At this point The Rolling Stones are absolute living legends. They’ve done more in their over 50 years of existence than entire groups have done combined. What’s most impressive about them though is that at pushing 70 plus they’re still at it, still making music, still touring, and running laps around artists 1/3 their age. I won’t pretend to be a Rolling Stones expert, but I do know that they first bonded and formed through their mutual love for Blues. But little did I expect to get an all blues rock album from them, but that’s exactly what we got with the surprise Blue & Lonesome.
“I’m blue and lonesome as a man can be
I’m blue and lonesome ooh as a man can be
I don’t have headaches over myself
My love has gone away from me”
When I first saw they were dropping a new album, I was expecting it to be original material but what Blue & Lonesome is, is 12 cover songs of what I’m assuming are their favorite blues rock songs. I personally don’t know these songs but from what I can tell all the songs seem to be fairly straightforward covers without any signs of subversion. It’s pure blues with all the familiar tropes you’d expect to hear. I shouldn’t be surprised at this point in their career at how good they sound, but they really do sound fantastic here and it’s a record that really sounds like they had a lot of fun crafting.
“I’m a dealin’ man, still dealing, yeah
I’ll go keep on dealing till I find myself a bed
I got to stop dealing, I believe I’ll ride ‘em on down
Well I done stopped dealing, I believe I’ll ride ’em on down”
As these are all covers there’s nothing to judge by in terms of songwriting, but Jagger’s voice sounds great and really evokes that old blues soul. You can tell the love and admiration they have for the source material. They sound so good together on Blue & Lonesome that it had me wondering, what took so long?
Have you heard Blue & Lonesome? What’d you think about it? Do you think it really captured that blues rock soul? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to leave your rating for the album.
