"Winning Ugly": Keith said it's just the "Tumbling Dice" lick, only longer. I've never tried it.

I've been kicking around "Plundered My Soul," natch. Open-G with capo on second fret, I think? A couple of graceful chords in there that rarely if ever turn up in Stones songs, at least not in the same way. The one over which Mick sings "I thought you needed my lovin'" sounds like a B7. The bottom note of it in the open-G tuning, fifth string, is an Eb, which I don't recall Keith ever having done before or since. Pretty cool...

Or maybe it's just in standard, and I'm all wet.

All right, I just messed around with WU. There's an unusual amount of gain on Keith's guitar (on the whole album, come to think of it), which kind of obscures things, but it really is the Dice lick, and then the Memphis-soul kind of fills that Keith does around the fourth, fifth and sixth strings ... just working between frets five and seven.

The TimeIsonOurSide website says either John Regan or Ivan Neville on bass. I'm guessing Regan.

...Pretty sure Keith is in standard, no capo.

Okay, for anyone still tuning in, Ry Cooder sounds to me to be playing in open-G on "Sister Morphine." I tried taping a YouTube while playing along with the track, but I'm pretty bad at "hitting the marks," as actors say—especially when the playing is as loose, and brilliant, as Cooder's. Then I tried to do it unaccompanied, but it was kind of boring...

I know what you're saying about being unaccompanied.  The production really makes SM, and that's hard to recreate with just a slide guitar - an instrument that's hard to play solo, without 'open' strings/chords and rhythm.  There are a few signature licks on Morphine, my favorites being at 1:33 (after ..this place) and around 2:35 (cool 'out of the box' lick).  The outro, of course, kicks as well.

Here are the rhythm parts of "Plundered," with MT's criminally edited first lick tacked on at the end!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOZtR3T_YLQ

I had to check! Capo is a Dunlop. Come to think of it, so is the brass slide I used on the "Sister Morphine" vid. Good stuff. I also used a cool line of thumbpick that I found online—called Bumble Bee. Unlike generic thumbpicks, which are really for banjo players who mainly do downstroke, it's more like a flatpick and doesn't get in the way.

Throwaway wrote on May 11^th, 2010 at 1:04pm:


Thanks, man!

I'm agnostic on brass vs. glass. I had a much-wider glass one that I used on my middle finger for years, but lost it. I actually think I prefer that one. As for the use of the SG, it just seems to have the most slide-friendly action of all my guitars. The key for me on slide is not to use a flatpick. In my case, anyway, I seem to need to do a lot of muting with my palm to get the notes I want.

Interesting replies Mel and dadrob.  I suppose, like many other musical theories rooted in the blues, there is no "right or wrong answer" - it's a question of feel.  I play slide typically with my thumb, rarely as a lead instrument (partially out of respect to the song and my limited abilities).  As you say, Mel, it surely is way more important to use the right GUITAR than it is the right type of slide.  Though it'd be cool to have a brass anyway, just to have it!  I love me some open-D tuning for that, just wish I had more than 1 acoustic and 1 electric so I wouldn't be switching back and forth so often.  An SG is on my guitar wishlist for sure, slide or not.

Mel, how about doing some Mick T. guitar lines from Shine A Light? absolute beautiful melodic guitar on that one.

Mel Belli wrote on May 17^th, 2010 at 5:56pm:


Looking forward to it Mel, as far as Ronnie goes, he couldn't even stand in Taylor's shadow as a guitarist, I can't think of anything inventive that he's done with The Stones, he's really good at copying old songs, & even that was only in the first few years he joined The Stones, I mean what Stones songs that stand out with him on it????

Throwaway wrote on May 18^th, 2010 at 2:27pm:


I agree ... Ronnie was a big part of what made "Some Girls" great. I think he helped salvage "Undercover" and "Dirty Work" as the Glimmer Twins were disintegrating. And he added a lot of nice touches to "Voodoo Lounge."

Mel Belli wrote on May 18^th, 2010 at 2:33pm:


Agreed.  While he wasn't dazzling with a single memorable solo on a particular song, he had a more holistic style, giving songs like "Too Tough" and "When the Whip Comes Down" a nice edge and counter to Keith's playing.