Black and Blue is an album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1976. It was the band’s first studio album released with Ronnie Wood as the replacement for Mick Taylor. Ron Wood had played 12-string acoustic guitar on the track “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It)” of the 1974 Rolling Stones album It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll and appears on half of the Black and Blue album tracks (mostly backing vocals) with Wayne Perkins and Harvey Mandel playing guitar on the remaining titles.
Stylistically, Black and Blue embraces funk with “Hot Stuff”; reggae with their cover of “Cherry Oh Baby”; and jazz with “Melody”, featuring the talents of Billy Preston – a heavy contributor to the album. Musical and thematic styles were merged on the seven-minute “Memory Motel”, with both Jagger and Richards contributing lead vocals to a love song embedded within a life-on-the-road tale.
Released in April 1976 – with “Fool to Cry”, a worldwide Top 10 hit, as its lead single – Black and Blue reached #2 in the UK and spent an interrupted four week spell at #1 in the US, going platinum there. Critical view was polarized: Lester Bangs wrote in Creem that “the heat’s off, because it’s all over, they really don’t matter anymore or stand for anything” and “This is the first meaningless Rolling Stones album, and thank God”; but in the 1976 Creem Consumer Guide Robert Christgau rated the album an A-.
The album was promoted with a controversial billboard on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood that depicted the model Anita Russell, bruised and bound (by Mick Jagger) under the phrase “I’m Black and Blue from the Rolling Stones — and I love it!” The billboard was removed after protests by the feminist group Women Against Violence Against Women, although it earned the band widespread press coverage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_and_Blue
This was the 3-D Record store display depicting the Black and Blue Anita Russell. One of the most sought after Rolling Stones displays.
