At the St. Louis show (my fifth of the tour, I'm now quite broke!) I sat next to a casual fan. She really liked Worried About You!! She asked me what it was and I told her, she said "Never heard it, but it's really good." She also dug Night Time and This Place is Empty a lot.

She didn't go crazy with applause like with Brown Sugar, etc. Just goes to show - applause level is not necessarily an accurate indicator of whether the crowd appreciated a number. They might like and enjoy something, but save the noise for the familiar stuff.

Also didn't notice a lot of bathroom/beer stand trips during Worried About You.

So, IT'S OK TO CHALLENGE THE CROWD A BIT!

Well put, Send It...I've noticed the same thing. In fact, the lesser known ones seem to be the ones they talk about most after the show....

This is true.Many bands have greatest hits.What sets the Stones apart from the rest in my opinion is the huge # of quality tracks that they have.

Listening to "the drake"'s version of Sway, it sounded like the crowd was really into it. I saw alot of great reaction from Memory Motel.

I'm sorry - but this "evidence" flies directly in the face of the opinion of our esteemed moderator. As such, it is clearly a faulty observation....

inopeng Wrote:
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> Well put, Send It...I've noticed the same thing.
> In fact, the lesser known ones seem to be the ones
> they talk about most after the show....


Isn't it fun when someone you know who THINKS they know the Stones, just like EVERYONE "knows" the Stones--"yeah, yeah, 'Start Me Up,' great tune"--hears "No Expectations" or "Let It Loose" or "Far Away Eyes" or any of dozens of other songs?

I find that people get so excited when they are (re)aquainted with the idea that the Stones are a musical treasure, rather than just a big entertainment institution.

One of many reasons that the boys need to make the shows a little weird, a little surprising, maybe even a little confusing.

Not a good idea to always give people exactly what they (think) they want.

Well put, Rev. As I've said elsewhere - we've all been to shows where we didn't hear songs we were familiar with - but if the song was any good - we enjoy it just the same. That's where the argument of "they must play the warhorses" falls miserably apart...

I wish one of us could make a real analysis regarding the level of Stones' fanaticism /price of the ticket.
In any business, 20% of the products/clients make 80% of the revenue. In our case, the floor tix would make the most of the dough. Who sit there? Are these the ones who've been following the Stones for years and years and just the casual fan who wants to see the Stones once in her/his life?
So, maybe the Stones or their entourage though: let's play what's gonna satisfy 80% of our revenue base, i.e. the warhorses.
Totally cynical, but you never know.
Oh well...

I'm just getting a buddy of mine into the Stones and I lent him a copy of Sticky Fingers 2 days ago. The next day he comes back to me and says "Yeah, it's a good album. Obviously Brown Sugar and Wild Horses are good...but man Sway and I Got The Blues are great."

They have so many great songs. The hits are just a tiny piece of the pie that we call the Rolling Stones. I wish Mick could see that more sometimes.

I'm sure Mick is the one trying to get the others to change their routine and play more "unusual" songs.

No, I think Stones have to play Miss You, Tumbling Dice etc at every show, why else would anyone go...???

For the other songs we haven't heard 3,000+ times.