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The Rolling Stones
Sticky Fingers
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(Rolling Stones Records, 1971)


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Still flying high with Jagger and Richards' finest set...

by Ross Bennett




Re-watching the recently reissued Gimme Shelter DVD at the weekend, I was struck by just how on top of their game the Stones were at the close of the '60s. Strangely, it's not the savage brutality of the Hell's Angels or Jagger's ultra-camp posturing that now stick in the mind. It's the music - particularly the snippets of songs that would eventually appear on the imperious Sticky Fingers. There's this scene in which an unsuspecting Holiday Inn gets an early taste of the swaggering Brown Sugar while, a little later, the playback of Wild Horses is an early, unrefined glimpse of the band's defining country ballad. Free from the dark clouds that hover over Let It Bleed and uncluttered by the sheer volume of material found on Exile On Main Street, Sticky Fingers sees the Stones punching at a fighting weight. Rather than over-egg these songs with superfluous horns, keys and backing vocals, SF's 10 cuts see the band applying maximum finesse with minimal additions. Like the bare-bones drive behind the Southern soul sounds of Muscle Shoals and Stax, there's a feeling that things must be kept lean at all costs, and Billy Preston's organ, Bobby Keyes' sax, Ry Cooder's slide and the late Jim Dickinson's piano are all the better for their restraint. Sticky Fingers also marks the point at which Mick Taylor's elegant soloing first gels with Keith's R&B grind (Dead Flowers and Can't You Hear Me Knocking offer two particularly seamless sparring sessions) and Jagger has never sounded more soulful than on Wild Horses and I Got The Blues. There has never been a more rocking version of the Rolling Stones than the one found on this record. Now, if only I could get my hands on a copy with a real zip...

Further listening:-

The Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed (Decca, 1969)



Ike & Tina Turner – Workin’ Together (Liberty, 1971)



Etta James – Tell Mama (Cadet, 1968)

'Disc of the Day'? Is a bit more than that.

Yeah, more like the Disc Of All Time!

To call it Disc of the Day is a disservice, Mojo should know better. SF is a forever masterpiece.

Best album in the world in my opinion. Nothing even comes close to it so Disc of the Day is insulting it. 'Disc Of the Day' belongs to a Backstreet Boys album - Not the greatest album by the greatest rock 'n roll band in the world.