I was listening to one of the most underrated of Rolling Stones albums today, Black and Blue from 1976, and was struck once again by how well they play, and by how Charlie Watts is always at the center of it. The album is really varied in terms of genre - there's disco ("Hot Stuff"), reggae (Eric Donaldson's "Cherry Oh Baby"), funk ("Hey Negrita"), swing ("Melody"), rock and roll ("Hand of Fate" and "Crazy Mama") and perhaps the greatest ballad that the band ever recorded, "Memory Motel" - a song that describes the emotional effects of touring with great acuity. (It's interesting that another candidate for the honour of best Stones ballad also uses m-based alliteration, "Moonlight Mile".) And throughout all of it is Watts' brilliant sound and time-feel (the former is the result of the latter, by the way). Here's "Memory Motel": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7so3BNXUE0I. Check out the beautiful playing of Billy Preston on keyboards, Richards' great vocal contributions, and the drum entry.