Black and Blue and Largely Forgotten
This is an album review for an album that came out in 1976, which was hugely popular but is now largely overlooked. It’s also a look at a hall-of-fame band that was going through a major transition, and a tribute to one of the great drummers in 20th century popular music.
The album is Black and Blue. The band is the Rolling Stones. And the drummer was Charlie Watts.
Why Review an Album from 1976?
The Rolling Stones played a significant role in shaping both what we think of as rock n’ roll and what we think of when we think of a rock n’ roll band. Only three band members appeared on every album: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Charlie Watts. Watts, the band’s drummer, was as steadfast and reliable as Jagger and Richards were flamboyant and mercurial. Watts kept the Rolling Stones rhythmically grounded, making him a key figure in their run as one of the most consistently successful bands of the past 60 years.
When Watts died on August 24, it made me look back at the body of work the Rolling Stones produced. And what I found surprised me.
Let me back up for a second and provide some (mercifully brief) personal context. My uncle gave me my first guitar, and the first things he taught me were the rhythm parts to his favorite Stones songs.
Since my uncle was particularly fond of the early Stones albums (from Out of Our Heads through Let It Bleed), those are the albums I know best. As an adult, I branched out and listened to Exile On Main Street and Sticky Fingers.
But that only gets you through 1972. And when I looked at the Rolling Stones discography, I saw that they recorded 30 studio albums. I thought of myself as a Stones fan, but while many of the 13 albums recorded after 1972 sounded familiar (Tattoo You, Steel Wheels), there were some I’d never heard of at all. And one of those was Black and Blue.
So I began educating myself on the albums I missed.
Setting the Stage
Albums, like any other work of art, are difficult to appreciate if you don’t have any context. So to talk about Black and Blue, we need to talk about what was going on with the Rolling Stones in the years leading up to Black and Blue.
In 1973, the Stones put out Goats Head Soup. The album got lackluster reviews, but hit the top of the charts on the back of two successful singles: “Angie,” which hit #1, and “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker),” which broke the top 20.
However, Goats Head Soup was the last album the Stones made with producer Jimmy Miller, who also produced their previous four albums (dating back to Beggars Banquet). In other words, the band parted ways with the producer of what were arguably their best albums.
This set the stage for 1974’s It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll, which was a bit of a disaster.
It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll was the first album produced entirely by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, under the pseudonym The Glimmer Twins. Meanwhile, guitarist Mick Taylor was struggling with drug addiction and becoming increasingly disenchanted with the Stones.
As a result, the album is largely forgettable. (The sole exception may be the cover version of “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg.” While it took guts to cover The Temptations, the gamble did not pay off.)
In fact, the title track, which is the only song most people know from this album, is also the only song on the album that most of the Stones don’t play on.
Jagger wrote and recorded “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It)” with Ronnie Wood (who would become a member of the Rolling Stones three years later). The backing band included bassist Willie Weeks, drummer Kenney Jones (who had played with Wood in Faces), and David Bowie(!) on background vocals. While Keith Richards added some guitar parts later, the song was essentially written and performed without him. Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor don’t appear on the song at all. (Richards got a songwriting credit anyway, though one can probably chalk that up to Jagger’s wishing to keep the peace.)
The fact that the best song on the album didn’t involve most of the Rolling Stones tells you a lot about the state of the band. And two months after the album was released, in December of 1974, Mick Taylor left the group altogether.
So, as the Rolling Stones entered 1975, the band had put out two commercially successful albums over the previous two years; both albums had been met with decidedly mixed reviews; they’d canned their long-time producer; and they needed to find a new guitarist.
The stage was now set for Black and Blue.
Why Does This Sound Different?
Recorded largely in 1975, and released in spring of 1976, Black and Blue was the third Stones album in a row to meet with largely unfavorable reviews. And it’s clear that the Stones definitely made some unexpected choices here. But I love it.
There is a stark difference between how the band sounds on Black and Blue as compared to It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll.
If the Stones sounded like a disinterested mess on It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll, they sound present on Black and Blue. They’re all there. They’re all dialed in. They’re all paying attention. They have energy. And it sounds good.
In part, this may be due to The Glimmer Twins now having some experience in working without an outside producer.
It may also stem from the fact that the recording process for Black and Blue doubled as a series of auditions for who would take Mick Taylor’s place in the Stones lineup. That meant some very good guitarists were doing their best to ace the job interview, and the end result is an interesting mix of styles and some excellent guitar playing.
But another reason I enjoyed this album so much may be the fact that I had low expectations. After all, I only knew one song from this album before listening to it a couple weeks ago. (This is, in itself, somewhat amazing. Black and Blue went platinum. It spent four weeks at #1. And I’d not only never heard the album — I’d never even heard of the album.)
I was expecting very little, and what I found was quite a lot.
Let’s Talk About Songs
The first track on the album is “Hot Stuff,” and I perked up as soon as I heard the opening guitar riff. I hadn’t heard the song before. It’s a big departure from anything the Stones had recorded to this point, though it pointed toward a dance-oriented sound the Stones would explore at greater length as the disco era dragged on.
Is “Hot Stuff” a virtual parody of a disco song? Yes. Does it have some unbelievably good guitar solos? Also yes. Does it sound like it could have been recorded in the past few years by a pop band that’s tapping into disco-era nostalgia? Yes again. And it is tremendous fun.
Up next is the largely unremarkable “Hand of Fate.” If you were to close your eyes and think of what a stereotypical Rolling Stones song sounds like, you might think of this song. It’s built around a bluesy guitar riff and includes good solo guitar work and solid vocals from Mick. However, there is no hook. It manages to earn a solid B while being largely forgettable.
Track 3 is “Cherry Oh Baby” — which is one of those unexpected choices I mentioned earlier. It’s a cover of a reggae song by Eric Donaldson, and…it sounds like the Stones playing a cover of a reggae song. That said, there are some surprises here.
The first surprise is that it actually sounds okay. I mean, Mick sounds somewhat ridiculous singing reggae, but the band’s not bad. Bill Wyman does a better job than I would have anticipated of playing a reggae bass line, for one thing. But what makes this song worth listening to, to me, is Charlie Watts’ drumming.
Watts was a jazz drummer in a rock n’ roll band. But most people wouldn’t have known that he was a jazz drummer in a rock n’ roll band. He played what the songs called for. He wasn’t flashy. He rarely showed off. He was just there, in the pocket, supporting the rest of the band. But “Cherry Oh Baby” leaves lots of space for Watts to maneuver, and he made the most of his opportunity to do some improvising. If you listen to the band, this song is okay. But if you just listen to his drumming, this song is pretty freaking cool.
The next song, “Memory Motel,” is almost great. It starts out as a straightforward piano ballad (yawn) and Mick’s vocals are…odd. He enunciates the lyrics with what I think might be his attempt at a Southern accent? But wait! As I kept listening, I realized that this song is actually good.
Great guitar parts. Excellent drumming. Killer melodic hook. Keith sings some lead. I ended up liking “Memory Motel” a lot, especially when Mick’s vocal stylings become less pronounced later the song.
“Hey Negrita*” — All I’m going to say about this song is that a bunch of white guys should never, under any circumstances, write or sing a song with this title. It was unacceptable then, and it’s frankly embarrassing now. Okay, on to the next song. [*I’m not even going to link to this one.]
Billy Preston is credited with being the “inspiration” for “Melody,” which is the sixth song on the album. And it is amazing. It sounds nothing like the Rolling Stones. It’s more jazz nightclub than blues bar. It has great piano, organ and backing vocals from Preston. It may be the most surprising guitar work I’ve ever heard from Keith Richards. Jazz drummer Watts is in his element. And Mick!
If Mick’s melodrama and willingness to go over the top with his vocals dragged “Memory Motel” down, those same traits really work on “Melody.” He is playing a role, the whole song is fun, and I love it.
I’ll come back to track 7, but first I want to jump ahead to the album’s eighth and final track, “Crazy Mama.” Along with “Hand of Fate,” this is the only song on Black and Blue that has that timeless Stones feel. It sounds as if it could be a space-filling track on any Stones album recorded between the late 60s and the late 80s. In other words, it is not bad at all. But it’s also not interesting.
Now I’m going to circle back to the only song I knew from this album, which was also its only hit: “Fool To Cry.”
I’ve always had a fondness for “Fool To Cry,” and I could hum along to it on the radio, but I had never actually listened to it. It’s a great track. As I listened, I tried to imagine what it would have sounded like relative to other popular music in 1976. And, taken in context, it feels slightly ahead of its time.
The organ tone in the intro, and the falsetto vocals, are very mid-70s. But the way the song hangs together, the drumming, and the organ line that runs under the chorus all feel more like the pop songs that would become popular in the early 80s. It’s also just catchy as heck.
I think this is one of the things that the Rolling Stones did exceptionally well for such a long time: they had one foot firmly planted in the current musical zeitgeist and one foot inching forward just a little bit beyond what other bands were already doing. Their music managed to be both relatable and a little adventurous. That formula didn’t last forever — rock n’ roll is largely a young person’s game — but they did it very well for an awfully long time.
At any rate, that is how I discovered Black and Blue. And I’m awfully glad I did.
