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How to review an album that has become a legend over the years? A good rocker knows how valuable such an album can be, starting with the cover. The Stones take the "banana" cover of the Velvet Underground album and give it their own interpretation in their style; they don't beat around the bush, for them the "banana" is nothing more than the "package" in tight jeans. And while inside the Velvet's album we had the peeled banana, inside Sticky there's a pair of underwear with an active member.
It goes without saying that the bad boys never did things halfway; while progressive begins to show off in those years, the Stones deliver an album with the usual sound full of blues, raw and unadorned.
While Exile was a beautiful party, almost a document captured in a free and spontaneous form, here they fall into line but the result is still astonishing.
It starts with a nice riff from Keith and not just any piece but "Brown Sugar"; faithful Bobby Keys blows hard on the sax giving the piece a good dose of soul.
Next is "Sway": solid and compact sound and Mick Taylor's guitar maneuvers with confidence and mastery.
"Wild Horses," of the series underneath it all (but very underneath) the tough guys have two hearts, with the good one they love a little more (Ligabue teaches). The tough guys, in this case, the Stones, can make us dream, Keith fingerpicks divinely and the chorus sung by the Glimmer Twins gives chills.
In "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'" another intro with a big riff in true Richards style, then, when it seems like the game is over, the bad boys pull out something magical, among percussion, sax, and Taylor's guitar flying high toward psychedelic emotions.
"You Gotta Move" hey, what did you think? We haven't forgotten the blues, it's a disease, we have it inside like cancer, and here it is splattered, rural just the right amount. "Bitch" the title says it all, Jagger's misogyny blatant in all its brazenness, the horns make good counterpoints.
"I got the blues" all the magic of the Stones, a song that would have made Otis Redding mad with envy. When Billy Preston starts on the Hammond, you risk a heart attack, folks!
"Sister Morphine" with the presence of His Majesty Ry Cooder and, to finish, "Dead Flowers," perhaps the most requested cover among the American roots bands, perhaps because it indirectly refers to Keith's great friendship with Gram Parsons.
A beautiful and elegant finale with "Moonlight Mile"; there's something in this song that sends you back in memory, to the Stones of Aftermath, to that British sound they crossed even if only marginally.
Overall for the newbies, it can easily be said that the entire album is enjoyable even in the car, and we know that combining enjoyment and quality doesn't always happen. Each track stands alone, the Stones will hardly reach such heights again. And remember that to pass the good rocker exam you need to know how to appreciate such an album.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Brown Sugar (03:50)
Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
Sold in a market down in New Orleans
Scarred old slaver, know 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, uh huh
Drums beating, cold English blood runs hot
Lady of the house wond'ring where it's gonna stop
House boy knows that he's doing alright
You shoulda heard him just around midnight
Brown sugar, how come you taste so good, now?
Brown sugar, just like a young girl should, now
Ah, get along
Brown sugar, how come you taste so good, babe?
Ah, got me feelin' now
Brown sugar, just like a black girl should, yeah
Now, I bet your mama was a tent show queen
And all her boyfriends were sweet sixteen
I'm no schoolboy, but I know what I like
You shoulda heard me just around midnight
Brown sugar, how come you taste so good, babe?
Ah, brown sugar, just like a young girl should, yeah
I said yeah, yeah, yeah, woo
How come you, how come you taste so good?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo
Just like a, just like a black girl should
Yeah, yeah, yeah, woo
02 Sway (03:52)
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)
Did you ever wake up to find
A day that broke up your mind
Destroyed your notion of circular time
It's just that demon life has got you in its sway
It's just that demon life has got you in its sway
Ain't flinging tears out on the dusty ground
For all my friends out on the burial ground
Can't stand the feeling getting so brought down
It's just that demon life has got me in its sway
It's just that demon life has got me in its sway
There must be ways to find out
Love is the way they say is really strutting out
Hey, hey, hey now
One day I woke up to find
Right in the bed next to mine
Someone that broke me up with a corner of her smile, yeah
It's just that demon life has got me in its sway
It's just that demon life has got me in its sway
It's just that demon life has got me in its sway
It's just that demon life has got me...
It's just that demon life has got me...
03 Wild Horses (05:43)
Childhood living is easy to do
The things you wanted I bought them for you
Graceless lady, you know who I am
You know I can't let you slide through my hands
Wild horses couldn't drag me away
Wild, wild horses, couldn't drag me away
I watched you suffer a dull aching pain
Now you decided to show me the same
No sweeping exits or offstage lines
Could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind
Wild horses couldn't drag me away
Wild, wild horses, couldn't drag me away
I know I dreamed you a sin and a lie
I have my freedom, but I don't have much time
Faith has been broken, tears must be cried
Let's do some living, after we die
Wild horses couldn't drag me away
Wild, wild horses, we'll ride them some day
Wild horses couldn't drag me away
Wild, wild horses, we'll ride them some day
04 Can't You Hear Me Knocking (07:15)
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)
Yeah, you got satin shoes
Yeah, you got plastic boots
Y'all got cocaine eyes
Yeah, you got speed-freak jive
Can't you hear me knockin' on your window
Can't you hear me knockin' on your door
Can't you hear me knockin' down your dirty street, yeah
Help me baby, ain't no stranger
Help me baby, ain't no stranger
Help me baby, ain't no stranger
Can't you hear me knockin', ahh, are you safe asleep?
Can't you hear me knockin', yeah, down the gas light street, now
Can't you hear me knockin', yeah, throw me down the keys
Alright now
Hear me ringing big bell tolls
Hear me singing soft and low
I've been begging on my knees
I've been kickin', help me please
Hear me prowlin'
I'm gonna take you down
Hear me growlin'
Yeah, I've got flatted feet now, now, now, now
Hear me howlin'
And all, all around your street now
Hear me knockin'
And all, all around your town
05 You Gotta Move (02:33)
(F. McDowell)
You gotta move
You gotta move
You gotta move, child
You gotta move
Oh, when the Lord gets ready
You gotta move
You may be high
You may be low
You may be rich, child
You may be poor
But when the Lord gets ready
You gotta move
You see that woman
Who walks the street
You see that police
Upon his beat
But then the Lord gets ready
You gotta move
You gotta move
06 Bitch (03:38)
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)
Feeling so tired, can't understand it
Just had a fortnight's sleep
I'm feeling so tired, I'm so distracted
Ain't touched a thing all week
I'm feeling drunk, juiced up and sloppy
Ain't touched a drink all night
I'm feeling hungry, can't see the reason
Just ate a horse meat pie
Yeah when you call my name
I salivate like a Pavlov dog
Yeah when you lay me out
My heart is beating louder than a big bass drum, alright
Yeah, you got to mix it child
You got to fix it must be love
It's a bitch
You got to mix it child
You got to fix it but love
It's a bitch, alright
Sometimes I'm sexy, move like a stud
Kicking the stall all night
Sometimes I'm so shy, got to be worked on
Don't have no bark or bite, alright
Yeah when you call my name
I salivate like a Pavlov dog
Yeah when you lay me out
My heart is bumpin' louder than a big bass drum, alright
I said hey, yeah I feel alright now
Got to be a...
Hey, I feel alright now
Hey hey hey
Hey hey yeah...
10 Moonlight Mile (05:55)
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)
When the wind blows and the rain feels cold
With a head full of snow
With a head full of snow
In the window there's a face you know
Don't the nights pass slow
Don't the nights pass slow
The sound of strangers sending nothing to my mind
Just another mad mad day on the road
I am just living to be dying by your side
But I'm just about a moonlight mile on down the road
Made a rag pile of my shiny clothes
Gonna warm my bones
Gonna warm my bones
I got silence on my radio
Let the air waves flow
Let the air waves flow
Oh I'm sleeping under strange strange skies
Just another mad mad day on the road
My dreams is fading down the railway line
I'm just about a moonlight mile down the road
I'm hiding sister and I'm dreaming
I'm riding down your moonlight mile
I'm hiding baby and I'm dreaming
I'm riding down your moonlight mile
I'm riding down you moonlight mile
Let it go now, come on up babe
Yeah, let it go now
Yeah, flow now baby
Yeah move on now yeah
Yeah, I'm coming home
'Cause, I'm just about a moonlight mile on down the road
Down the road, down the road
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Other reviews
By Viva Lì
"Sticky Fingers possesses a rhythm and capacity, almost tribal, to envelop and embrace you even after countless listens."
"The dark period magically transforms into pure gold, pearls to sell to the highest bidder and extravagances as sublime as they are epoch-making."
By azzo
How much has it influenced the last thirty years of my life.
Rock 'n' roll, for me, is that 'One, two, three, four,' slurred, slow and endless from Jagger at the beginning of 'Sway'.
By bubaboop
"Just 'Sticky Fingers' would have been worth the thrill of living it in the 'moment.'"
"This classic big classic album... if you live for rock, this is a steak to savor bite by bite, leaving nothing on the plate."
By Giuseppe13
Sticky Fingers has (never) received the proper recognition, apart from the great initial success.
Mick Taylor represented the best guitar sound of the group, an incredibly underrated talent.
