rank the songs on STICKY FINGERS

with SWAY it's all in the Jagger performance for me, with the guitars placing second. love the mysteriousness of the lyrics and frankly "It's just that demon life has got you in its sway" is for me one of the best single lines of all-time, just as a very particular and strange assessment of tough times.

"sway" is groovy as hell

and yeah jagger is p phenomenal on it

THERE MUST BE WAYYYS to fiiind out

also weird to hear someone classify it as a ballad, it's basically the same tempo as most songs by the band

the singing on sway has a positive effect on my feelings -- esp the "one day i WOKE up to fiiiiiiiiiind/right in the BED next to miiiiiine" part for some reason?! the lyrics are totally banal but the way he sings them gives me an energy i enjoy. idk what else to say about that.

i am a fan of the sloppy guitar solo (here and in general) and the general pace/feel/dare i say "sway' of the song

i do not think of it as a ballad at all -- it's definitely more of a loose jam? idk that this type of song has a name, maybe i just don't know what the name is

yes it's the perfect song to be called SWAY, it has a particular doomy sway to it.

first Jagger plays electric rhythm too

first time, that is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekJTcELT2E4

"It's just that demon life has got you in its sway"

been listening to this record for 10+ years, never realized he was saying that. as a matter of fact i can barely understand anything being sung on "sway" and for me that is part of the appeal, just kind of a weird murky song where they keep saying "got me in its way" for some reason

anyway, re: charlie watts

all i want to say is i'll never forgive him for ruining the otherwise awesome ending of "can't you hear me knocking" by hitting that stupid wimpy crash symbol all by himself after everybody else in the band had stopped in unison.

i always heard it as" demon wine" and thought that was apt

is it "that demon-life" or "that demon, life"

― difficult listening hour, Monday, March 5, 2018 9:19 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

(it's canonically the former i know but i adore the ambiguity as sung)

I used the Les Paul; Keith doesn't play on that track. Mick Jagger's playing rhythm guitar... (I played the slide part and the solo) at the same time. I put the slide on my little finger so it would still leave the other 3 fingers free to play like they would regularly, and I switched from one to the other. That was played in regular tuning.

- Mick Taylor, 1979

i always thought it was demon-life
demonic life

anyway, re: charlie watts

all i want to say is i'll never forgive him for ruining the otherwise awesome ending of "can't you hear me knocking" by hitting that stupid wimpy crash symbol all by himself after everybody else in the band had stopped in unison.

― budo jeru, Wednesday, April 24, 2019 6:37 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh, I can overlook that. His "toddler whacking upside down pans with wooden spoons" approach to drum accents on 'Sway', however...

cymbal* ha

just doublechecked that "sway" has good drums, it does

It does! I stayed out of the discussion above but it never fails to surprise me how easily people will dismiss any particular drummer for “ineptitude” or “incompetence”. I have a hard time accepting that a person on a Rolling Stones recording is either of those things. Maybe not your fave but inept? Incompetent? Nah.

well you have to admit he's no mike portnoy

I saw some clip of wankers Portney and Paul Gilbert's Beatles cover band, and iirc it was shockingly faithful/tasteful!

i love Charlie’s drumming on Sway, naysayers are crazy imo

and Sway is def not a ballad, loose jam

Sway is everything l love about this period of the Stones, the loose swagger of the band & Jagger just SELLING the lyrics with this insane delivery that is like, idk, for me it’s like he’s howling at the moon. It’s so cathartic!! Swig straight out of the wine-bottle kinda music. It’s all mood & it’s the BEST.

otm

love Nicky Hopkins on Sway, too

Jagger just SELLING the lyrics with this insane delivery

otm-- had never connected my love of this song to my dylan superfandom before but i think they're related

LL's transcription--

"one day i WOKE up to fiiiiiiiiiind/right in the BED next to miiiiiine"

--also a clue

CIRCulaaaaar tiiiiiiiiiIIIIIME

I love that "Sway" has strings...by Paul Buckmaster!

ok then, it doesn't really matter if sway is a ballad or a jam or whatever but i am so much more impressed by the phantastic "can't you hear me knockin'" which definitely is a jam. that killer blues riff which gives me the zz top feel, the amazing saxophone solo, its' jazzy improv vibe, the cool santana guitar sound later on, almost 7 minutes without a second that bores me. it is the best of the early seventies coming together there, just wonderful. i don't really care so much about jagger's singing, somehow i don't hear his voice anymore as it is so ubiquitous as i have heard it so many times. anyone else who prefers knocking to sway?

i listed CYHMK above Sway on my list upthread. both are better than great.

anyone else who prefers knocking to sway?

Me, by miles!

VG otm Sway is the Stones doing what they do like no one else

though Moonlight Mile is beautiful and like almost nothing else they did

"Moonlight Mile" is Taylor's loveliest moment on a Stones single, and my favorite use of Buckmaster strings.

Sway is the Stones doing what they do like no one else

Incidentally, a friend gave me the Joel Selvin Altamont book for my birthday and I'm finally getting around to reading it. It had never even occurred to me how removed the Stones were from the rock scene, particularly in America. By 1969 they hadn't played the U.S. in 3 years and were practically broke (the American tour was explicitly to refill their empty coffers), and they were desperate to sort of break back into America, which culminated in the Altamont disaster. Clearly the band came out the other side intact, but having this album start out the new decade didn't hurt. I wonder what might have been if they followed the '60s and Let It Bleed directly with Exile?

sway is a great song i am sorry you are having trouble with your hearing

There are people who don't like Sway? I'd argue that its #2 placement practically makes the album.

even if that was true it would not be a sufficient condition to make it a good song. though i think the whole exile on main street double album is where they are really doing their own thing.

― je est un autre, l'enfer c'est les autres (alex in mainhattan), Thursday, April 25, 2019

really no choice but to FP for this. you'll thank me when you sober up.

exile’s great and I love it with my whole heart, but it’s the succinctness of Sticky Fingers that appeals to me in my old age

really no choice but to FP for this. you'll thank me when you sober up.

don’t tuomas me lol

in the early days of ilm you could bust balls for challops

weird that some people cannot accept different opinions. in the early days of ilm there used to be that sentence "a frightening consensus is building up". times have changed.

Yup, unfortunately.

Anyhow, I re-listened to this album last night and one thing that struck me about 'Sway' this go-round is how superb the bassline is. Wyman really brings home the goods on that one. Love the strings and vocal performance, too. Watts' drumming gets really ropey at times, particularly in the middle section with several fluffed fills and seemingly forgetting what song he's playing at one point.

this is funny:

The songs on Sticky Fingers varied from the brilliant to the rather average and forgettable. "Sway," which sways on the border between a lazy midtempo number and a ballad, falls into the latter category,

Cant you hear...
Bitch
Brown sugar
You gotta move
Sway

Everything else

Moonlight mile makes me think they were trying to do a song like Hendrixs may this be love but not matching it.

"Moonlight Mile" is better than any Hendrix song.

'Moonlight Mile' is amazing but nah.

yah