The Andy Warhol designed LP cover forSticky Fingers loses something in the translation to CD re-releases and in photographs. The glory of the package was the functioning zipper. I was with my mother when I bought the LP and at first she thought it was clever until she put 2 + 2 together and got the double entendre of the title/zipper combination. I was rewarded with the same stern look I got when she realized that the Who were peeing on the obelisk on the cover ofWho’s Next.
Sticky Fingers is my favorite Stones album, featuring some of their best playing and songs. The countrypolitan numbers are heavily influenced by Gram Parsons and Ry Cooder who played slide guitar onSister Morphine:
The Stones tongue logo made it’s debut on this LP as you can see from this snap of Side One:
Here’s the whole consarn album. Note that it features the alternative title lettering, fit for either boxing day or boxer shorts:
Great album, with or without a functioning zipper.
Contrary to myth, that’s not Jagger on the cover. That album cover was by Andy Warhol and the model was occasional porn star Joe Dallesandro, (who was also the cover model for “The Smiths” 1984 album). Warhol just pulled a random picture from his files that he thought would best utilize a working zipper, and that picture fit the concept perfectly. There was no photo shoot, per se, just a photo laying around the artist’s studio.
“Beggars Banquet,” “Let It Bleed,” “Sticky Fingers,” “Exile on Main Street”; now, that’s a streak.