Sticky Fingers

Sticky Fingers is an album by English rock band The Rolling Stones, released in April 1971. It is the band's first release on the band's newly-formed label, Rolling Stones Records, after having been contracted since 1963 with Decca Records in the UK and London Records in the US. It is also Mick Taylor's first full-length appearance on a Rolling Stones album.

Recording and release

Although sessions for Sticky Fingers began in earnest in March 1970, they had done some early recording at Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama in December 1969 and "Sister Morphine", cut during Let It Bleed's sessions earlier in March of that year, was held over for this release. Much of the recording for Sticky Fingers was effected with The Rolling Stones' mobile studio unit in Stargroves during the summer and fall months in 1970. Early versions of songs that would appear on Exile on Main St. were also routined during these sessions.

With the end of their Decca/London association at hand, The Rolling Stones would finally be free to release their albums (cover art and all) as they pleased. However, soon-to-be-ex-manager Allen Klein (who took over the reins from Andrew Loog Oldham in 1965 so that Oldham could concentrate on producing the band), dealt the group a major blow when they discovered - to their horror - that they had inadvertently signed over their entire 1960s copyrights to Klein and his company ABKCO, which is how all of their material from 1963's "Come On" to Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert has since come to be released by ABKCO Records. The band would remain incensed with Klein for decades over the swindle.

When Decca informed The Rolling Stones that they were owed one more single, they cheekily submitted a track called "Cocksucker Blues" - which was guaranteed to be refused. Instead, Decca released the two-year-old Beggars Banquet track "Street Fighting Man" while Allen Klein would have dual copyright ownership - with The Rolling Stones - of "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses".

Cover

The artwork for Sticky Fingers—which features a working zipper that opened to reveal a man in cotton briefs (rubber stamped "THIS PHOTOGRAPH MAY NOT BE-ETC.")—was conceived by American pop artist Andy Warhol, photographed by Billy Name and designed by John Pasche. The cover features the lower torso of either Warhol assistant Jed Johnson^[1] or Joe Dallesandro^[2] in a pair of tight jeans. After retailers complained that the zipper was causing damage to the vinyl (from stacked shipments of the record), the zipper was "unzipped" slightly to the middle of the record, where damage would be minimized. The album features the first usage of the "Tongue and Lip Design" designed by John Pasche. In Spain the original cover was replaced with a "Can of fingers" cover, and "Sister Morphine" was replaced by the Chuck Berry composition "Let it Rock".

In 2003 the TV network VH1 named Sticky Fingers the "No.1 Greatest Album Cover" of all time. In 2003, Sticky Fingers was listed as number 63 on the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Track listing

All songs written by Jagger/Richards, except where noted.

Side one

1. "Brown Sugar" – 3:50
2. "Sway" – 3:52
3. "Wild Horses" – 5:44
4. "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" – 7:15
5. "You Gotta Move" (Fred McDowell/Rev. Gary Davis) – 2:34

Side two

1. "Bitch" – 3:37
2. "I Got the Blues" – 3:54
3. "Sister Morphine" (Jagger/Richards/Marianne Faithfull) – 5:34
4. "Dead Flowers" – 4:05
5. "Moonlight Mile" – 5:56

Personnel

• Mick Jagger – vocals, acoustic guitar, backing vocals, guitar, percussion
• Keith Richards – backing vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals, guitar
• Mick Taylor – electric guitar, guitar, acoustic guitar, slide guitar
• Charlie Watts – drums
• Bill Wyman – bass, electric piano

Additional personnel

• Ian Stewart – piano
• Nicky Hopkins – piano
• Bobby Keys – saxophone
• Pete Townshend - vocals
• Ronnie Lane - vocals
• Billy Nicholls - vocals
• Jim Price – trumpet, piano
• Billy Preston – organ
• Jim Dickinson – piano
• Rocky Dijon – congas
• Jack Nitzsche – piano
• Ry Cooder – slide guitar
• Jimmy Miller – percussion
• Paul Buckmaster – string arrangement

Charts

Album

Singles

References