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 nonironic 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.

the best breakdown in rock and roll of "Can't You Hear Me Knockin."

I dunno about that, unless you like the way the breakdown turns a great (GREAT) rocker into lounge muzak.

But otherwise you're right on the mark. This is the one Stones album that gives Exile a run for its money IMO. I think the Stones "found" themselves on Beggar's Banquet, and then really channeled all their influences into a truly original, singular, recognizable sound on "Gimme Shelter", and Sticky Fingers is the culmination of that journey. This is the Stones living up to their own mythology as "world's greatest rock and roll band". They're their own galaxy at this point, emitting layers of arrogance, decadence, and jaded depravity in (almost) every note. "Brown Sugar" is bedrock. "Sway" and "Moonlight Mile" dig so deep it's almost frightening. The only misstep is that gotdarned breakdown in "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'".

Agreed then.

Don Was was talking about the sheer volume of Rolling Stones recordings at that Exile event I went to last week. He said there's a warehouse the size of a city block that contains nothing but stones tapes. He also said that they went through $250K worth of tape in recording Bridges to Babylon alone and that Mick sent him 2 harddrives worth of unreleased material from which he picked the extras for the Exile reissue. He said that Mick had always hated going back and listening to all that old stuff but got really into the process once they got going. He said Mick seemed so happy with it that there's probably a much better chance of a lot more stuff seeing the light of day than he would have guessed in the past.

Also, speaking of stones related, anyone ever heard Keef's reggae recordings:



Apparently there's a new album coming out this year. LOMIT!

Was produced DIRTY WORK - of course Mick likes him.

They should have given this project to Rick Rubin.

I don't really have any opinion on Was as a producer but why Rubin?

Really anyone but Was, whose work is way to polished for the Stones, especially when listening to the difference between the early and later period records.

But I think someone like Rubin, considering what he did with Cash, would be great to scrape the sheen and the bullshit off of Mick and make a real roots record, as opposed to what Mick has pursued for the last 25-30 years.

It's the only album to put on if you've been slamming speedballs for days and you're contemplating the switch to crack.

But I think someone like Rubin, considering what he did with Cash, would be great to scrape the sheen and the bullshit off of Mick and make a real roots record, as opposed to what Mick has pursued for the last 25-30 years.

Off topic: This thread has been a great read. It has literally walked me through the Stones' years with those whom I consider the most reputable of opinions on the subject. I certainly have learned what I like and don't from this band.

I know I'm pissing in the wind in this thread, but it all peaked with Let It Bleed for me.