Maps of Music

Blue & Lonesome (2016)

Where the lyrics of Blue & Lonesome take you, and where it was really made.

The Rolling Stones' 23rd studio album contains only cover songs, the first time the band has released such an album.

Key places

Recorded at British Grove, London (2016)

Recording site British Grove Studios — The album was recorded during three sessions in December 2015, and the recording place is listed as British Grove in London. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Blue & Lonesome: 23rd studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones
• Released 2 December 2016
• Consists entirely of blues music, all cover songs
• The band's first album to feature only cover songs
• First studio release since A Bigger Bang (2005), an 11-year gap that is the longest between two albums by the band
• Running time about 43 minutes, yet released as a double LP
• Title taken from a song Little Walter wrote, "Blue and Lonesome"

Background

• Recorded over a three-day period in December 2015
• April 2016, at the launch of the career retrospective Exhibitionism, the band confirmed release "some time in the autumn"
• Richards said the album would feature "a lot of Chicago blues"
• Covers of artists such as Howlin' Wolf and Little Walter
• Eric Clapton was recording his own album I Still Do in the same studio and was asked to play on a few tracks
• First album since Dirty Work (1986) without guitar playing from Jagger, who concentrates on vocals and harmonica
• First album since It's Only Rock 'n Roll (1974) without a lead vocal from Richards
• Lead single "Just Your Fool", a Buddy Johnson cover based on Little Walter's arrangement, was released on 6 October 2016

Recording

• Recorded during three sessions in December 2015
• Produced by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (The Glimmer Twins) together with Don Was
• Band members Ronnie Wood (guitar) and Charlie Watts (drums) in the studio
• Contract players Darryl Jones (bass), Chuck Leavell (keyboards) and Matt Clifford (multi-instrumentalist)
• Eric Clapton played guitar on two tracks; Jim Keltner played percussion on one
• Same production and musician team as A Bigger Bang

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Disc 1

Disc 2

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in London in 1962 as an English rock band; their first stable line-up was Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts.
• Jones named the band after a Muddy Waters song; they were rooted in blues and rock and roll.
• Manager Andrew Loog Oldham encouraged them to write their own songs, and the Jagger–Richards partnership became their main creative force.

Members

• Current: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood (joined 1975).
• Former: Brian Jones (died 1969), Mick Taylor (1969–1974), Bill Wyman (1962–1993), Charlie Watts (1963–2021, died 2021).
• Steve Jordan became their drummer after Watts' death.

Career

• Hits included "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (1965), "Paint It Black" (1966) and "Start Me Up" (1981).
• Their 1969 Hyde Park show and Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St. are key points of their career.
• Formed Rolling Stones Records in 1970, whose tongue-and-lips logo became their band logo.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989; the band has sold more than 250 million albums.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Critics gave the album wide praise, with Metacritic scoring it 82 out of 100 from 21 critics
• Reviews praised the record as a labour of love and found the band lively compared with recent years
• Some critics were less impressed and found the album sodden, with older rockers having made sharper music
• One critic wrote that everyone except Mick Jagger sounded bored

Reappraisal

• Metacritic aggregate score of 82 out of 100 places the album in the "universal acclaim" category
• Jazz and blues publications gave the album accolades

Records

• Debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart with 106,000 sales in its first week, the second-highest opening sales week for an album in the UK in 2016
• Certified Platinum in the UK on 3 February 2017 for sales over 300,000 copies
• Debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 with 123,000 album-equivalent units, 120,000 of them pure album sales
• The only Stones studio album without at least a Gold certification for certified sales in the US
• Won Album of the Year at the 2017 Jazz FM Awards, and the Rolling Stones won Blues Artist of the Year at the same event
• Won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in 2018, the band's third Grammy and first win since 1995

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album was released as a double LP even though its running time is about 43 minutes.
• On 6 October 2016, the band changed their tongue and lips logo, which first appeared on Sticky Fingers, from red to blue.
• On 1 December 2016, the band released a video for "Ride 'Em On Down", which features actress Kristen Stewart driving through Los Angeles in a blue 1968 Ford Mustang Fastback.
• This was the band's final album with drummer Charlie Watts, who died in 2021.
• The album's name comes from a Little Walter song, though the album contains only covers.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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