"Black is the New Blue"

My musical experience and exposure during the growing up years at least through high school did not include much of The Rolling Stones.  That was until I moved into a dorm freshman year at college.  The guy next door in the dorm was a Stones and Beatles fanatic and had the largest record collection I had ever seen.  I got schooled on everything Stones.  This dude insisted that I read Up and Down with The Rolling Stones by Tony Sanchez which controversially detailed their travails and groundbreaking debauchery.  This was the fall of ‘81 and the Stones album Tattoo You was out and Start Me Up was blaring on many stereos throughout campus. For the younger readers out there; the opening guitar riff of Start Me Up is used by almost every sports stadium or arena at some point during the game. The Stones were even coming to town on their first tour since ‘78.  Midway through the semester, I was making C’s and D’s in actual course work but had a solid B+ in all things Stones and Beatles.

In one particular sesh, my buddy and I were listening to the Love You Live album which was recorded live in concert.  I think we were on the “El Mocambo” side of the LP which was taken from a surprise gig they did at a small nightclub in Toronto.  It’s really weird (and hilarious) hearing Mick introduce the band while bar room glasses are clinking in the background.

I was flipping through my buddy’s record collection and came upon his copy of the Stone’s Black and Blue album.  I asked “Why don’t we ever listen to this one much?”  “Because it sucks” was the response. This was the first album after Mick Taylor had left the band and the album dabbled extensively into reggae laden tunes. Nothing against reggae, but it's just not the Stones - Mick is not Bob Marley.  Thankfully the Stones did change their direction by the next album.

1978’s Some Girls produced the song Miss You which is still today the only listenable Disco song that can be tolerated by any musically sane person

You may wonder where I am going with all of this.  A few months ago, I learned that Pulseroller’s supply chain was having issues sourcing the plastic used on our motor roller end caps.  As hopefully all of you know, the color of the plastic was a distinctive blue.  What I understood was that they could maybe get something blue, but the quality was not going to be as good.  The solution that provided the quality required only came in black.

When I was tasked with writing this column on the topic of this color change, the memory of the above incidents came to mind all because my Stones mentor told me that “Black and Blue sucks”.  That was my thinking for this color change because it may cause some folks concern to question why we were doing it and it needed to be explained.



Back to Pulseroller.  By the time this column is published, the transition from the blue plastic to black plastic will for sure be happening or maybe even complete.  I am here to assure everyone that this is only a change in color and that the quality, performance, and value that all of you expect and enjoy from Pulseroller will be unaffected.  Heck, once the motor roller is installed in the conveyor side frame, it’s hard to see the color of the plastic anyway.

So, in the spirit of celebrating all things that are better in black; we can ask ourselves:

• Would AC/DC’s seminal first album after the death of Bon Scott have been better if it was titled Back in Blue?
• Would Spinal Tap’s swansong all black sleeved album Smell the Glove still have been a flop if the sleeve would have been all blue?
• Would a Kiss concert have been the same if their levitating platforms and multiple explosion laden encore had been Blue Diamond instead of Black Diamond?
• Would The Replacement’s cover of the same said Kiss song (which is arguably better and for sure much more raw) have had the same impact?
• Would side one, track one of Led Zeppelin IV been less iconic if Robert Plant had been crooning over a Blue Dog instead of a Black Dog?
• Would Ozzy have been less devilish if his band was called Blue Sabbath instead of Black Sabbath?

I could go on….

These are the important questions in life.  However, you do not have to question the blue to black change in Pulseroller end caps because we have you covered.

Rock on,