Defend the Indefensible: The Stones' Black & Blue

We have managed to re-evaluate just about the entire Paul McCartney canon recently, so how about a fresh look at the Beatles' greatest rivals?

I recently picked up the "American Tour Edition," or whatever it's called, of Black and Blue, more out of a sense of duty than anything else. A Bigger Bang had reminded me how much I like the Stones, and I saw Black and Blue at Wal-Mart for $12.88 or something, and figured that it was my duty to support Mick's latest palimony settlement by purchasing one of the last Stones albums that I have never owned.

The standard line on this album, or at least the one that I've always heard, is that Keith was strung out on heroin, and Mick had to do everything, including writing a bunch of sappy ballads, such as "Fool To Cry." I've also heard this album described as the "guitar player audition" album, with the band using the recording sesssions as a chance to find Mick Taylor's replacement. Which doesn't sound too promising. And then there was the famous controversy over the advertisements that the Stones bought to publicize the album, with a woman on all fours, wearing a dog collar, being forced to sniff a black leather glove . . . wait a minute, that was Spinal Tap, but the Stones did employ a similar sexist/sexy marketing campaign featuring bondage imagery and the bound woman stating "I'm black and blue for the Rolling Stones, and I love it!" - as if the music was so forgettable that the Stones had to resort to even more extreme shock tactics than usual to promote this turkey of an album. Of course, we all know how the story turns out: Ron Wood passed the audition, Keith was scared straight, and the Stones rebounded with Some Girls, their best-album-since-Exile/last-good-album-ever, depending on how you loook at it.

Except that Black and Blue really rocks hard in its own right. I can't stop listening to this record, and think that it really might be a better record than Some Girls. "Hand of Fate" is the great lost Stones rocker - did classic rock radio ever play this track? I guess it was just easier to play "Tumbling Dice" one more time, huh? "Memory Motel" is a great, epic track, with more Keith involvement than you would expect if you believed the conventional wisdom regarding this album. And if I can appreciate some of Macca's sappier moments, it's surely okay to dig "Fool To Cry"? Really, the only track here that approaches filler status is Billy Preston's "Melody," and even that is pretty good.

I recently came around on Led Zeppelin's 70s output, and this record reminds me a lot of Houses of the Holy or Presence - there are only 7 or 8 (long) songs, but every single one of them is good. I've always been prejudiced in favor of the mid-60s Beatles and Stones albums with twelve to fourteen three-minute songs, but the mid-70s 8-song album can be an effective format as well, I guess.

 

I never found it sappy. I love the keyboard work and falsetto vocals. This coming from not a big Stones fan! I've always liked it. The sound of that song really says "70's", in a good way.

 

I like the band's funky grooves on "Hot Stuff" (ridiculous as it is) and "Hey Negrita." The rest of the album never did that much for me though. "Fool to Cry" is probably my least favourite Stones single ever -- it's like the Stones' version of "Dream Weaver."

 

I love Dream Weaver!

 

"Crazy Mama" sounds like the template for the Black Crowes "Jealous Again". I like this album...In fact I like most of the 70's Stones albums. I'd take this album anyday over most of the albums they put out since 1980.

 

Me, too. Yeah, it has been overplayed in the wake of Wayne's World, but it is one of the definitive 70s singles to me.

 

It's a hodgepodge, but I've never minded it. "Hot Stuff" always made me wonder how anyone could've been surprised when they made a play for the disco market two years later.

 

Hideous cover art, the music was no great shakes, but that was typical of the Stones after EXILE, anyway. SOME GIRLS picked up the quality a few notches, but not for long, alas....

 

The three albums between Exile and Some Girls were inconsistent, but the high points - "Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)," "Angie," "Fingerprint File," "Hand of Fate," "Memory Motel," "Fool To Cry" - strike me more and more as the quintessential Stones tracks. The Stones were decadent, the mid-70s were decadent - this era just seems to capture the essence of what the band was about more than "Satisfaction," Sticky Fingers, or Exile.

 

I love the cover. Hiro knew exactly what he was doing -- get those ugly mugs right up into the record buyer's face.

 

I see a poll: "Does Keith look more strung out on the back cover of Goats Head Soup or the front cover of Black and Blue"? At my record store, we have a used copy of Black and Blue on vinyl on which someone has scrawled "JUNKIE" directly over Keith's face.

 

That's an iconic cover IMO. It looks like Keith is nodding off...

 

I'll stress that this is the only similarity between Led Zep and The Stones.

I really like "Black and Blue". It is the Stones' in-the-groove album. I think the "guest" guitarists help give a different flavour to the tracks. Their next groove album would be "Undercover" which is aging very well (the electric drums on "Undercover Of The Night" are still a bit too much, though. IMO)

IIRC Jeff Beck was originally on "Worried About You," but was wiped because he insulted the rhythm section (or perhaps his playing wasn't up to par that day); I don't think he is on the "Tattoo You" version (anyone know for sure?).

 

I think "Memory Motel" alone is worth the price of admission, especially Harvey Mandel's playing on it. But it was the open clean sonics that kept me tuned in to the whole record. You can hear everything in the mix quite clearly...a rarity on a Stones album. Nice colorful artwork and I agree that it's probably a better album than Some Girls, in that it actually has four really good songs on it.

 

I think it's the fact that there are just 8 tracks with a lot of variety so there're one or two things that most fans won't like. This leaves the impression that the album is weak and unfocused... it's not bluesy, it's not a rocker, it's not ballad-oriented.

I agree that Hand of Fate is a Stone's classic and I love Memory Motel and Fool To Cry. As far as cod-reggae goes Cherry Oh Baby ain't bad, but I go hot and cold on Hey Negrita, which was dated-sounding out of the box (although not as dated-sounding as Do Do Do Heartbreaker's sub-Stevie Wonderisms).

So I think of Black and Blue as a mixed-bag, but yeah, it's a pretty soulful and natural album. A big improvement over the forced evolution and pseudo-modernity of It's Only Rock & Roll.

 

Actually one of their best IMO.

 

I like the sort of symmetrical nature of the album sides; each side has one funky song, one rocker, one electric piano ballad and one genre experiment.

 

Me too. It's a stylized throw-back to the close-ups of 12x5 and the US version of Out Of Our Heads.

 

Just for Memory Hotel alone it was always worth the price of admission.

Of course I live on Long Island have had a drink while in Montauk at the Memory Hotel.

It is one of my favorite Stones albums.

 

Liked this a lot in the 70's, now-goodbye-nice memory-but of course, I have the CD, for a rainy day!

This is a fine album

some defense eh?

 

The inner gatefold shot of the band twirling the sparklers in stop-motion is pretty cool, too. That picture just screams "70s" to me, for some reason. One day in the Visual Arts thread I'd like to discuss the defining characteristics of 70s photography - album covers, Playboy centerfolds, magazine covers - they all had this gauzy, vaseline on the lens quality that is instantly recognizable as "70s".

 

Is the song named after a real place? Where exactly is Montauk?

 

This has always been among my favorite Stones 70's albums. I just love that chugging "Crazy Mama" - it kicks serious a$$, as does "Hey Negrita". "Hot Stuff" is great, though I prefer the shorter single version. I never minded "Fool To Cry", and "Memory Motel" is a masterpiece - the last of their great long epic songs. "Hand of Fate", "Melody", and "Cherry Oh Baby" are the weakest links here but the rest of the album more than makes up for them. I'd give it 4 stars out of 5

Now if you really want to "defend the indefensible", pick Dirty Work

 

I like the short version, too. It is on "Sucking In The Seventies" along with the short version of "Fool To Cry".

On of my favorites is "Hand Of Fate" - I like the tune and, especially, the guitar playing