The Rolling Stones - Blue & Lonesome (2016)

► Get the album at the usual place...

The happy accident
Who doesn't remember their famous version of Fred McDowell's “You Gotta Move” on “Sticky Fingers” in 1971 ? Long before that, on their very first album released in 1964, they had covered songs by Willie Dixon (”I Just Want To Make Love To You”), Jimmy Reed (“Honest I Do”) and Slim Harpo (“I'm A King Bee”). And Muddy Waters' “Just Can't Be Satisfied” on their second opus (1965).

From the beginning, blues was an old acquaintance of the Stones and continued to be, hidden and ready to set an ambush in most of the Jagger-Richards repertoire. In 2016, eleven years after their last studio opus, the band took the public by surprise, releasing a full album of blues covers.

The first surprised were probably themselves : totally unplanned, a kind of accident, this album imposed itself. The story is that in December 2015, they went for a few days to Mark Knopfler's new West London studio to discover and test its unfamiliar technical platform for a possible future album project. Joined by their usual touring musicians, bassist Darryl Jones and keyboardists Chuck Leavell and Matt Clifford, they started warming up by playing a few old blues “live in the studio”. They had such a good time and the result sounded so nice that they went on just for the fun of it. On the third day, they had an entire album worth of material !

The story doesn't detail if the raw sound of the album comes from the recording “live in studio” and/or from their lack of mastering the rich and subtle sonic capacities of the studio control room, but the result is incontestably a superb album of early Chicago blues, that of pioneers like Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter or Jimmy Reed...

Guitar fans probably thought before listening that it would be a unique opportunity to hear Richards and Wood loud and clear in their favorite idiom but it is Jagger who dominates with his unique voice and great omnipresent harmonica.

Walter Jacobs aka Little Walter

Guitar-wise, the palm goes to Eric Clapton who just happened to be in session just across the hallway for his album “I Still Do” and dropped in to play on a couple of titles : the great “Everybody Knows About My Good Thing” on slide, and “I Can’t Quit You Baby”, the Willie Dixon song that Led Zeppelin had transformed on their debut album into a monument of what had been called “hard rock” at the time.

Not that the two Stones guitarists are bad or anything, but they're kind of standing back on most of the titles, overshadowed by Jagger.

Willie Dixon, 1915-1992

If all 12 tracks of the album are great moments, with their notable raw vintage sound, some of them stand out particularly like Howlin’ Wolf's “Commit a Crime”, Magic Sam's haunting “All Your Love”, Little Johnny Taylor's “Everybody Knows About My Good Thing”, Jimmy Reed's superb “Little Rain”, Willie Dixon-Howlin' Wolf's “Just Like I Treat You” or Willie Dixon-Otis Rush's “I Can’t Quit You Baby”.

No need to be a regular Rolling Stones fan to appreciate this recording, any blues aficionado will. Oh, just one more thing ! When this excellent album was recorded, Jagger was 72, Richards 73, Wood 68, Watts 74 and Clapton 70. Quite reassuring for people of my age ! 😉 ■

Live videos... are better than long speeches

► The Rolling Stones and the Blues
● Pre-Rolling Stones, Little Boy Blue & The Blue Boys, 1961 or 1962 : https://youtu.be/ujatJ2yYfdM
● “Little Red Rooster”, 1964 : https://youtu.be/j-nT_joqmeM
● “I Just Want To Make Love To You” :
→ Willie Dixon's original : https://youtu.be/oHVkxFOMx2Y
→ Rolling Stones original 1964 album version (audio) : https://youtu.be/YkxrL8gUfbw
→ Hollywood Palace, June 1964 : https://youtu.be/1m2-nbMFwHY
→ Argentina, 1998 : https://youtu.be/THq7CpAQLVY

Slim Harpo, 1924-1970

● “Honest I Do” :
→ Jimmy Reed's original : https://youtu.be/J5o6t4fNDi4
→ Rolling Stones original 1964 album version (audio) : https://youtu.be/YYxxBXZ033U
● “I'm A King Bee” :
→ Slim Harpo's original : https://youtu.be/XWLvm11MAaM
→ Alternate faster version : https://youtu.be/giFMF_5c-AE
→ Rolling Stones original 1964 album version (audio) : https://youtu.be/KZuslSATNHU
● “Just Can't Be Satisfied” :
→ 2nd album (1965) : https://youtu.be/B0k10f8fPMw
→ Milan, 2006 : https://youtu.be/Gqm8Qn3iGIM
● “Hillside Blues (I Don't Know The Reason Why)” with Mick Taylor, unreleased, 1969 : https://youtu.be/K2xjOgeSWn4
● “I Got The Blues”, The Marquee Club, London, 1971 :

With the great Muddy Waters

https://youtu.be/GaovG9IDn-E
● “Love In Vain”, Texas, 1972 : https://youtu.be/ryRDcE2sB2A
● With Muddy Waters, Checkerboard Lounge, Chicago, 1981 : https://youtu.be/P3qfTk730Cw

Eric Clapton

● With Eric Clapton, Atlantic City, 1989 : https://youtu.be/2K5xRRGr754
● Acoustic blues, 2010 : https://youtu.be/R4JTQ9mBtdM
● “You Gotta Move” :
1. The original :
→ Mississippi Fred McDowell, 1964 : https://youtu.be/zrpMY_IoAks
→ Electric version, from the album "I Do Not Play No Rock 'N' Roll", 1969 :

Fred McDowell

https://youtu.be/erUE8DrB04E
→ Live & remastered : https://youtu.be/Za6dSLQLrdM
2. The Rolling Stones :
→ Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, 1969 : https://youtu.be/kIg3wCZX2Wc
→ Los Angeles Forum, 1975 : https://youtu.be/uiDoW6mMcfE
→ Atlanta, GA, 2015 : https://youtu.be/_PdB8ZM46Bo
→ 2021 : https://youtu.be/8Uhh3a48XPA

► “Blue & Lonesome”

● ITWs about “Blue & Lonesome” :

→ Mick Jagger : https://youtu.be/lVPvl8oKmg8

→ Keith Richards : https://youtu.be/0aHpFAujp7Y

● A video strangely titled “The Alternate Blue & Lonesome” without any explanation, starting with Jagger and Jeff Beck playing at the White House in front of Barack and Michelle Obama, and continuing with excerpts from live concerts of the Rolling Stones : https://youtu.be/Wom62n6Wom0

● “Blue & Lonesome”, in the studio (ultra short video) : https://youtu.be/b_ggHXOhU4s

● “Ride 'Em On Down”/”Just Your Fool” live, California, 2016 : https://youtu.be/N3FSWMtaqAI

► 60 years of Rolling Stones concerts through the world
● 1964 appearances : https://youtu.be/KjVxpnOU3lk
● The Legendary Hyde Park Concert, London, 1969 : https://youtu.be/5SueSkCkbC8
● Documentary about the tragedy  of the Altamont Speedway Free Festival, California, in December 1969 : https://youtu.be/ySPCKk8Z4-M
● Paris, France, June 1976 : https://youtu.be/0E9XsUvnYsk
● Knebworth Park, Stevenage, UK, 1976 : https://youtu.be/Ae1jc7nUGT0
● Japan, 1990 : https://youtu.be/XLdZuMlspE0

● Live At The Max Tour, 1991 : https://youtu.be/bjJmDT0PkpI
● Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1995 : https://youtu.be/_7rneZM9dmI
● Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, USA, October 1997 : https://youtu.be/m8-VwP-3mYo
● Los Angeles, November 2002 : https://youtu.be/42ikYgCMgDE
● Twickenham Stadium, London, UK, August 2003 : https://youtu.be/MqIMhoEISdM
● Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, September 2005 : https://youtu.be/AN-sh8m9o6U
● Austin, TX, 2006 : https://youtu.be/boeEcc6hirk
● Las Vegas, NV, May 2013 : https://youtu.be/zM_80qZZ6pE

● Madrid, Spain, June 2014 (feat. Mick Taylor) : https://youtu.be/lN4sUj8P5E8
● Glastonbury Festival, UK, 2017 : https://youtu.be/kfORcR2VSbc
● Cardiff, Wales, UK, June 2018 : https://youtu.be/1hSLsDZfpJA
● St Louis, MO, September 2021 : https://youtu.be/FT9Y-gJ6njE
● Miami, FL, November 2021 : https://youtu.be/MX9WWzLtgg4
● Brussels, Belgium, July 2022 : https://youtu.be/QJrU_LIPdN4
● Berlin, Germany, August 2022 : https://youtu.be/ZZ83_Bj8JWQ?t=385