Sticky Fingers - The Rolling Stones

The 1971 number one album Sticky Fingers was the first album released by The Rolling Stones on their own label, Rolling Stones Records. It was also the first in 8 consecutive number one albums released by the band. The album cover famously had a man in tight black jeans, with a working zipper on the front that revealed white cotton briefs, I kid you not, it was designed by non other than Andy Warhol. However it did have a tendency to destroy other record sleeves stacked beside it!

It is a dark album with over half the songs on the album mentioning drug use, and the rest alluding to it. Its bluesy sound with a country twinge is amply aided by the magnificent musicians the Stones called in to the sessions. Ry Cooder, Jack Nitzche and Paul Buckmaster all grace the albums tracks.

Sticky Fingers opens with Brown Sugar a heady mix if Heroin, Inter-racial sex and slavery. It easily became a number one single. The second track on the album Sway, is one of the Rolling Stones finest album tracks. Written about the many friends of the band who had fallen fowl of the rock and roll lifestyle, it features Paul Buckmaster on guitar.

Aside from Brown Sugar, Wild Horses is the best know track on the album and one of their most popular. It is a serious country song that tugs at the heart strings from the first chords.

Sister Morphine was originally released by Mariane Faithful however due to its drug refrences it was banned from many shops and sold poorly. It was co written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards but Faithful went uncredited so she would not have to pay royalties to her manager. She recieved one third of the royalties anyway. Ry Cooder and Jack Nitzche also play on the recording.

The album is rounded off by two wonderful songs, Dead Flowers (A reference to Heroin) and Moonlight Mile. Moonlight Mile ends the album on a weary note. This ballad shed light on the trials of being on the road and maintaining the rock and roll image.

Dark and seemingly ramshackle, Sticky Fingers proved difficult to record but this difficulty was ultimately rewarded in what became an incredible album by an incredible band.


Track Listing
1. Brown Suger
2. Sway
3. Wild Horses
4. Can't You Hear Me Knocking
5. You Gota Move
6. Bitch
7. I Got The Blues
8. Sister Morphine
9. Dead Flowers
10. Moonlight Mile

Appetite For Destruction - Guns N' Roses

With 27 million sales worldwide, the most sucessful debut of the eighties, Appetite For Destruction introduced the world to LA hard rockers Guns 'N Roses.
Axl, Slash, and the band went on to raise hell and a lot of controversy, but never surpassed the almighty punch of this album.
Welcome To The Jungle, the first single, languished until record company boss David Geffen convinced MTV to give it more air time and even though it got scant play, rock fans took note and it was soon charting. Sweet Child Of Mine (a poem by Axl Rose for his future wife) followed and by the time the band released Paradise City, they were touring to sold out stadiums.
The original cover features a tattoo Axl had designed, of a cross and skulls, each skull representing a member of the band. This artwork was actually a compromise, the original artwork featuring a robot rapist about to be avenged by a dagger toothed monster created too much controversy and was instead used on the liner sleeve.

Track listing
1. Welcome To The Jungle
2. It's So Easy
3. Nightrain
4. Out Ta Get Me
5. Mr. Brownstone
6. Paradise City
7. My Michelle
8. Think About You
9. Sweet Child O' Mine
10. You're Crazy
11. Anything Goes
12. Rocket Queen

Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan released Blonde On Blonde in 1966, and, running at an hour and 13 minutes, it is believed to be the first ever double album, for those only acquainted with CDs, you could only fit so much on Vinyl record so they had to spread it over two.
It was recorded in Nashville Tennessee, released to critical acclaim, and is often featured in top 20 lists of the greatest albums of all time.
Lyrically the album mostly concentrates on romantic entanglements, a perfect example being Just Like A Woman, an enduring and complicated song, it's hard to know if Dylan is being critical or appreciative.
Dylan was involved with 3 women at the time that he write the album, his future wife Sara Lownds, Folk singer Joan Baez, and Warhol set "It" girl Edie Sedgewick.
Sedgewick is thought to be the debutante referred to in Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat. Visions of Johanna is, perhaps, about Joan Baez, she in turn wrote a number of songs about him including 1975s Diamonds and Rust. The final track on the album was always presumed to be about his wife, and in 1975's Desire, the track Sara includes the lyrics, "Sitting up late in the Chelsea Hotel writing Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands For You"

Track Listing
1. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
2. Pledging My Time
3. Visions Of Johanna
4. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)
5. I Want You
6. Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
7. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
8. Just Like A Woman
9. Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine
10. Temporary Like Achilles
11. Absolutely Sweet Marie
12. 4th Time Around
13. Obviously 5 Believers
14. Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands

Are You Experienced - The Jimi Hendrix Experience

The debut album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced was released in 1967 to imediate critial acclaim. Rocketing up the charts to number 2 in the Uk only to be held off the top spot by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It is considers not only one of the most influential debuts albums but one of the greatest of all time and it spawned 3 top ten hit singles: Hey Joe/Stone Free, Purple Haze and The Wind Cries Mary/Highway Chile.

The album opens with Purple Haze probably one of the greatest guitar songs ever written. originally titled Purple haze, Jesus Saves, Hendrix wears his LSD influence on his sleave in the lyrical content of the song while singing "Scuse me while I Kiss the Sky" Pepsi made a hilarious add with a young Jimi Hendrix in 2004 making a rather significant career choice.

Foxy Lady or Foxey Lady as it is known in the states. This was a spelling mistake as believe it or not, Foxey is an old spelling of the word and can mean smelly or rank hardly Jimi's intention. Manic Depression the second track is a hard rock waltz, serioulsy its in watlz time but Jimi tears it appart creating a whole new interpretation to what a waltz actually sounds like. The album has been re-released a few times and has included the superb B-Sides to the singles.

This album turned music on it's head and openned up a whole new world of sounds that the electirc guitar could make and no one thought possible. Its combination of Blues, Soul and Psychedelia revolutionised rock in a way that was not repeated until it was brought back to groud zero with Punk.

Track Listing

1. Purple Haze

2. Manic Depression

3. Hey Joe

4. Love or Confusion

5. May This Be Love

6. I Don't Live Today

7. The Wind Cries Mary

8. Fire

9. Third Stone From The Sun

10. Foxy lady

11. Are You Experienced

Re-Released

12. Stone Free

13. 51st Anniversairy

14 Stone Free

15. Highway Chile

16. Can You See Me

17. Remember

18. Red House