Coming on the heels of guitarist Mick Taylor’s departure, The Rollings Stones’ 1976 album Black and Blue served as an audition for a replacement.
Guitarists featured on the album’s eight tracks include Harvey Mandel, Wayne Perkins and Ronnie Wood, though the likes of Peter Frampton and Jeff Beck also jammed with the band. Wood ultimately got the gig.
While Black and Blue might have done its job as far as personnel is concerned, it’s a mixed bag as a creative statement. It’s a fun enough listen, but few of the tracks are memorable for more than the tight band work. In addition to all those guitarists, special mention is owed to Billy Preston, who once again provides memorable keyboard work on a Stones album.
This is also the album to get if you want to hear The Rolling Stones go full reggae. A cover of Eric Donaldson’s ‘Cherry Oh Baby’ is surprisingly effective for a bunch of white guys from South East England.
Ballads ‘Memory Motel’ and ‘Fool to Cry’ are ambitious but creaky and feel out of place on an album that otherwise sounds like the soundtrack to a party.
My favorite song here is ‘Hand of Fate,’ a grungy revenge tale featuring a sweet guitar solo by Perkins. I bet he thought he nailed the audition.
The hand of fate is on me now
It picked me up and it knocked me down
I’m on the run, I’m prison bound
The hand of fate is heavy now
I killed a man, I’m highway bound
The wheel of fortune keeps turning ’round
Turning ’round, turning ’round
I should have known it was a one horse town
[Verse 2]
‘Cause my sweet girl was once his wife
And he had papers that the judge had signed
The wind blew hard, it was a stormy night
He shot me once, but I shot him twice
The hand of fate is on me now
It picked me up and it kicked me right down
Kicked me right down
Kicked me right down
[Bridge]
I had to save her life
Yeah, I gunned him twice
Yeah, and I watched him die, watch out boy
Yeah, I watched him die, woo
[Guitar Solo]
[Verse 3]
He was a barroom man, the violent kind
He had no love for that gal of mine
Then one day in a drinking bout
He swore he’d throw me right out of town
The hand of fate is on me now
I shot that man, I put him underground
I put him underground, underground
Yes I did
[Verse 4]
I’m on the run, I hear the hounds
My luck is up, my chips are down
So goodbye baby, so long now
Wish me luck, I’m going to need it child
The hand of fate is on me now
Yeah, it’s too late baby
I say it’s too late baby, too late now
The hand of fate is on me now
The hand of fate is heavy now
[Outro]
Heavy now
The hand of fate is heavy now
It’s too late, too late now
The hand of fate is heavy now
It pick you up and it knock you down
Meet Me In Montauk 
I really though Ronnie Wood started with the band before the mid 70s. At this point, he feels as though he could have been a founding member