Sticky Fingers

• Exile On Main Street
• Let It Bleed
• Beggars Banquet
• Some Girls
• Goats Head Soup

You know? Maybe the REALLY great stuff is like THAT. If I could only save one record (please God let that cup pass my lips) from my blazing bedroom, "Exile" might still be it. But I'd tell the firefighters not to come out without this one. Its first three songs may be the best 1-2-3 punch on any rock record. "Brown Sugar" is the most overplayed number I still insist on playing; it's still air-guitar/air-sax heaven, with bathroom-mirror singing parts. I'm happy, though, to see all the plugs on this site for "Sway," my favorite Stones song. The lyrics are powerful, Mick's countdown at the start a moodsetter, the Mick/Keith duet drowned by the solo at the end classic Stones harmony, the rhythm guitar majestically orchestral (one almost doesn't need the strings that one thanks God are in there to lift the song into the upper atmosphere at the end), Mick Taylor's lead solo soaring like no other on a Stones song (it actually starts to peak right at the fadeout). When I put this record on to hear one song, "Sway" is always it; when I grab a selection, "Sway" is always one of them. But the album keeps moving from strength to strength: the country perfection of "Wild Horses" and "Dead Flowers" (the Stones are the world's best C/W band); the pure blues of "You Gotta Move" and the blues/gospel tints of "I Got the Blues," the dirty swing of "Bitch," the strung-out nightmare of "Sister Morphine" (actually my least favorite on this record full of favorites), and finally "Moonlight Mile," proving once and for all that it takes a really strong rock band to be gentle. The string chord at the end of this song ties in my mind with the final notes of "From the Morning" from Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" for best record closer ever.

(And I had to come back to plug "Can't You Hear Me Knocking," one of the alltime great guitar workouts. This album is that good.)

"Sticky Fingers" is in no way one of those records that reveals new layers with every listen. There's not a busted pick on this record I haven't heard a thousand times. Rather, the things you keep on hearing, keep on delivering, time after hi-test time. Underrated? Hmmmmm. Maybe not. I'll check back and let you know how high this one eventually goes on my all-time best list. It's on the Up elevator. And climbing.

The Stones were also free from the sixties and all that "revolution" nonsense. The Stones could be their own kind of "cool" and millions ate it up.

Production values also changed. As a close listen to this record will show, stereophonic sound now had a presence in which the listener seemed to find himself in the midst of the instruments and musicians. This was exciting at the time and gave the listener a new sense of realism in the playing. Later in the seventies, this approach was driven so far that many records felt claustrophobic. The sound was so up close and precise that it became unreal. In the Stones' hands, however, the sound was tight but the feeling was loose and free.

The album opens with "Brown Sugar" and "Sway". Wonderful lyrics, good solos, rocking rhythm. Definitely forbidden subject matter. But this was all a part of the new era of freedom and frankness of the time. It was all about being "past all those hang ups".

"Wild Horses" is a touching, tender ballad that somehow manages to drip with masculinity. "Can't You Here Me Knocking" is perhaps the greatest lost Stones song. Perhaps it is all the drug references or because the instrumental section reminds many of Santana, but it is smart and tough and all cool. It is unjustly ignored.

"You Gotta Move" is a slide guitar blues song that seems inconsequential but you find yourself playing it in your head weeks later. "Bitch" is simply one of the Stones best with a growling guitar line, snapping drums and a tight horn section all trying to keep up with swaggering Jagger.

Things slow down with "I Got The Blues" and "Sister Morphine". Then the mood lightens up with the comical country song "Dead Flowers". Finally, we get 'Moonlight Mile". 'Moonlight Mile" is a wonderful romantic and gentle song that flows like a quiet river over the listener and slips out into the sea. It deserves repeated listening and the Stones themselves would try to rise again to the same level in other songs-but they never got it as perfect as they did here.

OK, I count 6 great cuts out of 10 strictly speaking. But even the lesser songs hold up and are memorable over thirty years later. This is the Rolling Stones at their best. It is a shame all some remember is the Andy Warhol "jeans" artwork. Sticky Fingers is smart, sexy and commanding. It helped make the summer of 1971 a good time to be alive.

The Stones were also free from the sixties and all that "revolution" nonsense. The Stones could be their own kind of "cool" and millions ate it up.

Production values also changed. As a close listen to this record will show, stereophonic sound now had a presence in which the listener seemed to find himself in the midst of the instruments and musicians. This was exciting at the time and gave the listener a new sense of realism in the playing. Later in the seventies, this approach was driven so far that many records felt claustrophobic. The sound was so up close and precise that it became unreal. In the Stones' hands, however, the sound was tight but the feeling was loose and free.

The album opens with "Brown Sugar" and "Sway". Wonderful lyrics, good solos, rocking rhythm. Definitely forbidden subject matter. But this was all a part of the new era of freedom and frankness of the time. It was all about being "past all those hang ups".

"Wild Horses" is a touching, tender ballad that somehow manages to drip with masculinity. "Can't You Here Me Knocking" is perhaps the greatest lost Stones song. Perhaps it is all the drug references or because the instrumental section reminds many of Santana, but it is smart and tough and all cool. It is unjustly ignored.

"You Gotta Move" is a slide guitar blues song that seems inconsequential but you find yourself playing it in your head weeks later. "Bitch" is simply one of the Stones best with a growling guitar line, snapping drums and a tight horn section all trying to keep up with swaggering Jagger.

Things slow down with "I Got The Blues" and "Sister Morphine". Then the mood lightens up with the comical country song "Dead Flowers". Finally, we get 'Moonlight Mile". 'Moonlight Mile" is a wonderful romantic and gentle song that flows like a quiet river over the listener and slips out into the sea. It deserves repeated listening and the Stones themselves would try to rise again to the same level in other songs-but they never got it as perfect as they did here.

OK, I count 6 great cuts out of 10 strictly speaking. But even the lesser songs hold up and are memorable over thirty years later. This is the Rolling Stones at their best. It is a shame all some remember is the Andy Warhol "jeans" artwork. Sticky Fingers is smart, sexy and commanding. It helped make the summer of 1971 a good time to be alive.

The Stones were also free from the sixties and all that "revolution" nonsense. The Stones could be their own kind of "cool" and millions ate it up.

Production values also changed. As a close listen to this record will show, stereophonic sound now had a presence in which the listener seemed to find himself in the midst of the instruments and musicians. This was exciting at the time and gave the listener a new sense of realism in the playing. Later in the seventies, this approach was driven so far that many records felt claustrophobic. The sound was so up close and precise that it became unreal. In the Stones' hands, however, the sound was tight but the feeling was loose and free.

The album opens with "Brown Sugar" and "Sway". Wonderful lyrics, good solos, rocking rhythm. Definitely forbidden subject matter. But this was all a part of the new era of freedom and frankness of the time. It was all about being "past all those hang ups".

"Wild Horses" is a touching, tender ballad that somehow manages to drip with masculinity. "Can't You Here Me Knocking" is perhaps the greatest lost Stones song. Perhaps it is all the drug references or because the instrumental section reminds many of Santana, but it is smart and tough and all cool. It is unjustly ignored.

"You Gotta Move" is a slide guitar blues song that seems inconsequential but you find yourself playing it in your head weeks later. "Bitch" is simply one of the Stones best with a growling guitar line, snapping drums and a tight horn section all trying to keep up with swaggering Jagger.

Things slow down with "I Got The Blues" and "Sister Morphine". Then the mood lightens up with the comical country song "Dead Flowers". Finally, we get 'Moonlight Mile". 'Moonlight Mile" is a wonderful romantic and gentle song that flows like a quiet river over the listener and slips out into the sea. It deserves repeated listening and the Stones themselves would try to rise again to the same level in other songs-but they never got it as perfect as they did here.

OK, I count 6 great cuts out of 10 strictly speaking. But even the lesser songs hold up and are memorable over thirty years later. This is the Rolling Stones at their best. It is a shame all some remember is the Andy Warhol "jeans" artwork. Sticky Fingers is smart, sexy and commanding. It helped make the summer of 1971 a good time to be alive.

• Styles > International > Europe > British Isles
• Styles > Pop
• Styles > Classic Rock
• Styles > Hard Rock & Metal
• Styles > Rock

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