The record was originally released in April 1976, and marked the 13th full-length effort from the legendary band. It was also the first following the departure of former guitarist Mick Taylor, who was eventually replaced by Ronnie Wood.
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Arriving as a 5LP vinyl box set and a 4CD box set, both editions come alongside a Blu-ray disc, a 100-page hardback book and a replica tour poster. The vinyl edition is pressed on exclusive black and blue marbled vinyl, alongside streamlined two-disc and one-disc formats on both vinyl and CD. There will be a limited edition 1LP zoetrope vinyl on offer too.
There’s a moment deep in the 1975 “Blues Jam” the Rolling Stones recorded with Jeff Beck, a bonus track to the new super deluxe Black and Blue box set, where the six-string genius stops playing Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, and Keith Richards–style blues and starts fiddling with his instrument’s volume knobs to resemble a crying cat.
The three jam sessions Beck recorded with the group — including an impressive interpretation of his then-unreleased, jazzy Blow by Blow gem “Freeway Jam,” on which Richards sounds reserved, and drummer Charlie Watts sounds at home — are highlights of this compendium of the Stones’ most unusual era.
Although the Stones always shrugged off Black and Blue as the bridge between Mick Taylor and Woody, the box set shows how they struggled to keep going at a crucial time, but were also open to new sounds and new musicians, all while never losing their mission. The reissue also makes the case that the album’s songs should get a second life. If a “black and blue” is a bruise, then the Stones healed quite nicely at the time. It’s just a shame, shame, shame that there’s not more recordings with Beck and others that could’ve shown what an alternative-universe Stones would’ve sounded like.
The recording sessions served as auditions following Taylor’s exit – meaning that contributions come from the likes of guitar greats Harvey Mandel, Wayne Perkins, Jeff Beck and Robert A. Johnson.
Wood joined Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman as a bona fide Rolling Stone, appearing on three tracks and later joining as a full-time member. He signed up for their US tour and has been in the line-up for five decades.
The new box set also includes a brand new interview, where Wood reflects on joining the band in 1976: “Right then, this is where I’m meant to be.”
The album was the second to be self-produced, credited to ‘The Glimmer Twins’ (a pseudonym used by Jagger and Richards), and included songs like ‘Hot Stuff’, ‘Hand Of Fate’, ‘Fool To Cry’, ‘Melody’ and ‘Memory Motel’.
