Making Bets On Kentucky Derby Day

The Rolling Stones - "Sticky Fingers" (1971) - Rolling Stones Records

Hello Friends,

Its Kentucky Derby day, our bets are placed and we're on our 4th round of Mint Juleps while we wait for the singing of "My Old Kentucky Home".  Meanwhile on the turntable, ladies and gentlemen, its the Rolling Stones.

Sticky Fingers.  From the album's title to Andy Warhol's cover art to Bobby Keys's sax solo on "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?" this record oozes dick-swinging sleaze!  

Their ninth full-length (and first of the Seventies) every song is an absolute classic.  Produced by Jimmy Miller and recorded at the legendary Muscle Shoals Studios in backwater Alabama there's a swampiness to the sound of the entire record.  Drugs and death are pretty much present on every song!  The ghost of Brian Jones looms large and in its place is some serious Mick Taylor shredding!

Take the opening song, for instance, the hit single "Brown Sugar", a solid rocker with a killer riff that's either about interracial sex or heroin use or, most likely, both!  The stage is set friends!

"Sugar" is followed by the slow, demon-swaying blues of "Sway" which is followed by the classic break-up ballad, "Wild Horses".  Funny enough, as the story goes, Gram Parsons convinced the Stones to let his band, The Flying Burrito Brothers, record this song.  When Mick Jagger & Keith Richards heard his version, they decided that they too should release it.  The Burrito Brothers version came out a year ahead of the Stones version.  

Next up is the aforementioned, "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?" in all its frenzied, coke-fueled glory!  Side One closes out with a cover of the Fred McDowell gospel-blues tune, "You Gotta Move".

And if you thought Side One couldn't be topped, wait until you get to Side Two kids!

The hard-rocking "Bitch" kicks things off followed by the much slower, more intense & bluesy tune, "I Got the Blues"-- which sounds like a classic Otis Redding soul ballad.

Co-written by Marianne Faithfull, the excellent and nightmarish "Sister Morphine" is next.  Again, this song it oozes paranoia!  Why do we hear sirens? Why does the doctor have no face?  Who's Cousin Cocaine?  Lock the fucking doors Tiki, I'm scared!   

Things come back down to Earth (a little) on "Dead Flowers"--  a junkie love letter with a country-twang, killer chorus and some great F you lines like:  

I'll be in my basement room

With a needle and a spoon

And another girl to take my pain away...

Take that bitch!

The last song, "Moonlight Mile", is the perfect conclusion to this drug-fueled sleazefest!  A slow, lamenting ballad about alienation and life on the road. It ain't all fun and games kids!  Once the drugs run out and the groupies are gone, you're left with a used and abused sticky version of yourself.  Sometimes these moments of clarity, no matter how brief, can be devastating! 

As the song goes, "Its just that demon life has got you in its sway!"

And they're off...

RATING: 5 Headfuls of Snow out of 5 

Dancing with Mister D

The Rolling Stones - "Goat's Head Soup" (1973) - Rolling Stones Records

Hello Friends,

Considered by most to be the final record in their "Golden Era", The Rolling Stones' Goat's Head Soup is a dark, mysterious and inherently sad record.  Picking up where the iconic & epic Exile on Main Street left off, despair & death loom large.  Its the end of an era kids and with Halloween less than a week away, it seemed an appropriate listen!

The opening song, "Dancing with Mr. D" pretty much gives us an idea of what's to come on the rest of the LP: laid-back blues-rock with one foot in the grave!  With lyrics like: "Down in the graveyard where we have our tryst / The air smells sweet, the air smells sick" and "Human skulls is hangin' right 'round his neck / The palms of my hands is clammy and wet".  The "D" stands for Death and by 1973, the Glimmer Twins have definitely had their dance cards full!

The second track is the great, underrated "100 Years Ago"-- a nostalgic and wistful ballad with a country twinge!  This is followed by Keith Richards' heartbreaking "Coming Down Again" written about his tumultuous relationship with actress/model/muse Anita Pallenberg who had previously dated the since-deceased, Brian Jones.  (Editor's Note: She dated him while he was still alive!) This song might also contain the best Stones' lyrics ever: 

Slipped my tongue in someone else's pie; 

Tasting better ev'ry time

He turned green and tried to make me cry; 

Being hungry, it ain't no crime!  

You said it Keef!  (He's talking about pumpkin pie, right?)

Side One concludes with the two singles from the album "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)" and "Angie".  The first is a funked-up, sleazy tale of some cops shooting an innocent guy in NYC and the second is their famous ballad which is either written about Angela Bowie, Angie Dickenson or Keith & Anita's daughter, Dandelion Angela.  Or it could be about detoxing off heroin.  Take your pick! 

Side Two does not quite live up to the standard put up on Side One.  But, really, how could it?

"Silver Train", "Hide Your Love" and "Star Star" are all songs that could be best described as Stonesy.  By this point in their career, I think they've earned the right to their own adjective!

The soulful, "Winter" is the stand-out on Side Two.  This song is so chilly that it makes you want to put on a Winter coat-- no matter what time of year it may be!  (This song was supposedly co-written by guitarist Mick Taylor who never received any songwriting credit! Boo!)

Goat's Head Soup was recorded at Dynamic Sound Studios in Kingston, Jamaica.  It would be the last Stones' record produced by Jimmy Miller (who was quite drug-addled from working with the band since '68!)  A lot of has been made over the album's title over the years.  What does it mean?  Is it Satanic?  Are these boy hiding out in Jamaica so they can do drugs during the day and conjure demons by night?  Actually, I think when the band was in Jamaica they chowed down on something known as "Mannish Water" aka "Goathead Soup".  Here's a recipe... Enjoy!

RATING: 5 Eyes in Her Skull Burning Like Coals out of 5

Rod the Mod

Rod Stewart - "The Rod Stewart Album" (1969) - Mercury Records

Hello Friends,

Rod Stewart's debut solo album hit American shores in November 1969.  In England, it was released under the much-better title, An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down.  

Fresh off his duties as singer in the groundbreaking Jeck Beck Group, Rod "The Mod" Stewart recruited Ronnie Wood (also from Beck's group) on guitar & bass duties, Ian "Mac" McLagen (from the Small Faces) on piano & organ, drummer Mick Waller, guitarist Martin Pugh and even future prog-rocker Keith Emerson (who lends his keyboard talents to the Stewart original "I Wouldn't Ever Change a Thing") to record an LP of 8 songs that combines rock, blues, country & folk and features Stewart's impeccable and distinctive vocal phrasings.   

The album opens with a boozy, bluesy rendition of "Street Fighting Man".  It actually takes the unsuspecting listener a few verses to realize that this is indeed a cover of the Stones classic.  Next up is another cover song--the traditional American Folk Song, "Man of Constant Sorrow"-- that Stewart does it up in a laid-back country style.  This song might be better recognized from a version in the Coen Bros' movie, O Brother Where Art Thou?

"Blind Prayer"-- a seldom-heard, sleazy, bluesy gem written by Stewart is next.

Side One concludes with the melancholic ballad "Handbags and Gladrags"-- written by Manfred Mann's Mike d'Abo and more famous for its use as the theme song to the British "Office" television show!



Side Two contains three Stewart originals-- "An Old Raincoat...", "I Wouldn't Ever Change a Thing", "Cindy's Lament"-- and concludes with a slow rocking version of Ewan MacColl's folk ditty, "Dirty Old Town".  Yet another example of a song on this record that is probably more famous for a version that's not Stewart's (in this case, The Dubliners or The Pogues!) Overall, its an excellent debut record even though it really didn't have any of the humongous hits Stewart would have had throughout the 70's.

"Now what'd I do with me shovel?"

Fun Fact: Hey kids... did you know that before Rod Stewart became a rock & roll icon, he worked as a gravedigger in North London's Highgate Graveyard? Spooky!

RATING: 4.5 handbags and gladrags that your Grandad had to sweat so you could buy out of 5

Tiki Tips: 2,000 Light Years from Home Punch

When listening to old Stones records, I like a cocktail that can be ladled sloppily into my cup as I stumble back and forth between tiki bar and turntable. What finer than a stiff-n-sturdy punch? A classic and versatile little number that can feed a crowd or just you alone.


This one is pretty strong, so be sure your guests can handle it. Or else you could end up with a real "Altamont" situation on your hands!


I share the following recipe because it has brought me years of unbridled joy and bad decisions.


It's my own doing too! (Or shall I say un-doing?)

Tiki's 2,000 Light Years from Home Punch
1) maraschino cherries that have been soaked overnight in a bath of white rum, almond extract and cinnamon (the rum bath goes in the punch, too!)
2) thin orange slices
3) large bottle white rum
4) large bottle lightly spiced rum
5) pineapple juice
6) few shakes of almond extract (to your liking)
7) tangerine juice
8) 1 can lemon soda (I prefer San Pellagrino)
9) cranberry juice
10) dash allspice
11) dash cinnamon
12) cinnamon sticks

Combine it all in a glass bowl and pop a cinnamon stick in each guest's glass.
That's all the guidance I can give you on this one. Taste as you pour and adjust to your liking. I've given you the building blocks, what you do with it is your own sordid business.


Keep it cool babies, until next time....
XO,
Tiki T.

Metamorphosis

The Rolling Stones - Metamorphosis (1975)

Hello friends!

This oft-overlooked Rolling Stones outtakes compilation has got us buzzing! (get it?) 

Tracks are compiled from their fertile period of '64 to '70 and include a demo version of "Out of Time"; an alternate version of "Heart of Stone" with Jimmy Page(!) playing lead; a great Bill Wyman original, "Downtown Suzie"; and a cover of the Stevie Wonder song,  "I Don't Know Why" which was reportedly recorded on July 3, 1969-- the same night that Brian Jones was murdered died.  

Great Franz Kafka-themed album cover, too!  If you haven't yet read Kafka's novella, "The Metamorphosis" you should stop playing on the computer and read it dummy!

RATING: 3.5 Memos from Turner out of a possible 5