An album which served more as time to find a replacement for a departing Mick Taylor than anything else, Black and Blue is hardly The Rolling Stones at their best. But with a deluxe edition on the way, there’s every chance the Mick Jagger-fronted band make good on a do-over given to one of their lesser albums. You can hear the fun the group were having in the studio around this time. It’s a far cry from the tensions which formed Tattoo You just five years later. There is no denying the band had lost a step after It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll, but they were still capable of a few instrumental hooks and performances worthy of The Rolling Stones’ name. A high bar, but one the band were trying to maintain following Taylor’s departure. A version of Shame, Shame, Shame is the first offering from this deluxe set, and it’s a brilliant showcase of how the band were adapting to major in-house changes.
When everyone from Ronnie Wood to Jeff Beck was considered to replace Taylor, it’s Keith Richards who stands out most of all. The veteran guitarist was providing fills for the departing Taylor, and you can hear just that on Shame, Shame, Shame. Great fun is what Shame, Shame, Shame is, and it’s a disaster to hear how this freedom and spirit didn’t make it onto Black and Blue. A funk to this archival release, which is better than anything the band would feature on the album at the time. Truly staggering. A funk rock and roll style, which The Rolling Stones are well-suited to. They take a slight shuffle away from the blues rock of their past, the covers which defined them through the 1960s, and provide a blisteringly successful track. Forget the context of the recording and reasons for making such a song, the strength of Shame, Shame, Shame, lay in its unrepentant thrills.
Strong backing vocal work, instrumental bliss, which gives Jagger some strong foundations for the groovy notions of his lyrics. It’s a perfect song, truly. One of the best from this decade of The Rolling Stones’ work, and had the band pursued this tone so totally on their Black and Blue release, that mid-70s period would have been much more enjoyable. A swaggering, confident best from the band. Heavier percussion than usual from Charlie Watts and a series of vocal interjections which hear the backing vocalists become the main line through the song, goading the listener and calling for the shame not just of some person who has wronged the protagonist at the core of Shame, Shame, Shame, but on an audience for not being against such an action already. It’s the fluidity of the song, that blistering upbeat tone, which hides within it a brutal message.
Sincerely, one of the best songs The Rolling Stones has brought out. Simple? Sure. But the catchiness of the track is undeniable and it makes for a brilliant surprise. Jagger’s vocal range is pushed to its limit as he figures out the motions and notions which drag people through hell and back. Shame, Shame, Shame is an outstanding piece of work. You can hear the wheels come off the band as they reel from Taylor’s departure and launch back into the works of their past. Those fundamentals to their sound which had deserted them during Exile on Main St. and Goats Head Soup. You would be hard-pressed to find a more thrilling, upbeat song from The Rolling Stones. Slick and cool guitar work comes through too. Every band member is in fine form. It’s ridiculous this was ever cut, but what a treat it is. The Tattoo You version is nothing on this Black and Blue masterclass.
I totally concur with your review.
I read in one of the music papers the Stones had covered Shirley & Co’s Shame Shame Shame but hadn’t released it. It was more than 45 years ago I read that, and I’ve waited all this time to finally hear it. And I’m not disappointed – it’s fantastic!
Neil F.