The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers

When I was a young boy growing up in the middle of nowhere, just northeast of Kansas City, Missouri, my friends fell into three categories…Beatles fans, Rolling Stones fans and Elvis fans.

And then there were those who didn’t follow music. Of course, those people weren’t really my friends, I just happened to know who they were because you know everybody when you live in a small town.

I was a Beatles fan.

I liked the Rolling Stones, but didn’t care much for Elvis at the time, the Beatles were the ones, as far as I was concerned, who set the trend for everybody and everything.

At the time, the Beatles seemed to be more about peace and love and good times, while the Stones were about getting high, getting laid and getting dead.

The Beatles were sunshine, the Stones were midnight. And Elvis…well, Elvis was old school even though nobody used that term back then. Elvis was for old people. I knew people whose parents were Elvis Presley fans. Of course, I've changed my mind since then - see the Sun Sessions review.

Anyway, no one can argue that the Stones are, as they started billing themselves around the time Sticky Fingers came out, The World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band!

If you think about it…that tagline along with the ‘tongue and lips’ logo was the first sign of corporate branding in the rock world. Sure the Monkees were a manufactured product (I’m still a Monkees fan though) and the Beatles had Apple Records with the green apple logo, but where are the Beatles and the Monkees now, as a matter of fact, they were both gone before Sticky Fingers was released.

The Stones, as they say, are still out there on the road, and as Robert Earl Keen says..."the road goes on forever and the party never ends…"

I suppose there will be discussions and arguments for years about who is the world’s greatest rock and roll band…as for me, I’m sticking with the philosophy that it’s only rock and roll, but I like it, I like it , yes I do, I like it!

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Album: The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
Original Release: 1971
CD Release: 1994
Label: Rolling Stones Records

This album was released one month before I graduated from high school, I still have the sound of Mick Taylor’s guitar ringing in my ears…

For a lot of people, Sticky Fingers and the way the album cover was designed with a working zipper incorporated into the cover, was their first exposure to Andy Warhol. They might have known about Warhol through the Velvet Underground and the Plastic Exploding Inevitable, or from his tomato soup can art, but they had never held an actual Warhol design in their hands before.

It was also the first album to feature Mick Taylor in the band. He replaced Brian Jones who died under mysterious circumstances in 1969.

The hit single (number one) "Brown Sugar" opens the album with a classic Keith Richards riff (instantly recognizable today) that sets the tone for everything that follows. The beat, the rhythm, the feel of the whole album is set up by that opening track. Check out the lyrics to the first verse…

Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields,
Sold in a market down in New Orleans.
Scarred old slaver know he’s doin’ alright.
Hear him whip the women just around midnight.
Ah brown sugar how come you taste so good
(a-ha) brown sugar, just like a young girl should
A-huh.

…does it get any darker, any weirder, any more twisted than that? Of course it does, just keep listening.

The next cut takes you on a journey through "that demon life that’s got me in its sway…"

According to the liner notes that’s Mick and Mick on guitars, no Keith. No wonder they chose Mick Taylor.

The next two cuts, "Wild Horses" and "Can’t You Hear Me Knocking", are my all time favorite Stones’ songs, (hard to believe they are back to back on the same album) and feature some of the most searing, yet beautiful guitar work ever by the Stones, and the heartfelt Jagger vocals on "Wild Horses" is truly amazing.

"Can't You Hear Me Knocking", has that classic Keith rhythm/riff to it, and the saxophone work by Bobby Keys is absolutely perfect, like a strong gust of wind blowing through Mick Taylor‘s Carlos Santana like guitar work. An incredible jam that I haven’t gotten tired of in over thirty years.

The next cut, a reworking of Mississippi Fred McDowell’s "You Gotta Move", is another classic Stones’ tribute to the blues. This cut closed out side one on the original album.

The opening cut on side two was "Bitch", a rocking dance tune that is a precursor to the disco sound that would follow a few years later. With a different title, it would have been a number one hit as well. Another great Keith riff, (he must surely hold the record for classic rock riffs) laid on top of a pounding Bill Wyman/Charlie Watts rhythm section that still sounds fresh today. An incredible hook.

I could go on and on about every cut on Sticky Fingers, but I think you get the picture.

Now, all you have to do is get the album…click on the cover and buy it today. If you don’t already own this album, your rock and roll music collection isn’t complete.