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136 of 146 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the All-Time Greats, August 22, 1999
Along with Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed and Exile On Main Street, this is arguably the greatest album ever by the world's greatest rock 'n roll band. This is the post-60's peace and love, nasty early 70's hard core drug inspired kick ass Stones at their pinnacle. Played out classics include "Brown Sugar," "Bitch" and "Wild Horses," but this album's deeper cuts are the true gems. I dare you to keep the hair on your head from standing on end as you hear the opening chords to the epic "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" at full volume. Forget heavy metal - it just doesn't get any raunchier than this, or any better, as Keith and Mick Taylor go at it with a vengeance. Billy Preston guest stars with his classic afro organ sound on the bittersweet "I Got the Blues." Then hold on to your hats, turn down the lights and contemplate the mysteries of the Holy Trinity of "Sister Morphine," "Dead Flowers" and "Moonlight Mile," an incredible sequence of Mick, Keith, Mick Talyor and Ry Cooder genius that will leave you crying for more. Memorable and twisted lyrics, haunting guitars, classic Mick vocals and just pure greatness. These drug drenched masterpieces, not for the faint-hearted, could easily have provided an Abbey Road-like crescendo to the Stones' career. Fortunately for us, Keith somehow survived and the Stones went on to record "Exile," their last truly great album. Warning: in a lame crowd, this is an instant party killer. As a final note, the original vinyl album cover, designed by Andy Warhol, has a real zipper and is a collector's item.
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66 of 75 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Stones enter the Seventies with a dark & lovely beauty, August 23, 2005
When the Technicolour dream of the 1960s finally ended, it was time to face the reality of the new decade, especially for rock bands. The Beatles bowed out early, so their friendly rivals the Rolling Stones were left standing to sit atop the throne. However, that is not to say things happened to the band behind the scenes that could easily have caused them to go the Beatles' way.
Former guitarist Brian Jones died mysteriously on July 3, 1969, and had been replaced by Mick Taylor only a few songs into the sessions for LET IT BLEED. December 6 of that year was the infamous Altamont free concert that officially signified the dream of peace & love was over. But instead of coming unglued, the Stones were merely softened (at least temporarily), and thus encouraged to become more introspective. 1971's STICKY FINGERS was certainly their lowest-key album yet, save for some obvious rockers.
That STICKY FINGERS manages to be a uniformly outstanding affair is a wonder considering that the songs were recorded in different places at different times, rather than going for a certain ambience in that one studio. It also even had songs that were essentially outtakes, but went on to become classics all the same. That is right, "Brown Sugar" & "Wild Horses" had been recorded in Muscle Shoals, during the Stones' infamous 1969 American Tour. That they stand as some of STICKY FINGERS' hardest tracks comes as no surprise.
Yes, "Brown Sugar" became the Stones' sixth #1 hit in America in spite of (or maybe because of) its questionable lyrics that were either racist, sexist, drug-related...or all three. Still, even the most politically correct listeners cannot deny that it is one of the Stones' gloriously rocking tunes ever, especially with Keith Richards' most inventive opening guitar riff until "Start Me Up". Jim Price & Bobby Keys' horns still manage to cut through the aural hysteria like a razor.
Even the considerably more subdued "Wild Horses" has a pronounced edge to it, managing to sound heartwarming even with a vocal from Mick Jagger that was probably rough from cigarettes & alcohol. Sure, it only reached #28 & does not get the kind of airplay "Brown Sugar" still does, yet "Wild Horses" showed the Stones were still releasing quality singles at a time when AM Gold pop was reigning supreme.
"Can't You Hear Me Knocking" is more like an embryonic song idea that is just the launching pad for a 7-minute scorching jam that is not unlike what Santana would have created on any of their first 3 albums.
The only other song on STICKY FINGERS that equals the madness of "Brown Sugar" is "Bitch", once again with the horns practically being the main reason why it rocks so hard. Of course, the tendency is to assume a legendarily-chauvinistic band like the Stones is creating yet another song about a bad little woman. But however, the song basically is saying that life is a bitch, not a certain unnamed female. I wonder if calling the song by this name was rather revolutionary for 1971 (considering the eventual controversy over 1973's "Star Star").
With a great part of STICKY FINGERS having been recorded at Mick Jagger's house with the Stones' newly-built mobile unit, there you have the reason why the album has a reputation of being one of their looser, less heavy affairs. The aforementioned "Bitch" was recorded there, but about everything else was more mellowed, yet uneasily so. "Sway" has a menacing vibe to it even with a rhythm that invites the title action rather than headbanging.
The Stones return to their blues roots with Reverend Gary Davis' "You Gotta Move" which follows "Street Fighting Man"'s method of creating an air of terror without an electric guitar in sight. Aerosmith's recent cover has absolutely nothing on the Stones' take, showing that not all white boys have soul, but a few have been blessed.
"I Got The Blues" is said to have been the song that inspired Jon Bon Jovi to start writing songs, and maybe he knows something other listeners do not because it is indeed one of the Stones' truly lost classics. Sounding like a lost Stax outtake, the horns again come close to stealing the show, alongside Billy Preston's trusty organ work. Oh, how people like Otis Redding or Wilson Pickett could have tore this one up!
The drug exploits of the Stones in the 1970s (especially those of Keith Richards) are foreshadowed eerily on "Sister Morphine", partly inspired by Mick Jagger's then-girlfriend Marianne Faithfull's near-fatal heroin overdose. One song that is openly scary & not afraid to be so, even now, you may want to listen to this song only in the daytime, and even better, it may scare you off drugs for good.
Towards the end of STICKY FINGERS, the nightmarish atmosphere somewhat lifts on the final two tracks. "Dead Flowers" sends up twang-heavy country music even as it manages to be a fine document of the genre itself. I cannot find a song that has a major Keith Richards influence (he had just begun to sing lead on a song or two per album), but given his friendship with country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons, I can guess this would be a reasonable antecedent. "Dead Flowers" also manages to be yet another inventive way of telling a mistreating mate where to go.
The sun then finally rises on the closing "Moonlight Mile", which gives probably the best idea of the communal vibe that surrounded STICKY FINGERS & would continue onto 1972's EXILE ON MAIN ST. The strings & vocals may have been added later, but the rest of the music was done live, and the warmth it all radiates is palpable. After a nearly 40-minute long musical bad dream (but a glorious one nevertheless), "Moonlight Mile" is the song that helps you realize it was one after all.
While the Beatles may have caved in before the decade was barely new, the Rolling Stones proved to be just at the beginning of their superstar period when STICKY FINGERS became their first #1 album in 6 years, and also was the first in an enviable stretch of 8 consecutive albums to top the charts. Some would say a few of those reached that position undeservedly, but you certainly could not include STICKY FINGERS in that category because it managed to rock like hell even when the menace was more seductive than violent.
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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE FINEST CHRONICLE OF EXHAUSTION EVER, April 19, 2003
It rocks hard, no mistake, and though the Stones retained thier title "World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band" with songs like Brown Sugar and Bitch, the murky, slow songs are the ones that reveal Sticky Fingers true heart. Since the release of their last studio album, Let It Bleed, the Stones world had been turned upside down in a number of ways. Founding member and former leader Brian Jones had left the band and within weeks was dead. Virtuoso guitarist Mick Taylor had joined the band. The triumph of their '69 tour as well as the tragedy of Altamont. Marianne Faithful had left Mick. Keith had a baby with Brian Jones former love Anita Pallenberg. Heck, even the Beatles had broken up. And in the midst of all this chaos, the Stones released yet another of rocks' indisputably greatest albums of all time.The Stones found the purpose to carry-on thanks to four vital factors on Sticky Fingers. Mick Taylor's presence brings a new sense of purpose to the music: before his arrival, the extended coda on Can't You Hear Me Knockin' was not a consideration. His guitar parts on Sway, Wild Horses, and Moonlight Mile employ a sophistication and a technique that bring these songs to new heights. Mick Jagger can also be heard contributing significant anount of guitar throughout the album. And though on Let it Bleed, the Stones flirted with adding horn parts, here they finally fully integrate horns into songs like Can't You Hear Me Knockin', I Got the Blues, and Bitch. The final factor was Keith's friedship with Gram Parsons: Parsons, a former member of the Byrds and credited as being the pioneer of country-rock, taught Keith about country music, and thanks to the influence, Keith was able to create songs like Wild Horses and Dead Flowers. ... Nearly every song contains a drug reference; some overt (Can't You Hear Me Knockin', I Got the Blues, Dead Flowers, Sister Morphine), some hidden (Brown Sugar is slang for a particular form of heroin, Wild Horses verse "No offstage exits or offstage lines"...just what kind of "offstage lines" are we talking about?). And the lyrics to songs like the incredible Sway, Wild Horses, Sister Morphine, and the gorgeous Moonlight Mile depict the struggle to retain one's sense of identity and self in the face of insurmountable struggles. Moonlight Mile - a track that Keith isn't present on - sums it all up: the rock life is one of great glory and creative fulfillment, but ultimately the one thing that can really give one's life a sense of purpose is being true to yourself and finding someone to help make it all worthwhile. "Made a rag pile of my shiny clothes/Gonna warm my bones", Mick sings, turning his back on the decadence of his life and declaring with intent "I'm coming home". The song concludes in a lovely but chilly atmosphere. Does the protagonist make it? Can he accomplish his dream of putting his past life behind him? That's left ambiguous. All that is certain is that as the enitre album makes clear, it can be a hard, cruel, uncaring world: all you can do is keep going, hoping the distance you put between you and your failures is and can be kept greater than the distance between you and your accomplishments.
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