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TeaAtThree
Wish they could have recorded every album that way. So crisp and clean.
Love Hand of Fate, Hey Negrita, Crazy Mama, and Memory Motel. Imagine IORR with that kind of sound!
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71Tele
I started a similar thread not long ago and was surprised by the amount of passion some folks have for this rather water-treading effort. The Stones, minus their brilliant guitarist, could only muster five new Jagger/Richards songs (two others credited to them having really been written by Ronnie Wood and Billy Preston, respectively). Hand of Fate is a decent second-tier open G number, Fool To Cry has not aged very well, Cherry Oh Baby is Cherry Oh B-Side, and even the much-loved Memory Motel is lyrically subpar - sentimentality masquerading as deep feeling (though the Keith vocal redeems it somewhat). As for Melody, I just do NOT want to hear Billy Preston singing on a Stones album (nothing against Billy).
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StonesTodQuote
71Tele
I started a similar thread not long ago and was surprised by the amount of passion some folks have for this rather water-treading effort. The Stones, minus their brilliant guitarist, could only muster five new Jagger/Richards songs (two others credited to them having really been written by Ronnie Wood and Billy Preston, respectively). Hand of Fate is a decent second-tier open G number, Fool To Cry has not aged very well, Cherry Oh Baby is Cherry Oh B-Side, and even the much-loved Memory Motel is lyrically subpar - sentimentality masquerading as deep feeling (though the Keith vocal redeems it somewhat). As for Melody, I just do NOT want to hear Billy Preston singing on a Stones album (nothing against Billy).
well if yer gonna be nitpicky...
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72stones
My pat answer concerning my feelings about the album over the years is as follows: Though it may not be considered a classic Rolling Stones album, it is an underrated one. Translated, it means that I feel its a lot better than it is given credit for.
A lot of people over the years have pushed this idea that Some Girls was a comeback album by the band. It depends upon how you look at it philosophically. I don't think the band ever left. They always kept on rocking in their own way. The debate then becomes just how good they were doing it by this point in the band's career. They continued being a rock and roll band and not leaving the public eye by going out on tour with Ronnie Wood a year before the album was released. In this regard, the Stones never left. It just becomes a debate of whether you feel Wood did a good job after the departure of Taylor.
In my mind, the more important question of all isn't so much about the Black and Blue album. It's about the Some Girls album. Philosophically speaking, while the Some Girls album is a good album, it is overrrated in its importance to the band's history. Why? Because the Stones never left and therefore never required a comeback album to begin with.
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71TeleQuote
72stones
My pat answer concerning my feelings about the album over the years is as follows: Though it may not be considered a classic Rolling Stones album, it is an underrated one. Translated, it means that I feel its a lot better than it is given credit for.
A lot of people over the years have pushed this idea that Some Girls was a comeback album by the band. It depends upon how you look at it philosophically. I don't think the band ever left. They always kept on rocking in their own way. The debate then becomes just how good they were doing it by this point in the band's career. They continued being a rock and roll band and not leaving the public eye by going out on tour with Ronnie Wood a year before the album was released. In this regard, the Stones never left. It just becomes a debate of whether you feel Wood did a good job after the departure of Taylor.
In my mind, the more important question of all isn't so much about the Black and Blue album. It's about the Some Girls album. Philosophically speaking, while the Some Girls album is a good album, it is overrrated in its importance to the band's history. Why? Because the Stones never left and therefore never required a comeback album to begin with.
I don't agree with your reasoning. I remember quite well when Some Girls came out. In fact, I was driving across the desert from Phoenix to LA to see Bob Dylan for the first time. The LA radio station had the album before it was released, and without any fanfare they played a cut about every half hour. It was fantastic! The band had been mired in a gradual decline for three straight albums. Keith Richards was in the worst shape ever around '76-'77 (on some of those 76 shows he was really scary, nodding off onstage). Their best instrumentalist had left in late '74. Some Girls was a completely fresh sound. From the uptempo songs to the twangy thrashy Fenders, it was a surprising comeback for the band. Yes, technically they had never really "left", but they certainly seemed as if they could "go" at any minute (there was even talk of replacing Richards), and suddenly they came out with this.
That's my interpretation, anyway.