Essayer OR - Gratuit
The Rolling Stones v3.0
Stereophile
|March 2026
In the Rolling Stones' long history, the Mick Taylor era was a peak, if not the peak. Taylor, who replaced cofounder Brian Jones in the late 1960s, proved a great musical foil for Keith Richards. He was a technical wizard on the guitar; those fluid higher-octaves riffs and runs were the perfect counterpoint to Richards's jabbing and stabbing and growling style. At heart, he was a bluesman, so a great fit for a band named after a Muddy Waters tune. The run of albums from Let It Bleed through It's Only Rock 'n Roll took the Stones' music in new directions and set the standard for tight, fast, and loose arena rock circa the early 1970s.
It was great until it wasn't. Torn, frayed, drug-addled, and burned out, Taylor quit the Stones at the end of 1974, just before sessions for a new album were to start in Munich's Musicland Studios. Losing the flashiest part of their guitar onslaught would throw most rock bands for a loop. Not the Rolling Stones. Richards and Mick Jagger commenced to spend 6 months holding auditions for a new guitarist, even while recording an album. That album, Black and Blue, was reissued in November 2025 in a variety of formats, a few months ahead of the golden anniversary of its April 1976 debut.¹ The five-LP, one-Blu-ray Super Deluxe version is the subject of this review. Its two main features are a Steven Wilson remix of the album's 16-track tapes and a complete concert from Earl's Court, London, previously available only as a bootleg. The Blu-ray features a French TV special: Les Rolling Stones aux Abattoirs (The Rolling Stones at The Slaughterhouses) Paris-Juin 1976.
About those auditions: They were quite the happening. Jeff Beck and Rory Gallagher dropped by (and later claimed they were just jamming with friends). American guitarists Harvey Mandel (of Canned Heat) and Wayne Perkins (who played on Bob Marley's Catch a Fire and Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark) threw their hats in the ring and ended up on several
Cette histoire est tirée de l'édition March 2026 de Stereophile.
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Stereophile
The Rolling Stones v3.0
In the Rolling Stones' long history, the Mick Taylor era was a peak, if not the peak. Taylor, who replaced cofounder Brian Jones in the late 1960s, proved a great musical foil for Keith Richards. He was a technical wizard on the guitar; those fluid higher-octaves riffs and runs were the perfect counterpoint to Richards's jabbing and stabbing and growling style. At heart, he was a bluesman, so a great fit for a band named after a Muddy Waters tune. The run of albums from Let It Bleed through It's Only Rock 'n Roll took the Stones' music in new directions and set the standard for tight, fast, and loose arena rock circa the early 1970s.
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