Although brief (8 songs rather than the usual 10 in those days), Black and Blue remains my favorite Stones album mostly because it features a little bit of everything in its content. Does anyone know if any other tunes were ever considered for B & B?

Yes, great album. Funky as hell. And heck yes there were other songs worked on in those sessions.

The boot "Black and Blue Sessions" have all the rough demos, songs like Worried About You and Slave were from those sessions.

It certainly has "a little bit of everything" musically, but one thing its lacking is consistently good songs.

would have made a fine EP, but for an 8-song album theres too much fluff

yes, fantastic album : memory, hot stuff, MELODY !!!, fool, Negrita !!, hand, mama...and their (almost first true reggae... I think those who didn't like (love for myself) B'N'B never understood what the STONES have become till today: just MUSICIAN (and easily the best)

Its got""I make a love I cant understand''!!Hand of Fate...Memory Motel..Melody....Hot stuff...very good and popular at the time indeed...great cover!!!I really like Hot stuff!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-10-10 22:33 by rooster.

8/10. Nice album but not the best

i really didn't like it at first...loved a few tracks...hand of fate... but just didn't get its groove...
but it grew on me..i always looked at it as a mick taylor tryout album...see who plays guitar the best.. but over the years the album is sounding better and better... i LOVE IT TODAY! get virgin records version of this album..

The 2 first songs are killers, after that, it's a bit up and down. Memory Motel and Crazy Mama are great too. Hey Negrita was better in concert, very cool guitars on the live versions.
I was actually very disappointed with Black and Blue when I bought it. I didn't think it rocked, apart from Crazy Mama. But the album grew on me, obviously.

hated it for a bit but i love it,hand of fate is excellent

Over half of it is great - Hot stuff, Crazy Mama, Hand of Fate, Memory Motel and Fool To Cry. The rest is crap (Cherry Oh Baby)/throwaway (Hey Negrita)/dull (Melody). So it's a 7/10 album and a good companion piece to It's Only Rock N Roll.

SLAVE was recorded during this time. Sorry I didnt see it listed before



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-10-10 23:59 by GShelter.

I too agree that it has its high points but overall doesn't stand among the giants.

I've always wondered why the Stones decided to only include 8 tracks instead of the usual 10 or so. Any theories on why it's so short in that regard (too few impressive and completed tracks in their view at the time, "Memory Motel" too long on its own to consider other tracks for inclusion, was the band pushed for time with approaching deadlines, etc)?

Ride like the wind at double speed.....

I like the above mentioned great ones although to be Fool to Cry is just o.k. To have a half great songs out of only 8 and the rest fillers, makes B&B the weakest Stones album IMHO. Still worth an occassional listen for sure, but this one just never makes it off the bottom of my rankings.

sf37 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ,
> was the band pushed for time with approaching
> deadlines, etc)?


as they had started recording it 16 months before it came out, and the final overdubs and mixing were completed four months before its release, I wouldnt like to think so.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-10-11 00:46 by Gazza.

I think it is a superb album. "melody" and "Cherry" complete the broad sweep.
Speaking of "Slave" - has anyone else noticed that the riff from "Slave" and "Hey Negrita" are almost the same? yet Ronnie receives credit for the Negrita riff but not for the Slave.
B&B like Exile shows me that the Stones deliver under great pressure. These supposed disorganized auditions masked as sessions produced a strong core album. Look how well it has held up. Unlike some other albums it has only grown stronger. Literally every song has grown in stature and myth.
Memory Motel has become one of the alltime great Stones ballads. Up there with Horses, Angie.
Fool to Cry (the SOL of it's day) is no longer laughed at but gets the soul reception it deserves like Worried bout you.
Hand of Fate has become one of the standards in the latter day sets that we look for. Hot Stuff with the horn charts and Crazy Mama after the '99 tour are faves.

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

One of my favorites. Not a classic but there's something about it that keeps me coming back to it...

I like the part on the Toronto Rocks dvd where it shows all the performers gathering together for the group photo. You can tell that Mick must have just come out of his room for this and was not hanging around with all the other performers backstage. After the photo Burton Cummings from The Guess Who excitedly tells Mick that recently he's been getting into Black And Blue and especially Melody. It's pretty obvious that Mick has no desire to listen to Burton and just puts up with it until he can get back to his own room again.

My personal favorite as I got it while going through a break-up with my first real girlfriend and my parents divorce. "Memory Motel" is still my all-time favorite by the Stones! Second place - "under My Thumb".

Memory Motel is a fabulous song and one of my all time favourite recordings by the band.

And therein lies another 'whine'. What gimp sequenced 'Black and Blue' and decided to end it with 'Crazy Mama'? If ever a song was made to be an album closer, it was 'Memory Motel'. God forbid, but if theyd never made another album after Black and Blue, this road-weary farewell would have been quite an appropriate swansong. Its made even worse now in the CD era where instead of being at the end of side 1 of an LP, its merely at track 4 of an 8-song CD.

It was another one of those Lps that when released , I really didn't care for much except for 1 or 2 cuts . But as you listen more closely and pick up the different types of music they were experimenting with ,I began to enjoy it more and more

And now you made me get up off of my ass and dig out the Lp and toss it on the turntable !!

Thanks

Often thought of Black & Blue as a 70's
version of US Out Of Our Heads ... some
10 years later and the Stones spitting
out their black influences from that era...Reggae...Jazzy...Funky..

Yeah very good point Gazza...Memory Motel lost on CD



ROCKMAN

For some reason I've been in a Crazy Mama mode lately.

my fingers are black and blue for pushing play on this disc time after time - it is indeed a great one. it includes two of the all-time best Stones songs: Hand of Fate and Fool to Cry, plus a whole bunch of other excellent tunes.

Such a shame to see Gazza (who is usually right about all things Stones) falling for that insufferable schmalz that is Memory Motel, though. If only I could 'forget' it . . .

you can't catch me!

I agree with most everybody else here. Not a terrible album, not great. But I am one of those who absolutly loves Memory Motel. Yet I have never heard it live in 16 shows. Damn the luck. Hopefully they will dig it out at one of the three shows I am going to on this tour.
Hand of Fate, and Crazy Mama are also good rockers off this album that would sound good live.

The Notorious NIK Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> my fingers are black and blue for pushing play on
> this disc time after time - it is indeed a great
> one. it includes two of the all-time best Stones
> songs: Hand of Fate and Fool to Cry, plus a whole
> bunch of other excellent tunes.
>
> Such a shame to see Gazza (who is usually right
> about all things Stones) falling for that
> insufferable schmalz that is Memory Motel, though.
> If only I could 'forget' it . . .


let me get this right :

Memory Motel = insufferable (sic) schmaltz

yet

Fool to Cry = one of the all-time best Stones songs

Shurely shome mishtake?

not sure what i mispelled in the previous post, Gazza. but in any event, yes Fool To Cry is a heart-wrenching soul ballad, with great lyrics, great vocals, and one of the finest final minutes in the history of rock music.

memory motel, on the other hand, has the lyric "she's got a mind of her own, and she use it well."

case closed.

p.s. hope you recognize me under my new username!

you can't catch me!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-10-11 03:25 by The Notorious NIK.

I like the lines "I hit the bottle...I hit the sack and cried" and "whats all that laughter on the twenty second floor, its just some friends of mine and their bustin down the door".

I always enjoy my stay at the Memory Motel.

for me, check-out time is the same as check-in time . . .

you can't catch me!

... a favorite album of mine. with fool and motel leading the way.....