The Rolling Stones - From The Vault - Sticky Fingers: Live at the Fonda Theater 2015 [2017, Rock, Blu-ray, 1080i]

Sticky Fingers, has become a defining album in the history of The Rolling Stones. It was over 500 days in the making and work on recording it began over an intense three-day period immediately before the release of Let It Bleed, their previous LP, in December 1969.
Recording their 9th British studio album (11th in America) began at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama before they flew west to San Francisco on December 5th and 24 hours later faced the horrors of Altamont. During the ensuing seventeen months the band faced complex business arrangements, renegotiating their record contracts, not to mention the mess that they found their personal finances to be in, touring and myriad other issues, both individual and collective. Sticky Fingers was finally released in April 1971 with Rolling Stone magazine saying, “It is the latest beautiful chapter in the continuing story of the greatest rock group in the world.”
Sticky Fingers resonates with generations of fans that have grown used to hearing songs from the album played live during the intervening five decades. On May 20th 2015, 44 years after it was released The Stones decided to play Sticky Fingers in its entirety, although, not as Mick was quick to point out in the original running order of the album... playing ‘Brown Sugar’ so early in the set would be too big an ask. As Mick told the 1,200 crowd at the historic, Fonda Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, “Tonight we’re going to do something we’ve never done before.”
Before the band got into Sticky Fingers they began proceedings with ‘Start Me Up’ their classic from 1981’s Tattoo You; few bands have a better opening number and yet The Stones do not always use it as such, which is probably why it sounds so good when they do.
In the spirit of the 8-track, Sticky Fingers live gets under way with ‘Sway’. Given that the original album, and the 8-track, opens with ‘Brown Sugar’ it would have been foolish to play it at this point in the set. The Stones have always been masters in pacing a show and tonight was no exception.
‘Sway’ had not been played live until the 21st Century; it was first performed at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio during 2005’s A Bigger Bong Tour and again in 2013 on 50 & Counting, but the Fonda performance is, so far, the last time it has been performed. Ronnie’s great slide playing on his Gibson Les Paul is featured and it’s a reminder of what a great track it is.
The blues was where it all began for The Stones, they are in their DNA, but country music soon nudged its way into their consciousness and given that blues and country music were born from the same Southern dirt it’s not hard to understand why. Upon the release of the original album, Mick said of ‘Dead Flowers’, “I’d played it a hundred times at home before we got into the studio.”
When it was first recorded it had a Byrds-like feel to it, with finger picked guitar, but by the time it was completed, with the addition of Mick and Keith’s vocals and Ian Stewart’s piano, which Chuck Leavell recreates at the Fonda it had become quintessential Stones. ‘Dead Flowers’ has been in and out of Stones set lists for five decades, having made its debut at Malmo, Sweden, on the band’s European tour of 1970.
‘Wild Horses’ follows and given that it takes the band further into the country it feels perfectly placed, although on the original LP it follows ‘Sway’. Originally ‘Wild Horses’ was pretty much allacoustic, with Keith playing the solo in the middle section.
According to Keith, “If there is a classic way of Mick and me working together this is it. I had the riff and chorus line, Mick got stuck into the verses.” Released in the US as the second single from the LP it made the top 30 on the Billboard chart.
Another song that the band have not played very otten is ‘Sister Morphine’, which was first performed live in Chicago at Soldier Field on the 1997-98 Bridges to Babylon tour, and subsequently not at all. Mick wrote its ominous chord progression back in early 1968 during a holiday in Italy with Marianne Faithfull, who also helped to write some of its lyrics. At L.A.’s Elektra studios in July 1968, Mick recorded a version with Jack Nitzsche on piano and Ry Cooder on slide guitar. Marianne Faithfull then sang in place of Jagger’s guide vocal and the track was released at the outset of 1969 under her name, only to be banned and withdrawn from circulation by her record label shortly after. Played live ‘Sister Morphine’ is a song that no other band could do justice to...light and shade is what The Stones are about these days, and this is the very embodiment of that notion.
In March 1969, Nitzsche and Cooder were in London to work on the soundtrack to Performance, Mick invited them to rerecord ‘Sister Morphine’ with the Stones at Olympic Studios. The Faithfull version was restrained and somewhat tentative but the album version conjures up an eerie sense of dislocation that suited the song’s subject matter to perfection. Played live at the Fonda with Keith on acoustic and Ronnie on slide it sounds like the band have been playing the song forever, and Mick gives a masterful performance getting inside the song in a way that few other vocalists can achieve.
‘You Gotta Move’ is a spiritual song about death that was originally recorded by The Blind Boys of Alabama in 1953 before being covered by Mississippi Fred McDowell in 1965 and recorded at his home in Como, deep in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. It’s this version that inspired the Stones to record it at Muscle Shoals in December 1969 having been playing it on the tour of North America over the previous month. Keith recreates McDowell’s original 12-string part to perfection, and if anyone asks you if The Stones love Delta Blues, just play them this.
‘Bitch’ was recorded at Stargroves, Mick’s home in the country, and Keith plays brilliantly on the original, as he does at the Fonda, wringing every last ounce of magic from one of his most underrated riffs. Yet there’s something else in play, according to Ronnie, “Keith and I formed a partnership and soon developed; ‘the ancient art of weaving’ describes how the two of us play together, in a seamless way.” ‘Bitch’ is the perfect example of this ancient art.
First played at Newcastle City Hall, on the band’s ‘Farewell’ UK tour in 1971 it stuck around for a couple of years before making a welcome return to live shows in 1989 on the Steel Wheels tour and has featured frequently ever since.
According to Charlie Watts “Bobby Keys was the best rock and roll saxophone player.” ‘Can’t You Hear Me Knocking’ is a brilliant example of the late Bobby Keys playing, which is recreated at the Fonda by Karl Denson.
It’s a song of two halves, with the second half an extended jam that was led by Keys in the studio, along with Keith and Mick Taylor; a “Latin jazz groove” as Mick called it. “I just stuck my horn in my face and started to blow. That was a first take, a onetime thing,” remembered Keys. ‘Can’t You Hear Me Knocking’ on Sticky Fingers was captured in a single unedited performance. It’s another song that was played first at Newcastle City Hall, in 1971 and then didn’t make a return to the set list until the 2002 Licks tour and a decade later, on 2013’s 50 & Counting and at the band’s Glastonbury appearance.
The Stones chose not to play ‘I Got the Blues’ on the 1971 ‘Farewell’, but played it at London’s Marquee Club, for a special gig that was filmed at the end of the tour; it was 28 years until it was played again, on the No Security tour. Mick and Keith are at their most beseeching on the choruses and Billy Preston’s original >j organ part which captured its soulful essence is played by Leavell.
The original album’s closer was ‘Moonlight Mile’ and it was the penultimate track of Sticky Fingers played live and Mick captures the feeling of the original perfectly. Marshall Chess, who was the first manager of Rolling Stones Records in 1970, recalls Mick in the vocal booth performing, “Many, many takes of the song’s dreamy lyrics, always searching for the right inflection.”
‘Brown Sugar’ was played live for the first time on December 6th 1969 at Altamont, just a couple of days after it was recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound. The band have played it at just about every live show since that time. It is what the Stones are all about - riffs, brilliant lyrics, and the ability to conjure up atmosphere in a way that makes you think this is a relatively new song being played with all the enthusiasm that new songs seem to bring forth. As Mick says, “If I had to take one song with me it would be, ‘Brown Sugar’, it’s very close to my heart.” And to ours.
For legions of fans, Sticky Fingers is a perfect Rolling Stones’ record - played live at the Fonda it’s not difficult to understand why. This is the one and only time during their career that the band has ever performed an album in its entirety. Despite Mick joking that “We may come back and perform the whole of Their Satanic Majesties" it is doubtful that we’ll see anything like this again.
The Rolling Stones are rock royalty, they are the greatest rock and roll band in the world, and at the Fonda Theatre they once again prove why - because you need to be passionate about what you do to be believable and no other band can conjure forth the mixture of passion laced with 50 years of experience like they can.
The band’s encore opened with ‘Rock Me Baby’ in tribute to late great BB King who had passed away a week earlier. They finished with ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ and a barnstorming ending to the night with Otis Redding’s ‘I Can’t Turn You Loose’.
Prior to playing Sticky Fingers they also did, ‘All Down the Line’ and ‘When The Whip Comes Down’ and both are included here.
- Richard Havers, July 2017