The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers Rolling Stones Records COC 59100 (1971)
I always find it annoying that people never recognize how weak the middle of this album is. The strained guitar solo on “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” and the pathetic attempts at delta blues on “You Gotta Move” and “I Got the Blues” (which pale compared to the Stones’ stuff back around ’65) come to mind. Still, the two ends more than make up for that. Apart from the hits, be sure to take in Paul Buckmaster‘s arrangements that brilliantly complete the last bit of the record. Not to mention that “Dead Flowers” is probably the most romantic, the most pained, the most hopeful, the most dedicated, the most sincere, the most beautiful country song ever written. What keeps the album so very good is the general weariness which precludes the easy ways out, keeping the Stones attentive, more or less. They are sensitive and without comfort. Restless as if there is no rest for them, at least not the kind of rest that would satisfy them. The high points on this eclectic disc are about as high as the Stones got.