Original subtitles

Hey everybody. Hope everyone's enjoying

their deep dives into Black and Blue. I

know I have. It's been so great to sit

with this music now for like two weeks.

Um, everything from the remix to the

outtakes to the live shows. And now that

I have my super deluxe edition version,

uh, finally here, I'm finally able to

enjoy the Blu-ray that comes with this

set, which was just a cherry on top of

the whole thing. I've been looking

forward to this for so long. The um

concert that's on the Blu-ray is a TV

show broadcast um that was aired uh in

76 of the Paris shows from that tour. Um

it's a great um you know, it's an edited

version of the show. It's not the full

show, so you get like about an hour or

so worth of the show, but it's pretty

damn good. The band is cooking. There's

no way else to put it, but the Stones

just look so freaking cool in this show.

Mick with his so 70s wardrobe, you know,

the lime green pants and um the big

shirts and the huge hair. I mean, uh

it's a very James Brown kind of look. Um

and he's moving so great on this show.

Some of his best moves I've seen uh here

on this show. Everyone just sounds great

on it. And the mix on this Paris show

and the Blu-ray is fantastic. Very

thick. Um very in-your-face, very

punchy. Um everyone sounds great on it.

I was very impressed with it. I was also

very impressed and relieved that the um

the visuals, the video on this uh

broadcast um was remastered very

tastefully. You know, in this day and

age, um, you've probably seen a lot of

older videos, uh, being upgraded to 4K,

and there's a lot of, uh, AI and a lot

of software technology out there that's

helping people upgrade a lot of, um,

footage, um, especially older footage to

come out to look very, you know, super

clean and super sharp. Um, and

unfortunately, uh, when you do that, it

kind of makes everyone look a little,

um, like these, uh, clay, uh,

sculptures, you know, super smooth and

super, uh, outlined, uh, and sharp and

very unnatural. And I was afraid that

that was going to happen here. As far as

I can tell, not the case. They obviously

had access to um the source tapes here,

uh if not a very good first generation

tape or what, but it looks like it's um

an actual source tape because um

whatever they did do to remaster it.

It's very tastefully done, very careful.

All in all, it's just another great way

to celebrate these songs from Black and

Blue because they all sound great here.

Hand of Fate, Hey Negrita, Hot Stuff is

fantastic. Fool to Cry is also um a

great performance here. Um in fact, I've

just been so obsessed with Fool to Cry

uh in these last few days um that I've

been looking I was just looking up all

the different live versions of Fool to

Cry from all the different years. Um you

know, and they've been playing it fairly

regularly. Not not, you know, as common

as Worried About You or something, but

they play Fool to Cry pretty often. They

just did it last year, for example.

There's a great version from Los Angeles

at Sofi Stadium of them singing uh

playing this song and it's fantastic. My

favorite one comes from the No Security

Tour which is on YouTube. Look it up.

It's listed as Fool to Cry 1998, but

it's actually um from the No Security

Tour in 1999. That's a fantastic

version. Um they really nail it. Um they

always nail it. Uh, you can tell it's

one of Mick's favorite songs because

it's got great dynamics and can he can

really get into that character and um

yeah, this this set just made me

appreciate that song a lot more. It made

me appreciate um all the songs. I think

that's really the point of these sets is

that it makes you just kind of go, "Oh

yeah, I forgot about these songs or I

never thought about this song like

that." Um it's a completely new way to

kind of bring um a new set of eyes to

something that may seem maybe a little

too familiar and um I think this was a

great way to um revisit all this great

music and with this box set now with me

it's been great to explore the book

which I was very impressed with actually

I very much enjoyed Paul Ston's great

essay that he wrote which really puts

you in that period um the stones is

trying out something new, trying out new

guitar players, uh going on the road. Um

he does a great job to kind of get you

in the spirit of things and really also

give you a nice history lesson um for

that period. The pictures are

phenomenal. I enjoyed the photos

throughout the book. Um so great to see

um some of this stuff in really great

quality. I was not expecting the book to

deliver a whole lot. Um but uh it did

definitely scratch a little bit of an

itch that I didn't know I had, which was

it was good to see some visuals for this

period. Um I think the only thing that

was lacking was um you know any kind of

session or any kind of uh info on the

songs especially, you know, um the the

outtakes and the personnel information,

recording information about um all this

music would have been very good. I think

that would have been very appropriate to

have here. um they kind of skipped out

on that that the credits page is a

little slim. Um so that was the only

minus that it would have been good to

have a little bit more uh nerdy geeky uh

information included because uh the

photographs were great but some

information um would have been great too

if they wanted to go a different

direction and kind of present the the

cover of the deluxe edition uh to offer

something different or something um as

an alternate way to enjoy the cover. I

don't think um they succeed um uh with

this um too well because the front cover

is so iconic and really kind of pleasant

to look at in terms of the color and the

aesthetic that uh this uh kind of faded

and um more impressionistic

um delivery of the cover is kind is nice

and cool, but I think I would have

preferred just the flatout out duplicate

replication of the original cover on the

front. Like I said before, this new

remix is not out there to replace

anything. It's just another way to

explore this great music. And I think

the remix does a great job to kind of

bring some fresh perspectives on things

that you thought you knew. On that note,

it's been so great to see everyone's um

you know, point of view on the box set.

Everyone that I can tell has been

enjoying this um new reissue. And

there's also a percentage of people I've

been noticing that been saying some

things like, you know, I never really

liked Black and Blue before or um you

know, this was an album that I never

really paid attention to or um I

remembered it to be much worse than it

was and now I'm enjoying it. Um and all

these people kind of realizing that the

album was pretty damn good. And I'm so

happy to hear that. You know, that's so

great. But I can't help but a part of me

in the back of my mind also want to say,

"We [ __ ] told you. We always told you

that this album was great." You know? Um

so let's just cut the [ __ ] from here on

out. Just trust Stones fans from here.

If we say a Stones album is great, it's

great. Okay. um all this [ __ ] from,

you know, back in the day of saying,

"Oh, this album sucks and this album

sucks." Uh all you uh people who are

generally, you know, naysayers of

everything post the Mick Taylor years

and um this era of the Stones that are,

you know, have been so maligned over the

years. Just accept that they were always

great. These albums are great. I mean,

at this point now, I think we're all

discovering that um all these so-called

overlooked albums and these albums that

um were deemed, you know, less than, you

know, from decades ago because everyone

was still under the spell of the Mick

Taylor years. Um, you can tell that that

is all kind of expiring and all kind of

fading away because um, different sets

of generations of fans who grew up with

other eras of the Stones music are now

kind of balancing out the conversation

out there um, for Stones albums that um,

never got their flowers, you know, and

um, not to take away from the big four

albums which we all know and love, but

uh, It's time now to um talk about these

other albums. And it's so great to have

a lot of people show up and um show

their love for Black and Blue. And I

think this reissue succeeded in what it

was supposed to do, which was get people

to be excited about this album. Again,

like I said, I've put up a bunch of

content on Black and Blue for this

reissue. Make sure you catch up with it.

There's a playlist that's in the

description below to follow along with

all the videos I've put up. All in all,

I think I'm going to give this box set

uh a strong A a minus. Um at the minimum

a B+. Um disc 2 is a little bit lacking.

Um, even though uh Shame, Shame, Shame

and I Love Ladies are phenomenal tracks

and um on my CDs of of disc one, the

remix, you do have that um unfortunate

um missing um hot and the hot stuff

lyric at the 250 mark. Even though it's

been corrected in all the digital uh

streaming uh versions online, um it

looks like that those corrections did

not make it in time for the CDs, which

is a damn damn shame. Um but it is what

it is. Discs three and four of the

Earl's Court shows, which is actually a

compilation of the four shows they did

there, um is excellent. So that's an A

for sure. And the Blu-ray, uh is an A.

Um, I don't have a Dolby Atmas setup,

uh, so I wasn't able to enjoy the remix,

uh, in that way, but I've been hearing

some great things about the surround,

um, mix, uh, Atmos mix uh, for this

album that people have been enjoying

with a true setup. I'm very jealous for

those who can enjoy it that way. Um, and

the, um, the concert, the Paris show on

the Blu-ray, um, was a lot of fun.

really sorry that most people will

probably won't be able to watch it

because um it's not available as a

standalone item that you could get

separately. You'll have to get the

deluxe edition which is um you know uh

hopefully something people get because

uh the box set I think is very good. Um

I would give it altogether uh an A uh a

minus B+ uh as a box set. So that's it.

That puts a button on my black and blue

uh adventures for now. But what about

you? Are there any songs from this set

that have just come out of the woodwork

that surprise you that you never noticed

before that now you're obsessed with?

Are there details or things that you've

heard in this set that you never heard

before? Put it all in the comments

below. It would be great to read it.

Thanks for watching and we'll see you

next time on Hangfire.