Rolling Stones: Black and Blue (2CD)

Forgetting for the moment any revisionism applied to the The Rolling Stones album Black & Blue (Rolling Stones Records, 1976), the iconic British band was in more than a little disarray when it repaired to a variety of studios for recording sessions beginning roughly two years prior to issue. Still, retrospect applied via the reissue(s) of the band's 13th studio album reveals it to be a patchwork of tracks far more cohesive than the sloppy collage of salacious images on the cover.

Still, that artwork mirrors the fissures within the Stones as a unit at the time of recording from late 1974 into the year of the album's eventual release. Widening since the magnificent double album Exile on Main Street (Rolling Stones Records, 1972), the schisms had reached a point that, after Goats Head Soup (Rolling Stones Records, 1973) and It's Only Rock 'n Roll (Rolling Stones Records, 1974), contemporaneous rivals of the Stones boasted more unified firepower than Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and company (see former New York Doll David Johansen's quintet and ex-McCoy & Johnny Winter compatriot Rick Derringer's quartet).

In terms of completism and commerce, the sumptuous wealth of content in the Black & Blue re-release is spread across a variety of packages. Yet there remains much of interest in the two-CD set alone because the six-track disc of previously-unreleased recordings, coupled with the Steven Wilson remix of the album proper, captures the essence of the Stones' situation at the time.

The somewhat tongue-in-cheek Jagger-Richards original "I Love Ladies," plus a high-energy take on discoteers Shirley & Company's "Shame, Shame, Shame," illustrates how the band's collective mind was elsewhere. As a result, the essential listening consists of the roughly 30 minutes comprising four instrumental jams from the 1975 sessions featuring the guest guitarists invited in as audition for membership in the ensemble.

Conspicuously absent from those proceedings is the late Irish bluesman Rory Gallagher. Omission of performances in which he participated ultimately beg the question of the actual circumstances of his participation (or lack thereof), but the presence of numbers featuring the late guitar hero Jeff Beck more than compensates.

The former Yardbird and author of the fusion classic Blow By Blow (Epic Records, 1975) leads the ensemble through "Freeway Jam" from that very album, as well as another exercise in a shared rediscovery of roots, a blues jam wherein his natural tendency to command the spotlight illustrates why El Becko was not the optimum choice to fill the open position in "the greatest rock and roll band in the world."

Nearly five and a half-minutes of "Chuck Berry Style Jam (With Harvey Mandel)" hints that the one-time member of Canned Heat might well have been the ideal recruit. On the other hand, the absence of any informal performances with Muscle Shoals fretboarder Wayne Perkins may signal he garnered less attention than his peers (or, more likely, based on his session man pedigree, was less inclined toward freewheeling improvisation).

Rather than presenting an arbitrary collection of tracks, this pairing of the two compact discs captures the underlying rationale behind this project, that is reconfiguring the Rolling Stones, as a band, without without ex-John Mayall guitarist Mick Taylor, who had been in the ranks since 1969 (the same year Brian Jones died). To that end, the aforementioned Wilson remix of the original eight tracks compares favorably in depth and presence to the SACD releases of Abkco Records titles like Beggars Banquet (London, 2002).

So, slight a song as it is, "Hot Stuff" vividly demonstrates the mechanics of the band, particularly as the audio is widely spread across the stereo spectrum. Therein too, piano from Billy Preston and Nicky Hopkins returns that instrument to the forefront in the arrangements (not coincidentally, both Jagger and Richards' worked the ivories during these sessions). Likewise "Hey Negrita," is largely a rhythmic vamp and nothing more; this number further stipulates the songwriter team of Jagger and Richards—known as 'The Glimmer Twins' in their dual roles as producers—were relying more on craft than creative inspiration at the time (see also the reggae-derived "Cherry-O Baby").

Still, the guitar-centric riffing of "Hand Of Fate," like the rousing conclusion that is "Crazy Mama," betrays no lack of fire, instrumentally or vocally. And the soul/r&b-oriented "Memory Motel" and "Fool To Cry" are both superior to some previous exercises in style like "I Got The Blues" from Sticky Fingers (Rolling Stones Records, 1971): Jagger's passionate elocution of his delivery, as well as his restrained use of falsetto, articulates the emotional import of the lyrics.

Inclusion of so much live material in the largest of these Black and Blue sets suggests the demand has dwindled for standalone releases of such content as Bridges To Buenos Aires (Eagle Rock Entertainment, 2019). Still, the placement on CDs three and four of the Super Deluxe Edition features a show at London's Earls Court Exhibition Centre of 1976 and correlates to the entry on Blu-ray of a previously-unreleased TV broadcast of the concert at Les Abattoirs in Paris in the same year.

While reasonable selling points in and of themselves, hearing the relative vigor in the studio recordings alone bespeaks the Rolling Stones' commitment to themselves as musicians and recording artists nearly 50 years prior, especially as it foreshadows the enduring legacy the group drew upon in the wake of drummer Charlie Watts' passing in 2021.

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