Track Listing

1. Hot Stuff
2. Hand Of Fate
3. Cherry Oh Baby
4. Memory Motel
5. Hey Negrita
6. Melody
7. Fool To Cry
8. Crazy Mama

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6258 in Music
• Released on: 2009-05-04
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .21 pounds
• Running time: 41 minutes

CD Description
The Rolling Stones went through the process of auditioning several guitarists, including Wayne Perkins and Harvey Mandel, who both guest on Black And Blue, the album which debuted at number one in the US in 1976. But Wood was always the favourite and duly joined Charlie Watts on the back of the gatefold sleeve. Recorded in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the US, Black And Blue features the wonderful ballads "Fool To Cry" and "Memory Motel" and some top notch riffing on "Hand Of Fate" and "Crazy Mama". The irresistibly funky "Hot Stuff" became a club hit, a sign of things to come for a formidable band equally at ease with blues, rock, country, reggae or dance.

Customer Reviews

5 stars for the music; 3 stars for the package
So the first batch of Stones remasters are upon us and what are we getting for our hard earned cash?

Disappointingly the packaging is the same as the previous Virgin issues from 1997, no extra photos from the cover shoot or sessions. No insightful sleeve notes from someone like Roy Carr or Charles Shaar-Murray whose long out of print Rolling Stones - An Illustrated Record is still required reading.

The mastering is an improvement over the virgin issues but I am not too sure if it is that great a difference. Having lived this this and the other remasters for a while now I have found the biggest improvement has been in the lower registers; bass and drums are sharper.

On the down side the discs have not been issued as hybrid s.a.c.d. like the A.B.K.C.O. issues of the Stones' Decca back catalogue from a few years back which set the bar higher for Stones issues.. The c.d. cases are also those flimsy super audio jewel boxes which seem to be the fashion these days and they break all too easily.

I don't have too much to say about the music other than on release it sharply divided opinion. I am a lot more favourably disposed to it these days and play it quite often. The guest guitarists don't radically alter the Stones sound and some of the songs are a bit slight.

A Stones nut like me will buy without hesitation. Others will have to decide if the sound improvement is worth the extra outlay on something they may already have.

better than you'd think...
When this album was originally released in 1976, I (and many others too) felt that it was a major disappointment. Sure, it was quite slick, and very varied stylistically, but lacked real punch in places - besides, Punk was starting to flex its muscles, and compared to say, the first Ramones album, The Stones sounded like yesterday's men. However, thirty odd years later, 'Black and Blue' sounds very good indeed. Jagger sounds inspired, and vocally, this is one of his best albums. Also, for all Keith Richards was in the grip of his drug addiction, he too sounds like he is on the case. Underrated rockers like 'Hand of Fate' are amongst the toughest they've ever recorded, and the ballad 'Memory Motel' is contrastingly pretty. Even the disco workout, 'Hot Stuff', despite its duff title, does shake its booty funkily well. There's some very good gear on here.

Stones Can Take You to Funky Town
In 1976 you'd have been forgiven for saying that the Rolling Stones were a bit, well, old hat. Their previous album "It's only Rock'n'Roll" had its moments but too often sounded like a band treading water. And in that year the new enfant terrible John Lydon, in the infamous Bill Grundy interview, dismissed them as more of a business than a band.

"Black and Blue" was not business as usual, however. After several years of honourable service, Mick Taylor had left and the Stones were in need of a replacement. Being the Stones, they weren't short of applicants, but they eventually settled for Ronnie Wood, I guess because he just seemed to fit. He makes his presence felt immediately, not least on "Crazy Mama" which has a raucous bar room (or perhaps pool hall, geddit?) swagger reminiscent of the Faces. And with a new member, the Stones also decided it was time to experiment.

So "Black and Blue" kicks off with "Hot Stuff", a slinky funk workout like nothing they'd ever unleashed before. And it's irresistible. The same goes for the steamy groove of "Hey Negrita". Elsewhere you get the jazzy stylings of "Melody" (featuring some wonderfully louche brass), the laid back "Memory Motel" (a sort of on-the-road lament with vocals shared by Mick and Keith), the more familiar rock stylings of of "Hand of Fate", the stripped down cover of "Cherry Oh Baby" and the sensitive ballad "Fool to Cry".

Jagger sounds reinvigorated and handles the varied moods and influences with real passion. Watts shows the ease with which he can roll as well as rock, and the whole thing shows the ability of old hands to show young whippersnappers a thing or two.

Critical reception at the time wasn't all as positive as this, and "Black and Blue" has been rather overlooked for a long time. Okay, so it does not quite match their very best albums (usually said to be those between '68 and '72) - very little does - but its diversity, agility and audacity make it deserving of a much higher position than many before have admitted. It is pretty hot stuff, in other words.