Artist: The Rolling Stones
Album: Flashpoint
This is one of the odd songs where I really enjoy the live recording more than the studio recording. Flashpoint was one of the first Stones albums that I bought for myself, as opposed to borrowing my parents’ records. I went through a phase where I was really interested in the dynamics of the live performance and how it changes the songs.
In the case of this song, the live performance gives a much grittier feel to a naturally dark song. The live version has a slightly looser but somehow more intense groove than the studio version.
I love this song because it’s one of the few live tracks that I’ve encountered that truly captures the feel of a live performance. It’s just a straight up performance of the song without the polish and perfection of the studio recording. Also, whoever handled the sound mixing on the recording did an excellent job of managing the level of crowd noise. Some live albums almost completely remove the crowd noise, leaving something missing. That allows the music to stand out more, but in some ways, also leaves the most vital part of the live performance out of the equation.
Plus, I get a kick out of how you can hear somebody in the crowd repeatedly yelling out their request for this song throughout the album. That person must have had an enormous set of lungs to stand out from all the crowd noise in the background of the recording.
If you’re looking for my commentary on Bon Jovi’s performance of ‘Paint it Black’ at the O2, that’s in this post: Paint it Black at the O2.
Related posts:
- Paint it Black at the O2
- Random Song: Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress
- Random Song: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (live)
- Random Song: Highway to Hell (live)
- Random Song: Man on the Silver Mountain (live)
Tags: Rolling Stones
[...] Who would’ve thought that Bon Jovi would do a cover of ‘Paint it Black’ during one of their shows at the O2 right after I did a Random Song pick for it? [...]