The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
The Rolling Stones were long over their brief psychedelic phase when they released Sticky Fingers in 1971. And what more can be said other than it’s singularly the greatest album ever written, recorded or released by any musical act this side of hell. Does anything need adding to that?
Oh well, I suppose if needs must.
Sticky Fingers represents the pinnacle of the Jagger/Richards songwriting partnership and a band at the peak of their musical prowess, narrowly shaving Exile On Main Street to steal the hard-contested honour. It also came at a time when they could do no wrong. You have Their Satanic Majesties Request (much maligned, but loved for its psychedelic goodness by this reviewer), followed by Beggar’s Banquet, followed by Let It Bleed, then Sticky Fingers, Exile On Main Street, and Goats Head Soup. Just one of those albums would be enough to cement the name of any lesser band in the halls of music immortality. But indeed, ‘the hardest working band in rock ‘n’ roll’ pumped them out in a space of five years and were never quite the same again.
The first Stones studio album without any input from the late Brian Jones, Stick Fingers unveiled his replacement, one time John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers guitarist, Mick Taylor.
From the all-too-familiar abrasive opening chords of ‘Brown Sugar’ to the closing crescendo and gentle peter out of ‘Moonlight Mile’, it is perfect in every sense. If there’s only one fault that can be picked from the ten tracks on offer, it’s that the jam at the end of ‘Can’t You Hear Me Knocking’ does drag on a little. This is a four minute song padded out to just over seven mins. Apart from that one, barely noticable quibble, it’s all good.
The highlight of Sticky Fingers has to be the final track, ‘Moonlight Mile’. Just shy of six minutes of bliss, it evokes a certain feeling of desperate loss in its telling disillusion with the sex and drugs lifestyle of rock ‘n’ roll, boasting an unforgettable, lilting guitar riff played by none other than Jagger himself. Other highlights (how can one pick highlights from what is as close to musical perfection as we’ll ever hear?) include the raw, gospel-tinged delta blues of ‘You Gotta Move’; the harrowing drug-overdose hell of ‘Sister Morphine’, featuring Ry Cooder on slide guitar -- listen and shiver; and the contemptuous sneer of ‘Dead Flowers’, a rather biting attack on an ex, delivered in a mock Country and Western accent and including the immortal line: “I’ll be in my basement room, with a needle and a spoon, and another girl to take my pain away.”
In fact, the album is riddled throughout with references to various illicit pharmaceuticals. ‘Brown Sugar’ is actually a raunchy slave-trade metaphor for heroin, whereas ‘Moonlight Mile’ includes the cocaine reference “… with a head full of snow” – Just in case you were wondering where the name of this blog came from. ‘Can’t You Hear Me Knocking’ mentions “… Ya’ll got cocaine eyes, Yeah you got speed-freak jive”. And ‘Sway’ has the rather abstract line: “Did you ever wake up to find, A day that broke up your mind, Destroyed your notion of circular time…” If it doesn’t reference drugs, it must be written as a result of their use.
Overall, there are worse things you could do than buy, borrow, or steal a copy of Sticky Fingers. Obviously, if you opt for the latter, don’t come crying to me when you get your collar felt.
My advice to you is get a copy now. Or if you already have one, bang it on the stereo and listen again to an album whose excellence will never be surpassed.
The Rolling Stones perform ‘Dead Flowers’ at the Marquee Club, 1971:
Sticky Fingers is available from all record stores worth their salt on the Virgin record label. Buy it at Amazon.co.uk
See also:
The Rolling Stones -- Their Satanic Majesties Request
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Well obviously ‘Sticky Fingers’ isn’t the greatest album ever, due to a distinct lack of Yes. But I suppose it can reasonably be argued that its the best album by the greatest band ever. And, to be fair, Sticky Fingers is the perfect title for a Rolling Stones record (the dirty part of my mind does wonder if Marianne Faithfull was the inspiration).
I’ve never seen the Stones live – come annoyingly close, but never quite worked out. But I have seen Messrs Watts, Wyman, Stuart (piano) in jazz/blues combos on two occasions in the 1980′s – both times playing to small audiences and clearly loving just playing. Which very much endeared them to me.
On the measures of longevity and success, the Stones – even I have to admit – outclass all other acts. My brother and his wife live in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Stones played there in 2007. I visited a few months prior to their arrival, and the stones effect was stunning. It was as if the ability to hold a stones concert, moved their city up a level. It had a tangible economic effect. And all this 35 years after the release of their best work.
I expect the stones will be a bit like the Queen. We’ll only really miss them when they’re gone. Its been nice to appreciate their best work while I still have a chance to see them. Ta for that HFOS.
Oh yeah… at one of those concerts in the 1980′s – it was the 100 club in Oxford St, London – Charlie Watts got out of my way when I walked down a narrow corridor to the toilet. How fucking cool was that!
Cheers, Jon. Top stuff. And indeed, Yes will be making an appearance here in the future. Where would our prog credentials be if they didn’t?
i had to laugh out loud at the idea that yes is somehow in the running as a band of significance… they held the interest of a small niche market at best, back in the day, and they matter even less now.
their insignificance pales even more, when you compare anything they ever did against albums like sticky fingers, or better yet, the alan parsons 96khz bootleg quadrophonic version of dark side of the moon… fire up the latter on a sound system of consequence, and you’ll come to understand what “best album ever” truly means.
i saw the stones live back in the early ’70′s, and what stands out for me to this day was the showmanship of mick jagger… here was one of the best bands ever, playing in a cr*p midwestern town, but still bringing it to us like we were an audience of consequence.
DUUNNT!
Look, guy, if you don’t like it, just say so. This “small niche market” crap is just wrong, and you know it. Part of growing up is admitting that things you don’t like are (or at least were, alas) significant. (IOW, there’s plenty of significant crap out there, and lots of fantastic stuff that’s in danger of disappearing forever if something’s not done.)
But if Yes isn’t significant now, that’s not entirely the band’s fault; prog fans just don’t have the control over the Mechanism that Stones fans do. (Speaking of which, I can’t hear “showmanship”–which I have no problem with, mind you–on my stereo. All I can hear is music.)