After Surviving Altamont and the End of the Hippie Era, the Rolling Stones Released Sticky Fingers 50 Years Ago Today

The second album in their untouchable late-60s and early-70s run still sounds fresh today

By the time the Rolling Stones were recording for their eleventh album, Sticky Fingers, the band had been through a rough few years.

1969’s Let It Bleed was the start of a new sound for the Stones and would be their most commercially successful yet. While recording, it was clear that founding guitarist Brian Jones was not long for the band as he spiraled out of control with drugs, mostly missing sessions and being too high to play when he did show up.

In June, the band kicked Jones out, mainly looking to rhythm guitarist Keith Richards to play all the parts on the record. Mick Taylor would join a few small pieces on two songs before becoming a full-time member for their US tour.

Jones would be dead less than a month later, found by his girlfriend at the bottom of his swimming pool.

The Stones US tour was wildly successful, but there were also complaints about ticket prices being too high, which topped out at $8 (tickets to their 2019 tour averaged around $370). To counter the criticism, the band was looking to play a free festival, and promoters wanted to find a west coast counter to Woodstock, which had taken place in the summer.

Joining them would be the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, CSNY, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Santana. San Fransisco was the chosen city with a date in early December, but the whole festival was poorly organized and kept moving dates and venues last minute.

Up a creek without a paddle, the management team moved the location to Altamont Speedway just two days before the show. Facilities and security fell to the wayside, a fatal mistake for a show that would see over 300,000 people attend.

Though there are many different accounts of the debacle, at the recommendation of the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, the Stones hired the Hell’s Angels to escort the bands and watch the stage. Both bands had a longstanding relationship with the motorcycle gang, who would protect their equipment for free admission and beer, and never had issues in the past.

While the day started smoothly, the drug-fueled crowd grew out of control. After multiple injuries and a toppled motorcycle, the Angels were at fisticuffs with everyone, including knocking out Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane.

After the Grateful Dead refused to play and left the venue because of the security fiasco, the Stones delayed their set until dark. There, the festival would see its darkest moment yet, when Meredith Hunter, an attendee who was high on methamphetamines and had started a fight earlier, brandished a revolver and headed for Mick Jagger. He was stabbed by a Hell’s Angel, with the moment captured on camera, a rare moment in its time. While unaware of the stabbing, the Stones agreed that abandoning the show at that point would cause an even bigger riot.

In all, four people died, as well as many stolen vehicles and damaged property. The concert at Altamont is now considered the end of the hippie movement of the late 60s.

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A few days before Altamont, the Stones had a break in their tour schedule and headed to Alabama to record at the famed Muscle Shoals Sound Studio at the beginning of December. Inspired by the country and blues music of the region, they would lay down “Brown Sugar,” “Wild Horses,” and a cover of “You Gotta Move,” a traditional song recorded a few years earlier by Fred McDowell, a bluesman out of Mississippi. Though not the official start of the sessions, these three numbers would become the basis of Sticky Fingers.

The band would return to the studio in March of 1970, now mostly recording in the infamous mobile studio unit that allowed them to lay down tracks anywhere. Throughout the summer, they’d go on to record the rest of the album, including the now-iconic brassed-out improv of “Can You Hear Me Knocking.”

The record would prove to be the most band-driven album they had made, with all members playing on each track, including unofficial members Ian Stewart on piano, and Bobby Keys, who would play tenor saxophone on so many of their classic tracks. Billy Preston even shows up to the organ on “Can You Hear Me Knocking” and “I Got the Blues.”

Sticky Fingers is often cited as the pinnacle of rock and roll’s drugged-out excess, with the Rolling Stones somehow turning in one of their most significant records, despite the band’s turmoil during the period.

At the same time, it led to many great things for the band, as this was their first album free of their contract with Decca and would be the start of Rolling Stones Records. Sticky Fingers is also the first appearance of their tongue logo, created by Craig Braun. He also designed the record’s infamous zipper cover after Andy Warhol came up with the idea. (I love this Russian bootleg from 1992).

Though not my favorite Rolling Stones album, Sticky Fingers is a record that is unbeatable from top to bottom. “Brown Sugar” was highly problematic when it was written and has aged even worse, but the magic lies within the songs that weren’t singles. I love drummer Charlie Watt’s work on “Sway,” and the sarcastic junkie country number “Dead Flowers,” and “Moonlight Mile” closes the album with something not heard from the group up until this point. While I love the Stones’ 60s output, there’s no denying how important Mick Taylor was to the band, and how much he changed their sound during his few years in the group.

Fifty years on, Sticky Fingers sounds as fresh as when it was released.

Do you have any Sticky Fingers memories, or is it your favorite Stones album? Let me know in the comments.