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Hairball

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24FPS

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TheflyingDutchman

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24FPS

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TheflyingDutchman

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24FPS
The new, alternative video has BRIAN in it. BRIAN. I don't think they've ever put Brian in a video after he died. (You get the side of Bill's head a couple times, and a microsecond of Mick Taylor). But BRIAN. Smiling!

At 2.20-2.21 the guitar lick syncs with Mick Taylor's right hand playing the Les Paul from the L&G footage.

Am I to understand this is a phony? The alternative video is unauthorized? Figures. Putting Brian, Bill and Mick T, in it was just the kind of thing fans love and deserve. And of course the Stones didn't really do it. Now that I think about it, most of the footage would be owned by ABKCO. I wonder where whomever did it got the Brian clip?

No, no phony, just a funny coincidence.

What do you mean? Is it unauthorized or not? Did the Stones produce it or not? Is it phony, or not?

I think he was referring to the "Mick Taylor's right hand playing the Les Paul" as not being phony, but a coincidence.
The video itself is unauthorized (or "phony")...the Stones themselves had nothing to do with the making of it, but it was expertly done by Frank Benitez.
He even put this disclaimer under the video:

**DISCLAIMER**
I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING BUT THE EDITING, THE SONG AND IMAGES BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.
NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT WAS INTENDED. I'M NOT MONETIZING THIS VIDEO. I'M JUST A FAN.

Correct Hairball. I referred to the unauthorized video. It's a funny clip.

The Rolling Stones' Quarantine Anthem 'Living in a Ghost Town' Surges on Rock Charts

5/6/2020 by Kevin Rutherford


The Rolling Stones' new quarantine-themed single "Living in a Ghost Town" hits new highs following its first full tracking week.

Released April 23, the track rises 3-1 on the Rock Digital Song Sales chart dated May 9, becoming the Stones' first leader on the list. It sold 16,000 downloads in its first full tracking frame (April 24-30), according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data.

The song also soars 30-3 on the streaming-, airplay- and sales-based Hot Rock Songs chart, additionally thanks to 1.8 million U.S. streams and 1.6 million airplay audience impressions.

It jumps 44-34 on the all-rock-format Rock Airplay chart, fueled by its No. 21 debut on Adult Alternative Songs and early airplay on mainstream rock stations.

With its Adult Alternative Songs entrance, "Ghost Town" is the Rolling Stones' highest-ranking song on a Billboard airplay chart since "Doom and Gloom," which peaked at No. 10 on Adult Alternative Songs in November 2012.

The new track's overall metrics spark its No. 6 debut on the Billboard Hot 100's Bubbling Under chart; the Stones most recently reached the Hot 100 with "Sympathy for the Devil (Remixes)" in 2003. They boast 57 total Hot 100 entries dating to their 1964 arrival, including eight No. 1s among 23 top 10s.

"Ghost Town" is the first taste of a new album that the legendary rockers have been recording for several years, the follow-up to 2016's covers set Blue & Lonesome and their first album of newly-written material since 2005's A Bigger Bang.

[www.billboard.com]

Still haven't heard it on any of the radio stations in my area yet - including the large L.A. based rock stations, but evidently it's being played somewhere...

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

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Stoneage
I agree, Maindefender. But it's boring theme also. But it sticks to your mind, doesn't it? Like a hit song should.

Really tepid compared to Armagideon Time for example. UK was all over the place with #1's in '81(Police, John Lennon, Roxy Music, Bowie/Queen, Smokey Robinson) Love Ska, The Stones never went there why not?

Do you like this song?:

[www.youtube.com]

It's okay, Maindefender. I guess you have to listen to it more than once for a fair decision.
Youtube suggested this one for me and I fell into 80's nostalgia. Kirsty MacColl...

[www.youtube.com]

Here in Sweden it´s on the radio quite often. And when I hear it in the supermarket, I just smile. Such a great tune. :-)

Heard it a number of times on radio ....
Lurv the way that intro snakes from the speakers ....



ROCKMAN

He sounds a little like Ray Davies at the beginning

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Stoneage
It's okay, Maindefender. I guess you have to listen to it more than once for a fair decision.
Youtube suggested this one for me and I fell into 80's nostalgia. Kirsty MacColl...

[www.youtube.com]

lol save yourself.....

Sure, Maindefender. A big hit at the time (1985). And Billy Bragg lyrics. Poor girl died in a boat accident in December 2000. At the age of 41.
Did a duett with Shane MacGowan in 1987, "Fairytale of New York", Which is a Christmas classic by now.

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Stoneage
It's okay, Maindefender. I guess you have to listen to it more than once for a fair decision.
Youtube suggested this one for me and I fell into 80's nostalgia. Kirsty MacColl...

[www.youtube.com]

She's on Dirty Work!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-05-07 02:32 by iraq0708.

great tune

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iraq0708

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Stoneage
It's okay, Maindefender. I guess you have to listen to it more than once for a fair decision.
Youtube suggested this one for me and I fell into 80's nostalgia. Kirsty MacColl...

[www.youtube.com]

She's on Dirty Work!!

Ah, the 80’s. Terrible terrible tragedy. Married to a Steve Lillywhite also.

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Maindefender

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iraq0708

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Stoneage
It's okay, Maindefender. I guess you have to listen to it more than once for a fair decision.
Youtube suggested this one for me and I fell into 80's nostalgia. Kirsty MacColl...

[www.youtube.com]

She's on Dirty Work!!

Ah, the 80’s. Terrible terrible tragedy. Married to a Steve Lillywhite also.

Never knew she sang on the Dirty Work album, but I've always loved her singing on Fairytale of New York with the Pogues - that tune brings back so many memories.
I was living in England at the time of it's release, and you couldn't escape from hearing it on the jukebox's in pubs or practically anywhere else for that matter.
What a horribly sad and tragic ending to her life...

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Love this one - Kirsty MacColl - There's a guy works down the chip shop, swears he's Elvis 1981 - [www.youtube.com]

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TheflyingDutchman

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Hairball

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24FPS

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TheflyingDutchman

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24FPS

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TheflyingDutchman

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24FPS
The new, alternative video has BRIAN in it. BRIAN. I don't think they've ever put Brian in a video after he died. (You get the side of Bill's head a couple times, and a microsecond of Mick Taylor). But BRIAN. Smiling!

At 2.20-2.21 the guitar lick syncs with Mick Taylor's right hand playing the Les Paul from the L&G footage.

Am I to understand this is a phony? The alternative video is unauthorized? Figures. Putting Brian, Bill and Mick T, in it was just the kind of thing fans love and deserve. And of course the Stones didn't really do it. Now that I think about it, most of the footage would be owned by ABKCO. I wonder where whomever did it got the Brian clip?

No, no phony, just a funny coincidence.

What do you mean? Is it unauthorized or not? Did the Stones produce it or not? Is it phony, or not?

I think he was referring to the "Mick Taylor's right hand playing the Les Paul" as not being phony, but a coincidence.
The video itself is unauthorized (or "phony")...the Stones themselves had nothing to do with the making of it, but it was expertly done by Frank Benitez.
He even put this disclaimer under the video:

**DISCLAIMER**
I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING BUT THE EDITING, THE SONG AND IMAGES BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.
NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT WAS INTENDED. I'M NOT MONETIZING THIS VIDEO. I'M JUST A FAN.

Correct Hairball. I referred to the unauthorized video. It's a funny clip.

Oh. Now I get it. Finally. I was so elated that they finally put out a cool video with some heart to it.

On Google Play it's the first track on HONK.

At least, I'm pretty sure that's what I saw.

it’s a fabulous dirge.

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GasLightStreet

On Google Play it's the first track on HONK.

Also on iTunes, Qobuz, etc - [iorr.org] .

I found this RS tribute band on youtube, their lockdown song is almost on par with Ghostown I think!

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24FPS

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TheflyingDutchman

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Hairball

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24FPS

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TheflyingDutchman

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24FPS

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TheflyingDutchman

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24FPS
The new, alternative video has BRIAN in it. BRIAN. I don't think they've ever put Brian in a video after he died. (You get the side of Bill's head a couple times, and a microsecond of Mick Taylor). But BRIAN. Smiling!

At 2.20-2.21 the guitar lick syncs with Mick Taylor's right hand playing the Les Paul from the L&G footage.

Am I to understand this is a phony? The alternative video is unauthorized? Figures. Putting Brian, Bill and Mick T, in it was just the kind of thing fans love and deserve. And of course the Stones didn't really do it. Now that I think about it, most of the footage would be owned by ABKCO. I wonder where whomever did it got the Brian clip?

No, no phony, just a funny coincidence.

What do you mean? Is it unauthorized or not? Did the Stones produce it or not? Is it phony, or not?

I think he was referring to the "Mick Taylor's right hand playing the Les Paul" as not being phony, but a coincidence.
The video itself is unauthorized (or "phony")...the Stones themselves had nothing to do with the making of it, but it was expertly done by Frank Benitez.
He even put this disclaimer under the video:

**DISCLAIMER**
I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING BUT THE EDITING, THE SONG AND IMAGES BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.
NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT WAS INTENDED. I'M NOT MONETIZING THIS VIDEO. I'M JUST A FAN.

Correct Hairball. I referred to the unauthorized video. It's a funny clip.

Oh. Now I get it. Finally. I was so elated that they finally put out a cool video with some heart to it.

Exactly.

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georgelicks
Blue and Lonesome reached #1 in the UK thanks to the heavy discount of the deluxe edition on Amazon, 3 copies at £20 during the first 5 days of sale, the album sold like hotcakes at that price.

Observationally it seems to me that they pursue a low price/discount strategy with new releases already for quite a while. When B2B came out, it was sold over here (Austria, in pre-Euro times) at ATS 99,00 (I bought it on the release day) while the regular price of a CD was something like ATS 250,00, likewise ABB and No Security (ABB cost €8,99). Not sure about VL (I don't have the CD here with me to check the price tag) but I seem to remember that also VL was sold at a lower price than the "regular" price of a CD back then. In fact, there may have been early discounts for their albums even back in the LP age. My copy of Some Girls (bought several months after release in Germany) cost DM 10.99 when the price for a regular LP was DM 22.00.

Especially with B2B the price of less than half of the price of a regular CD smelled very much like they wanted to force better sales figures.

This reminds me of the old days of trying push the singles to number ones. I recall reading - was it in one of ALO's books - how they distributed the singles into radio stations, made sure the right stores - those counted for charts - got them and what else. All the tricks used. I think the single in question was "Little Red Rooster" or "Get Off of My Cloud". Or both. Especially those days the symbol value of having number one was a huge one imagewise. The best publicity to show that you are a top act. With the Stones the demand was even higher since they were the ones competing with the Beatles... The pressure having a new hot single every four months was pretty tough, as Keith Richards has described (and like he said they made sure that they were not 'clashing' with the Beatles singles).

But surely today number one is still number one - for anyone being competative that's a kind of best trophy one can have. And the Stones surely are. The Stones a long ago lost the chance topping single charts, but the high positions in album charts are still within their reach - and seemingly do all they can to do as good as they can in them, even offering the stuff in discount. When EXILE re-topped UK album list in 2010 - first time since VOODOO LOUNGE - the band held a private party for it.

I am sure the success of BLUE AND LONESOME (especially in UK) surprised them, like everyone else (for example, the stores run out of copies in some places), but surely they were doing all their best to boost its sales and give it us a strong chart performance as possible. I think pretty telling is Mick's remark of him discussing with Universal of its commercial potentiality. "Could it be made popular?' was Mick's attitude. Mick sounded skeptical, but Universal seemingly convinced him.


- Doxa

This continues the post above - and tries get back to the topic...

The question about 'popularity' is not just an image thing about having number ones, I think it is more about the stuff reaching as many people as possible. To have an audience for your new stuff. I think that's been about always the primus motor for many Stones activities. They are not any avantgarde artists - or darlings of harcdore fans. Which I think is a rather obvious thing for anyone doing public stuff - you want your thing to be listened.

Even Charlie Watts a few years ago made a quite telling confession that even though he loves jazz so much, he is not doing or taking it so seriously, since what it is all about is like having an audience of your family and a couple of your friends to listen you. And that's not what he prefers (remember also Keith's reply to Chuck Berry in HAIL HAIL R&R after the latter, being impressed of Keith's playing, that he should play jazz - "No money in it, Chuck!" A humorous remark, but containing some truth like good jokes always do). Similar seems to be Mick's observation about the lame reception of new Stones music when played live. It looks like A BIGGER BANG tour was a major disappointment for him (he really changed his tune after the tour, before it he was a rather vocal how is important is to have new music to tour).

Since nowadays recorded music - especially singles - are not any longer the source from where the serious acts get their big money, I think the aspect of 'reaching as big possible audience as possible' or 'make sure your potential audience get to know your stuff' is more important than ever. I think the use of free or paid online services is a central factor here. The group of people actually buying stuff starts to be more and more marginal - even though an important group for a 'senior' act like the Stones and especially for their record company - so that cannot be any longer the major medium to 'spread' music, and more even so, if it is not any longer such profitable.

This makes me to rethink the strategy of how "Living In A Ghost Town" is handled. What initially looked like a rushed job or an amateur-like failed attempt, if we are solely looking at its chart potential, might actually contain some reason.

Firstly, releasing it a day prior a normal release day - Friday - a 'terrible' decision which aborted its first-week charting chances. However, taken how carefully they were hiding the release, putting clearly some extra effort for that, it sounds rather unlikely that they were so stupid not thinking the effect it has for its total first week run. It wasn't a miscalculation or a pure mistake. My guess is that behind the decision is a different stategy: namely, by this way it had an advantage of getting all the media attention since there was no 'competition'. It came out of the blue and no other releases in sight - a total media coverage.

Secondly, not releasing all the material at the same token. All they did was a digital download and an online video/stream of one version. Georgelicks above explained well what that meant for its fisrt-week chart success. However, had it all being available - like Jagger did with "Gotta Get A Grip"/"England Lost" - that would have been its momentum. And then gone quickly out of sight. Now they have more to come in their back pocket to continue the expected life span of it. I think it is rather telling that they prevented A-Mok to relaese his re-mix in public. They want to keep it secret until the moment comes - seemingly havng a sort of 'second wave' in their minds to maximise the hype over the new song.

So I think the strategy behind "Living In A Ghost Town" is just to get the song in news, talked about, as much as possible, and as long as possible, in order to the people getting more familar with it. That of it not making any great chart positions in Billboard Hot 100 is no important - you know, that of making it in a best scenario, if handled 'well', some #70 or so, instead of #106, wouldn't been anything to make news about. Pragmatically the same. More important is, for example, to spell it in Jaggerian pragmatic terms: if and when The Stones perform in the front of some 50 000 people again, all the people at there know the song, not just hardcore fans. Since "Start Me Up" they haven't had really such a new song (I might exaggarate, but you get the point).

Yeah, it could be that I am reading there more than there is, but, however, it is hard for me to believe that they would have screwed so bad, making such amateurish mistakes. Something just doesn't make sense. Anyway, it is in my nature, or my bad habit, to find rationality behind things...

- Doxa



Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 2020-05-07 15:38 by Doxa.

<My guess is that behind the decision is a different stategy: namely, by this way it had an advantage of getting all the media attention since there was no 'competition'. It came out of the blue and no other releases in sight - a total media coverage>

Sounds plausible indeed. 'Fvck the charts, raise attention instead'.

I guess they have more in store for us, and that this was just the starting point of their plan.

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DandelionPowderman


Sounds plausible indeed. 'Fvck the charts, raise attention instead'.

I guess they have more in store for us, and that this was just the starting point of their plan.

Yeah, that's exactly my point (you said in two short sentences what took me write a novel...).

- Doxa



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2020-05-07 15:54 by Doxa.

Some members here wanted to kill me when I spoke of opportunism and desire to monopolize media attention ! Well...

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Doxa

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DandelionPowderman


Sounds plausible indeed. 'Fvck the charts, raise attention instead'.

I guess they have more in store for us, and that this was just the starting point of their plan.

Yeah, that's exactly my point (you said in two short sentences what took me write a novel...).

- Doxa

***
I'm just a Bad Boy Boogie

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powerage78
Some members here wanted to kill me when I spoke of opportunism and desire to monopolize media attention ! Well...

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Doxa

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DandelionPowderman


Sounds plausible indeed. 'Fvck the charts, raise attention instead'.

I guess they have more in store for us, and that this was just the starting point of their plan.

Yeah, that's exactly my point (you said in two short sentences what took me write a novel...).

- Doxa

Don't know how you dreamt up that "kill you"-part, but all bands are dependent of media attention. Especially bands who haven't had new original music out in the limelight for almost a decade.

What are you trying to say, is it illegal or just bad taste in your opinion?

As a musician myself, who just released a new album - did I do something wrong?

The Stones-tune was clearly a good fit for the times, lyric-wise.

Cheer up, mate.

Still don't like the song. I do agree with one thing though. Theme songs is a good idea if you want heavy air-spin. Whether it's sports, months, seasons, names or whatever. Ask Europe or ask Queen.

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powerage78
Some members here wanted to kill me when I spoke of opportunism and desire to monopolize media attention ! Well...

Haha.. well, I don't think the term 'opportunism' is the best - or at least only - way to describe it. Or otherwise I guess every attempt to pick up some socially or politically current theme or event, and make popular songs about it, could be called oppportunist - like "Street Fighting Man" or a big amount of whole Bob Dylan catalogue. Is there a pure heart behind in trying to say something important and accurate for people or just a selfish calculation that 'yeah, this is a kind of thing I can use for my own benefit, if anything else, make name for myself', I guess we never know... I think for popular artists, especially those having a big name, those go hand in hand, even with the case of Bob Dylan (he is just so damn smart)... I think generally this tension is always present when pop stars are doing big charity things, from Live Aid to One World. Sometimes it 'smells' more, I know...

But what goes for 'monopolize media attention' I don't think there is anything wrong in it per se, be your cause whatever. You can be The Rolling Stones, Greta Thunberg or Donald Trump. That's just good marketing and PR job... Everybody does or tries that - to get your thing stand out - some do it better, some worse...

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-05-07 18:05 by Doxa.

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Maindefender

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iraq0708

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Stoneage
It's okay, Maindefender. I guess you have to listen to it more than once for a fair decision.
Youtube suggested this one for me and I fell into 80's nostalgia. Kirsty MacColl...

[www.youtube.com]

She's on Dirty Work!!

Ah, the 80’s. Terrible terrible tragedy. Married to a Steve Lillywhite also.

There's the connection; Lillywhite produced Dirty Work.