The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers (1971)

"Sticky Fingers" is the ninth British and 11th American studio album by English rock band The Rolling Stones, released in April 1971. It is the band's first album of the 1970s and its first release on the band's newly formed label, Rolling Stones Records, after having been contracted since 1963 with Decca Records in the UK and London Records in the US. It is also Mick Taylor's first full-length appearance on a Rolling Stones album, the first Rolling Stones album not to feature any contributions from founding guitarist Brian Jones and the first one on which Mick Jagger is credited with playing guitar. In 2003, Sticky Fingers was listed as #63 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Pieced together from outtakes and much-labored-over songs, "Sticky Fingers" manages to have a loose, ramshackle ambience that belies both its origins and the dark undercurrents of the songs. It's a weary, drug-laden album well over half the songs explicitly mention drug use, while the others merely allude to it that never fades away, but it barely keeps afloat. Apart from the classic opener, "Brown Sugar" (a gleeful tune about slavery, interracial sex, and lost virginity, not necessarily in that order), the long workout "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" and the mean-spirited "Bitch," "Sticky Fingers" is a slow, bluesy affair, with a few country touches thrown in for good measure. The laid-back tone of the album gives ample room for new lead guitarist Mick Taylor to stretch out, particularly on the extended coda of "Can't You Hear Me Knocking." But the key to the album isn't the instrumental interplay although that is terrific it's the utter weariness of the songs. "Wild Horses" is their first non-ironic stab at a country song, and it is a beautiful, heart-tugging masterpiece. Similarly, "I Got the Blues" is a ravished, late-night classic that ranks among their very best blues. "Sister Morphine" is a horrifying overdose tale, and "Moonlight Mile," with Paul Buckmaster's grandiose strings, is a perfect closure: sad, yearning, drug-addled, and beautiful. With its offhand mixture of decadence, roots music, and outright malevolence, "Sticky Fingers set the tone for the rest of the decade for the Stones.

Tracklist

01.  Brown Sugar  (Jagger, Richards)  - 3:48

02.  Sway  (Jagger, Richards)  - 3:50

03.  Wild Horses  (Jagger, Richards)  - 5:42

04.  Can't You Hear Me Knocking  (Jagger, Richards)  - 7:14

05.  You Gotta Move  (Fred McDowell/Gary Davis)  - 2:32

06.  Bitch  (Jagger, Richards)  - 3:38

07.  I Got the Blues  (Jagger, Richards)  - 3:54

08.  Sister Morphine  (Jagger, Richards, Marianne Faithfull)  - 5:31

09.  Dead Flowers  (Jagger, Richards)  - 4:03

10.  Moonlight Mile  (Jagger, Richards)  - 5:56

Personnel

Mick Jagger – lead vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, percussion

Keith Richards – electric guitar, six and twelve string acoustic guitar, backing vocals

Mick Taylor – electric, acoustic, slide guitar

Charlie Watts – drums

Bill Wyman – bass guitar, electric piano

Bobby Keys – saxophone

Ian Stewart – piano

Nicky Hopkins – piano

Jim Dickinson – piano

Billy Preston – organ

Rocky Dijon – congas

Ry Cooder – slide guitar

Jack Nitzsche – piano

Jim Price – trumpet, piano

Paul Buckmaster – string arrangement

Jimmy Miller – percussion

Notes

Released:  23 April 1971

Recorded at:  Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Sheffield, Alabama, Olympic Studios, London, UK

Genre:  Rock

Length:  46:25

Label:  Rolling Stones Records

Producer:  Jimmy Miller