Defend the Indefensible: The Stones' Black & Blue

I quite like "One Hit To The Body" and Keith's token reggae track. Haven't listened to the whole album in a while, though.

 

Another cool thing about the album is its inner sleeve, on which it has what looks like a studio session sheet. On it, it says exactly who is doing what is on each track of the multi-track tape. On the CD reissues, this is shrunk to the point of illegibility, but at 12x12, it's really neat. It helped to de-mystify how an album is recorded.

 

I'd like to have been a fly on the wall when Harvey Mandel was putting down the guitar on "Hot Stuff." I wish they had made a decision to use him on the whole album, even if just for that one album.

 

I never thought this great album needed defense.

 

I agree.

As a matter of fact, I'll go out on a limb and say that The Rolling Stones have never released a truly bad album -- and yes, I'm including SATANIC MAJESTIES in that statement. (It has some really great tracks that balance out the rest, IMO. Besides, it is what it is -- a snapshot of a particular period.)

 

Pun intended? Ha ha ha...

 

I'll agree that they were two very different bands, but there were points of intersection during this period: "Cherry Oh Baby" and "D'yer Maker" are both examples of the "I Shot The Sheriff"/"Hey, let's fool around with reggae" trend that was prevalent at the time.

 

Black and Blue was the first Stones album I ever purchased (apart from Hot Rocks, which I would describe as a compilation rather than a true album). I remember being surprised by the almost universally negative reviews that the album received. At the time, Black and Blue seemed to me to be substantially better than either Goat's Head Soup or It's Only Rock and Roll. Three decades later, I still believe this--and I now also believe (as do some others on this thread) that Black and Blue is substantially better than Some Girls.

 

The Eastern-most part of Long Island.......Always loved Black and Blue. Some really great songs on this album. Hand of Fate is a really cool lost gem. great guitar work on that by Harvey Mandel. Memory Motel and Fool to Cry are really strong slow numbers. Hey Negrita is nice and funky. I think this album is better than anything released after "Some Girls".

 

"Some Girls" is the second Stones albums I bought ("Hot Rocks" was the first), but is also an album I can't listen to anymore. I really prefer side 2 of "Emotional Rescue" (played with "Dance" - the power of CD) these days. There was a great radio promotion before "Emotional Rescue" was released, so I have fond memories of that one.

 

Kinda forgot about Emotional Rescue. i like that record a lot. Bought it the day it came out. "Down in the Hole" is a great lost nugget. Also love "Send it to Me"

 

I liked that too. I certainly had never seen any kind of session-log document when I bought that LP as a 13-year-old.

I also remember being surprised that songs released in the spring of 1976 were recorded in the fall of 1974, per the inner sleeve. I thought records were pretty much released as soon as they were recorded.

 

Love "Down In The Hole". . . the only one I'm not crazy about is "Summer Romance".

Were any of the "Emotional Rescue" songs from the "Black And Blue" sessions? Or did they just wait until "Tattoo You" to release the leftovers. I think that "Start Me Up" is a "Black And Blue" outtake or is it "Some Girls"? IIRC Jagger thought it need a reggae beat so it wasn't released at that time (something like that).

 

I guess that fans in the 70's were not used to 2 year gaps between albums so they expected an epic masterpiece full of instant classics and anthemic tracks, not a jam session that felt like it could be written in one day. And then 2 more years' gap. It's a nice little record (kinda like Macca's Wild Life if you know what I mean), but Stones needed a BIG serious album in 1976. Their Physical Graffitti.

Despite all this I really dig the style of B&B - I always loved funky/soul/falsetto/disco Stones and I like it better than hugely overrrated Some Girls, which simply had awesome Miss You and a couple of OK tracks.

 

I've heard this before. Are there multiple CD releases?

 

I don't know, but my copy does sound good.

 

I think "Memory Motel" alone is worth the price of admission, especially Harvey Mandel's playing on it.

I didn't know Howie Mandel was a musician too!

 

The original CD was released on CBS though I've never heard it. I love the sound of the Virgin remaster.

 

I think it's a stunning photograph. It was shot on a real beach, not a studio session.

Love the real life Stones, they are beautiful!

 

Just noticed that "Cherry Oh Baby" was recorded December 15, 1974. 31st Anniversary today!

(Happy belated to "Fool To Cry" - 12/12/74)

Majority of the album was recorded in Musicland, Munich. 2 of the engineers were Glyn Johns and Keith Harwood (the Zeppelin connection again)

 

That's all Keith's handwriting! I got him to autograph my copy of that inner sleeve.

Amazing that someone said how strung out he was, yet he was the one producing the album and logging in the players on all the tracks.

 

Montauk is a fishing village at the eastern most tip of Long Island west of NYC.

Big place to go for vacations, surfing, swimming, seafood and fishing.

Down in the village just as you enter town on the right is The Memory Motel. Not much to look at, kinda run down but it does have atmosphere.

 

Does anyone know how strung out Keith really was during this period? I mean, if he took half the drugs that people say he did, he wouldn't have been able to pick up the guitar, much less play it. I suspect that, as with Brian Wilson, so many layers of myth have accrued around what were probably some very real bad habits, that it is almost impossible to know the truth of the matter.

 

I got that John Phillips album the other day that was produced by Mick and Keith features them playing on it. The songs were recorded between 1973-79. Keith's playing is top notch, but it would be interesting to see what he would have done if he was straight (Phillips, too).

The back cover photo says it all. . .