Critics Treated 'Black and Blue' Like a Tryout Tape — Time Vindicated Ron Wood's Entrance

When Black and Blue landed in 1976, most reviewers treated it as a glorified audition reel. The Stones had spent months jamming with guitarists Wayne Perkins, Harvey Mandel, and Ron Wood, and the album’s fragmented sound—a reggae cover, a funk workout, a blues shuffle—felt like a showcase rather than a unified statement. Rolling Stone’s Billy Altman called it “the least coherent Stones album ever,” and many agreed that Keith Richards’ shaky health and the band’s lack of a settled lineup gave the record a scattershot energy.

The guitarist-swapping circus was impossible to ignore. Perkins played the lead on “Memory Motel” and “Hand of Fate,” Mandel shredded on “Hot Stuff,” and Wood contributed to several tracks—but none of them were officially a Stone yet. Critics saw the album as a holding pattern, a collection of sketches that never cohered. The tour that followed (with Wood finally drafted as a full member) was widely praised, but Black and Blue was filed away as a transitional footnote.

Decades later, the reassessment has been kind. Ron Wood’s slide work on “Fool to Cry” and his vocal harmonies on “Hey Negrita” now feel like early hints of the chemistry that would carry the band through the late ‘70s. The album’s rhythm-section looseness—Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts locked into a deep, dub-tinged pocket—sounds less like a tryout and more like a band breathing after the gothic ambitions of Goats Head Soup and It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll. The auditions actually gave the LP a distinct, unpolished charm. Critics then heard disarray; fans now hear the sound of a band deciding who they were about to become.