The Rolling Stones’ 1971 classic Sticky Fingers is one of those albums: even if you’re not intimately familiar with it, you’ll recognize something subconsciously. From Andy Warhol’s iconic cover art with the working zipper & die cut fly to the introduction of John Pasche’s instantly recognizable lips & tongue logo, the packaging itself is a major work of art as much as the classic music it contains. The songs are a still-electrifying blend of rock, blues, soul, country and juuuust a touch of hedonism that practically defines the “sex, drugs & rock n’ roll” cliché.

The album you’ll find in stores is a classic, yes, but it only tells part of the Stones’ story of that era: they were at the peak of their live prowess at that time, and it’s mystifying that no concert recordings have officially surfaced. Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! is decent but is essentially the product of lots of studio overdubbing, and their next official live release didn’t come until 1977’s Love You Live, so, sadly, no official document of them in their prime exists. Remedying that is one of my goals in presenting this.

One final note: I wouldn’t consider this a definitive look at the Stones’ Sticky Fingers recording sessions, it’s just a presentation of the best bits from my small collection of recordings to show that a good reissue of a classic album isn’t hard to do. If I can put something like this together from a handful of discs on my shelf, just imagine what the Stones could do themselves with the hours of tapes & acetate in their vaults — Enjoy!

[Note: Download each song individually by right-clicking (Win)/control-clicking (Mac) the linked mp3 after the song name, or download each disc-length list as a ZIP file at the end of each list.]

Bonus Disc #1: Alternate Takes/Versions/Mixes

I’ve compiled a host of studio outtakes & unreleased versions of Sticky Fingers album cuts and one infamous non-album track that’s become one of the most storied songs in the Jagger/Richards canon. The source for most of these is the incomparable multi-disc boxed set of 60’s studio outtakes, The Black Box, released by Yellow Dog in the early 90’s. Other tracks come from Beggar’s Breakfast, a good odds & sods collection, and the excellent Unplugged bootleg, which has zero documentation about the songs, but probably the most compelling alternate versions. You’ll hear more from these sets and others in the months to come, so for now, enjoy the best of what the Sticky Fingers sessions had to offer:

1. “Brown Sugar #1″ (mp3)
   Apparently the earliest known version of the song, recorded at Muscle Shoals in December 1969. Some of the tracks end up on later takes. From The Black Box.
2. “Brown Sugar #2″ (mp3)
   Lots of start/stop/restart/stop/restarting, but eventually results in a take that’s close to final. From The Black Box.
3. “Brown Sugar (early mix)” (mp3)
   This early mix features a different lead guitar part by Mick Taylor. From Beggar’s Breakfast.
4. “Brown Sugar (Alternate Version)” (mp3)
   Mix originally appeared on the initial pressings of the quickly withdrawn US version of Hot Rocks. From The Black Box Bonus CD.
5. “Sway (early mix from acetate)” (mp3)
   From Beggar’s Breakfast.
6. “Sway (7″ single mix)” (mp3)
   Different mix from a different take. From The Black Box.
7. “Wild Horses (Acoustic)” (mp3)
   A fantastic, unreleased, completely acoustic take of which little is known except that it was recorded sometime between 1968-1970. From Unplugged.
8. “Wild Horses (Alternate Version)” (mp3)
   Mix originally appeared on the initial pressings of the quickly withdrawn US version of Hot Rocks. Heavy vocal reverb is plainly evident. From The Black Box Bonus CD.
9. “You Gotta Move (Acoustic)” (mp3)
   An unreleased take of Mississippi Fred McDowell’s blues classic of which little is known except that it was recorded sometime between 1968-1970. From Unplugged.
10. “You Gotta Move” (mp3)
    Another alternate take, recorded at Muscle Shoals in December 1969. Sounds a lot like the cut from Unplugged, but with a better stereo mix. From The Black Box.
11. “Bitch” (mp3)
    A near-final version of the song, marred by damaged tape at the 2:18 mark. From The Black Box.
12. “Sister Morphine (Acoustic)” (mp3)
    An unreleased, mostly acoustic take of which little is known except that it was recorded sometime between 1968-1970. From Unplugged.
13. “Sister Morphine #1″ (mp3)
    Features an alternate arrangement of Ry Cooder’s slide guitar. From The Black Box Bonus CD.
14. “Sister Morphine (Marianne Faithfull vocal)” (mp3)
    The Stones back up co-writer Faithfull on this original version of her single. Mind-blowingly good. From The Black Box Bonus CD.
15. “Dead Flowers (Acoustic)” (mp3)
    A fantastic, unreleased, completely acoustic take of which little is known except that it was recorded sometime between 1968-1970. Sloppy & glorious. From Unplugged.
16. “Schoolboy Blues (a.k.a. “Cocksucker Blues”)” (mp3)
    Probably the most notorious unreleased Stones recording. I’ll let Wikipedia do the heavy lifting: “‘Cocksucker Blues’ was the title of a song Mick Jagger wrote to be the Stones’ final single for Decca Records, as per their contract. Its context and language was chosen specifically to anger Decca executives. [That's a very diplomatic way of putting it -- S.] The track was refused by Decca and only released later on a West German compilation in 1983, although the compilation was discontinued and re-released without the song.” From The Black Box.

Download a handy ZIP of Bonus Disc #1: Alternate Takes/Versions/Mixes:

Download: Sticky Fingers Bonus Disc #1: Alternate Takes/Versions/Mixes (ZIP)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Bonus Disc #2: Get Your Leeds Lungs Out! Revisited

Recorded live at the University of Leeds on March 13, 1971, during their short tour of the UK just ahead of the release of Sticky Fingers. The band is in fine, furious form, and the setlist is a great mix of (then) new material & instant classics from their Decca days. This version of the recording was remastered from the original tapes, and the result is an amazingly vibrant step up from any official live recordings from the era. I’m looking at you, heavily-overdubbed Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out! The tracklisting:

1. “Dead Flowers” (mp3)
2. “Stray Cat Blues” (mp3)
3. “Love In Vain” (mp3)
4. “Midnight Rambler” (mp3)
5. “Bitch” (mp3)
6. Band Introductions (mp3)
7. “Honky Tonk Women” (mp3)
8. “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (mp3)
9. “Little Queenie” (mp3)
10. “Brown Sugar” (mp3)
11. “Street Fighting Man” (mp3)
12. “Let It Rock” (stereo version) (mp3)

Download a handy ZIP of Bonus Disc #2: Get Your Leeds Lungs Out! Revisited:

Download: Sticky Fingers Bonus Disc #2: Get Your Leeds Lungs Out! Revisited (ZIP)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

It’s not much of a secret that I’m a big Rolling Stones fan. The 3 shelves dedicated to the band in my CD collection house copies of each of their officially released albums, most of the members’ solo albums, a bunch of CD singles that date back to the Flashpoint live album, and a plethora (si, El Guapo, a plethora) of live and studio bootlegs that stretch from their early days through their last tour. I lurve the Stones, and when I heard that EMI Universal would be re-releasing the Stones’ post-ABKCO catalog starting this spring, I began to clear more shelf space. That catalog was beautifully remastered & repackaged by Virgin Records back in the early 90’s, but it’s been about 15 years, so I was ready for some expanded & improved editions of these classics.

The first wave of discs hit shops a couple weeks ago, so I hit my local Newbury Comics ready to grab my newest copy of Sticky Fingers. I left the store a couple minutes later sans disc. Why? Because these new EMI Universal releases add nothing new to the mix. No bonus alternate/early studio takes, no bonus live tracks, no interesting new packaging, no new anything, except for possibly the remastering which would be subtle at best given the great job that Virgin did 15 years ago. These reissues are a naked cash grab, and that’s a crying shame given the wealth of unreleased studio & live recordings in the Stones’ vault. The Stones (or EMI Universal at least) have proven that they just don’t get reissues.

Sadly, the Stones aren’t alone in the reissues dunce club: both Bob Dylan, whose entire voluminous catalog has been given the remastering/reissuing treatment over the last few years, and the Beatles, whose reissues will be out this fall, both don’t really get it. The sonic upgrades to their catalogs are great, but there’s nothing else new to the mix. Both artists have vaults jam-packed with illuminating, fascinating alternate takes and early versions of historic songs. Why not share them with the world? And finally make a buck on it, too, given the widely available bootleg disc markets for both artists? Even Sir Paul would understand that argument.

So who’s getting the remaster/reissue concept right? The Who: their Live At Leeds deluxe edition is a home run, offering an entire unreleased run-through of Tommy from the same performance. The Monkees: their self-titled debut was re-released in 2006 with a bonus disc containing the entire album in mono and a bunch of alternate versions & unreleased songs. Def-freaking-Leppard: Hysteria was bundled with a second disc of unreleased songs, live cuts & remixes, and the upcoming Pyromania set will include an entire unreleased concert from 1983.

The Stones, the Beatles, and others can get it right, they just choose not to, so Onkel Rudi & I have decided to help them out. Our CD libraries have loads of unreleased studio & live gems by our favorite artists, and once a month we’re going to put together CD-length playlists of what a proper reissue of a classic album should sound like. We’re calling it Reissues Done Right, and this week I’ll be debuting our first installment, my version of a Sticky Fingers reissue that’s 2 discs long: one of studio sessions, one live. I’d love it if these artists get the hint & do it right themselves, but until then, we’re more than happy to lend a hand.

Check back for Sticky Fingers later this week!