Re: WN vs QUAD + Stones & Beatles

[Ian Derby <iderby19@us.net>]

> See, that's what I'd say about QUAD...they never played so well together.
> Except maybe live.
> Pete and John are at their musical peaks now, I think. Certainly Pete's lead
> work is improved...and John hasn't lost a thing.
> 

John is definately a better bassist today, however someone pointed out to 
me that he doesn't take as many risks as he did with Moon on drums.  I 
don't think Pete can play as fast as he used to (he himself admitted that 
in the MSFL WAY notes from '92) so that tends to hamper his solo 
abilities.  But since Keith is the catalyst in this opinion and it's the 
reason I stand by his peformances on WN.  His drumming on Goin' Mobile 
gets my blood rushing everytime I hear it.  It as if he was throwing 
nothing but strikes, in that "ZONE".

> 
> Overproduced...that's a tricky term. If you mean overproduced in that there
> was more "stuff," then I see what you mean. What I would mean by that term
> is farther away from their live sound. I think QUAD is pretty close to their
> live sound, if you take away the synths and horns. In which case, they were
> never so perfect as on WN.
> 

But if that's the case, how could the Who play Bargain without the MOOG 
synth parts, or My Wife without the horn break?  And certainly the 
counter-point synth work of Baba and WGFA were never a problem live, 
because they were only used as background.  Yet on Quad the backing 
tapes were the main focus of the material, which put 
the band in trouble on stage.  It's like the Beatles unable to play Sgt. 
Pepper live because of the complexity of each track.  Quad is like that 
in a lot of ways.  Quad fails where Tommy succeeds. 


> A perfect Stones album...BB is certainly in the running, and EXILE...I'm not
> as big a fan of SF, though. I've never really liked Wild Horses that much.
> It's just too long; it would have been better at half the length. You Gotta
> Move isn't great.

It's a judgement call.  BS, Can't You Hear Me Knocking, Sway (I love this 
song!!) and Bitch are VERY strong tracks backed by Moonlight Mile, Dead 
Flowers, and Sister Morph.  Damn, now I have this sudden urge to play it.


> Even THROUGH THE PAST, DARKLY isn't perfect...there's that pesky Have You
> Seen Your Mother on it. But Dandelion...what a song! 
> AH, I have it! The perfect Stones album: GET YER YA-YAS OUT!

I like both of the above songs.  However our resident die hard Stones fan 
(who stands apart as the only one on this list who feels the '69 Stones 
were a better live band than the Who) would argue that Ya Ya's isn't 
their strongest live material from that era.  I certainly have boots for 
proof of that statement.