Well, that was an epic journey. Twenty-three studio albums, 52 years, and one legendary band.
The Rolling Stones have put their unmistakable stamp on blues, R&B, rock, pop, psychedelic, disco, and country songs, churning out album after album with humor, passion and pathos. Not everything they did worked, but they worked at everything they did. And their discography is remarkably strong — I’d definitely recommend 18 of these 23 releases.
A year and a half after releasing two albums considered their very best work, The Rolling Stones delivered a classic that might be better than both of them. Sticky Fingers is a masterpiece of emotional blues rock, the sort of record you feel in your gut.
The best-known songs on Sticky Fingers are opening track ‘Brown Sugar’ and the country rock stunner ‘Wild Horses.’ Also featured are the glorious ‘Sister Morphine’ and ‘Moonlight Mile,’ songs less popular with casual fans but essential for followers of the band.
My #2 album of 1971 is one of The Rolling Stones’ best albums ever, Sticky Fingers. This was the third album in a run of four classics that stand up as one of the best all-time musical streaks. Between 1968 and 1972, The Stones reeled off Beggars Banquet, Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street.
Ranking those four would be tough, but I can definitely make a case for Sticky Fingers as the best of them.
The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers is album three in one of the greatest four-album runs in music history.
It starts with 1968’s Beggar’s Banquet, then 1969’s Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers in 1971, and finally Exile On Main St. in 1972. Five years, four stone-cold classic albums featuring some of the most indelible rock music ever recorded.
I’m still in the process of discovering just how great the Rolling Stones were. Perhaps I should say “are” as the band is still touring together 42 years after today’s song was released, but I doubt they’ve had anything as good as Sticky Fingers or ‘Moonlight Mile’ in them for a long time now.
They still sound great, though. Keith Richards is as ingenious a guitar player as ever and Mick Jagger still sings the hell out of every song. But it was their songwriting that really set them apart.
Meet Me In Montauk 