I just listen this album again and again, and still can't beleve how good it is.
If they published Hot Stuff now, and make video for it, it would be a bigger hit than any song on ABB. It sounds so fresh, and exotic, the original 30 years old record!!!! And there are 7 more fantastic tunes that drive.... so cool! what do you think about it?

I love "Black and Blue" since 1976!!! It was the first Stones album for me to buy right after it was released ... and I still love every song!

It's a transfer Album (like IORR) and no other Stones album sounds like it. It has good songs (Hand of Fate) and horrible ones (like Cherry oh Baby). It lacks something that's present on latter albums like Girls and Tattoo. It misses drive and inspiration IMO. The inspiration had to come from Wood and Preston (as mentioned on the inner sleeve........) I give it an 6,8.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-06-20 11:42 by Potted Shrimp.

can't get enough!
the opening notes floor me every time, and then the rest of it keeps me there right to the end.


"What do you want - what?!"
- Keith

>> Cherry Oh Baby <<

i love that track! Keith's yowlin like a wildcat in rutting season - that is just *beautiful!*
someone around here once noted that Black & Blue is about the last time we hear a whole album full
of that inimitable Keith Vocal Thing of just touching the lines with his voice and lighting everything up so fine -
can't get enough :E

and the production is amazing!!! .... can you give me all informations that you know about this album (about songwriting, outtakes, guitars used, photos of that time, photos from photo session for cover..... I'm interested in everything)

Great album! Personal favs are Hand Of Fate, Memory Motel and Crazy Mama.

>> informations that you know about this album <<

here's a great start: [www.timeisonourside.com]


"What do you want - what?!"
- Keith

with sssoul you right...b&b is the last "keith classic harmonies" album. That's enough to love it..

The Stones would have adored the original Cherry O Baby
by Eric Donaldson who had a massive hit in Jamaica with
the song after winning the 1971 Jamaican Festival Song
Competetion. The rhythm of the origial has been used on
countless reggae songs over the years...

Mick tarts the vocals a lil' but mainly The Stones hang
close to the originals uncluttered and at times almost
transparent backing sounds...

Hmmmmmm Yeah and I lurv it.....hot-day dance grooooooove ....



ROCKMAN

I think the 1975. MSG live version of CHERRY OH BABY is better then the B&B version. The B@B version is a bit too long, boring. The New York live version is also long but not boring at all, I could listen to it for 20 min.!!!

B&B holds a special place in my heart. It was the first Stones album that I actually bought upon its release plus they were touring with it when i saw them for the first time at Earls Court, London and then Knebworth. I also won a copy of this album in a competition run by the NME.

Some great tracks on the album, only Cherry Oh Baby gets a slight thumbs down from me - reggae should be left to those that do it best ie West Indians

Andy

Stones can play reggea very well! I love all, and hope for more.

Great album. I love Hand of Fate, Memory Motel (one of their finests ballad ever), Melody, Fool To Cry. Even Cherry on Baby isn't that bad. Still it's better than LZ's D'yer Mak'er

franzk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Even Cherry on Baby isn't that bad. Still it's better than LZ's D'yer Mak'er


LOL, that Zep song is an insult to Reggea! There's a pretty bad pre-Disco song on that album too!

I remember getting B&B for the first time. I was spending the night at a friend's house. We both stayed up all night and played the album front to back again and again. Nothing else in between; just blown away. I can not understand how it could be called a passing album. The 8 cuts are tops; each one with it's own identity. It is a classic example of the Stones covering and mastering many styles of music: funk/disco, rock, bluesy shuffle, reggae, ballads.
The very first sopund one hears on the record is that tiny, tinny little guitar by Keith. Takes some balls to open an album with that compressed little scratching. In the days of Boston. The solo by Perkins in HOF is perfection. Memory Motel is a work of beauty. Jagger's lyrics, his story, the delivery over the rich arrangment of three keyboards by Jagger, Keith and Billy... But my favorite part in the song are Keith's BU vocals in the second verse; behind, on top and in between Jagger's lines "she took my guitar and she began to play, she sang a song to me, stuck right in my brain". Keith does it just right.
"Hey negrita" with Ronnie checking in on the riff and that lethal solo, and Billy hammering away, Ollie and Charlie claccking to Jagger's nonsensical "Spaniard" tinged rhymings. The strings and falsetto of "Fool to Cry" to the cock-rock of the album's closer called "You Cra-a-azy Mama".

"...no longer shall you trudge 'cross my peaceful mind."

HOF is superb. MM&HS great too. Hey Negrita? What a great song especially on some live gigs back then. And that 11 min outtake-one...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-06-20 13:14 by Hurriganes.

>> It's a transfer Album (like IORR) <<

okay, i've been trying to decide what i think you mean by this, and i can't - so i'll ask.
of course Black & Blue is the transition from Mach II and Mach III, so in a sense it's like LIB - the transition from Mach I to Mach II -
but why is IORR a "transfer album"? do you mean because there are so many nonStones so prominently featured on it, or ... ?

sorry if this is a side track - don't you worry, i'll be back :E


"What do you want - what?!"
- Keith



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-06-20 13:22 by with sssoul.

with sssoul Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> but why is IORR a "transfer album"?


Because the sound / production / guitars are very different from the albums before and after. GHS and Black and Blue are like another band compaired to IORR.

ROCKMAN

But my
> favorite part in the song are Keith's BU vocals in
> the second verse; behind, on top and in between
> Jagger's lines "she took my guitar and she began
> to play, she sang a song to me, stuck right in my
> brain". Keith does it just right.


Yup, mine too. Dont know how to describe it but magical it is.


One of my absolute favourites Black n blue. Somehow stuck inte the middle and needs some rediscovering.

It's an okay album. It's one of those records that just sits in my CD rack gathering dust, but when I stick it in the player I realise tat it 'aint half bad. However, getting back to my original "it's okay" comment. I group Black And Blue with It's Only Rock 'n' Roll and a few others together. They're albums I don't particulary think about, but are alright for an occasional spin.

any album with Hand of Fate (one of the all time greats), Fool to Cry, and Hot Stuff must be pretty damn good.

what i can't understand is all of the adoration that Memory Motel generates around here. it's pure schmalz! and "she's got a mind of her own, and she use it well," is one of the worst stones lyrics on record.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-06-20 14:58 by nikkibong.

I didn't really appreciate Memory Motel until I heard it live (1999).

perhaps they removed that god-awful lyric?

Keith sang that line very clearly.

don't know how much i'd have "appreciated" that . . .

I think that both B&B and Goat's Head Soup have aged well. At the time, they were overshadowed by the impossibly high standards that the Stones set with LIB, Sticky Fingers and Exile. As a result, tracks have not been overplayed either live or on the radio (other than Angie), and the albums sound fresh. One problem with B&B is its very short (8 songs).

For me it is just an average stones album! As a huge stones fan that means i like it very much, but i don´´t consider it part of their best albums! it can´t be compared to the "big 4", neither to Some Girls! It doesn´t rank neither amomg my personal favourites like Dirty Work, Undercover and Vodoo Lounge (but this is just a question of personal taste).

My prefered songs are: hey negrita, hot stuff, and hand of fate!

The album SOUNDS great. Only 16 tracks, tracksheet was part of the vinyl version. Drums on just 3/4 tracks I believe, but what a superb sound!