The Rolling Stones
Sticky Fingers

THE REVIEW

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.