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DandelionPowderman

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Hairball
When the writer states that “Fool to Cry” is one of the two best tracks, I have to question his sanity.
I could narrow the album down to Hot Stuff, Hand of Fate, Crazy Mama, and maybe Memory Motel and would be satisfied. The rest just weighs it all down.
It's a bit torturous on vinyl having to endure an entire side imo, yet on a cd it's great since there is a the 'skip track' function.

I'd choose Hey Negrita as the second rocker. IMO, it's far better than Crazy Mama.

I guess there is something for everyone on BAB, and that's some of its strength, imo - a varied and rootsy album, albeit a bit eclectic and inconsistent.

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24FPS
It was probably the best overall use of Billy Preston's style of piano playing on a Stones studio album. It was also the last (until what, a cameo on Bridges?).

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Hairball

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DandelionPowderman

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Hairball
When the writer states that “Fool to Cry” is one of the two best tracks, I have to question his sanity.
I could narrow the album down to Hot Stuff, Hand of Fate, Crazy Mama, and maybe Memory Motel and would be satisfied. The rest just weighs it all down.
It's a bit torturous on vinyl having to endure an entire side imo, yet on a cd it's great since there is a the 'skip track' function.

I'd choose Hey Negrita as the second rocker. IMO, it's far better than Crazy Mama.

I guess there is something for everyone on BAB, and that's some of its strength, imo - a varied and rootsy album, albeit a bit eclectic and inconsistent.

I did add it in my next post saying "I forgot to add Hey Negrita to my final cut".
Don't know if I would consider it a 'rocker' in the same vein as Crazy Mama though - it's more funkified (if that's a word) vs. Crazy Mama which is a straight up ballsy Stonesy rocker plain and simple.

Which had me thinking of someones previous comment - to paraphrase 'Hand of Fate and Crazy Mama are the Stones trying to sound like the Stones'...I know that's the cliche thing to say as I've read it in the past, but my answer is 'say what'? If you think about it there's really nothing that similar to either of them previously. I can't think of a Hand of Fate sound-alike at all, it chugs along riff driven with some sweet guitar solos throughout, and Mick's singing is great. Maybe there's some shades of Tumbling Dice in Crazy Mama (the rhythm guitar), but it's basically a standard rock and roll tune that also happens to be original. Chunky guitar, Mick spitting out the lyrics, and some crazy yet simple and to the point lead guitar parts. They're not trying to reinvent the wheel, and they're not really copying anything from their past, they're just letting it all hang out. Both tunes are the Stones BEING the Stones...not the Stones trying to sound like the Stones (which really makes no sense imo). That being said, while I would rank Hand of Fate amongst their all time greatest, I would rank Crazy Mama about half way down the list. But within the restraints of the hodgepoge and confusion that is Black and Blue, it shines brightly.

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DandelionPowderman

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Hairball

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DandelionPowderman

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Hairball
When the writer states that “Fool to Cry” is one of the two best tracks, I have to question his sanity.
I could narrow the album down to Hot Stuff, Hand of Fate, Crazy Mama, and maybe Memory Motel and would be satisfied. The rest just weighs it all down.
It's a bit torturous on vinyl having to endure an entire side imo, yet on a cd it's great since there is a the 'skip track' function.

I'd choose Hey Negrita as the second rocker. IMO, it's far better than Crazy Mama.

I guess there is something for everyone on BAB, and that's some of its strength, imo - a varied and rootsy album, albeit a bit eclectic and inconsistent.

I did add it in my next post saying "I forgot to add Hey Negrita to my final cut".
Don't know if I would consider it a 'rocker' in the same vein as Crazy Mama though - it's more funkified (if that's a word) vs. Crazy Mama which is a straight up ballsy Stonesy rocker plain and simple.

Which had me thinking of someones previous comment - to paraphrase 'Hand of Fate and Crazy Mama are the Stones trying to sound like the Stones'...I know that's the cliche thing to say as I've read it in the past, but my answer is 'say what'? If you think about it there's really nothing that similar to either of them previously. I can't think of a Hand of Fate sound-alike at all, it chugs along riff driven with some sweet guitar solos throughout, and Mick's singing is great. Maybe there's some shades of Tumbling Dice in Crazy Mama (the rhythm guitar), but it's basically a standard rock and roll tune that also happens to be original. Chunky guitar, Mick spitting out the lyrics, and some crazy yet simple and to the point lead guitar parts. They're not trying to reinvent the wheel, and they're not really copying anything from their past, they're just letting it all hang out. Both tunes are the Stones BEING the Stones...not the Stones trying to sound like the Stones (which really makes no sense imo). That being said, while I would rank Hand of Fate amongst their all time greatest, I would rank Crazy Mama about half way down the list. But within the restraints of the hodgepoge and confusion that is Black and Blue, it shines brightly.

People are adding what happened later to the mix. Those tracks were good, and the string of mid-tempo rockers just hadn't been released yet at that time

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loog droog

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24FPS
It was probably the best overall use of Billy Preston's style of piano playing on a Stones studio album. It was also the last (until what, a cameo on Bridges?).

Better than "Shine A Light" "100 Years Ago" "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo Heartbreaker" "Fingerprint File" "I Got The Blues"....?

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potus43

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JohnnyBGoode
[ultimateclassicrock.com]

The mid-’70s weren’t so great for the Rolling Stones. Commercially speaking, they were on top of the world and never bigger. They were untouchable during this period, with every album shooting straight up the charts and tours selling out in no time.


But behind the scenes, they were starting to unravel. And on record, they were far from their best. Keith Richards was barely conscious during the sessions for 1974’s It’s Only Rock ‘N Roll, and the concerts were more workmanlike than life-changing starting around 1972. Things were getting so big and out of hand that the music, too, was starting to feel less eventful with each passing album.
From 1968’s Beggars Banquet through 1972’s Exile on Main St., the Stones released four of rock’s all-time greatest albums. Not just four of the Stones’ greatest albums, but four of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll albums ever made. Then they began to slide, first with the tossed-together Goats Head Soup in 1973 and then with the incomplete (but not terrible at all) It’s Only Rock ‘N Roll the next year.
At first, the plan was to rebound quickly and put out a new album. The Stones returned at the end of 1974 to the same Munich studio where It’s Only Rock ‘N Roll was recorded to lay down some tracks. At the start of 1975, they were in the Netherlands recording more. But they were still reeling from Mick Taylor‘s abrupt departure in December 1974 and hadn’t decided on a replacement guitarist yet (Jeff Beck, Peter Frampton and Steve Marriott were all considered; the job eventually went to Ronnie Wood).

By mid-year, the band was back on the road, and sessions for the record were put on hold. A year after the initial recordings were shelved, the Stones returned to Munich and then headed to Montreux, Switzerland, to polish the tracks. On April 23, 1976, nearly a year and a half after work first started on the record, Black and Blue was released.

It wasn’t quite what fans were used to. Gone, for the most part, were the guitar-guided rock ‘n’ roll workouts that dominated the first half of the decade, replaced by funk, soul, jazz, reggae and a stew of simmering sounds not usually found on Rolling Stones records – at least like this. But put in context with the band’s personal problems and its past history with black music, the record wasn’t so much confusing as it was sorta pointless. As critic Lester Bangs summed up in his review in Creem, “This is the first meaningless Rolling Stones album.”
The record’s two best songs – the soulful ballad “Fool to Cry” and the funked-up “Hot Stuff” – were released on the same single, with both cuts charting separately. (The former made it to No. 10, while the latter stalled outside the Top 40.) Elsewhere, the band – aided by Billy Preston, Nicky Hopkins and guitarists Wayne Perkins and Harvey Mandel, as well as Wood, who got his face on the LP’s back cover and credit as the band’s newest full-time member, even though he played guitar on only three of the album’s tracks – meanders from groove to groove with little purpose. (Two of its leftover songs would later show up on 1981’s Tattoo You.)

But that couldn’t stop the Stones’ commercial roll. Black and Blue climbed to No. 1 and stayed there for four weeks, eventually going platinum. It would be another two years before the group finally got around to sorta cleaning up and getting back on track with Some Girls, a career-reviving hit that confirmed, even to the swarm of cynics that Black and Blue spawned, that the Stones were pretty damn close to indestructible. The mid-’70s stumbles were just another part of their legend.

The author is kinda dumb

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GasLightStreet
This LP gets beat up so much. Look at the time frame and what was going on, it's amazing they released anything, actually. Take the 1973 tour, which still had the same energy as the 1972 tour, and listen to IORR and then BAB - that's a span of 4 years.

They changed. A lot.

A meaningless album... at the time, perhaps. But historically, it's a huge predecessor to 1978-1983 in terms of creativity, maybe mostly so to SOME GIRLS, but I think it kind of cleared the path for them that they had cluttered up.

The fog of GHS and the haze of IORR had lifted. By the time SOME GIRLS came out the sun was shining - perhaps a bit too bright.

BAB is the sound of a clear day. Hot Stuff, Hey Negrita and Crazy Mama reveal that. If Slave had been finished and put on BAB I bet some people would say "It's boring".

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GasLightStreet
This LP gets beat up so much. Look at the time frame and what was going on, it's amazing they released anything, actually. Take the 1973 tour, which still had the same energy as the 1972 tour, and listen to IORR and then BAB - that's a span of 4 years.

They changed. A lot.

A meaningless album... at the time, perhaps. But historically, it's a huge predecessor to 1978-1983 in terms of creativity, maybe mostly so to SOME GIRLS, but I think it kind of cleared the path for them that they had cluttered up.

The fog of GHS and the haze of IORR had lifted. By the time SOME GIRLS came out the sun was shining - perhaps a bit too bright.

BAB is the sound of a clear day. Hot Stuff, Hey Negrita and Crazy Mama reveal that. If Slave had been finished and put on BAB I bet some people would say "It's boring".

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potus43
The author is kinda dumb