Sticky Fingers - Rolling Stones (The) (CD 1994)

The Rolling Stones elevate these three subjects to an almost concept album status on Sticky Fingers, which features Mick Taylor as a permanent replacement for Brian Jones (at least thats what they thought at the time) and the most infamous cover art of all time, courtesy Andy Warhol (the LP had a real zipper). Its also one of their best. Except for the first track, Brown Sugar. Musically, its kinda generic (except for the amazing sax solo), and lyrically, its just one of those "what were they thinking?" songs. In the words of Mick Jagger, "Its about the dual combination of sex and drugs." The drug references were put in cleverly, but the part of it thats about sex is an abomination on Sticky Fingers, the Stones' legacy, and all of rock and roll. Let me quote the first verse and the chorus.

Gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
Sold in the market down in New Orleans
Scarred old slaver knows he's doing alright
Hear him whip the women just around midnight
Brown sugar how come you taste so good
Brown sugar just like a young girl should

Not only racist, its a celebration of one of the worst aspects of one of the worst ideas in human history. It turned me off a long time from buying this record, but as it turns out, every single other song is incredible. Witness Sway, which opens with someone slowly counting off and a big guitar riff. Its hazy, drugged out, and absolutely perfect, especially the solo. Plus it has great lyrics, as seen below.

Did you ever wake up to find
A day that broke up your mind
Destroyed your notion of circular time?

After it fades out, the tender ballad Wild Horses begins. For a long time, it was my favorite song by the Rolling Stones (a position currently held by Gimmie Shelter). Let's do some living after we die. Can you find a line better than that? Even "The sunshine bores the daylights out of me" (Rocks Off, from Exile on Main Street) can't beat it. You've been lulled into a quiet place, so the boys need to wake you up. Can't You Hear Me Knocking? will do the trick. At this point the songwriting quality drops off a little, but it starts off rockin hard, but every so often it lets up, until three minutes in when they break out into a great jam session. You Gotta Move comes next, a Fred McDowell cover and the shortest song on the album, and for the longest time I hated it. It was murky and impenetrable, and featured some of the worst singing Mick has ever done. But it grew on me, and I loved the lyrics to begin with, so I was set. Its one of the two songs on the album not to make a reference to sex or drugs, but given its context in the album "When the good lord comes, you gotta move" still keeps with the theme.

Going to the second side, we have Bi+ch, the last hard rocker. The lyrics aren't that great, but passable. Its just Mick bragging about his sex drive. Nothing spectacular, but it does have a couple of good lines. Of course, musically, its absolutely stunning (way more than Brown Sugar could ever hope to be). Then I Got the Blues. Yes, the title is stupid. And its frequently been called the worst song on the album. I think thats kind of unfair. The lyrics are very nice, and Mick's vocals are very heartfelt. But there are some extra sounds near the end that don't need to be there. Some of it was copied by Pink Floyd for Dark Side of the Moon, but they pulled it off better. Now you've got Sister Morphine. Wow. Very creepy. It begins very spare, with barely whispered vocals but it keeps building and building until Mick screams "You know and I know in the morning I'll be dead you can sit around yeah you can watch all the clean white sheets stain red" After that, Dead Flowers seems a bit of a letdown at first, especially since its really country-ish. Its also kinda laughable that the Stones talk about other people sitting in silk upholstered chairs, while they have their ragged company. But its still pretty good. Moonlight Mile closes the album off, and proves that its all the Rolling Stones fault. Now I'm too young to know which came out first, Sticky Fingers or Let it Be, but this is what Phil Spector was trying for when he butchered The Long and Winding Road. Its all their fault. If it weren't for its gorgeous string arrangements, which gave us one of the most beautiful moments in popular music, Phil Spector wouldn't have attempted the same on Paul's song, and we all know how bad that turned out. Dare I say it, Moonlight Mile makes a better closer to Sticky Fingers than You Can't Always Get What You Want did to Let it Bleed. With all this greatness, you'll forget that it has Brown Sugar on it. Highly recommended.