Exile is my favorite Stone's album, and the one I would play for aliens if they asked me "what is this thing called rock & roll?" (That and Chuck Berry's "The Great 28"). Sticky Fingers is right behind Exiles, though. It is quintessential Stones: Loud, dirty, and dangerous. "Brown Sugar", despite it's now unpopular subject matter (understandably) has a great riff. The off-genre tunes ("Wild Horses" and "Dead Flowers") are flat-out brilliant. "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" is transcendental. I've distanced myself from some of the music I loved in my youth, but unlike the OP I'm pretty sure that Sticky Fingers will always be one of my favorites.
Wonderfully clever thread title Though I hope you have not washed your hands of this Stones-cold classic! If one loses Sway though, then I fear 'all is lost' .
This! And, I first heard "CYHMK" without headphones. But with them, voila, I could hear a symphony with KR's guitar underneath Taylor's beautiful playing and underneath Jagger's great vocal. As the inner record sleeve suggests, "PLAY IT LOUD!"
I love the deluxe edition. The new remaster makes everything come alive like never before, and the outtakes disc has cool new versions of songs and some quality live performances I had never heard before. I'd highly recommend it.
I feel like there’s a marked difference between Sticky and Exile. On the former, the songs and clearly defined and distinct, and they trump the vibe. On the latter, they’ve reached deeper still into their influences, and the vibe trumps the songs. Which isn’t to say the songs aren’t great. I don’t personally understand those who can’t see the genius in songs like “Sway”, “I Got the Blues”, “Sister Morphine” or “Moonlight Mile”, …but we all have different preferences - I recall the indignant reaction of a friend of mine as he ventured past the “hits” of Hot Rocks and into the Stones imperial era … he was aghast, “I don’t get it, it mainly just sounds like bad country and western”. Love him, but at that point you can’t explain - all I could do was let the heathen return to Coldplay.
Brown Sugar, while good, suffers a bit from overexposure, I Got The Blues is a bit bland (and always was). But the rest is top tier Stones. As an album I'd rank it slightly below Let It bleed, but above Exile.
The only thing I get picky about with Sticky Fingers is I can’t decide if it’s brilliant or magnificent.
Nope I still love the album although Exile remains my absolute favourite. I do skip Brown Sugar as I have just heard it way too often. I still maintain my love for Wild Horses. Moonlight Mile and Sway also remain special for me.
It's mostly a great album but note my fave Stones album. I've never liked Wild Horses. Too long and too slow for me.
Definitely agree on the Marianne Faithfull "Sister Morphine". Rings much truer with her than Jagger, which makes sense.
“Wild Horses” seems pretty glorious to my ears, but I’ll concede that if Sticky Fingers was only getting two slots on the seminal Hot Rocks compilation, then I can think of three or four other songs I’d have picked ahead of it.
i can only surmise you haven’t fully explored the catalogue if either of these are close to winning “Stones’ worst song ever”.
I’m indifferent towards Slave but if you can look past the flat, muddy mix, you might feel differently about Sway. In my oh so younger years, I used to actually “dislike” and avoid songs which had what a bad sound. Sway fell into that category (as did all of Goats Head Soup) from the first time I got the album. In recent years, I’m deciding to just accept the sound aspect and even regard it as being a part of the song’s charm. It’s really a great, dirty sounding Rock track.
I've loved it since 1971. I can still hear the 8-track cranked up playing in my Realistic Mini=Eight player hung under the dash in my souped up 69 VW Beetle. Sunroof cranked open, summer nights. Warm smell of colitas in the air.
I prefer Let It Bleed and Exile to Sticky Fingers. But taken in total with Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! it is part of the quintessential period of the Rolling Stones discography. They were never as good thereafter.
Anybody know exactly which Sticky outtakes ended up on Exile, as is or otherwise? The Sticky Wiki is vague on the matter...
I like Exile better, and all of it's muddy, mixed-up squalor. Sticky Fingers is still great album, with a couple of my top ten Stones tunes, "Brown Sugar" and "Dead Flowers." Contrary to near-unanimous opinion, CYHMK is the low point for me. I don't need the 5 minutes of jazzy noodling in the midst of my gritty Stones album, but that's just me.
