I’m a Mick Taylor guy. The run of albums by The Rolling Stones during his tenure marks their most expressive and most creative work and, to me, is just miles above what they had done prior, and have done since. Not that there aren’t great moments without him, and subpar moments with him, but generally that era represents a high point for them.

I think the departure of Brian Jones and the arrival of Taylor invigorated the band and loosened them up creatively. Sticky Fingers is essentially the first album to fully feature Mick Taylor as his contributions to Let it Bleed were minimal.

What they produced here is just a magical collection of songs. They are loose and bluesy, hard rocking or country tinged, and “Moonlight Mile” is, on any given day, the greatest song ever written. “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” isn’t possible without Mick Taylor and is a righteous jam.

The Andy Warhol cover caused quite a stir at the time and perhaps even overshadowed the songs within, but as far as Rolling Stones albums go, this one is pretty hard to beat. Shit, as far as rock and roll albums go, this is about as good as it gets. Easily a 5 star record.

To learn more about the 1001 Albums Project, I first wrote about it here.