An album I like: Let It Bleed

I see a De Luxe version of the Rolling Stones' STICKY FINGERS album is about to be released, I've had to order it for the extra disc of remixes and rarities, including a 1971 live version of "Midnight Rambler" and a "Brown Sugar" with Eric Clapton - so should have that tomorrow. We loved STICKY FINGERS at the time - 1970 - particularly that original vinyl with the cardboard cover and the real zip. By then The Beatles had imploded but the Stones were entering that nasty funky phase, we had liked THEIR SATANIC MAJESTIES (with that psychedelic cover) and BEGGER'S BANQUET, but LET IT BLEED was for me their best ever . My best pal Stan gave me the album for my 24th birthday, with a nice inscription on it. 

It was full of funky grooves and that nice Robert Johnson cover of "Love In Vain", plus the terrific "Gimme Shelter", "You Got The Silver" and ending with the epic "You Can't Always Get What You Want". - its a murky, dark and chilling record capturing that time the counterculture crashed and burned: "rape and murder, just a shot away", as the Altamont Speedway was just around the corner ...

STICKY FINGERS was darker stuff entirely ("Sister Morphine", "Wild Horses"),  and of course they followed that with EXILE ON MAIN STREET (De Luxed last year) ... their '70s output was variable to say the least, but there were some good tracks on GOAT'S HEAD SOUP, ITS ONLY ROCK N ROLL, SOME GIRLS etc. and I loved those later tracks like "Miss You" and "Emotional Rescue".  They are one group I never saw live - I would have wanted to see them in their prime, not as the later rock dinosaurs. Back then it was The Beatles and The Stones, Cream and The Yardbirds, The Doors and The Band, and Blood Sweat & Tears ...