Black 'n Blue Discography

Formed in Portland, Oregon and later moved to El Lay.  Got a song on the second pressing of Metal Blades very first "Metal Massacre" compilation.  Taking the opening track honors from Steeler on the first pressing with the song "Chains Around Heaven"



The same song appears on the debut, but this version shows what Black 'n Blue was as opposed to what they became.

The Metal Massacre version is the only song of their's that I've heard. Pretty cool tune. I'll like to read this thread and learn more about the band, of which I know very little.

I am looking forward to this thread, thou growing up I only owned one Black n Blue album

I just owned the first album.

Bring it ON!! A band from my neck of the woods that I truly enjoy! Looking forward to this one quite a bit. I have owned all 4 albums (albeit on cassette) at one time or another but I have not really thought about these guys recently. This is gonna be super cool.

1984 Geffen Records
Produced by Dieter Dierks

Jaime St. James: lead vocals
Tommy Thayer: guitar and backing vocals
Jeff "Woop" Warner: guitar and backing vocals
Patrick Young: bass guitar and backing vocals
Pete Holmes: drums

1."The Strong Will Rock"
2."School of Hard Knocks"
3."Autoblast"
4."Hold on to 18"
5."Wicked Bitch"
6."Action"
7."Show Me the Night"
8."One for the Money"
9."I'm the King"
10."Chains Around Heaven"

First off, track two would of been a better opener than track one.  The first really great song on the album is 'Autoblast" (IMHDO)



This is the MTV promo video for a well written catchy tune, but...



The album closes out with two of the better songs on the album (IMHDO)

'I'm The King"



"Chains Around Heaven"



In a nutshell, catchy harder edged rock with touches of classic metal (not many but they are there) Average singer who makes it up with attitude and some great lead guitar work. All songs written by Jamie St. James and tommy Thayer except "Autoblast" written by St. James/Thayer/Warner and track 6 'Action" is a cover tune. Originally recorded by Sweet.

I've only heard one of their greatest hits compilations on Spotify. I liked "Bombastic Plastic" and "Hold On To 18," "Autoblast," "Stop The Lightning," and "I'm The King" but only liked the first two enough to download.

This was the only album I ever owned by Black n Blue, bought it after I saw them opening for Aerosmith as a 13/14 year old kid on the 'Back in the Saddle' tour. They impressed me live and went out and bought the album.

I really liked the album back then but it has been several years since I have heard the entire disc.

I picked up the first BnB album (on vinyl) after hearing "Strong Will Rock" on a local radio show. It's definitely their hardest-edged and most "metal" sounding record.

Does anyone else think that Jamie St. James looks a lot like Dee Snider? Especially in that "Hold on to 18" video. Must be the hair.

If I'm not mistaken, Black N Blue were the first hard rock/metal band signed to the then-new Geffen label.

I used to own this comp...



...but aside from a few songs, it never did much for me and I ditched it. If I remember correctly, it's started off pretty strong and "metal-ly", but by the end, it got too poppy.

Quote :

If I remember correctly, it's started off pretty strong and "metal-ly", but by the end, it got too poppy.

That pretty much describes Black N Blue's career path in a nutshell.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

If I remember correctly, it's started off pretty strong and "metal-ly", but by the end, it got too poppy.

That pretty much describes Black N Blue's career path in a nutshell.

unfortunately they tried to cash in on the Glam Rock scene but that first album is a monster slab of classic metal. I need to find this album and soon.

They "tried" here and there on the third and fourth Geffen album to return to the sound of the debut. More on that later.

This is a band I thought tried to hard. They should've kept the more classic sound intact.

Black 'n Blue-Without Love


1985 Geffen Records
Produced By Bruce Fairbairn

Jaime St. James: Lead vocals
Tommy Thayer: Guitar, keyboards
Jeff Warner: Guitar
Patrick Young: Bass
Pete Holmes: Drums

1."Rockin' on Heaven's Door" (Jaime St. James, Tommy Thayer) - 3:30
2."Without Love" (Jaime St. James, Jim Vallance) - 3:38
3."Stop the Lightning" (Jaime St. James, Tommy Thayer) - 4:08
4."Nature of the Beach" (Jaime St. James, Tommy Thayer) - 3:50
5."Miss Mystery" (Jaime St. James, Tommy Thayer, Jim Vallance) - 4:00
6."Swing Time" (Jaime St. James, Jeff Warner) - 3:21
7."Bombastic Plastic" (Jaime St. James) - 3:38
8."We Got the Fire" (Jaime St. James, Tommy Thayer, Jeff Warner) - 3:11
9."Strange Things" (Jaime St. James, Tommy Thayer, Jeff Warner) - 3:24
10."Two Wrongs (Don't Make It Love)" (Jaime St. James, Tommy Thayer) - 3:51

The first album I ever had produced by The Horn Guy...and of course there are horns on this.  Dubbed "The horns of porn"  This is another band who took a turn after a debut and did something different.  I happen to like this album, alot.  
The weakest tune on the album is the song they did the MTV promo for, "Miss Mystery"  Not a bad song, ya know well written and all that. Just like the video song for the debut, something way too cheesy for me to relate to on any kind of level.  Here are some samples of what ya get on the rest of the album.

The title track

"Swing Time"

"Nature Of The Beach"

"Miss Mystery"

"Two Wrongs(Don't Make It Love)"

"Same Old Song And Dance"



There are other great tunes on the album that I couldn't seem to find any audio clips for on You Tube.  Even tried to hunt down one of those "complete album" posts by somebody, but to no avail.
So in closing, ya get a fun, diverse dose of hard rock, that maybe even the ol' lady will love ?  I think my "fanboy-ism" of this album goes more along the lines as to where I was and what I was doing when it came out than anything else.  Even though (IMHDO) the songs are great. The Aerosmith cover of "Same Old Song And Dance" was only on the cassette and not the lp. Have no clue as to whether or not it's on the cd.

Never owned this or any other album past the debut, but based on the single, which got a fair amount of air play where I live, I was disappointed with the only single for the disc 'Miss Mystery' but I did dig the video, based on the classic Twilight Zone epsiode

Never owned this album, just a promotional 45 of "Swing Time" b/w "Rockin' On Heaven's Door" that I got as a freebie through the mail with a coupon out of "Circus" magazine.

The funny thing is that I had actually sent in a coupon for a free single by Adam Bomb, not Black N Blue. (Adam, like BnB, was also signed to Geffen.) I clipped the coupon, mailed it in, then months went by and I never received anything. Just when I'd completely forgotten about the whole thing, out of nowhere this Black N Blue single turned up in my mailbox. I guess Geffen ran out of Adam Bomb singles (or they'd discontinued promotion of his album) so they sent me the Black N Blue single as a substitute.

...I mentioned that story on another forum years ago and Adam Bomb himself suddenly popped up and thanked me for mentioning it, because it apparently filled in some blanks for him and "explained so much" about how Geffen was screwing him over from the very beginning and proved he'd never been given a chance there. I swear to God. I felt bad for the guy for ruining his day. Haha)

...anyway, I didn't care for "Swing Time" much (like James sez...horns? WTF? Haha) and the flip side was OK but not enough to make me rush out to buy the album... so I never did.

Like Manny, I thought the "Twilight Zone" inspired "Miss Mystery" video was clever. Anthrax also did a video based on that same "TZ" episode years later ("Inside Out," from the "Volume 8: The Threat is Real" album).

I like what I'm hearing in those clips especially Nature Of The Beach. I think I'll have to try nd pick up their discs soon.

Of the 4 albums, this one was my least favorite. The only track that I really remember was "Rockin on
Heavens Door" beyond that they kind of all ran together.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Never owned this album, just a promotional 45 of "Swing Time" b/w "Rockin' On Heaven's Door" that I got as a freebie through the mail with a coupon out of "Circus" magazine.

The funny thing is that I had actually sent in a coupon for a free single by Adam Bomb, not Black N Blue. (Adam, like BnB, was also signed to Geffen.) I clipped the coupon, mailed it in, then months went by and I never received anything. Just when I'd completely forgotten about the whole thing, out of nowhere this Black N Blue single turned up in my mailbox. I guess Geffen ran out of Adam Bomb singles (or they'd discontinued promotion of his album) so they sent me the Black N Blue single as a substitute.

...I mentioned that story on another forum years ago and Adam Bomb himself suddenly popped up and thanked me for mentioning it, because it apparently filled in some blanks for him and "explained so much" about how Geffen was screwing him over from the very beginning and proved he'd never been given a chance there. I swear to God. I felt bad for the guy for ruining his day. Haha)

...anyway, I didn't care for "Swing Time" much (like James sez...horns? WTF? Haha) and the flip side was OK but not enough to make me rush out to buy the album... so I never did.

Like Manny, I thought the "Twilight Zone" inspired "Miss Mystery" video was clever. Anthrax also did a video based on that same "TZ" episode years later ("Inside Out," from the "Volume 8: The Threat is Real" album).

Adam Bomb was suppose to be the next big thing, even hired a so called supergroup around him, which featured former Aerosmith guitarist Jimmy Crespo, Riot's Phil Feit and Mr Bomb himself even had Cliff Williams on one tune. The powerful management team of Leber and Krebs were managing his career, and he even covered a Mott the Hopple song in hopes that what Slade did for Quiet Riot, would help him. Needless to say Adam Bomb, bombed and the rest was a slow decent into legal for several years. His album 'Fatal Attraction' is pretty damn good I must say, if you like pop metal that is.

^^ Yeah, I did finally hear some of Adam Bomb's music, but it was years 'n' years afterwards, haha.

manny wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Never owned this album, just a promotional 45 of "Swing Time" b/w "Rockin' On Heaven's Door" that I got as a freebie through the mail with a coupon out of "Circus" magazine.

The funny thing is that I had actually sent in a coupon for a free single by Adam Bomb, not Black N Blue. (Adam, like BnB, was also signed to Geffen.) I clipped the coupon, mailed it in, then months went by and I never received anything. Just when I'd completely forgotten about the whole thing, out of nowhere this Black N Blue single turned up in my mailbox. I guess Geffen ran out of Adam Bomb singles (or they'd discontinued promotion of his album) so they sent me the Black N Blue single as a substitute.

...I mentioned that story on another forum years ago and Adam Bomb himself suddenly popped up and thanked me for mentioning it, because it apparently filled in some blanks for him and "explained so much" about how Geffen was screwing him over from the very beginning and proved he'd never been given a chance there. I swear to God. I felt bad for the guy for ruining his day. Haha)

...anyway, I didn't care for "Swing Time" much (like James sez...horns? WTF? Haha) and the flip side was OK but not enough to make me rush out to buy the album... so I never did.

Like Manny, I thought the "Twilight Zone" inspired "Miss Mystery" video was clever. Anthrax also did a video based on that same "TZ" episode years later ("Inside Out," from the "Volume 8: The Threat is Real" album).

Adam Bomb was suppose to be the next big thing, even hired a so called supergroup around him, which featured former Aerosmith guitarist Jimmy Crespo, Riot's Phil Feit and Mr Bomb himself even had Cliff Williams on one tune. The powerful management team of Leber and Krebs were managing his career, and he even covered a Mott the Hopple song in hopes that what Slade did for Quiet Riot, would help him. Needless to say Adam Bomb, bombed and the rest was a slow decent into legal for several years.  His album 'Fatal Attraction' is pretty damn good I must say, if you like pop metal that is.

Since I've got nothing more to say on Black n Blue, I'll contribute to the Adam Bomb mythos...it's rumored that Adam was brought in to fix/overdub Joe Perry and Brad Whitford's guitar parts on the Aerosmith Classics Live! albums.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

manny wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Never owned this album, just a promotional 45 of "Swing Time" b/w "Rockin' On Heaven's Door" that I got as a freebie through the mail with a coupon out of "Circus" magazine.

The funny thing is that I had actually sent in a coupon for a free single by Adam Bomb, not Black N Blue. (Adam, like BnB, was also signed to Geffen.) I clipped the coupon, mailed it in, then months went by and I never received anything. Just when I'd completely forgotten about the whole thing, out of nowhere this Black N Blue single turned up in my mailbox. I guess Geffen ran out of Adam Bomb singles (or they'd discontinued promotion of his album) so they sent me the Black N Blue single as a substitute.

...I mentioned that story on another forum years ago and Adam Bomb himself suddenly popped up and thanked me for mentioning it, because it apparently filled in some blanks for him and "explained so much" about how Geffen was screwing him over from the very beginning and proved he'd never been given a chance there. I swear to God. I felt bad for the guy for ruining his day. Haha)

...anyway, I didn't care for "Swing Time" much (like James sez...horns? WTF? Haha) and the flip side was OK but not enough to make me rush out to buy the album... so I never did.

Like Manny, I thought the "Twilight Zone" inspired "Miss Mystery" video was clever. Anthrax also did a video based on that same "TZ" episode years later ("Inside Out," from the "Volume 8: The Threat is Real" album).

Adam Bomb was suppose to be the next big thing, even hired a so called supergroup around him, which featured former Aerosmith guitarist Jimmy Crespo, Riot's Phil Feit and Mr Bomb himself even had Cliff Williams on one tune. The powerful management team of Leber and Krebs were managing his career, and he even covered a Mott the Hopple song in hopes that what Slade did for Quiet Riot, would help him. Needless to say Adam Bomb, bombed and the rest was a slow decent into legal for several years.  His album 'Fatal Attraction' is pretty damn good I must say, if you like pop metal that is.

Since I've got nothing more to say on Black n Blue, I'll contribute to the Adam Bomb mythos...it's rumored that Adam was brought in to fix/overdub Joe Perry and Brad Whitford's  guitar parts on the Aerosmith Classics Live! albums.

Hell , I've never even heard of Adam Bomb (although I do remember a pro wrestler going by that name ).

007 wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

manny wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Never owned this album, just a promotional 45 of "Swing Time" b/w "Rockin' On Heaven's Door" that I got as a freebie through the mail with a coupon out of "Circus" magazine.

The funny thing is that I had actually sent in a coupon for a free single by Adam Bomb, not Black N Blue. (Adam, like BnB, was also signed to Geffen.) I clipped the coupon, mailed it in, then months went by and I never received anything. Just when I'd completely forgotten about the whole thing, out of nowhere this Black N Blue single turned up in my mailbox. I guess Geffen ran out of Adam Bomb singles (or they'd discontinued promotion of his album) so they sent me the Black N Blue single as a substitute.

...I mentioned that story on another forum years ago and Adam Bomb himself suddenly popped up and thanked me for mentioning it, because it apparently filled in some blanks for him and "explained so much" about how Geffen was screwing him over from the very beginning and proved he'd never been given a chance there. I swear to God. I felt bad for the guy for ruining his day. Haha)

...anyway, I didn't care for "Swing Time" much (like James sez...horns? WTF? Haha) and the flip side was OK but not enough to make me rush out to buy the album... so I never did.

Like Manny, I thought the "Twilight Zone" inspired "Miss Mystery" video was clever. Anthrax also did a video based on that same "TZ" episode years later ("Inside Out," from the "Volume 8: The Threat is Real" album).

Adam Bomb was suppose to be the next big thing, even hired a so called supergroup around him, which featured former Aerosmith guitarist Jimmy Crespo, Riot's Phil Feit and Mr Bomb himself even had Cliff Williams on one tune. The powerful management team of Leber and Krebs were managing his career, and he even covered a Mott the Hopple song in hopes that what Slade did for Quiet Riot, would help him. Needless to say Adam Bomb, bombed and the rest was a slow decent into legal for several years.  His album 'Fatal Attraction' is pretty damn good I must say, if you like pop metal that is.

Since I've got nothing more to say on Black n Blue, I'll contribute to the Adam Bomb mythos...it's rumored that Adam was brought in to fix/overdub Joe Perry and Brad Whitford's  guitar parts on the Aerosmith Classics Live! albums.

Hell , I've never even heard of Adam Bomb (although I do remember a pro wrestler going by that name ).

I think he was just one of those guys that was part of the 80's rock scene and everyone and their mother knew, but he never got that "big break".

Quote :

Hell , I've never even heard of Adam Bomb (although I do remember a pro wrestler going by that name ).

Here ya go. Dude still releases albums and gigs around Europe but I believe this was his only big time major label release.



He's had an interesting career: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Bomb_%28musician%29

...and hey, apologies in advance to James B. for totally hijacking his B'N'B thread. Back to talking about Black N Blue now.