104. The Rolling Stones, "Sticky Fingers"

 


I have a long-running joke, or maybe not such a joke, with my friends that the Stones' "Monkey Man," which is on Let It Bleed, an album we will most assuredly see at some point, isn't just a great rock song, but objectively the greatest rock and roll song of all time.  I have literally convinced people that this is true!  But you know what?  There is more than one song on this album that could also be the greatest rock song of all time.

Recorded mostly in 1970 at the height of the band's powers, this is not just one of the Rolling Stones' best albums; it's one of the best albums of all time, and should probably be much higher on the list.  After the untimely death of Brian Jones (or was it.....muhhhhhduhhhh), the Stones left behind their dalliances with psychedelia and chamber pop and leaned into Americana roots-rock.  Keith Richards, who always idolized the Mississippi blues, really came into his own on this album.  The very first thing you hear is the instantly iconic riff of "Brown Sugar" (apparently a Gibson SG through a Fender twin), recorded in Muscle Shoals, the site of so many legendary blues and soul recordings.  The song is, to put it mildly, problematic to today's listeners, but it was and is an instant classic.  

I mean, fuck it, every song on this album is a classic or near-classic.  Mick Jagger's snarl on "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'" is a beautiful menace, made even more alive by the wonderfully crappy backing vocals.  (And the phrase "cocaine eyes," which Jagger drops, is a beautiful gift.)  It ends with a jam even I can get behind, thanks to Bobby Keys' rollicking sax solo.  "Bitch," track 6, could give "Monkey Man" a run for the greatest rock song of all time, another Jagger masterpiece of angry defiance.  I first encountered the song when it was played by a college roommate, Joe, who was from Manhattan and was a very nice extremely rich kid.  (R.I.P., Joe - he died of cancer a few years back.)  It was on a collection called Made in the Shade that we just wore out listening to.

Some of the songs on this album just feel timeless, like "I Got the Blues," which has a very strong closing-the-bar-down-with-one-drunk-still-sitting-there vibe, or "Sister Morphine," a haunted and foreboding ballad.  Again, Jagger turns in a spectacular performance, giving the song an eerie feel and really inhabiting the lyrics (being no stranger, of course, to the effects of opiates).  It's followed by the mood-lightening "Dead Flowers," where Jagger puts on an exaggerated American accent to really play up the country influence.  

WHEW.  I haven't even mentioned "Wild Horses," a song I don't completely love but whose impact and staying power I can't deny.  The album ends with "Moonlight Mile," a gorgeous, swaying tour de force of a song that makes me feel some kind of way.  It's the perfect song to put on and gaze into middle distance, a quiet moment in the movie about you.

It is Friday.  Put this album on loud.

Is this album in my personal Top 500? Fuck and yes.

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