When faced with the task of a new album for a new year, The Rolling Stones were able to, at the height of their powers, create one of the most forgettable, lopsided pieces of their entire career. That may seem harsh, but anyone who has listened to Black and Blue is sure to know it is true.
Black and Blue is messy in every sense of the word, but to its own credit it had the potential to be an amazing album. Some of the most experimental songs of the band from the decade are on the album, but the amount of experimentation just backfired horribly. You have their longest song, R&B ballads, dance and disco pieces, and also 4 lead guitarists spanning across a measly 8 tracks, with the actual lead only appearing on 3. Black and Blue was the first album in 6 years without Mick Taylor, a tough act to follow by many means, which may lead into some of the reasoning behind how messy this album is.
The creation process for Black and Blue has only ever really been recounted by one member of the band, Ronnie Wood, which is even weirder as it is one he features on so sparingly. From his account, he was eyed to join The Stones as early as December of 1974, as soon as Taylor’s resignation was spoken into existence - Wood claims to have been sitting between both Mick Taylor and Jagger when Taylor told Jagger of his departure, something Wood was directly in the middle of in every sense of the word. Wood would then come onto the The Stones 1975 Tour of the Americas as their touring guitarist, causing a shakeup in Arkansas and within his own band, Faces. Everyone was keen on noting that Wood would never join The Stones full time due to his duties with other musicians, though that plan fell through just as quickly as it was muttered half-heartedly. But, it would be unlike Jagger to just hand the job over to the man who was ready to risk his job security so quickly, so Wood was, after months of touring and being lead on, forced to audition for the job he already had. Instead, Wood was to line up with the likes of Wayne Perkins, Harvey Mandel, Rory Gallagher, Steve Marriott, Eric Clapton, Mick Ronson, Peter Frampton, and Jeff Beck… he was fighting an uphill battle in many respects except the biggest one: fitting in. Many of the artists who auditioned have distinct stylings as well as being unsuited for the work of such a close knit band, which wasn’t what The Rolling Stones were looking for. The thing about The Rolling Stones is that even if Keith Richards has never been a lead guitarist, he is the lead guitarist of The Rolling Stones: he leads and he is who the band is to fall into playing with, as well as being the guitarist with the distinct styling on display. He is never to be the best guitarist on stage, but the most important - a fact that Wood was perfectly aware of and fell in line with. It should also be accounted that Richards had taken his step back with Taylor’s years in the group, as the duos weaving as not as strong as his work with Stones founder Brian Jones or Ronnie Wood. The Rolling Stones also aren’t a very solo heavy band, their music so locked into their rhythm guitar that many of those who auditioned were already not looking good for the role with their previous bands allowing that center stage so often craved to be more open. Wood just wanted to be in the band, as he’d made his friends, learned every song, and proved that he was, by all accounts, born to be a Stone. It goes without much saying that Wood got the job, but even his three songs can’t save the album.
Black and Blue features lead guitar from Wayne Perkins and Harvey Mandel as well as Wood, which adds these layers of disconnect throughout the differing ideas presented by each of their different styles. Mandel is on the disco heavy Hot Stuff [despite Wood’s mimes in the video] and the albums true stand out Memory Motel, while Perkins is on the sleeper hit Hand of Fate and the R&B-esque Fool to Cry [whose work is also mimed by Wood in the video], and Wood fills out the tracklist on electric guitar, though he features on all non-guitar tracks so with backing vocals. He’s hard launched as their new guitarist after years of denial of his association to the band with his mug on the back cover and a photoshoot on the beach in the gatefold [where he seems to be the only one happy about pretty much anything]. Surprisingly, his softer launch to work the band, the other being driving through Manhattan on the back of a flatbed truck playing Brown Sugar to announce his spot as their tour guitarist for ‘75.
Speaking of packaging, the most traction the album got was because of absolutely horrific displays and billboards they displayed: A tied-up, beaten girl with the slogan ‘I’m Black and Blue because of The Rolling Stones… and I love it!’ The picture of the scantily-clad, bloodied woman was often put over a fold out of the band’s group photo that adorned the album. Feminist groups were [rightfully] outraged at this album promotion, as it was unnecessary, violent, and glorifying abuse. For as bad as the public always saw them, this was their worst offense. Billboards featuring this advertisement were often vandalized, Jagger’s face being the main point of contention, Jagger was always the point of contention, and not just for being the mouth of the group [in multiple ways]. It’s hard to really find any point of this advertisement, though it did get people talking which falls in line with a lot of Jagger’s other ideas in how to get publicity without really trying. Jagger also spoke of the album as a whole was one they didn’t care for much while making, claiming they were “not focusing much on the creative process.”, which does become outwardly apparent when looking at the piece of work as a whole. One of the main criticisms of the album upon release was that it was pretty unfocused, citing its shining moments as the sparse ballads. Their dips into reggae and funk feel forced, like they knew anything would sell and went for it.
Wood, Jagger, and Richards photographed during the cover shoot for Black and Blue
To be fair to Jagger citing the album as a “vacation period”, this was the first time in nearly a decade where they weren’t forced into having to question their staying power within the rapidly changing pop culture sphere. There was no Jones to worry of, no tax exiles, no Altamont, no Taylor threats to leave. With Wood, there was no worry their guitarist would up and leave, as well as they had a buddy to “watch” Richards, ensuring things wouldn’t get too rough. In fact, Richards was their only risk at the time. His addictions were rapidly catching up with him, and his mental and physical health were in a clear decline. There were accounts of his self sustained physical injuries from all corners of their inner circle, as well as the constant threats he would make on his life, but to most on the outside little had changed as he had been a liability for the majority of the decade. While Richards had more than proved he cared about the band, the music, and touring his actions rarely reflected this. He would be arrested 4 times during the 70s, 3 of those times on tour. Assaulting photographers, carrying heaps of illegal weapons and drugs, to the outside world it seemed he cared nothing about the image he was leaving, nor the band that allowed him to get away with his antics. 1976, and the tour promoting Black and Blue would prove to be his worst moments. Countless tour videos of him barely being able to stand or remember words of his songs were released for straight-to-television concerts, he was constantly grilled about his lifestyle resulting in moments of his facade slipping like this infamous interview, and Wood recounts in his book how Richards desire to retreat into his music became so overtaking he played a showed despite a self-inflicted hand injury and nearly bled out to finish the show, refusing to stop or declining to play. The culmination of all this would result in one of the darkest days of The Stones career, the night in which Richards’ infant son died of SIDS while he was across the world. Despite the band’s efforts to keep the show from happening, Richards forced the show to go on anyways, claiming in later recounts that he feared if left to his own devices he would’ve shot himself. Black and Blue’s mess could be a reflection of its most vocal desterer, the man behind so much of the album. Jagger’s claim of unfocused creativity stems from multiple avenues of the album's creation and subsequent promotion. The album is overshadowed by a bleak psyche and subsequent breakdown of it’s most involved member than highlighted for the new ideas and outlook given at large of it’s newest member.
There’s this certain lie around art, a lot of times rock music in particular, that when the artists are at their worst is when their work will be the best. Rumours, Abbey Road, Blood on the Tracks, Band on the Run, even the Stones very own Exile on Main Street all fit this archetype, that the pain of the creator breeds some of their most inspired work - that their blood becomes poetic when shed into their art. Black and Blue aptly subverts this, its title representative of the lesser cared for byproduct of the tortured artists pain, what's left behind once the pain sets in. The album is messy, disjoined, and only shines when it revels in painful moments as opposed to dances over the issues that plague. There’s something to be said about how vital Keith Richards is to The Rolling Stones that Black and Blue inadvertently put on the biggest stage possible, how integral his musicality, advice, and focus are to making the band be half as good as they are. The album, to this day, is largely ignored in the grand scheme of The Stones catalog despite it being the debut of Ronnie Wood, some of their best dance numbers, and holding one of their best lyrical pieces with Memory Motel - Black and Blue should be hard to write off as far as legacy acts keeping up into the late 70s go, yet it is. It’s maligned for holding Wood back, for showcasing the capitalistic side of Jagger’s musical output, along with being completely overshadowed by its predecessor Some Girls just two years later, which cleaned up the messy nature showcased here with a load of the same ideas done in a more focused, less clunky way - with new eyes almost. Richards wasn’t overly involved within the creation of Some Girls either, focusing more on his own recovery, his family, and his new found freedom after a year under house arrest, but he was, by all intents and purposes, there. He was writing their songs, he was functioning as a founder and not a hired gun, seemingly awake from his fog that had trapped so much of Black and Blues potential.
The layers are stacked almost too high within this album, a different idea and meaning coming from each of its most prominent players. Jagger writes it off, Wood speaks of enjoyment through the creation, and Richards remains mostly silent apart from some light jabs. The album was almost expected to addresses the departure of Mick Taylor, the disillusionment of Faces, the changing of the musical tides, Keith Richards declining state, but instead chose to stand for nothing and make an objectively pointless piece. A listenable, danceable, decent piece, but a pointless one nonetheless. It wiped the slate clean between It's Only Rock 'n' Roll and Some Girls, accidentally recontextualizing the expectation placed upon the Stones in terms of a changing world. No longer the baddest boys of rock and roll, they had to settle for being some moderately misbehaved - maybe for the better.
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