We continue our look at the music of 50 years ago….
1969-70 were not good years for the Rolling Stones karma wise. The death of founding member Brian Jones and the disaster at Altamont plus finding out the manager Allan Klein had used dubious legalese to dupe them out of royalty payments left them in sour spirits. They wanted to get rid of Klein and form their own record label, which they did as 1970 turned into 1971. The band had gone into the famed Muscle Shoals Studio in Alabama while on their 69-70 tour and laid down some tracks that became classics including Wild Horses (a song that Keith originally gave to Gram Parsons for the Flying Burrito Brothers to do), Brown Sugar and You Gotta Move.
Parsons had been hanging out with the Stones and some say he helped write this one. In any case, the Burritos recorded and released it first.
Sticky Fingers was, in many ways, a return to the bluesy basics that made the band popular. Yeah, they touched on some country and many of the songs were slower (Moonlight Mile might even be called introspective, not a term used about Jagger/Richards, very often). But the five band members including Mick Taylor, heard on a studio Stones LP for the first time after replacing Jones, got down to business. And business was good. Listen to Taylor’s guitar solo on “Cant You Hear Me Knocking”. And Billy Preston’s added organ on “I Got The Blues”…and, of course, long time Stones collaborator Bobby Keys smoking sax solo on Brown Sugar. Sister Morphine, held over from the Let It Bleed sessions years before is a wonderful song (co-written by Mick’s paramour Marianne Faithful) . The one cover here is a dirge like remake of the the Fred McDowell-Gary Davis blues classic You Gotta Move. But it’s the Jagger-Richards originals that shine. From the iconic opening notes of Brown Sugar to the fadeout of Moonlight Mile, there is a reason that many critics include this on many best album lists. Maybe not as good as next year’s Exile on Main Street…but right up there.
This was the first LP released on Rolling Stone Records and was also the first use of the Tongue Logo which would become one of the most recognizable logos in history. It also, of course, had the cover (done by Andy Warhol) that was meant to annoy and appall a million mothers. The original release included a real metal zipper until the record company realized that when the albums were stacked for shipping the zipper would break through the cardboard and damage the vinyl. (and no, It’s not Mick…an unknown model was used for the shot)
Splash a little cognac in your morning coffee and enjoy Mick & the boys in their hey-day.
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