For their third DVD release of 2017, the Rolling Stones dive into their vault in more ways than one. Celebrating the release of their iconic zipper-covered album, Sticky Fingers, which had been released in April of 1971, with a 2015 concert at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles which kicked off their Zip Code US tour a few days later, the Stones have added some talky bits and released it for public consumption … because you know all Stones fans lap up anything the Stones put out. And for good reason.
With the September 29th release of Sticky Fingers Live At The Fonda Theatre 2015, the Stones have for the third time this year elected not to go way back in time with a new release. Both Ole! Ole! Ole! and Havana Moon focused on the band’s 2016 South American tour which culminated in a historic performance in Cuba. The new concert film, which comes in several formats including DVD or Blu-Ray with CDs or LPs, has the band going through all ten songs from Sticky Fingers, although not necessarily in the original tracking order.
Beginning with Tattoo You’s Top 10 single “Start Me Up” from 1981, they segue into “Sway,” “Dead Flowers,” “Wild Horses,” “Sister Morphine,” “You Gotta Move,” “Bitch,” “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking,” “I Got The Blues,” “Moonlight Mile,” and “Brown Sugar” – all from Sticky Fingers; before dishing out a tribute to BB King, who had died only days prior to the show, with “Rock Me Baby,” and a rollicking “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.”
In between, there are fun little antidotes about the album, some of the songs and whose actual torso is on the cover. The record itself was recorded in a couple different places over a couple different years, including at Mick Jagger’s British country home, Stargroves, Muscle Shoals in Alabama and several studios in England, with producer Jimmy Miller behind the glass. This was also the first album to fully feature guitar player Mick Taylor, who had appeared on 1969’s Let It Bleed. “Some of the Sticky Fingers compositions were rooted in the fact that I knew Taylor was going to pull something great,” Keith Richards said in his autobiography, Life. Ronnie Wood, who has handled all of Taylor’s parts since 1975, says in an interview bit that he plays his predecessor’s parts with respect and doesn’t stray too far from the melody.
One of the highlights on Sticky Fingers Live is the Stones doing “Sister Morphine,” a song graphically depicting the rigors of a drug user. With Wood on slide and Richards on acoustic, the song is appropriately dark and moody, something that Marianne Faithfull had done so chillingly honestly, like she was inside the drug-soaked vein the needle just punctured, on her 1990 live album, Blazing Away; the best version this listener has ever heard. But with Jagger’s lack of wink-wink playfulness, the song remains true to it’s harrowing origins.
Other highlights include “Wild Horses,” a beloved favorite amongst many a Stones fan and according to Richards in the film, “One of the best collaborations between me and Mick;” “Brown Sugar” with the horns; and “I Got The Blues,” which Richards says is “Probably the slowest song we’ve ever recorded” and Charlie Watts calls “A bugger to hold down, the tempo.”
In fact, Watts has the best line of the DVD. When he is asked about the Sticky Fingers cover, his face is completely confused as he answers, “Describe the cover? I can’t remember the cover.”
Three bonus tracks conclude the DVD: “All Down The Line,” a rocking “When The Whip Comes Down,” and “I Can’t Turn You Loose” featuring Richards doing his best Chuck Berry.
While Rolling Stone Magazine declared of Sticky Fingers, “It is the latest beautiful chapter in the continuing story of the greatest rock group in the world,” Time Magazine wrote it was “Positively too dreadful to ignore. That can mean only one thing: the return of Satan’s jesters.” Yeah, you gotta give it to the Stones for never entering or exiting silently into a good dark night. And their latest DVD is a scrumptious addition to your growing collection … especially if you caught one of the dates on the tour or have an original copy of the LP, working zipper and all.
