Sticky Fingers was the first album by The Rolling Stones that was recorded on their own record label, away from the mainstream recording studios. Like that one, Exile was also recorded at Mick Jagger's English country house. Being away from that commercial environment gave the band a lot of room for creativity. The album sounds loose and relaxed, but at the same time, there are wonderfully playful and experimental songs on it that probably wouldn't have made it on this album had the major label record companies been in charge.
I only bought this album quite recently when I was getting closer to the letter E in my blog. I felt like I should really have this album. I hadn't found it anywhere used with a reasonable price, so I bought it new. There was no question about it though that this one I needed to own on vinyl, so that's what I bought. There's something quite magical about having this legendary albums on vinyl. The album looks really cool and there's something more authentic about listening to this on vinyl, which makes the listening experience more wholesome. Also, a part of being a music collector is to have a tangible item that looks like the original thing is supposed to look like. I'm not too fussed about the issues or original pressings as long as it looks the same. That's why I tend to buy any album released before the 90s on vinyl and anything released after that I don't really care about the format as much.
When I was a bit younger, I never really got interested in soul music. It was only a few years ago, mainly as a result of my wife being more into soul music that I started listening a lot more soul and funk and I finally seemed to get what the fuss was all about. Why am I talking about soul here? I think there's a huge influence of late 60s and 70s soul music on the route The Rolling Stones took after their early rock albums. The band's strength lies in the grooves and rhythms a lot more than in the melodies. For someone like me, who's main interest in music lies in melodies, it was always difficult to get interested in The Rolling Stones, because melodically, they're not really that special. It was only when I started really feeling the groove and hearing the amazing connectedness in the band's playing when I started really appreciate them more. Nevertheless, if I'm being asked about the age-old, little bit stupid, comparison between The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, I'm The Beatles man all the way.
Also, through the soul link, I feel like The Rolling Stones have adopted lots of influences from gospel and blues music on this album. I recently saw the film about Aretha Franklin's gig in the early 70s and it was fun to see Mick Jagger there in the audience among mostly black community in the US. Jagger has no doubt really embraced American black music scene at the time and you can really hear that appreciation in their music. It's just kind of sad that back in the day, a band like The Rolling Stones could really own this type of music and get hugely popular, while the much more original and possibly even more talented black musicians stayed out of the spotlight because of lack of resources and sometimes even blatant racism. I sometimes hear people blaming white musicians for copying black music, which I think is kind of a strange blame to throw at them. As a musician, you just make the kind of music that moves you and makes you feel good. It's the audiences and record companies that bring the politics in and favour privileged majority.
There's kind of a music video for the song Rocks Off in Youtube. It's just archive material of the band in the streets, but it works really well with this music and you can sort of treat this as a music video even if it's probably not an official release.
I have only started really appreciating The Rolling Stones in the last couple of years, but I'm happy to finally understand a bit more what the fuss was all about.
Listen to the album on Spotify.
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