The Rolling Stones ' Black and Blue ' Is Great --- Why Does It Get Beat Up So Much ?

Not familiar with it? Is it that similar?

 

"Thunder Island" is a cheesy 1978 yacht rock song that has similar chord changes as "Start Me Up." Of course "Start Me Up" started as another bad Stones reggae tune. For the record, I like a little yacht rock and also happen to like "Cherry Oh Baby" by the Stones.

 

From what I can gather reading all the above , people seem to be down on three songs in particular on this album :
' Melody ', ' Fool To Cry ' and ' Cherry '.
I can somewhat understand disliking ' Melody ' ( I don't ) because it may be too ' jazzy ' for Stones lovers.
But ' Fool To Cry ' is a superb ballad with a great vocal and ' Cherry ' is a terrific reggae cover. I'd rather see the Stones do an all reggae covers album than an all blues one.

 

Perhaps more so than any other Stones record, Black and Blue was representative and indicative of a time and a place, a phase that the band was going through. Simply put, Keith could not be reliably relied on for fast numbers or new material; hence the joking working album title used by Mick during the formative incubation of Some Girls two years later, as "More Fast Numbers." Because Keith was not really out there creating very much fast rocking original material, it was left to Jagger to pick up the slack.

That means, ballads, with an eye towards California singer songwriters and even soft-rock, that were making the popular rounds. That means, Mick had his keen ear tuned into soft soul and vocal R&B groups, that were increasingly popular in the R&B scene in this particular time. That means, no Chuck Berry or blues type numbers at all. That means, touches of funk, disco, reggae, and all kinds of music that Mick was hearing in the clubs.

Remember Mick sang in 1974, if you can't rock me, somebody will. And he wasn't kidding, either. If your primary guitarist is not rocking you, if he's out to lunch, then somebody else will. In Black and Blue's case, that "somebody" turned out to be Billy Preston, the bevy of new guest guitarists, the jams with Jeff Beck that weren't used, plus ultimately Ron Wood who sort of rode in on a white horse to save the day, with some of his stellar guitar contributions that gave a spark to Mick-dominated tracks like "Crazy Mama" and "Hey Negrita."

This was the era when the Stones operating procedure, worked like this: They would all wait around in the studio. Keith would show up at the studio, late and disorganized, totally unprepared, after invariably keeping everybody waiting for hours. They'd plug him in, and he'd muck around on the guitar -- if he found something cool in the first few minutes, they would work it up and flesh out an arrangement and roll tape, and hopefully cut it as a quick and dirty instrumental that same night. Then Jagger would have to go back and write lyrics, make a song, sometime even concoct a bridge or middle eight out of using elaborate tape editing or overdubbing, and overdub his vocals and all the other needed instruments, edit it down from a long formless jam, and mix it, polish it, etc. If Keith didn't come up with something in the first ten or twenty minutes, folks quickly knew it was gonna be a long and unproductive night, and so they'd end up playing a lot of boring, tepid reggae jams and blues shuffles until Keith lost interest and split. I've heard this same description from many people, who were there in the studio first hand, especially later in the Talk Is Cheap and Dirty Work type eras.

It was a royal pain in the ass to work that way, because you're not actually writing songs, you're writing tracks, instrumental tracks, and then forcing them to become songs. But by this period, Keith was by and large, NOT coming into the studio with constructed riffs or planned ideas, he was concocting them on the spot. With predictably mixed results.

It is truly a miracle that Black and Blue turned out as good as it did, the outtakes from this period are universally pretty lame and tepid. In truth, Keith seems pretty somnambulist on Black and Blue, and in some places, he's almost nonexistent.

 

Pop Quiz!
What is Keith whispering to Mick on the cover of 'Black and Blue ' ?
My top three guesses :
1) " What's Ronnie Wood doing here? "
2) " Where" s Mick Taylor ? "
3) " Cover for me , I'm wasted "

 

I didn't collect 45 singles as kid, but for some reason I had that one. And indeed it went C - F - F/C - F - F just like Start Me Up.

 

I only purchased a handful of 45s before I started getting albums, but, yeah, I've got "Thunder Island" and keep it right next to my 45 single of Sweet's "Fox on the Run."

As @coniferouspine points out above, Keith was a bit sleepy during the Black and Blue sessions. But he did put this trippy mellowness to good use on "Memory Motel" where Jagger opens up with grand piano chords, followed by Keith on a hazy Fender Rhodes piano (Leslie speaker?). It really is a nice 70s groove.

 

??

 

Hand Of Fate has such a violently elegant riff

 

He segues from a sweet first verse about his daughter into the second about boning his side piece from the poor part of town. Yeah, I know it's only a song, but Jade was actually four or five at the time.

 

Love "Melody" Such a cool, soulful tune. also love Hand of Fate, Memory Motel, Fool to Cry. Like the others too.

 

What's misogynistic about that, though? He's talking about being consoled by two very different females.

 

I like Black and Blue. Bought it when it was released. The last Stones record I
bought.

 

I do not think the protagonist is in a healthy relationship with the woman he's "got" in the poor part of town that he "sees sometimes" to, again, bone, and presumably support after he shows up. Yeah, it was the 70's and all, and maybe I wouldn't have a problem with it if it wasn't juxtaposed with the clearly autobiographical verse about his daughter. It tells of a rich man exploiting a poor woman, but again, it was different time, and only a song.

 

Very sorry to quote myself, but the song I'm referring to was Outta Space, which Billy actually played on stage with the Stones.

 

It has its peaks and valleys, not unlike many Stones LPs. However, I can't imagine why, after hearing Wayne Perkins's incredible solo on Hand Of Fate, that they didn't instantly hire him. I know there were mitigating circumstances, but it makes one wonder "what if..."?



Dan

 

"Black and Blue" is a good record and better than the two previous records (GHS and IORR) IMO.

 

Could you picture the Rolling Stones with an American named "Wayne" or "Harvey" in the band? Ronnie fit the suit.

 

Those are mitigating circumstances, I will agree!


Dan

 

Black and Blue is a par release for me. I like most of it, but there's a few songs that I don't care for like Fool to Cry, which to my ears, was the seed for Jagger's solo career. Memory Motel could've been arranged a bit shorter than its 7 plus minutes displayed, Cherry, Oh Baby sorta misses the mark of true reggae inspiration and Melody basically isn't a Rolling Stones song, imo, simply a blues/jazz vamp between Preston and Mick. The album strikes a mood and when I can get into it, it's not a bad album, but if I'm not into the full album listening bit, I'd probably pick Hand of Fate and Crazy Mama as the two songs to reference it. Harvey Mandel's work on opener, Hot Stuff is really gritty, yet tasteful, and Wayne Perkins' leads on Hand of Fate contains an incredible tone, which echoes the playing of the former Taylor, perhaps a little too close and then you have Woody's Hey Negrita which ultimately, would prove the catalyst and hands down choice of Keith's new sparring guitar partner.

It's a transitional record and doesn't represent a strong enough balance of material, but it's got it's moments.

 

I'm a casual Stones fan & Sticky, Bleed, Some Girls, Exile, are my go-to Stones albums.
Black & Blue is relatively unfamiliar to me in terms of number of listens. I will give it another spin soon but I must say it hasn't moved me much in the past. Hand Of Fate is a terrific track though.

 

Yes a Stones Reggae album, or a Stones Country album, or a Stones Disco album; any of those could be great

 

I really dislike Melody. I don't know what it is. It's like if The Beatles had included the full version of Dig It on Let It Be and Phil overdubbed brass onto it. Maybe Melody is better than Dig It - but not by much, and could have served as a link or snippet. As it is, it feels primped up and also interminable. The rest of the record goes from pretty good to simply great. And I love Fool To Cry!

 

I like your post because it does hit on the very real fact that Mick Jagger worked his butt off in the '70s to keep the band going and to release interesting music while Keith was in the worst part of his addiction(s). Mick doesn't get enough credit for that, I don't think. I love Keith, but Mick really is the reason that the Stones didn't completely fall apart as early as '71 or '72. I thought it was really nice of Keith to acknowledge all of this in his book. He had a lot of very kind words for Mick in that book, but of course everyone just focused on the tiny todger comments and missed the bits where Keith credited Mick for keeping the band going, complimented Mick's songwriting and harp playing abilities and said how good Mick was to him when he was a complete junkie.

 

Just listened to this album.
Some tracks are really dreary eg Melody, Cherry oh baby, Crazy Mama.
Hand of Fate, Memory Motel & at a push, Fool to Cry & Hot Stuff are up to scratch for me.
Not a favourite album for me. Sorry folks.