rank the songs on STICKY FINGERS

short of abolishing myself or embracing the worst of reality the options seem to be to throw my hands up and say it's complicated or to bitch and moan about the worst excesses in the hope that they become harder to defend more generally and then idk

i'm not going to defend the song and i am sure there are many things about the stones' personal lives i do not want to know about. wyman's marriage to a teenager, for instance, was revolting, and i'm sure there would be more dirt if i dug into it. but i don't think that means i need to put away my stones records forever or anything. at this point these records are over 50 years old; dipping into them is like pulling out my copy of moby dick. they're just there, part of the culture.

the most insidious thing about them was probably the misogyny, actually. but like, understanding this aspect of their music and rock culture in the 60s and 70s helps explain the limitations and even the failures of the counterculture. i don't know what cancelling would accomplish at this point except whitewashing this history.

Greil's question seems apt:

The leer may be a parody, but is it still a leer?

And I think the answer is yes. The song in a way is a descendant of noir novels like Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me that trick you into rooting for a sociopath and then leave you wriggling on the hook to deal with your own feelings of guilt afterwards. Irony is no defense. I don't think the song should be defended. Its extremely toxic. Luckily its much easier to avoid now than I guess it was in the summer when Greil was writing that piece and it was blaring from every FM radio.

lolita is like this too, i think

the culture is kind of shit in a lot of ways (sure so am i as a product of it). there is racism in moby dick (in a vaguely similar semi-knowing kind of way) and calling that out isn't the same as wanting to burn it or being unable to understand nuance and complexity or whatever. the kids who don't like huck finn aren't wrong or stupid or unable to understand what it's trying to do either, they just know it's not good enough. if that's cancel culture then i'm all for it

"Moonlight Mile" is the greatest closing track of the era, minimum.

i still prefer exile, but nothing on that is as good as dead flowers

"Loving Cup" is.

"Sister Moonlight"s sometimes too affected for me to enjoy until Ry Cooder's solo slaps my face.

frankly they peaked with she's a rainbow / 2000 light years and i wish they (and other psych bands) hadn't felt the need to retreat into the rootsy bluesy manly rut they've largely been stuck in since 68

i love that stuff too but i disagree

idk they got pretty swishy with the rock-disco stuff later in the decade. I wish they'd recorded an album's worth of "Let Me Go" and "When the Whip Comes Down"s.

"am i rough enough?"

"Waiting on a Friend" was their last great song.

Rolling Stones 1968-1972 is the most unfuckwithable run in music history

Best four-album run in rock history, hands down.

frankly they peaked with she's a rainbow / 2000 light years

I'm glad you're speaking out with such frankness, but, as much as I love "She's a Rainbow," that strikes me as absurd.

rootsy bluesy manly rut

One of the things that makes Beggars Banquet my choice for best Stones album is that they retained a lot of the psychedelic haze that was soon cleared away by Mick Taylor, saxophones, and the whole barroom ambience.

stripped is good, imo

their best disco is dance part 2 (if I was a dancer)