Black & Blue [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

The Rolling Stones | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 26, 1994)
• Original Release Date: 1976
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Virgin Records Us
• ASIN: B000000W5D
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (101 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #50,263 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars BRILLIANT ROCK, SOUL & REGGAE, April 21, 2003

By 

Pieter "Toypom" (Johannesburg) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Black & Blue (Audio CD)

This often overlooked album in the Stones' oeuvre shines with good to great songs and contains some brilliant reggae. It kicks off with the funky Hot Stuff, followed by the passionate Hand Of Fate which is vintage Stones. Cherry O Baby is a lovely slice of reggae with intriguing organ lines and brilliant vocalizing, while the road epic Memory Motel is a moving story song. Hey Negrita is a wailing bluesy number and Melody soulfully ambles along with lovely guitar, sax, piano and Mick's falsetto voice. Fool To Cry starts as a gentle ballad but gets pretty raucous eventually, while Crazy Mama is the Stones at their rocking best, a powerful conclusion to this great album. It may not be amongst the Rolling Stones' top ten albums, but Black And Blue contains some strong songs with great melodies and playing throughout and no dud tracks. Rediscovering it was a great pleasure.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Rock albums of ALL TIME, June 30, 2004

By 

Victor (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black & Blue (Audio CD)

I was skeptical about buying this album. I had been into the Stones for years, but I read mixed reviews about it, and how it was a minor disappointment when it was released in 1976. But I finally purchased a copy of the album on a whim, and it turned out to be surprisingly brilliant and crafted with the talent that most Stones records are noted for.

BLACK AND BLUE is up there with the best of the Stone's body of work. It's not as daring or encompassing as Exile on Main St., not as bluesy as Sticky Fingers, but it's also just as inspired as Beggar's Banquet or Let It Bleed, and after listening to those four impeccable masterpiece albums, I'd encourage you to add BLACK AND BLUE to the collection. It is a much better than IT'S ONLY ROCK N' ROLL, and is a good introduction to the brilliance that would continue to surface with SOME GIRLS

The craft of songwriting and recording is as palpable as the rest of their amazing work from the late 60s and early 70s. The biggest highlight of the album, by far, is MEMORY MOTEL. It's definitely one of the most beautiful rock songs ever written. It's epic, but not in the grand stratosphere of arena rock as say- STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN. It's subtle, charming and brilliant. In the same vain is FOOL TO CRY, which turned out to be the album's most popular song. It sounds very similar to MEMORY MOTEL in some aspects, but each song can stand on its own. There are other gems such as HAND OF FATE and CRAZY MAMA which can stand as the epitome of all hard rock Stones songs. It served as a precedent for many of the songs that would be heard on SOME GIRLS and TATTOO YOU, with less blues and more of what would be known as 70s Classic Rock. In addition, cuts like HOT STUFF, HEY NEGRITA and CHERRY OH BABY are all pseudo-reggae jams that are decent jams, but slightly redundant. However, they're above the rank of throw-away songs. Lastly, MELODY is my least favorite but it's not terrible, it's an ideal song that would be right at home in smokey bars everywhere.

So do yourself a FAVOR and buy a rock n' roll classic from the Rolling Stones - get BLACK AND BLUE.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars unconventional and underrated, December 26, 2002

By 

"georgename" (Mountain View, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black & Blue (Audio CD)

I'm a Stones fan, and this is definitely one of my favorite albums. It's as eclectic and non-commercial as they come: disco/funk (Hot Stuff), blues/R&B (Hey Negrita, Melody), ballads (Fool To Cry, Memory Motel), reggae (Cherry Oh Baby), and straight-ahead rock (Hand of Fate, Crazy Mama). Several Stones albums have similar variety as well, e.g., the predecessor It's Only Rock N Roll: for the above categories, think Fingerprint File, If You Really Want to Be My Friend, Time Waits For No One, Luxury, and more rock: If You Can't Rock Me, title track, etc. But B&B has the least straight rock, making it their least conventional (and thus less popular). In general, I love the Stones sound here (and of course on the preceding albums). I think Wayne Perkins is a terrific guitarist, particularly evinced by his work on Hand Of Fate and the end of Fool To Cry (and Tattoo You's Worried About You, which seems to have been recorded during the Black & Blue sessions). And Charlie is fantastic: I particularly like his work on Hot Stuff, Hey Negrita, and the end of Fool To Cry, when the band winds up very tightly.

Of course in the end, people like music that's infectious or memorable to them, and you can't objectively quantify that. To my taste, Hot Stuff (and Dance, Part 1) is the best funky song they ever did, Hey Negrita and Melody are among the best blues/R&B they ever did, Fool To Cry (particularly the end of it) is among the best ballads they ever did, and Hand of Fate is as good rock as they ever did. Melody in particular is a very unusual and impressive song. The other tracks here are average Stones mid-70s work, which is to say 'very good'. That's why I like this album so much. (I'll allow that Cherry Oh Baby is far from their best; in comparison, Luxury from the previous album is excellent.)