Sticky Fingers - Rolling Stones

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones got together in London (none of the three were actually from London) and formed The Rolling Stones around the year of 1962. Up until around 1963, they had been the ‘live in’ band at a blues club in Richmond, south west London, called The Crawdaddy. Because of clean cut approach to music at that time in Britain and the fact that The Beatles’ sharp suited image was to be blamed for the ’knicker wetting’ movement of the younger female generation, it was probably thought of a rather challenging task to know how to present The Rolling Stones. Fundamentally a rhythm and blues set up, they were hardly into ‘wooing ‘and ...  Read the complete review

1971, it seems a long, long way away for me – but if the music is anything to go by, I would have liked to have been there. The Rolling Stones were really, excuse the pun, on a roll at this point – album after album was just class. From the powerful opening chords of radio friendly rock classic ‘Brown Sugar’ – to the mournful pangs of pain found in ‘Sister Morphine’ – all the way through the album is consistently awesome. Drug tinged and even slightly dodgy lyrics all the way through just embody the ragged bunch that comprised the ‘Stones. On tracks such as ‘Sister Morphine’ ...  Read the complete review

With the new 2 CD Rolling Stones collection out, I thought it was time to revisit some of their 'proper' albums, and "Sticky Fingers" is one of the classics. The cover is the famous Andy Warhol one with the crotch shot, and it was complete with real, working zip for the original vinyl release. Today’s CD can’t compete with that, but you still get the ‘undressed’ version of the picture, with the photo of the underpant-clad crotch on the back, and with the Andy Warhol logo on the waistband. The lineup was (as if I need say) Mick Jagger, Keith Richard, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, with Mick Taylor, right in the middle ...  Read the complete review

I was, right from the beginning, always a Stones person rather than a Beatles person. I just loved the rawness of their music. Yes, the Beatles did some perfectly crafted stuff but somehow it just seemed to lack the sheer power of the Stones. The classic "Sticky Fingers" from 1971 took them to a new level. Never before had they put together a collection of such total cohesion. Forget all the stories about the "drug theme" running through every song. Forget the controversy of the Andy Warhol cover with its real zip jeans fly (I have an original vinyl copy). Just listen to the music. From those opening chords of the first ...  Read the complete review

Although I listen to them very rarely these days, I'm infact a huge fan of The Rolling Stones and find pleasure in listening to the majority of their works, I struggle to find fault with some of their poorer songs as most people who like a particular band's work tend to do. It is however not just me and is widely acknowledged that Sticky Fingers (the band's 13th studio album released in 1971) is a pretty darn good album. The somewhat mischevious name of the album combined with the album cover sets a precedent for the music on the album which follow in in true Rolling Stones fashion touch the subjects of women, booze and drugs. It's a top quality bluesy album ...  Read the complete review