I really don't think it's that bad i will say that its the worst from 70's but that's really not fair because all the albums in the 70's were great but this is still a pretty good album. Hand Of Fate Memory Motel Crazy Mama And on i think this album gets to much hate mick taylor had just left and there were trying out new guitarists that's part of the reason why it's not as great as the album that followed some girls. the songs i could live with out are melody and cherry oh baby they could have been replaced these with slave and worried about you other than that the album is good all round. my rating for this album would 3.5 out of 5 stars



Side one

1."Hot Stuff" 5:21
2."Hand of Fate" 4:28
3."Cherry Oh Baby" (Eric Donaldson) 3:57
4. Memory Motel" 7:07

Side two

5."Hey Negrita" (inspiration by Ron Wood) 4:59
6."Melody" (inspiration by Billy Preston) 5:47
7."Fool to Cry" 4:08
8."Crazy Mama" 4:34
















Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2013-09-02 15:34 by Godxofxrock9.

Great album!!!

Would have made a good EP.

I like 'Cherry Oh Baby', personally. 'Melody' is dross.

Replacing them with songs like 'Slave' is a moot point as that song never had any lyrics until 1980.

great album!

Hey Negrita and Crazy Mama are awesome, especially Crazy Mama. Memory Motel, of course... and Hot Stuff. I like Hand Of Fate but it's a bit slow.

It's a mishmash with no real coherence. Crazy Mama seems thrown in because they wanted to sound like classic Stones, or at least what they thought their audience expected. It was a rip off, too, with only 8 cuts when most albums of the time were 10, or even 12. But Hey Negrita is an all time funky, sleazy Rolling Stones song. Maybe Ron Wood's greatest contribution to the oeuvre.

I've always loved BAB. Very nice mixture of rock, funk, reggae etc. Top ten Stones albums to me.

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24FPS
It was a rip off, too, with only 8 cuts when most albums of the time were 10, or even 12.

Yeah, I too, believe it would of benefited from a couple of extra tracks, but the album is actually longer in duration than, say, Some Girls.

Black and Blue is pretty mediocre.

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24FPS
It's a mishmash with no real coherence. Crazy Mama seems thrown in because they wanted to sound like classic Stones, or at least what they thought their audience expected. It was a rip off, too, with only 8 cuts when most albums of the time were 10, or even 12. But Hey Negrita is an all time funky, sleazy Rolling Stones song. Maybe Ron Wood's greatest contribution to the oeuvre.

It was the trend at the time. Songs were getting longer and with only around 40-45 minutes to play with, the number of songs were reducing.

Other major albums around that time in similar vein - Born To Run (8 songs), Presence (7 songs),Desire (9 songs - despite a running time of about 55 minutes), Station to Station (6 songs), Breezin' (George Benson) (6 songs), Songs in the key of life (17 songs for a double album), Hotel California (9)

mediocre 70s schlock. proved that IORR was not an aberration and that the band was going downhill fast.

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Gazza

It was the trend at the time. Songs were getting longer and with only around 40-45 minutes to play with, the number of songs were reducing.

Other major albums around that time in similar vein - Born To Run (8 songs), Presence (7 songs),Desire (9 songs - despite a running time of about 55 minutes), Station to Station (6 songs), Breezin' (George Benson) (6 songs), Songs in the key of life (17 songs for a double album), Hotel California (9)

And then, thank goodness, punk arrived to save the day!

Some good songs on that album. Hand of Fate is in my top 10 Stones songs .

Better then any of the post 89 reunion albums IMHO.

According to this forum each of their albums is underrated, though I'm still waiting for the thread about VL...

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Gazza

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24FPS
It's a mishmash with no real coherence. Crazy Mama seems thrown in because they wanted to sound like classic Stones, or at least what they thought their audience expected. It was a rip off, too, with only 8 cuts when most albums of the time were 10, or even 12. But Hey Negrita is an all time funky, sleazy Rolling Stones song. Maybe Ron Wood's greatest contribution to the oeuvre.

It was the trend at the time. Songs were getting longer and with only around 40-45 minutes to play with, the number of songs were reducing.

Other major albums around that time in similar vein - Born To Run (8 songs), Presence (7 songs),Desire (9 songs - despite a running time of about 55 minutes), Station to Station (6 songs), Breezin' (George Benson) (6 songs), Songs in the key of life (17 songs for a double album), Hotel California (9)

Nice research. Then why does Born To Run seem so much longer, and so much more consequential than Black & Blue?

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Whale
According to this forum each of their albums is underrated, though I'm still waiting for the thread about VL...

VL is overrated

Any album where there are tracks I have to skip over to get to the ones I really want to hear is not underrated to me.

Black And Blue has some very good songs, and it was great to hear Memory Motel live at the concert I attended this year--but to me B&B is a 4- or 5-song album.

Two nice tunes just good for a Single

__________________________

there are times when I listen to Hand Od Fate and I think it's one of their greatest tracks ever. Crazy Mama not as much but what a tune...and then there's Memory Motel and Hot Stuff and Fool To Cry and Hey Negrita. Underated...maybe?

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24FPS

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Gazza

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24FPS
It's a mishmash with no real coherence. Crazy Mama seems thrown in because they wanted to sound like classic Stones, or at least what they thought their audience expected. It was a rip off, too, with only 8 cuts when most albums of the time were 10, or even 12. But Hey Negrita is an all time funky, sleazy Rolling Stones song. Maybe Ron Wood's greatest contribution to the oeuvre.

It was the trend at the time. Songs were getting longer and with only around 40-45 minutes to play with, the number of songs were reducing.

Other major albums around that time in similar vein - Born To Run (8 songs), Presence (7 songs),Desire (9 songs - despite a running time of about 55 minutes), Station to Station (6 songs), Breezin' (George Benson) (6 songs), Songs in the key of life (17 songs for a double album), Hotel California (9)

Nice research. Then why does Born To Run seem so much longer, and so much more consequential than Black & Blue?

Um...BECAUSE THE SONGS WERE MUCH BETTER.

I'm not sure if it's underrated however I probably listen to this more than any of the 70s albums released after Exile.

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71Tele

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24FPS

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Gazza

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24FPS
It's a mishmash with no real coherence. Crazy Mama seems thrown in because they wanted to sound like classic Stones, or at least what they thought their audience expected. It was a rip off, too, with only 8 cuts when most albums of the time were 10, or even 12. But Hey Negrita is an all time funky, sleazy Rolling Stones song. Maybe Ron Wood's greatest contribution to the oeuvre.

It was the trend at the time. Songs were getting longer and with only around 40-45 minutes to play with, the number of songs were reducing.

Other major albums around that time in similar vein - Born To Run (8 songs), Presence (7 songs),Desire (9 songs - despite a running time of about 55 minutes), Station to Station (6 songs), Breezin' (George Benson) (6 songs), Songs in the key of life (17 songs for a double album), Hotel California (9)

Nice research. Then why does Born To Run seem so much longer, and so much more consequential than Black & Blue?

Um...BECAUSE THE SONGS WERE MUCH BETTER.

There's nothing wrong with 8 songs on an album. Some masterpieces have five songs (Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here), three songs (Yes - Close to the Edge) or even one song (Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick). But the songs on Black And Blue are -- to me -- quite one-dimensional, almost a bunch of jams with one hook and not much going for them. Hot Stuff, Hey Negrita, Fool To Cry ...

Which reminds me of once when someone asked the question "Who's the best riff writer -- Keith Richards or Tony Iommi". Quite a narrow-minded question, but interesting. And someone replied that while Tony Iommi often puts many great riffs into one song (like War Pigs, Fairies Wear Boots or Sabbath Bloody Sabbath), Keith usually comes up with one riff, and bam! the song is over in three minutes. And this works great on songs like Satisfaction, Jumping Jack Flash, Happy and later stuff like Respectable and When the Whip Comes Down. But during the mid-70s the Stones made a lot of hook-centered 4- or 5-minutes songs that could perhaps have benefited from a more Tony Iommi-like approach, IMO. For example, the bridge in Hey Negrita (or Dance Little Sister) is very effective, but it's still a tiny part of a very repetitive song.

I think it is Underrated, Cherry Oh Baby is the only bad song on it. I think Hot Stuff,Hand of Fate, Memory Motel and Hey Negrita are all standouts. Nowhere near as good as Some Girls but better then GHS and IORR in my opinion.

I agree its a good solid effort with Cherry Oh Baby being the one clunker. But it is not a "great" album.

I dont think it's underrated, it's a great album. I love Cherry Oh Baby it's the best reggae song they ever did, love it.
Nothing wrong with having 8 songs..so what, some of the greatest rock classic albums had only few songs - The Stooges classic album Fun House had only 7 songs..

Love Hey Negrita & Hot Stuff, both are very funky grooves with great guitar playing from Ronnie on the first, and Harvey Mandel on the latter!

Two great ballads in Fool to cry and Memory Motel!

Two damn fine Stones rockers in Hand of fate and Crazy Mama!

The other two songs are o.k as well!

I love Black & Blue!

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sonomastone
mediocre 70s schlock. proved that IORR was not an aberration and that the band was going downhill fast.

Yup.

Considering how many LPs the Stones have it seems that BLACK AND BLUE would be a treat for people these days. Mainly because it's not yer typical Stones album. Who can deny the funky groove of Hot Stuff? What if they had finished Worried About You and Slave and somehow they made BAB - would it make it more or less whatever than it is?

It's music, not heart surgery.

This album and Dirty Work are the two that seemed to be complete disappointments. "They are expecting an album... guess we have to make some music." I never go back to B&B. Hey Negrita and Crazy Mama are cool on first listen, but Jagger's 75/76 style screaming just destroy the song. Hey Negrita's riff never really goes anywhere either.

With Black & Blue I feel like I am just listening to to them play. They do not feel convincing. Sucking In The 70s is a better album.

Put me down as a lover of this album -- I also am on the short list as I am one of the few that love Cherry Oh Baby! Favorites ... Hand Of Fate and Memory Motel, of course!

I bought the 8-track version the day it came out and played it incessantly. Although it was an uneven effort, due no doubt the transition period after the departure of Mick Taylor, I very much liked "Hand of Fate", "Hey Negrita", "Crazy Mama" the the cover of "Cherry, Oh Baby". I've grown to appreciate "Memory Hotel" since but the rest of the album's tunes do not rank amongst my favorite Stones songs...