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Sticky Fingers (1971)

Where the lyrics of Sticky Fingers take you, and where it was really made.

The working zipper on the cover damaged vinyl in stacked shipments, so the zipper was moved toward the middle of the record.

Key places

Olympic Studios, London (1971)

Recording site Olympic Studios — Olympic Studios in London is listed among this album's recording places in the database. The article also names Olympic as one of the London studios. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Alabama (1971)

Recording site Muscle Shoals Sound Studio — The band recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama in December 1969. Brown Sugar and Wild Horses were cut there during that session. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Stargroves mobile studio (1971)

Recording site Stargroves — Much of the album was recorded with the band's mobile studio at Stargroves during summer and autumn 1970. Early versions of songs for Exile on Main St. were rehearsed in the same sessions. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Sticky Fingers: ninth studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones
• Released 23 April 1971 on the band's new label, Rolling Stones Records
• First album by the band to reach number one on both the UK and US albums charts
• Triple platinum certification in the US
• Brown Sugar topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971
• First studio album without Brian Jones, who had died two years earlier
• Mick Taylor's second full-length appearance on a Rolling Stones album, after the live album Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!

Background

• Decca and London Records had contracted the band in the UK and US since 1963; this album came out on the new label
• Departing manager Allen Klein's ABKCO obtained the band's 1960s American copyrights by mistake
• The band sued for their return without success and settled in 1984
• Decca released Street Fighting Man as the single the band was owed, after the band submitted Cocksucker Blues expecting refusal
• The album returned to basics, with drums, guitar, bass and percussion from core members Jagger, Richards, Taylor, Wyman and Watts
• Long-time collaborators Bobby Keys, Billy Preston, Jack Nitzsche, Ian Stewart and Nicky Hopkins added parts
• Produced by Jimmy Miller, as with the band's other late 1960s and early 1970s albums

Recording

• Sessions began in earnest in March 1970
• In December 1969 the band recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama, cutting You Gotta Move, Brown Sugar and Wild Horses
• Sister Morphine was held over from the Let It Bleed sessions earlier in March 1970
• Much of the album was recorded in the band's mobile studio at Stargroves during summer and autumn 1970
• Early versions of songs that later appeared on Exile on Main St. were rehearsed during these sessions

Cover

• Conceived and photographed by Andy Warhol, with design by Craig Braun
• Showed a close-up of a man in tight jeans, with a working zipper that opened to reveal white underwear
• The cover was expensive to produce and damaged the vinyl, so the zipper was moved slightly
• Later reissues featured only the outer photograph of the jeans

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in London in 1962 as an English rock band; their first stable line-up was Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts.
• Jones named the band after a Muddy Waters song; they were rooted in blues and rock and roll.
• Manager Andrew Loog Oldham encouraged them to write their own songs, and the Jagger–Richards partnership became their main creative force.

Members

• Current: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood (joined 1975).
• Former: Brian Jones (died 1969), Mick Taylor (1969–1974), Bill Wyman (1962–1993), Charlie Watts (1963–2021, died 2021).
• Steve Jordan became their drummer after Watts' death.

Career

• Hits included "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (1965), "Paint It Black" (1966) and "Start Me Up" (1981).
• Their 1969 Hyde Park show and Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St. are key points of their career.
• Formed Rolling Stones Records in 1970, whose tongue-and-lips logo became their band logo.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989; the band has sold more than 250 million albums.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Los Angeles Times critic Robert Hilburn called it one of the best rock albums of the year but only modest by the Rolling Stones' standards
• Jon Landau in Rolling Stone felt it lacked the spirit and spontaneity of the band's previous two albums, apart from Moonlight Mile
• Lynn Van Matre of the Chicago Tribune viewed the band at their raunchy best and considered it one of the year's best albums
• Sticky Fingers was voted the second best album of 1971 in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll
• Lester Bangs voted it number one in that poll and said it was his most played album of the year

Reappraisal

• David Fricke in Rolling Stone (2015) called it an eclectic affirmation of maturing depth
• Jack Hamilton in Slate (retrospective) called it one of the greatest albums in rock 'n' roll history
• Q magazine in a retrospective review said it was the Stones at their assured, showboating peak
• The Guardian's Alexis Petridis (2018) ranked it the best album the band had ever produced

Records

• Reached number one on the UK Albums Chart in May 1971 and stayed four weeks, returning to number one for a week in mid June
• Hit number one on the US Billboard 200 within days of release and stayed four weeks
• Spent a total of 69 weeks on the Billboard 200
• Earned a Grammy nomination for Best Album Cover at the 14th Annual Grammy Awards in 1972
• Inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999
• Listed No. 63 on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, No. 64 in 2012, and No. 104 in 2020

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The cover was censored by the Franco regime in Spain and replaced with a can of fingers cover; Sister Morphine was swapped for a live version of Chuck Berry's Let It Rock.
• Warhol sent Braun Polaroid pictures of a model in tight jeans, and the identity of the cover model is still uncertain.
• The tongue and lips design, introduced on this album as the Rolling Stones Records logo, was named the No. 1 greatest album cover of all time by VH1 in 2003.
• In 1992 the Russian LP used Cyrillic lettering and a Soviet Army belt buckle in place of the original design.
• Robert Christgau ranked the album 17th on his own year-end list for 1971.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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