I am (or maybe more correctly WAS) a big Ronnie fan. Love his playing on the '75, '78 & '81 tours; even '89, '94 and '97 were reasonably good. But I was at the S.F. II show and was appalled by his playing. Not just off here and there, but WAY off on more songs than not. Some of his "solos" were outright crap. I am a guitar player who can hold his own; I know a few things about playing lead, and what I heard from Ron in S.F. was just plain sub par. I can't speak for any of the other shows, because I wasn't there, but I can goddam speak for S.F. II, and he was shit. I was pissed off because of the coinage I threw down to be there. If it had been in a bar, I'd have demanded my cover charge back. At this rate, I don't plan on seeing any more shows until this band gets its shit together.

Ronnie's in a slump, it seems, I think the problem is in his head and not his hands. He's got a mental block or a confidence problem.

At the St. Louis show, I was sitting close and noticed Mick really encouraging Ronnie and giving him looks like "ok, here's your bit, time to play the hell out of it." Treating him almost like he's a kid or something, kind of sad. He'll bounce back, though!!

yeah in chicago Mick gave him a pat on the head after a good solo.

Jed Clever, you have posted it as answer on other thread. Why do you send the same exactly post to us as new topic?

You gotta feel for the guy - I read somewhere that he literally played every show he'd ever done for 40 years either drunk or stoned - he probably never got stagefright until he sobered up at 55.

I wonder if he's seeing a shrink? Booze & drugs or not, you'd think that 30 years of dealing with Mick & Keith would have done his head in by now anyway. Sobriety & health scares/facing your own mortality on top of that can't help matters.

I really hope for his sake that the "I'll Sing, You Strum" project with Rod comes to fruition - that might get his juices flowing and his confidence back. Of course, at this point, the Stones only have so many tours left in them, so I hope it won't be too little, too late.

It is a shame when he's not on top of it, though, because he's such a great musician.

Well if you think your so much dam better then Ronnie why don't you have his spot in the band. Ill tell you why its because you think you know what your talking about and you probably don't know shit about playing for the stones.

Well, Rickster, one thing I do know is that I paid a lot of money to hear some pretty lame guitar playing by Ron. If I were to perform my job at the level he performed his in S.F., I would be sued for malpractice. There is a concept called “PRIDE IN YOUR WORK”, which you may be unfamiliar with, but one of it’s tenants is to give your customers what they pay for. Ron did not do this. Another tenant is to not mouth off when you don’t know what you’re talking about. I opined from my personal knowledge; I WAS THERE. You, on the other hand, attempt to denigrate me when you know nothing about me. That’s why I eat people like you for breakfast.

you sound like a joke to me clever

Then I said Hi, like a spider to a fly...

I witnessed the SF shows and have the exact same take as Jed. but, you DON'T have to be there to listen to the artifacts of these shows and have an informed opinion of Ronnie's contributions. Truth is Ronnie hasn't played well the entire tour - that's my HUMBLE EFFING OPINION.

Ronnie was not good at SBC, we all know that (although I haven't heard the boots). He came back at Fresno, and Mick gave him a number of approving looks. He was a little stiff at MSG on 1/18, then sounded much better on 1/20. He is having his problems, but he can still play. Let's keep supporting him. From what I can see (take a look at the photo of Mick with his arm around Ronnie prior to the MSG show at rs.com), Mick is very supportive.

Who's a good boy, then?



Photo by Teafoe.
23 January 2006 - Chicago

Well Clever as I said if you know it all and are such a good guitar player why don't you have his job.

Some comments serve a purpose.
Some remarks are refreshing.
Time machines do not exist.

whether we support him or not..whether Jed can play better or not...all beside the point.

And I for one hope that Ronnie comes back with a vengance, and starts playing to the high standards he used to. However, if for some reason he can't, I beleive it would be a travesty, and a slap in the face to us hardcore fans, to continue down the road of diminishing returns and the resultant tarnishing of a great legacy.

And as for you, Mickjagg86, sticks and stones may break my bones...how come there's never a stick or a stone around when you really need one?

but to keep it fair and balanced (can't believe i used that Foxnews phrase!) - even with a subpar Ronnie the Stones are still a worthy band, mostly owing the continued astonishing performances by CW and MJ

The annoying point in this thread are the personal offences. If someone citizises Ron Wood for his guitar playing he has every right to do so, or is this a board for hard-core-fanatics only who keep praising the Stones for everything?

It is unfair to tell someone who plays the guitar that he should go and play with the Stones. After all you have to pay excessive prices for your ticket which means that the show has to be outstanding. If we want to discuss things as experts we should avoid any insulting language even if we are not the same opinion.

For instance, I always was a big Stones fan but I never liked AFTERMATH particularly (though I listen to it from time to time), I had to sell DIRTY WORK and EMOTIONAL RESCUE because I did not like them at all. I could not help it. Many tours after 1989 were so gigantic that they became sort of lifeless compared to other artists: the perfection drowned out much of the feeling. Do those opinions make me a worse fan than someone who states that everthing they ever recorded or performed was the Holy Gospel?

saltoftheearth Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Do
> those opinions make me a worse fan than someone
> who states that everthing they ever recorded or
> performed was the Holy Gospel?

certainly not - but they might get you booted off the board! same problem here in the good ol' USA - either kiss Bush's butt or you ain't a patriot!

The Rolling Stones are Keith Richards vs Charlie Watts plus some noise. So why bother?

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn.

Bread
Milk
Washing up liquid
Shoe polish
Sprouts
Bog roll
Toothpaste
Aloooominum foil

Oily.

Wow! That's 8 new songs they've never played before! Shoe Polish is an east european blues,
right?

Fluck me!
Change the record!!!
Aint there more interesting things to contribute?
At least the MT mentions being resisted!!!

Read the show reviews! Everyones rocking!!!

Jed Clever is right, Ronnies bad guitar playing during this tour is a constant point of discussion here and it is annoying in fact. I said it often: My impression is that Ronnie is actually searching the right position of his fingers on the fret during a solo. Tracks he did a thousand times like "Tumbling Dice" are destroyed by his solo efforts. His style isn't sloppy (Hendrix was a sloppy player, but it was great music), it is simply no music, a series of notes without any sense, but pure nonsense. I've been always a great Ronnie fan, his playing during the 75/76 tour isn't matched by Mick Taylor. He dominated this tour, great rhythm, great lead. Today I can remember only the quite good solo on "Beast of Burden" during the opening night of Boston in August last year. I hope that he will improve his efforts, otherwise I fear that it will be the last tour of our fav band.

Ah hah! Mick Flucking Taylor...... is it a bet or something???????

And why would RW 'sloppy' playing be the end of the band?? Baffling?
Like a bunch of proverbial train spotters......

WHERE IS OPENG WHEN YOU NEED HIM !!????

I WANT A MICK TAYLOR THREAD (yes I am shouting)

LOL!

ablett Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ah hah! Mick Flucking Taylor...... is it a bet or
> something???????
>
> And why would RW 'sloppy' playing be the end of
> the band?? Baffling?
> Like a bunch of proverbial train spotters......


I didn't wrote: "the end of the band", but "it will be the last tour of our fav band", okay? Further I emphasized that Ronnie fits better to the band than MT. Please read my post.

last tour?..... end of band? Is there really a difference? Its taken 8 years to do a new record......

It's not taken eight years to do a new record, it took a couple of weeks. They can do ABB anyday, it's not like they wrote 1.5 songs per year. They just didn't feel like doing a record, now if they feel like it you can have 4 albums in the four next years.

Yeah right! Hilarious! So they rattled out ABB in a couple of weeks and can turn out four more over the next few years? What you on? Did you ever play the new tracks on 40 licks????