To me it always felt like they spent more time taking the photos for the cover than they did working on the actual record.


When you're talking about the actual album, it's an evaluation of the finished work...not the sessions that included stuff they didn't use, i.e. "Slave" and "Worried About You."

I wish they had included those tracks, and stuck more with making a "black" R&B album. The rockers on this record are really pedestrian. It sounds like they were sitting down when they recorded "Hand of Fate" and "Crazy Mama" seemed like pandering to the FM Rock radio base. The best part about that song is the (uncredited) Ronnie Wood lick that comes in at the end.

And only eight songs (most overlong ) after a two-year wait from the previous album? My reaction then was, hey guys, thanks for the morsel.

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1962
Hot Stuff: 10/10, the 1976 live version: 10/10, later live version: 4/10

Hand of Fate: 9/10, the 1976 live version: 7/10, the 2002/3: 5/10

Cherry Oh Baby: 10/10 (I also love the bootleg version), the 1976 live version: 10/10

Memory Hotel: 8/10, the live version: 7/10

Hey Negrita: 10/10, the 1976 live version: 9/10

Melody 10/10

Fool to Cry: 8/10, the 1976 live version: 6/10 (it's not a live song)

Crazy Mama: 10/10, the 1997 live version: 5/10

The 2002 live version of Hand Of Fate is abysmal. .05/10. They get half a point for bothering to try to play it. 1997 version of Crazy Mama, same thing. Pointless. Wonderful that they thought of it and did it but come ON, how can they do stellar versions of Midnight Rambler and Monkey Man but destroy those songs?

Bought it when it came out so my 3rd album chronologically (after GHS, IORR) as the others were discovered as I went back.
Still love it and it was the album of the tour when I first saw them at Leicester May 1976 and again Knebworth Aug 1976
Memory Motel is my favourite

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NoCode0680
I enjoy it. I think it's a pretty good little album. It just seems so short. I don't know how it stacks up in actual run time, but I think 8 tracks is the shortest of any Stones studio album.

41 minutes.

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WeLoveToPlayTheBlues

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NoCode0680
I enjoy it. I think it's a pretty good little album. It just seems so short. I don't know how it stacks up in actual run time, but I think 8 tracks is the shortest of any Stones studio album.

41 minutes.

Right, but how does that stack up to the length of other albums? Is it about average?

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DandelionPowderman

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WeLoveToPlayTheBlues
Awesome album. Certainly in my Top Ten of Stones LPs. If they had finished Worried About You and Slave (and whatever else), well, it might be considered one of their best.

I second that.

And Hey Negrita must be one of the grooviest songs ever recorded. The production on the album in general is as good as it gets. What a huge improvement production-wise after the blurry, uneven-sounding GHS and IORR!

Hey Negrita? You wanna try shagging to Melody. Now that's what I call a groove! ><

Hmm, here we go again. People never get tired of discussing this album.

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NoCode0680

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WeLoveToPlayTheBlues

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NoCode0680
I enjoy it. I think it's a pretty good little album. It just seems so short. I don't know how it stacks up in actual run time, but I think 8 tracks is the shortest of any Stones studio album.

41 minutes.

Right, but how does that stack up to the length of other albums? Is it about average?

I'd say so. BEGGARS is 39. DIRTY WORK is 39. SG is 40. ER is 41. LET IT BLEED is 42. TY and U are 44 minutes. SF and GHS are a whopping 46 minutes and IORR is a mind blowing 48 minutes. STEEL WHEELS is a gargantuan 52.

Excellent album and I've always loved it. Hot Stuff, Hand of Fate, Hey Negrita, Melody and Crazy Mama are all brilliant. Cherry oh Baby is hilarious piece and Memory Motel a good ballad. The only real no-no is Fool to Cry but there's usually one no-no in every album. Maybe some day they'll release that 11-minute bootleg version of Hey Negrita. Fantastic version.

one of my favourite. it proves how good the stones are in many different kind of music.

I started buying Rolling Stones albums in 1969 when I was 18. I hated Black and Blue when it came out. I have never listened to it much ever. I only have it on vinyl, the original record, purchased in September of 1977. The only 1962 to 1982 Stones album that I do not have on both CD and vinyl.

Due to the almost overwelming positive opinions of readers here, I am going to get it out and try lietening to it again.

Sometimes I really do not understand the taste of readers in this forum, who almost universally love Black and Blue, but hate Emotional Rescue. I happen to love Emotional Rescue.

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Chacho
I started buying Rolling Stones albums in 1969 when I was 18. I hated Black and Blue when it came out. I have never listened to it much ever. I only have it on vinyl, the original record, purchased in September of 1977. The only 1962 to 1982 Stones album that I do not have on both CD and vinyl.

Due to the almost overwelming positive opinions of readers here, I am going to get it out and try lietening to it again.

Sometimes I really do not understand the taste of readers in this forum, who almost universally love Black and Blue, but hate Emotional Rescue. I happen to love Emotional Rescue.

It's a great LP to listen to while you're doing something - cleaning or organising - because you'll catch yourself dancing or singing along to the words without realising it. And when it gets to Crazy Mama, well, who can't reist doing the CRAAAAAAAAAzay maahhhmuh the way Mick does?

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Mathijs
Best sounding Stones album.
Mathijs

Agree.
Charlie's snare is just perfect.

Great album. Soundwise and songwise.
Hot Stuff 8/10
Hand of Fate 10/10 One of the best rockers of all time, great lyrics, great solos!
Cherry Oh Baby 9/10 Great
Memory Motel 10/10
Hey Negrita 8/10 the GROOVE
Melody 6/10 Billy Preston has written that in fact...
Fool to Cry 6/10 'Nice' pop song
Crazy Mama 10/10 hard rockin and rollin

A really good album. Bought it on the day of release and was disappointed but in reletaive terms and as the years have gone by, it has proved to be much better than I first thought. Hey Negrita is just what the Stones should sound like, as is Hot Stuff...Crazy Mama, was one of the last times that riffing sounded plausible. Hand of Fate is wonderful, and I even love Memory Motel and Fool to Cry. Melody was a refreshing change and Billy's work on it is sublime. Cherry Oh baby is a really good working of a classic, destroyed later by the vile UB40. But all in all Black and Blue was the but one authentic Stones Studio recording.

At the time it came out, it was a let down to me, maybe because it didn't have a real good rocker or two and because I was the missing Mick Taylor sound. But I've come to appreciate it. I can put it on now and enjoy the groove all the way through. One of the best moments of my life was hearing them play Memory Motel on the Voodoo Lounge tour.

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nomis
One of the best moments of my life was hearing them play Memory Motel on the Voodoo Lounge tour.

you must've been that guy sitting to my right at the second vegas show.

What a sound! Memory Motel is a masterpiece, the same as Melody

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jamesfdouglas
Cheery Oh Baby - Charlie's worst performance ever, awful, fake reggae.

Fake reggae? How so? It's a cover of a reggae tune, recorded in Jamaica, during the time when they were most heavily influenced by actual Jamaican musicians. They really 'faked' it so well that those same Jamaican musicians continued to play/record w/ stones members well after that.

Oh wait, I guess its not possible for white musicians to be influenced enough by a black-based musical genre to successfully partake in that same genre ... they should have stuck w/ classical.

Hated it when it first came out, simply for Hot Stuff. Combined with Fingerprint File I thought the Stones were heading to being a disco band. I dismissed teh record over it. I got a new appreciation of it years later, and it is now one of my favs by the Stones. Hand Of Fate, Crazy Mama, Memory Motel, Fool To Cry are all right up there with their best material. I prefer it to IORR and GHS.

this record was a killer. they went new ways and it was the last time they did. an abbsolutely underrated masterpiece

Great album, love Crazy Mama, one of my favorite Rolling Stones songs period, also like Hand Of Fate, Memory Motel and Hot Stuff.

Imagine that there is no BB,LIB, SF and EOMS ; then GHS, IORR and BandB are almost masterpieces.
They are all lovely albums, and each RS releas has its own charm and groove (at least until now)

Black and Blue has really grown on me. Especially Hey Negrita!

Like SATANIC MAJESTIES, I'd heard/read for so long BLACK AND BLUE sucked it took a few years before I got them...and then I was amazed how much I liked both.

If only.



It could have been a dream album.

It came out at the time of my first broken heart and my parents' 2nd divorce. I was 15. Played it to death. Love it. MM is an all time favorite, Think FTC is great too,

Only dog is Cherry Oh Baby.

Love this album. Some cool tunes! But it reminds me of missed opportunities.
For example Jeff Beck turning them down.

And what a shame Rory Gallagher arrived to audition but Keith was out cold.
Is it correct Rory never got a chance to jam with them?
Such a shame. Would have been blistering.

Pretty much one of their best record excluding the golden period. It's not by any stretch worse than the much more lauded Some Girls. I actually tend to prefer it. It is flawed in a way that a couple of songs just stick to the groove without ever evolving into a fully-fledged melody but the grooves themselves are just contagious. I also think that both Memory Motel and Fool to cry are some of their best ballads

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loog droog
To me it always felt like they spent more time taking the photos for the cover than they did working on the actual record.

They spent more than one day working on the recordings.

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loog droog
When you're talking about the actual album, it's an evaluation of the finished work...not the sessions that included stuff they didn't use, i.e. "Slave" and "Worried About You."

It's usually made clear that "IF" they had finished...

I wish they had included those tracks, and stuck more with making a "black" R&B album. The rockers on this record are really pedestrian. It sounds like they were sitting down when they recorded "Hand of Fate" and "Crazy Mama" seemed like pandering to the FM Rock radio base. The best part about that song is the (uncredited) Ronnie Wood lick that comes in at the end.

And only eight songs (most overlong ) after a two-year wait from the previous album? My reaction then was, hey guys, thanks for the morsel.[/quote]

It seems that you have overlooked the brilliance of Crazy Mama - it's suh-leeeeeze-ay. It's sleaze at its finest. Hand Of Fate is sleazy as well. It's obvious something laidback was going on with these sessions. It was time to slow down.

If they were pandering to the FM Rock radio base it failed.

Why the bitch about the length of the LP? It was two years between Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers.