'Sticky Fingers'

I'm in the middle of collecting all of the late-1960s, early-1970s Rolling Stones records on CD or digital format.

I found this one at a Half Price Books. For a compact disc, it's as old as it gets. The protective hard plastic is yellowed with age. It also doesn't open like other discs. The cover, liner notes, a second, flimsier protective sleeve and the disc slide in like an LP. This format had to be from the mid-1980s.

Depending on how you feel about the Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers might signal the beginning of the end of the band as a legitimate rock outfit.

It was the first with no contributions from Brian Jones. It was the first to include the lips and tongue logo. It was the first with Mick Taylor full-time. It was also the first to go No. 1 in England and the United States, making them certifiable worldwide superstars. The next two -- the exemplary Exile on Main Street and Goat's Head Soup -- concluded a string of records that went No. 1 in both countries.

It's also a key in what I consider the creative peak of the Rolling Stones. Getting passed Brian Jones' histrionics and ultimate death was huge. I think Mick Taylor's infusion means more than we might consider.

I think the Stones had been making "albums" instead of a collection of singles for a while dating back to Beggar's Banquet in 1968. Sticky Fingers signals probably the heart of the Stones' ability to create something bigger than a hit single. Only "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses" (a Gram Parsons song) were released as singles.

Sticky Fingers also serves as a benchmark in rock music as sex. The cover is obvious. One of Andy Warhol's minion's crotch with zipper. Inside photo: Same man in his underwear. Penis outlined in the cotton white.

For the first time, a rock band admitted that it was all about sex. That's commendable. Why hide it anymore?