems to have a lot of it. And Keith okays it, or not. The song? I found myself wandering off to other
Youtube suggestions while listening to it. Landed on "Waiting on a friend", which, for some reason, was on top of the list and thought
for myself "that's a really good song"...

It's not a bad song. But not that good either. If it becomes some kind of a hit it won't be due to the song itself. Other factors will be involved.
And, of course, it will be impossible to play this one live.

up until last night I'd only heard it on my phone or desk top.....then I heard it on stereo.....damn that's a fine single...I like it yes I do!

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Stoneage
Okay, positive things first:

- It's good to hear something from them after such a long time.
- A fitting theme for the song. Suits the times. I will get a lot of radio spin.
- Only good reviews from the press so far. Which is a good indicator. Someone even called it Spätkunst...
- The timing to release this single is good.

Some personal reflections: To me it sounds like a latter day Sir Michael song. Which seems to be the way The Stones work these days.
Sir Michael brings the material. He seems to have a lot of it. And Keith okays it, or not. The song? I found myself wandering off to other
Youtube suggestions while listening to it. Landed on "Waiting on a friend", which, for some reason, was on top of the list and thought
for myself "that's a really good song"...

It's not a bad song. But not that good either. If it becomes some kind of a hit it won't be due to the song itself. Other factors will be involved.
And, of course, it will be impossible to play this one live.

Good to see you back!

Why would it be impossible to play this one live? IMO, it will be a belter on stage.

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LeonidP

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Librarian
Only critique is the tongue image, c'mon a tongue covered by a mask is obvious or at least gray black/tone. I don't get the rehash of burnt orange. Maybe a tongue with a thermometer.

I actually love the "burnt orange" color ... but a tongue covered by a mask, that would have been hilarious!

The tongue covered by a mask would be totally horrible in these times.

Rod

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Dandy
Good to see you back!

Why would it be impossible to play this one live? IMO, it will be a belter on stage.

Thanks, Dandy. I hope you are doing fine. I don't know. Maybe the tentative way the songs starts. Feels more like a mood song than anything else. And the choruses.
The song reminds me of OOC in a way. Not my cup of tea really. But I'm not the only ship adrift on this ocean...

....yes totally horrible and would
forever link it to these times we are living thru ....



ROCKMAN

Shortly: Kudos to Deathgod. A man of his word! Not always that common around here...
Another thing: I agree with Doxa on Keith's guitar fills here. Very good indeed.
A necessary ingredient in any Stones composition.

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riccardo99
What many people don’t seem to understand is that today a new single release is just the most commercial FORM of the new music, there will appear in time different versions, as extended, maybe featuring a guitar solo that is not heard here, a dub version with a long reggae intermezzo etc. These would certainly change people’s opinion on this new track, that is now being subjected to some pointless critics.

Lol, well said Riccardo.

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MAF
In UK the Stones have to beat this number one of the single charts: Captain Tom Moore's version of You’ll Never Walk Alone has hit Number 1 on the UK’s Official Singles Chart! (BBC)

Well with Tom Moore on #1 nobody can call the Stones "old" this time

I think that when it's played live,once this awful virus has been well and truly beaten, it will just remind us how bad those days were with lockdown and self isolation etc................and we got through it.
Maybe Mick could say a few words to that effect as an intro.
I know that many people all over the world will have passed away became of it,and of course that is so,so,very sad.
That goes without saying.

The new song is simply the best of the f*&$%' corona crisis until today.
I luv this song, it is really great and grows on me every time I hear it.
Can't get it out of my head and must hear it in continuous loop.
Great groove, great lyrics, fantastic vocals.

Perfect timing: first worldwide publicity with the Global Citizen video and now this song fitting perfectly into these strange crisis times.
No. 1 on iTunes.
They are BACK concerning studio work (I know, they never were away live).

Can't wait for the album with this song.
Good time for writing, polishing existing songs and recording new ones.
Keep going, boys!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-04-25 17:06 by micawber.

I think the song is good, love the fact that it's not a typical arrangement. The dub break is fantastic and both it and the harmonies would make it a great live track. One that fits well into the first half of their sets - perhaps about 7 or 8 songs in. However I think it really comes to life so to speak when you watch the video. It's brilliant and makes a huge difference.

Overall though its probably the best effort at social commentary they've made in a long long time. During the late 60s they just seemed to effortlessly reflect the darkness of that time. Since then I've always felt they were a bit disconnected and never really perfectly hit the same level when singing about the world around them.

Hopefully this spurs them on to finish the album.

I can just picture now Bernard and Sasha singing "wo oh oh oh" on stage.

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micawber
The new song is simply the best of the f*&$%' corona crisis until today.
I luv this song, it is really great and grows on me every time I hear it.
Can't get it out of my head and must hear it in continuous loop.
Great groove, great lyrics, fantastic vocals.

Perfect timing: first worldwide publicity with the Global Citizen video and now this song fitting perfectly into these strange crisis times.
No. 1 on iTunes.
They are BACK concerning studio work (I know, they never were away live).

Can't wait for the album with this song.
Good time for writing, polishing existing songs and recording new ones.
Keep going, boys!

Amazing that one just week ago, we all had heard the boys were added as a late entry to the Global Citizen extravaganza, but their epic (yes epic ; ) performance and this new song were as yet un-heard, and in the case of LIAGT, unknown.

A great, great, week to be a Rolling Stones fan!!

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Beast
I can just picture now Bernard and Sasha singing "wo oh oh oh" on stage.

Definitely.

I think this song will play fantastic live.
Can't wait to confirm

I think the next Stones single should be a tropical house remix of Miss You. To be a summer hit. Since they're on the map again with their YCAGWYW performance and LIAGT, that would make it a Stones summer. A lot of young kids like to wear the tongue logo shirts anyway and now they got some music to go along with it.

Now I see a very positive review on "Guardian". The newspaper gives 4/5.

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rollmops
Is it a Hit yet?

Rockandroll,
Mops

Already #1 on iTunes

[www.google.com]

[www.google.com]

I’m approaching 60 in 2 years so I don’t understand streaming, sales etc. I know it’s number one on ITunes so is this actually going to be a bonafide hit in the USA? They haven’t had a top 10 single since Mixed Emotions.