It is 35 years since one of the best albums in rock history was released, Darkness On The Edge Of Town is number 2, (some days it has the top spot) on my list of favorite albums.
Today I think it is the best rock album ever released!
It came out three years after the incredibly successful Born To Run, and three years was an awful long time between albums in the 70s. Bruce Springsteen had been tied up in a legal battle with his former manager Mike Appel but reached a final settlement in this year-long litigation with Mike Appel on May 28, 1977.
Darkness on the Edge of Town (Houston, 1978):
This meant that for the first time in a long time Bruce Springsteen was allowed into a studio. And he did. The recording of what was to become Darkness On The Edge Of Town began in June 1977 in New York City. He had a lot of material in various state of completion. Many of the songs were written or finished over the course of the sessions. He was in the studio for a long time.
Adam Raised a Cain (Paramount Theatre, 2009):
The material that didn’t make the album seeped out on a lot bootlegs through the years, it is of an incredibly high quality both sound wise and artistic. in 2010 we finally got a Darkness box that in many ways ended the need for Darkness bootlegs . There must still be a few unreleased gems in the vault, as of 2011, only 33 of more than 70 songs have been officially released.
It consisted of 6 discs with the following content:
1: Darkness On The Edge Of Town (remastered ) 2. Darkness on the Edge of Town (Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park, NJ, 2009) 3:Thrill Hill Vault (1976-1978) + Houston ’78 Bootleg: House Cut 4 and 5: The Promise (double album with outtakes and alternative takes)
6: The Promise: The Making of “Darkness on the Edge of Town”
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
The Rolling Stones Pacific Tour 1973 was a concert tour of countries bordering the Pacific Ocean in January and February 1973 by The Rolling Stones. The tour is sometimes referred to as the Winter Tour 1973. However this title is misleading, as much of it took place in the Southern Hemisphere, where it was summer at the time.
#4 Gimme Shelter:
Setlist
Brown Sugar
Bitch
Rocks Off
Gimmie Shelter
Happy
Tumbling Dice
Love In Vain
Sweet Virginia
You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Honky Tonk Women
All Down The Line
Midnight Rambler
Band Introductions / Happy Birthday Nicky
Little Queenie
Rip This Joint
#12 Midnight Rambler
Tour Band:
Mick Jagger – lead vocals, harmonica
Keith Richards – guitar, backing vocals
Mick Taylor – guitar
Bill Wyman – bass guitar
Charlie Watts – drums
Additional musicians
Nicky Xenakis – drums
Bobby Keys – saxophones
Jimmy Price – trumpet, trombone
Nicky Hopkins – piano
#1 Brown Sugar
#3 Rocks Off
and here:
Brown Sugar * Bitch * Rocks Off * Gimme Shelter * Happy * Tumbling Dice * Honky Tonk Women * All Down The Line * Midnight Rambler * Little Queenie