Product Description

Sounding subdued, or at least more wary than most Stones albums, STICKY FINGERS' 1971 release betrayed the difficultiesthe band members were enduring. From Mick Jagger's breakup with the emotionally troubled Marianne Faithfull, to Keith Richards's concern about his newborn son Marlon, the band found themselves re-evaluating their lives, and this depth of emotion made its way into the album. Be it in the terrifyingly spare "Sister Morphine" and "Moonlight Mile", or the near-dangerous, electrified "Can't You Hear Me Knocking", the songs on STICKY FINGERS are anything but innocent.
The lineup on this album solidified with Mick Taylor in place as a second guitarist. Recorded partially in the legendary Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama, the Stones were flirting with the blues, but adding a Southern soul flavour. Much of STICKY FINGERS is this tasteful mixture of blues and soul. Added to the brew are the spicy horn arrangements of saxophonist Bobby Keys and trumpet player Jim Price. The use of horns in the Stones' repertoire seemed inevitable--when they kick in during "Brown Sugar" and "Bitch", it is as if Richards's guitar is rebirthed in brass. STICKY FINGERS proved that the endlesssummer of the 1960s was over, but that the Stones would rock just as hard in the following decade.

Track Listing

1. Brown Sugar
2. Sway
3. Wild Horses
4. Can't You Hear Me Knocking
5. You Gotta Move
6. Bitch
7. I Got The Blues
8. Sister Morphine
9. Dead Flowers
10. Moonlight Mile

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3614 in Music
• Released on: 1994-08-15
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
"Sister Morphine", the heart of guitarist Mick Taylor's first full studio album with the Stones, doesn't get brought up as often as "Brown Sugar" or "Wild Horses". But it's one of the most vivid, horrifying songs about drug abuse ever recorded--as Mick Jagger sings "from my hospital bed," the ringing guitars of Taylor and Keith Richards build to full catharsis behind him. On that and lighter songs like the countryish "Dead Flowers" and the rocker "Bitch", Charlie Watts establishes himself as rock's prototypical drummer. He's creative and propulsive and knows how to swing, but he never overwhelms the song or the other Stones. --Steve Knopper

Customer Reviews

Whoah!
This is it! This album is a distillation of all the hard-ons in the universe. This is the blueprint of rock. Rock's DNA. It's all here; blues, country, electric, lust, violence... Rockers, start here.

Rock, blues, ballads
This landmark 1971 album gave the Stones a massive hit with Brown Sugar. Together with Bitch and the extended jam Can't You Hear Me Knocking it is one of three powerful rock songs while the rest of the album contain soulful, bluesy or country-tinged ballads.

These ballads are all rather dark and brooding, from the melancholy Wild Horses to the unoriginally titled but moving I Got the Blues and the chilling Sister Morphine, whilst Dead Flowers with its country flavor has poetic lyrics and an addictive tune.

The album concludes with the yearning Moonlight Mile, a final unforgettable track. This mix of melodious ballads and power rock make Sticky Fingers a masterpiece and one of that decade's top albums by the greatest rock band of all time.

I am just living to be lying by your side - just another moonlight mile, on down the road
Despite most of the world believing "Brown Sugar" is one of the best Stone's tracks ever I think it's about the weakest track on this album, This niche in the Stone's catalogue where Mick Taylor bought his Sway to bear doesn't derail the juggernaut but does divert it into some more thoughtful areas. 'Moonlight Mile' is seminal (what - no Keith?) and 'I got the Blues' a realisation of their roots - Billy Preston's masterful. Ry Cooder on "Sister Morphine", Nicky Hopkins on "Sway" - the additional musicians on this album take it into some great places, plus Ian Stewart, Paul Buckmaster and Bobby Keyes. Some great drumming from Charley on here too - often overlooked but very much a key part of the sound on here.