As I've stated many times, I think that overall the Stones are playing great on this tour and have put on many outstanding shows. I also think their choice of songs hasn't been very good in many cases; there is too much repetition and not enough variety.

Most dedicated Stones fans have gone back and forth on this subject endlessly. Some believe you can't judge a show by the setlist, especially if you weren't there. Others say you don't have to be there to evaluate the recording, or to express dissapointment concerning an "overly safe" song selection.

But there's no denying that when the Stones play something unusual, like As Tears Go By, Worried About You or Far Away Eyes, it is inevitably mentioned as a highlight over and over by the hardcore fans. I can say from personal experience that the Stones played great both times I saw them on this tour, but the Atlanta show was much better than the Memphis one because of the song choices. Out of both shows, what sticks in my mind most is the "Sway/Worried About You/Tumbling Dice/Midnight Rambler/Night Time" sequence from Atlanta.

Of course, not everyone is a hardcore fan. Many are just seeing them for the first time. They only know the hits and that's all they want to hear. The Stones aren't going to offend those people; they apparently feel (rightly or wrongly) that this is their core audience.

However, I think the setlist could be much improved with just a few minor tweaks. Not enough to scare away the casual fans, but just enough to satisfy the diehards. Right now the setlist basically breaks down this way:

Warhorses (songs that are played at almost every show): 10
Jumping Jack Flash
It's Only Rock'n Roll
Tumbling Dice
Miss You
Honky Tonk Women
Sympathy For The Devil
Start Me Up
Brown Sugar
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Satisfaction


A Bigger Bang songs (with Jagger vocals): 3
Oh No Not You Again
Rough Justice
And usually a third - either Rain Fall Down, Back Of My Hand or It Won't Take Long.


Keith vocals: 2
Right now it's Happy, plus This Place Is Empty from A Bigger Bang. Past selections have included Infamy, Slipping Away and The Worst.


Lisa vocal spotlight: 1
Night Time or Gimme Shelter


That bring us up to 16 songs, meaning there are four slots left in our 20 song set. These songs come from what I call the "other" category. Songs in the other category on this tour have included:

19th Nervous Breakdown
Ain't Too Proud To Beg
All Down The Line
Angie
As Tears Go By
Beast of Burden
Bitch
Dead Flowers
Far Away Eyes
Get Off Of My Cloud
Get Up Stand Up
Gimme Shelter
Heartbreaker
Let's Spend The Night Together
Live With Me
Love Is Strong
Memory Motel
Midnight Rambler
Mr. Pitiful
Out Of Control
Paint It Black
Respectable
Rocks Off
Ruby Tuesday
Shattered
She's So Cold
Sway
Sweet Virginia
You Got Me Rockin'
Waiting On A Friend
Wild Horses
Worried About You
(Source: [www.12x5.de])

Looking at that list, it's a shame we aren't going to get more than four of those on any given night. It would also be nice to have at least one more song from A Bigger Bang, since it's an excellent album and this is the Bigger Bang tour.

We all know the Stones aren't going to change their setlist radically, if at all. So what I'm proposing is very modest: take away two warhorses and add one more song from A Bigger Bang and one more from the other category.

I nominate Miss You and Sympathy For The Devil for the warhorses to leave out. Both have been played to death on multiple tours and deserve a rest. If they don't want to drop them entirely, they could put them in a rotation with a few other warhorses: one night they could play Tumbling Dice, then the next night play Miss You instead, that sort of thing.

In any case, if they made those changes the setlist breakdown would look like this:

Warhorses: 8
ABB (Jagger vocals): 4
Keith vocals: 2
Lisa vocal spotlight: 1
Other: 5

And a sample setlist could look something like this:
1. Jumping Jack Flash
2. It's Only Rock'n Roll
3. Oh No, Not You Again
4. All Down The Line
5. Tumbling Dice
6. Dead Flowers
7. Back Of My Hand
8. Midnight Rambler
9. Night Time
10. This Place Is Empty
11. Happy
12. Honky Tonk Women (to B-stage)
13. Rough Justice
14. Dangerous Beauty
15. Paint It Black (to main stage)
16. Start Me Up
17. Let's Spend The Night Together
18. Brown Sugar
19. You Can't Always Get What You Want
20. Satisfaction


Or this:
1. Jumping Jack Flash
2. It's Only Rock'n Roll
3. She's So Cold
4. Oh No, Not You Again
5. Sweet Virginia
6. As Tears Go By
7. Rain Fall Down
8. Out Of Control
9. Gimme Shelter
10. This Place Is Empty
11. Happy
12. Honky Tonk Women (to b stage)
13. Rough Justice
14. It Won't Take Long
15. Get Off My Cloud (to main stage)
16. Tumbling Dice
17. Start Me Up
18. Satisfacton
19. You Can't Always Get What You Want
20. Brown Sugar


I believe setlists like those would be much better than what we've been getting. They would likely satisfy most hardcore fans and most casual fans at the same time. Unfortunately, there's no way to satisfy everyone.

I have started a petition at [www.PetitionOnline.com]
If you agree, sign the petition and also post on this thread. I think we can get at least 1,000 signatures. I used my real name when creating the petition, but I think if you don't want to it's ok to sign as bigstonesfan (or whatever your userid is on the board) from IORR Tell Me Forum.

However many signatures we get, I'm going to e-mail a link to the petition to pianist Chuck Leavell, who as most of you know selects the setlists. Here's our chance to do something positive that may have a shot at making an impact. While being respectful to and thankful for the Stones all the while, of course.

Let the petition signing and the posting begin!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-03-12 02:16 by ohnonotyouagain.

Good Idea!

Good idea but

a) they wont listen. We're not important

and

b) a petition for reasonable ticket prices is more pressing (plus a reminder on their 'promise' at Juilliard about $50 theatre shows - as a tease to get us to rejoin their fan club)

I don't agree beacuse there are two-three songs that everyboy seems to like except me.Dead flowers is an example.Also I am not dying to hear 4 new songs from ABB record beacuse this is gonna be my first show ever.To tell the truth the important thing would be to add some club shows.This is the way to please hardcore fans.A setlist only with "rarities".
Please,please don't drop Sympathy for the Devil.I nead to hear that great solo live.

Club shows would be nice, but since those would cost the Stones money (lost ticket sales vs. playing to a bigger audience), I think there's a much better chance they'd change a couple of songs in the setlist.

No thanks.

Why they don't play club shows in this tour?I don't say play a club show at Greece(even it would be full) but at major countries like England and France.I can't imagine a tour only with club shows beacuse the people would kill for a ticket.But they should combine these two kind of gigs.

This is such a stupid post. And your sample set lists sans 1 or 2 songs, look like the sets they are playing in their big markets. NYC, CHI, LA, etc get sets like this, the places that don't like Little Rock and Omaha don't for good reason....they don't get that many shows. In fact, I'd rather see them bring back the featured albums in the set, provided the 3 song featurette include a maximum of 1 warhouse.

-



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-12-29 07:58 by cirrhosis.

I don't really understand why people are so concerned about set lists for shows they're not attending. I see how the proposed changes could be more interesting, but don't much care. It would be nice to have a great series of boots to listen to, but how many more boots do you need.

By comparison, dylan's rotating setlists are wonderful in themselves, but I don't they make me a bigger fan than I would be anyway.

It sounds like people are happy with the setlists the way they are. How nice, I've single handedly stopped everyone from complaining about the setlists. Suddenly, the setlists are perfect! Problem solved, what a relief.

Dude, when you run the stones you can have it your way........untill im just gonna say "i can wipe my ass with this thread"

whenthewhipcomesdown Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dude, when you run the stones you can have it your
> way........untill im just gonna say "i can wipe my
> ass with this thread"

thanks for that intelligent and informative response, ass-wiper.

-



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-12-29 07:58 by cirrhosis.

(OK, my 2 Baht worth since I am in Thailand now.)
Loved your post and I can't agree more. Hope Chuck see this of course

I promised myself to never never reply to these subjects, but there is something about 2 glass of white by the pool, and the impact on the brain.

We are just a handfull of people. They love us, sure they do, but it is a little money game after all.
My best example is Berlin 2003.
They do both MR and CYHMK and what happens. Half the stadium (not really,but) head for the beer/toilet while they are played. I will say that my friend in Berlin, which I dragged along, can be the best example of a Stones gig. He got 2-3 albums, knows the song we are tired of, and that is it.

As Tears Go By could be a "new" hit this summer in Europe. Got everything the audience need.

Can't wait for Berlin, hope Chuck will throw out a set list like in 2003...
But, if you want the great ones, Madison Square Garden is a good buy, always.

Here's Berlin 2003, hard to beat for a stadium, and 2.15 hrs.
Brown Sugar
Start Me Up
If You Can't Rock Me
Don't Stop
Rocks Off
Wild Horses
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Can't You Hear Me Knocking
Tumbling Dice
--- Introductions
Slipping Away (Keith)
Happy (Keith)
Sympathy For The Devil
It's Only Rock'n Roll (B-stage)
Street Fighting Man (B-stage)
Midnight Rambler (B-stage)
Gimme Shelter
Honky Tonk Women
You Got Me Rocking
Satisfaction
Jumping Jack Flash (encore)

The Cranberries (warmup) : 7:10pm - 7:55pm
The Rolling Stones : 8:50pm - 11:05pm




TE
Oslo

I won't sign ANYTHING.

JumpingKentFlash

Two songs from the new album are plenty. Keith should change his songs more like he did in previous tours (1994-95 for example). The main warhorses belong in every single show: JJF / Satisfaction / SFD / YCAGWYW / Start Me Up / HTW / Tumbling Dice / Brown Sugar / IORR. [IORR is the best ever closing encore song].

The above makes 13. Midnight Rambler, Gimme Shelter and Wild Horses should be added to the 'must play at every single show' list; bring the total to 16.

the 17th and 18th should be 60's hits [Get Off My Cloud, The Last Time, Time is On My Side, Play With Fire, 19th Nervous Breakdown, Mother's Little Helper, As Tears Go By, It's All Over Now, Let's Spend the Night Together, Paint it Black, Have You Seen Your Mother Baby ....; etc.]

the 19th should be a 70's rocker [Rocks Off, Rip This Joint, All Down the Line, @#$%&, When the Whip Comes Down, Bitch, Hand of Fate, etc.]

The 20th should be another popular 70's song like Dead Flowers, Some Girls, Beast of Burden, Shattered, Torn and Frayed, Miss You, Memory Motel, etc.

If they want to put in a novelty song like Love Train or whatever, let them add a 21st. If they want to play some C grade LP cut from any album, let them add a 22nd. [those would pee good pee break songs].

If they want a killer set list they should not do 21 and 22 above, but expand from 20 to 24 by adding two more sixties hits and two more 70's from the above list. They could limit the overall list to 45-50 songs and have a killer tour.



"make up your mind, 'cause I gotta go"

What am I signing?

Good idea. They are playing the warhorses mainly because they think they have to.
Sooner or longer, playing YCAGWYW becomes a job like every other.

As long as we retards paying every price to see them performing the usual setlist they won't change anything. We are not important. We just have to pay. Pay, pay pay. Hard earned money. Money makes the world go 'round!

ohnonotyouagain, don't pay attention to the people calling you a "setlist-whiner". It's much worse to be a "setlist-whiner-whiner".

It would be just stupid not to take the chance to make impact on the Stones...
Like when we - via StonesDoug - gave them the poll result before the
tour started... The fact both this board & Shidoobee had Sway as no 1
ought to have make them play that tune as 'much' as thery have sofar...

You're right Baboon.
The only negative thing about these threads is that perhaps make us seem ungrateful for what the Stones are doing. I know I can have a hell of a good time listen to Brown Sugar and Satisfaction. Then again, it WOULD be much more facinating if they stirred up the setlists a bit.

I am still pissed about how they lied to us about the theater shows
just to get us to join the fan club, so there is no point to sign anything,
they just dont care , its a waste of time , but i understand your frustration,
and yes they did lie about the theater shows, just watch the press conf for proof

Anyone looking at their current setlists would think that they'd stopped making records two decades ago at the same time as the Who, and were attempting some kind of comeback.

Still, what else do we expect from stadium shows? After all, as most of the brain-dead audience at these gigs will be miles from the stage anyway, I suppose it's only fair to offer them something vaguely familiar, if only to remind them of where they are.

yeah a parody of themselves, once that starts its over

This is ridiculous, if i was tired of the Stones or their set lists, i would just stay home. This is a music band, they play what they want, this is not pizza hut or Ikea where you can complain at the customer office.

Hey!! Look at it this way: I'm a young fan, I've only seen two shows. And I'd like to see all of these:

Jumping Jack Flash
It's Only Rock'n Roll
Tumbling Dice
Miss You
Honky Tonk Women
Sympathy For The Devil
Start Me Up
Brown Sugar
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Satisfaction
I wanna see all these songs cause they're their best!! Just because you're 60 years old and can afford seeing 20 shows a tour doesn't mean everyone is.

It'll be nice if they stirred up the set a bit. The BIGGEST hits, should be included of course. It's a very thin line, to walk the setlist-walk.

Reptile Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey!! Look at it this way: I'm a young fan, I've
> only seen two shows. And I'd like to see all of
> these:
>
> Jumping Jack Flash
> It's Only Rock'n Roll
> Tumbling Dice
> Miss You
> Honky Tonk Women
> Sympathy For The Devil
> Start Me Up
> Brown Sugar
> You Can't Always Get What You Want
> Satisfaction
> I wanna see all these songs cause they're their
> best!! Just because you're 60 years old and can
> afford seeing 20 shows a tour doesn't mean
> everyone is.

And Reptile: I'm old but a new fan (Fan Since 2003-04)
& I dont need to hear YCAGWYW, IOOR
& I´d loath to hear SMU or MU.
Tumblin' could have a rest too, if ya asked me.