Mr. Yeats wrote on Dec 11
th, 2014 at 9:56pm:
Midnight Rambler - never came close to the studio version. Since it's live debut it's just been a party song, a boogie. Yeah, it's great and everything, but doesn't hold a candle to the studio version, which is almost avant garde in it's cinematic creepiness.
I've always found the studio version (whilst a very good track on its own merits) a bit underwhelming compared to the live versions, myself.
Its consistently their greatest live song for me. The Ya Yas version was always up there alongside the (studio) Gimme Shelter as the greatest record they ever released.
And then they topped that version by finally releasing the one from Brussels in 73.
One song that they played to death for a while but could never get right was Anybody Seen My Baby on the 1997-98 tour. I think the studio version is a greatly underrated gem - and being the lead single it was a number they probably felt they had to promote by playing it in concert every night.
It was almost without exception bloody awful. Mick could never get the key right and made the spoken part sound like he was reading a breakfast menu - and after having got the crowd worked up for the first 20-25 minutes of a show, this one killed the momentum for the next 15 minutes and went over with all the popularity of a fart in a space suit.
The most obvious one that many people will probably cite is Miss You, which is maybe a bit unfair as it WAS good in concert from 1978-82. Bringing in some awful synth in 1989 to replace the harmonica part and that arse numbing 15 minute version they did in the late 90s when Mick would lick Lisa's feet every night made me want to never see it played live again. They mostly rested it on the Licks tour - but when they did play it, it was stripped down, not over-long or self indulgent and didnt outstay its welcome. Its been laregly 'meh' ever since though. Its a pity because from what I can see its resulted in a lot of Stones fans overlook how fucking brilliant a record the studio version really is. Bill Wyman's greatest nine minutes for me.