My Top 1000 Songs #167: Moonlight Mile

The Stones' 1971 masterpiece Sticky Fingers is one of those albums where, space permitting, I'd probably include nearly all of the tracks somewhere on the list. So how to narrow it down?

"Moonlight Mile" isn't the catchiest track on the record (that'd go to "Brown Sugar" or "Bitch"). But it's got an emotional pull that's undeniable--a huge, cinematic sweep, with orchestration that feels better suited to an Elton John record (shades of the contemporaneous "Madman Across The Water") (which, as was pointed out to me, was orchestrated by the same musician), but still works. It's one of the all-time great album closers (maybe slot it in next to Who's Next's "Won't Get Fooled Again," the other 1971 masterpiece?), widescreen majesty that just begs to be played over the closing credits of every great film. 

It's a Stones song that doesn't really sound like a Stones song, something you wouldn't generally think to include on a Stones hits compilation as it can't help but feel a little out of place amidst the band's rockers; yet it's absolutely perfect to cap off one of rock's greatest LPs, and every time I hear it, I'm just gone.

Not a standard part of the band's live set, for obvious reasons, but daaaaaamn....