Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones got together in London (none of the three were actually from London) and formed The Rolling Stones around the year of 1962. Up until around 1963, they had been the 'live in' band at a blues club in Richmond, south west London, called The Crawdaddy. Because of clean cut approach to music at that time in Britain and the fact that The Beatles' sharp suited image was to be blamed for the 'knicker wetting' movement of the younger female generation, it was probably thought of a rather challenging task to know how to present The Rolling Stones.

When discovered in Richmond, they had already dressed themselves as Beatles, only the Stones looked like they had been the ones who had failed the audition. This manager by the name of Mr Andrew Loog Oldham, threw out the clean image as it certainly didn't suit them, and changed them into the hardened, trouble making thugs. Perhaps, the image that the Beatles had secretly yearned for.

By the time they went into the studio to record Sticky Fingers, they had made enough albums to retire on. Released on their own 'Rolling Stones Records' label, in fact their first album on this label, this album was joining the long list of classic, relentless albums. Hard workers, they forever remained faithful to their original black America blues roots, but had adapted the sound to white British rock and roll. Their organic style was immediately 'cool,' and their showmanship was noted and mimicked all over the world. There are comedians who owe their carers to Mick Jagger's duck like strut.

The first track is the unmistakeable 'Brown Sugar.' The general theme of this album throws little to the imagination. The other extreme, if you will to 'Sgt Pepper' where the genius was within the colourful descriptive terms used by The Beatles to only suggest perhaps the idea of what the content was supposed to be about. With 'Sticky Fingers' however, the suggestion is thrown gingerly out of the window and told in blatant terms. The theme of this track needs no introduction as a conclusion. With its distinctive guitar riff, it is a true thesis of The Stones' translation of early Seventies rock and roll. With this in mind, the sound of 'dirty' rock and roll hadn't changed in a decade. Even a sax interlude by Bobby Keyes was an echo back to the days of Bill Haley and his usage of such instruments in the mid Fifties. A track first released on the 24 April 1971, it reached number 2 and hung around for thirteen weeks. Re issued again in July 1984, it failed, the second time around to reach anything higher than number 58. The lyrics, as already talked about, were blunt, in a word. '..how come you taste so good…' and '…just like a black girl should…' should have, perhaps at the time, been frowned upon. It is a wonder why the media made such a fuss about Sgt. Pepper. The argument being, I suppose, was that these albums were 4 years apart and in different decades. A long time, and a good lot longer than 4 years difference today. A 'honky tonk', Elton John style piano ( I. Stewart) cuts in to complete this strutting anthem. Not in the least bit dated, we are still finding joy in those thumping drums, and the 'yeah, yeah, yeah, woo!' s' making it a continuous favourite on a pub jukebox.

On the same wondering, cowboy theme as the last track, we had already mentioned The Stones producing better slow songs, well, this track is a fine example of this. 'Wild Horses,' is, in sound, even slower with the introduction of a 'pearly' guitar. What I mean by that is that this sound has more depth, and not so sharp on the ears. Softer, all round its approach, it is, what one might argue as three o'clock in the morning blues. With lyrics such as, '..wild horses, couldn't drag me away…' we hear a tinkering acoustic guitar, mellow, sweeping across a widened backdrop of a solitary drum in pensive mode. '…wild horse, we'll ride them someday…' the guitar cuts in again and yet fades noticeably, as if the volume knob needs adjusting. Jagger's vocal is clear and unaffected by the backing around him in comparison to previous tracks. It has a generally sombre and gentle mood with an air of reflection and calm. It is a memory of a miss spent youth when clambering up on my friends roof after the hysteria of the teenage party hade calmed down, singing this song with the help of a few other drunken friends. We too, had untuneful vocals that night. A perfect song for such moments, but perhaps not for the sober minded…

'You Gotta Move,' reminds the listener of Hank Williams without a doubt. Williams was a country singer, religiously and his followers took his music incredibly seriously. There is an underlying country content throughout this album. This might have had something to do with the band hanging out with the odd one of two rusty country singers. There is a strong Cajun feel here and a deep south drone where each word ends in 'ow.' this is an example of extreme slow country that's probably better played backwards. We imagine old black men sitting on verandas in rocking chairs, staring into nothing and chewing an old leaf. This track screams authenticity of the segregated deep south. If you like your country classic and well rooted then by all means, but if you don't, feel free to skip onto the next…

'Dead Flowers,' is a light and relaxing, restful and great relief from the previous track. Our minds are sober and stoned free once again. Another countrified track which is jolly, cheeky and pleasingly tuneful. This seems like the Stones are back to reality again, whatever that was to them in the Seventies.
Morbid in an amusing style, again, it is heavily influenced by the after affects of continuous drug misuse. All about death and who was going to croak it first, these tongue in cheek theme is funny to anyone who has never been on drugs (I laughed my socks off through the entire track), with such lyrics as; '…I'll be sitting in my room with a needle and a spoon…' and who could forget…'….send my dead flowers to my wedding and I won't forget to put roses on your grave..' These are poignant and yet hard hitting lyrics that only the very clean and straight could find very funny. To me, it was about as funny as 'The Streak.'