Patterson Hood is a great storyteller. I really like the way he deals with “the duality of the Southern Thing” and his many stories from & about Alabama.
The lyrics to this particular song is one of my Hood favourites. Anybody with even a remote interest in american history, and/or Alabama, should read (and listen to) this one.
I grew up in North Alabama, back in the 1970’s, when dinosaurs still roamed the earth
Speaking of course of the Three Great Alabama Icons George Wallace, Bear Bryant and Ronnie Van Zant Now Ronnie Van Zant wasn’t from Alabama, he was from Florida, He was a huge Neil Young fan
But in the tradition of Merle Haggard writin’ Okie from Muskogee to tell his dad’s point of view about the hippies in Vietnam, Ronnie felt that the other side of the story should be told.
And Neil Young always claimed that Sweet Home Alabama was one of his favorite songs.
And legend has it that he was an honorary pall bearer at Ronnie’s funeral – such is the Duality of the Southern Thing
~The Three Great Alabama Icons
Sticky Fingers was never meant to be the title. It’s just what we called it while we were working on it. Usually though, the working titles stick.
~Keith Richards 1971
—
While many hold their next album, Exile On Main St., as their zenith, Sticky Fingers, balancing on the knife edge between the 60s and 70s, remains their most coherent statement.
~Chris Jones (bbc.co.uk)
April 23: The Rolling Stones released Sticky Fingers in 1971
It can be explained in just one word: sincerity. When a hillbilly sings a crazy song, he feels crazy. When he sings, ‘I Laid My Mother Away,’ he sees her a-laying right there in the coffin. He sings more sincere than most entertainers because the hillbilly was raised rougher than most entertainers. You got to know a lot about hard work. You got to have smelt a lot of mule manure before you can sing like a hillbilly. The people that have been raised something like the way the hillbilly has…. knows what he sings about and appreciates it
~Hank Williams (on the success of Country Music)
Nobody had a talent for making suffering enjoyable like Hank Williams
~Kris Kristofferson
Hank Williams was the first influence I would think.
~Bob Dylan (to Billy James, Oct 1961)
I started writing songs after I heard Hank Williams.
~Bob Dylan (The Les Crane Show, 17 Feb 1965)
Cold Cold Heart:
From Wikipedia:
Birth name
Hiram King Williams
Also known as
The Lovesick Blues Boy
Lovesick
Luke the Drifter
Hank Williams, Sr.
The Hillbilly Shakespeare
Born
September 17, 1923
Mount Olive, Butler County, Alabama
Hank Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953), born Hiram King Williams, was an American singer-songwriter and musician regarded as one of the most important country music artists of all time. Williams recorded 35 singles (five released posthumously) that would place in the Top 10 of the Billboard Country & Western Best Sellers chart, including 11 that ranked number one.
From allmusic – Stephen Thomas Erlewine:
Hank Williams is the father of contemporary country music. He was a superstar by the age of 25; he was dead at the age of 29. In those four short years, he established the rules for all the country performers who followed him and, in the process, much of popular music. Hank wrote a body of songs that became popular classics, and his direct, emotional lyrics and vocals became the standard for most popular performers. He lived a life as troubled and reckless as that depicted in his songs. …. read more @ allmusic.com
Legacy:
Alabama governor Gordon Persons officially proclaimed September 21 “Hank Williams Day”
In 1961, Williams was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame
he was inducted in the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1985
In 1987, he was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame under the category Early Influence
He was ranked second in CMT’s 40 Greatest Men of Country Music in 2003, behind only Johnny Cash
His son, Hank Jr., was ranked on the same list
In 2004 Rolling Stone ranked him number 74 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time
In 2011 Williams’s 1949 MGM number one hit, “Lovesick Blues,” was inducted into the Recording Academy Grammy Hall Of Fame.
In 1999, Williams was inducted into the Native American Music Hall of Fame.
On April 12, 2010, the Pulitzer Prize Board awarded Williams a posthumous special citation that paid tribute to his “craftsmanship as a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity and played a pivotal role in transforming country music into a major musical and cultural force in American life.”
Keeping his legacy, Williams’s son, Hank Williams, Jr., daughter Jett Williams, grandson Hank Williams III, and granddaughters Hilary Williams and Holly Williams are also country musicians.
Workingman’s Dead, in part inspired by the rustic soul of the Band, ranks as the Dead’s studio masterpiece, followed closely by American Beauty. The focus is on the songs, rather than the jams, and these would provide the focal point of an era, spanning 1969–74, when the Dead played some of the most remarkable concerts in American history, virtually every one available in some incarnation thanks to the band’s dedicated tapers.
~rollingstone.com
Uncle John’s Band:
Wikipedia:
Released
June 14, 1970
Recorded
February 1970
Genre
Country rock, rock
Length
35:33
Label
Warner Bros.
Producer
Bob Matthews
Betty Cantor
Grateful Dead
Workingman’s Dead is the fifth album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It was recorded in February 1970 and originally released on June 14, 1970.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 262 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Of course they don’t sing as pretty as CSNY–prettiness would trivialize these songs. The sparse harmonies and hard-won melodies go with lyrics that make all the American connections claimed by San Francisco’s counterculture; there’s a naturally stoned bemusement in their good times, hard times, high times, and lost times that joins the fatalism of the physical frontier with the wonder of the psychedelic one. And the changeable rhythms hold out the promise of Uncle John’s Band, who might just save us if we’ll only call the tune. Inspirational Verse: “Think this through with me.” A ~Robert Christgau (robertchristgau.com)
Garcia has commented that much of the sound of the album comes both from his pairing with Hunter as well as the band’s friendship with Crosby, Stills and Nash. “Hearing those guys sing and how nice they sounded together, we thought, ‘We can try that. Let’s work on it a little’” commented Garcia.
Track Listing:
All songs written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter except where noted.
Side one
“Uncle John’s Band” 4:42
“High Time” 5:12
“Dire Wolf” 3:11
“New Speedway Boogie” 4:01
Side two
“Cumberland Blues” (Garcia, Hunter, and Phil Lesh) 3:14
“Black Peter” 5:41
“Easy Wind” (Hunter) 4:57
“Casey Jones” 4:24
Musicians:
Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, pedal steel guitar, vocals
Sticky Fingers was never meant to be the title. It’s just what we called it while we were working on it. Usually though, the working titles stick.
~Keith Richards 1971
While many hold their next album, Exile On Main St., as their zenith, Sticky Fingers, balancing on the knife edge between the 60s and 70s, remains their most coherent statement.
~Chris Jones (bbc.co.uk)
#1 – Brown Sugar:
Wikipedia:
Released
23 April 1971
Recorded
2–4 December 1969, Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Sheffield, Alabama; 17 February, March – May, 16 June – 27 July, 17–31 October 1970, and January 1971,Olympic Studios, London, UK; except “Sister Morphine”, begun 22–31 March 1969
Genre
Rock
Length
46:25
Language
English
Label
Rolling Stones
Producer
Jimmy Miller
Sticky Fingers is the ninth British and 11th American studio album by English rock band The Rolling Stones, released in April 1971. It is the band’s first album of the 1970s and its first release on the band’s newly formed label, Rolling Stones Records, after having been contracted since 1963 with Decca Records in the UK and London Records in the US. It is also Mick Taylor’s first full-length appearance on a Rolling Stones album, the first Rolling Stones album not to feature any contributions from guitarist and founder Brian Jones and the first one on which Mick Jagger is credited with playing guitar.
The album is often regarded as one of the Stones’ best, containing songs such as the chart-topping “Brown Sugar” and the folk-influenced “Wild Horses”, and achieving triple platinum certification in the US.
Spanish Cover
#3 – Wild Horses:
During the tour of the States we went to Alabama and played at the Muscle Shoals Studio. That was a fantastic week. We cut some great tracks, which appeared on Sticky Fingers – You Gotta Move, Brown Sugar and Wild Horses – and we did them without Jimmy Miller, which was equally amazing. It worked very well: it’s one of Keith’s things to go in and record while you’re in the middle of a tour and your playing is in good shape. The Muscle Shoals Studio was very special, though – a great studio to work in, a very hip studio, where the drums were on a riser high up in the air, plus you wanted to be there because of all the guys who had worked in the same studio.
~Charlie Watts in 2003
Recording:
Although sessions for Sticky Fingers began in earnest in March 1970, The Rolling Stones had recorded at Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama in December 1969 and “Sister Morphine”, cut during Let It Bleed’s sessions earlier in March of that year, was held over for this release. Much of the recording for Sticky Fingers was made with The Rolling Stones’ mobile studio unit in Stargroves during the summer and autumn of 1970. Early versions of songs that would appear on Exile on Main St. were also rehearsed during these sessions.
#9 – Dead Flowers:
To my mind the things that Ry (Cooder) plays on have a kind of polish that the Stones generally began to develop around that time. The rough edges came off a bit. Mick Taylor started putting on the polish that became the next period of the Stones out of the raw rock and blues band.
~Jimmy Miller in 1979
In 2003, Sticky Fingers was listed as #63 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Mick Jagger – lead vocals, acoustic guitar on “Dead Flowers” and “Moonlight Mile”, electric guitar on “Sway”, percussion on “Brown Sugar”
Keith Richards – electric guitar, six and twelve string acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Mick Taylor – electric, acoustic and slide guitar (not present during “Sister Morphine” sessions)
Charlie Watts – drums
Bill Wyman – bass guitar, electric piano on “You Gotta Move”
Additional personnel
Bobby Keys – saxophone
Jim Price – trumpet, piano on “Moonlight Mile”
Ian Stewart – piano on “Brown Sugar” and “Dead Flowers”
Nicky Hopkins – piano on “Sway”, “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”
Jim Dickinson – piano on “Wild Horses”
Jack Nitzsche – piano on “Sister Morphine”
Ry Cooder – slide guitar on “Sister Morphine”
Billy Preston – organ on “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” and “I Got the Blues”
Jimmy Miller – percussion on “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”
Rocky Dijon – congas on “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”
Paul Buckmaster – string arrangement on “Sway” and “Moonlight Mile”
Engineers – Glyn Johns, Andy Johns, Chris Kimsey, Jimmy Johnson
Cover concept/photography – Andy Warhol
We made (tracks) with just Mick Taylor, which are very good and everyone loves, where Keith wasn’t there for whatever reasons… People don’t know that Keith wasn’t there making it. All the stuff like Moonlight Mile, Sway. These tracks are a bit obscure, but they are liked by people that like the Rolling Stones. It’s me and (Mick Taylor) playing off each other – another feeling completely, because he’s following my vocal lines and then extemporizing on them during the solos.
~Mick Jagger in 1995
