Why is Exile on Main St. held in higher regard than Sticky Fingers?

I wonder if those are mostly second-generation fans commenting. Because I have always had the sense that all first generation fans loved Exile the first time they heard it. I thought it was the most amazing music I had ever heard - and friends of mine all agreed. We were grade school and middle school kids, so the reaction was from the heart. It was only later that I learned that critics (other than Christgau) didn't like it. I read the Lenny Kaye review and was completely perplexed. It took about 10 years for the critics to come around, but they did.

I can't remember another situation where an album by a major band is trashed by critics, but loved by the fans, where the critics eventually change their minds and call it a classic. That makes it special for me.
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I admire the effort that went into making this, but I think it gets it wrong. I would be interested in what others think but again I think all first generation fans loved Exile, and it had nothing to do with critics (who didn't like it) or "hits" (Exile and Sticky Fingers each had one, "Wild Horses" has grown in stature over time, but was a bomb as a single).

 

In my defense I cite Mick Jagger's own opinions... (known to those who have looked at this).

Of course it's got some good songs. Sweet Black Angel is great, probably best track on the record. Loving Cup is very good. Sweet Virginia, Stop Breaking Down.

I would have done a single record with all folk and country blues based on these songs. No rock because the slidey sound of All Down The Line and the juke sound of some of the songs (Rip This Joint, Rocks Off) just doesn't work.

 

The Stones almost released All Down The Line as the first single from Exile.

 

I was a Sticky obsessive (still do love it) and never truly appreciated Exile until my girlfriend, who is now my second wife, of 9 years younger than me loved it so much when I put it on to listen to "Rocks Off" and got distracted and ended up letting it play through. She was floored by the record in its entirety and began to request it frequently. I was inspired by her enthusiasm to listen to it more closely. Before long I was amazed at how I hadn't understood the brilliance of the record earlier...the genius came through loud and clear. To this day it is "our" record.

 

That's the charm but, if it really bothers you, just listen the 2009 Universal remaster!

 

More like a choice between a bar fly skank and a street walker

 

To me, the mix of all these styles is why I like this record so much.

 

No disputing taste, to be sure.

 

Well, something kept them from the precipice, I guess. Once again, read Mick's own comments on Exile...(But half of it is very good).

 

I love both of them. I can put on SF and it takes me back to the spring of 71. Put on Exile and it's the summer of 72 again. Time travel through music courtesy of the Rolling Stones.

 

My favorite Stones album varies depending upon my mood between Exile On Main Street, Sticky Fingers and Let It Bleed.

 

Not in my book - I prefer Sticky much more than Exile. BUT I think the circumstances surrounding the making of the album, and as others have noted, the devil may care attitude of the recordings, has endeared it to the critics. Ingestion of various substances has a fair amount to do with it as well. Critics like that for some reason, thinking it makes artists more creative.

IMHO Sticky was the last truly great Stones album. Some Girls is another creative peak and Exile is a couple notches below Sticky. Stripped is a great record too but its all live versions of previosly released material. Still, I have just about every Stones album except A Bigger Bang. So I guess I'm a fan regardless.

 

8 of the 14 Stripped tracks were recorded in the studio. Exile is every bit as good as Sticky Fingers in my book.

 

Come on! Exile is not only the best Stones record, it's the best rock and roll record made by anybody!

 

There is only one reason: You Got the Blues (subtitled; "You Got the Filler")

Exile is the greatest commercial rock album ever

 

And Beggar's Banquet.

 

And then throw it away and get a copy of the '94 Virgin remaster, or the SHM-CD.

 

Yeah, we all know Mick's opinion on Exile, but IMO he's just as biased in his view as I am in mine I let you off the hook because it looks like you like side two as much as I do

I think they should have, to be honest...sure, "All Down The Line" is probably the most cookie-cutter "Stonesy" track on the whole album, but it's more commercial, for lack of a better term, than "Tumbling Dice" and might have been more successful as the lead single than it was as the follow up.

Hear hear!

And if that still isn't enough the original Canadian Kinney vinyl will do in a pinch nicely (if you own a turntable, of course)

 

Yeah I cannot get enough of that SHM-SACD from 2011. All of them in fact.

 

Sweet Black Angel is a gem on Exile for me too, but, ironically I read so many people call it filler.

I stand by the opinion I've had of Exile since my first listen in the summer of 72. There is no filler on Exile! Every song has an important
place and purpose for filling in the landscape and painting the portrait that is Exile On Main Street!!!

 

For me, Exile is better, and one of if not the best rock albums of all time. But SF is excellent, too.

One difference between them is the sound of the overall production on Exile is somehow more transcendent. I could see Hank Williams choosing it if he could have had it, while Sticky sounds like what had been the ideal sound of the period, with the best production available, until Exile comes along and says, no, that is not the ideal, this is - recorded in a basement, you feel the heat and humidity come through. It is also a very influential approach. I often hear recordings made since that must consciously be trying for that particular sound.

(I don't want to make too much of this, because artists often make the wrong choice, but I find it interesting that right after the Stones did Sticky, with the approach they took there, they chose to change direction. Tells me something.)

Other small but telling differences - there's much more Nicky Hopkins on Exile, and imo more of a Gram Parsons influence. I also like the country stuff on Exile a lot more. For some it is blasphemous to say this, but Wild Horses just seems a bit overwrought to me. Always has. And the words and production on Dead Flowers are great, but the tempo? Poor choice. Should have been much slower. Meanwhile Sweet Virginia is perfect. And as great as a big hit like Brown Sugar is, I prefer the up tempo rockers like Rocks Off and Soul Survivor, the rootsie stuff like Tumbling Dice and Casino Boogie, Happy is awesome.

I will say though that Sway is in a class by itself. Jagger has arguably never been better there, and Taylor may have done his single best contribution on it. Moonlight Mile is also in a class by itself.

 

No one I know was buying singles any more in 1967 that I know. I saw the Stones live for the 1st time at the Spectrum in 72 with Stevie Wonder performing the encore with the Stones. I will never forget how good the concert was. I think Sway would have been great on the EOMS album. What a great song.

 

No defense needed, it's all grist for the mill. But I think Mick's take(s) (depending on his whim at the time) on Exile is heavily biased by his memory of what a PITA the making of it was for him. And artists aren't always the best judges of their own material.

But man, All Down the Line, Rip This Joint, and Rocks Off "just doesn't work" ?? Whoa, massively disagree.

As to the OP's question, in a personal way I kind of look at it like this sometimes, comparing two earlier
classic albums. As tremendous as the single albums are, there's something about the doubles that set them apart, and IMHO. slightly above.

Sticky Fingers <> Highway 61 Revisited
Exile On Main Street <> Blonde on Blonde