Black and Blue vs. Rumours: Two Albums Forged in Relationship Fires

Both Black and Blue (1976) and Rumours (1977) are textbook cases of turning band dysfunction into gold. The Stones were auditioning a new guitarist during sessions — Mick Taylor had quit, and Ron Wood was still a guest — while the core duo of Jagger and Richards was barely on speaking terms. Meanwhile, Fleetwood Mac’s lineup was actually stable, but every romantic relationship inside the band was collapsing: the Buckingham-Nicks split, the McVie divorce, and Stevie Nicks’ affair with drummer Mick Fleetwood.

The difference is in how each band channeled the mess into the songs. The Stones went loose and funk-obsessed — Black and Blue sounds like a party barely held together, with tracks like “Fool to Cry” and “Hot Stuff” leaning into groove over confessional storytelling. Fleetwood Mac went surgical: Rumours is airtight pop craftsmanship where every lyric is a barely veiled threat or lament. Both albums sold millions, but Rumours became a cultural monolith while Black and Blue is often remembered as a transitional footnote — a tryout album that accidentally produced a hit (“Miss You” was still two years away, though the single “Fool to Cry” did well).

What’s wild is that both albums were recorded in the same era of cocaine-fueled paranoia, and both feature a band acting as if everything was fine while the control room was a war zone. The Stones solved their guitarist problem by hiring Wood permanently;