'Exile On Main Street' At 50 .... And Still The Greatest Stones Album!

Oh yeah, my retrospective questions.

When did you first hear this album?
What did you think?
Has this opinion changed?
How many copies do you have?

 

Exile...the greatest Stones album? Yeah, I can get behind that. It had the most impact on me as a 16 year old fledgling guitar player in the summer of 1972. I used to sit by my parents stereo console yacht with my Harmony Regal drednaught guitar and try to figure out parts to the songs. I loved the acoustic ones Sweet Virginia,Torn & Frayed,Sweet Black Angel,Lovin' Cup. Later that year I picked up a EOMS guitar/piano portfolio with the chord symbols and lyrics and started to dig into the electric songs too. The Keith and Mick Taylor guitar parts are mesmerizing. The covers Hip Shake and Stop Breaking Down blend seamlessly with the Stones own songs so that it's whole cloth. I'm not a Jagger fan but credit is due him for the lyrics, vocals, and harp playing. Charlie,Bill,Jimmy Miller,Stu,Bill Plummer,Jim Price and Bobby Keys,Nicky Hopkins,Billy Preston,Al Perkins pedal steel on Torn & Frayed,background singers Vanetta Fields,Clydie King,Joe Green,Jimmy Kirkland, plus on Let It Loose... Dr. John,Tammi Lynn,Shirley Goodman. It's thick, deep,dark,and wide.. is it Neil Young who calls it..."the spook"? It's got the spook...it's Torn & Frayed...it's like no other.

 

The greatest compliment I can pay this album is when the thread about "What is Rock and Roll?" was posted, my answer was "Side 1 of Exile On Main St".

Simply put, the entire album is one of those "quintessential albums". Not just for the Rolling Stones but for the last half century of popular music.

 

As for a proper introduction to Exile, well @EsotericCD did a good rundown of this album way back when, all I can do is copy, paste and attribute.

Take it away, @EsotericCD ...

In this installment, the Stones apotheosize...

UK/US LP: Exile On Main Street
Released as Rolling Stones Records COC 69100 -- May 21, 1972

TRACKLISTING: Rocks Off/Rip This Joint/Shake Your Hips/Casino Boogie/Tumbling Dice/Sweet Virginia/Torn And Frayed/Sweet Black Angel/Loving Cup/Happy/Turd On The Run/Ventilator Blues/I Just Want To See His Face/Let It Loose/All Down The Line/Stop Breaking Down/Shine A Light/Soul Survivor

BONUS TRACKS on 2010 reissue: Pass The Wine (Sophia Loren)/Plundered My Soul/I'm Not Signifying/Following The River/Dancing In The Light/So Divine (Aladdin Story)/Loving Cup (alternate version)/Soul Survivor (alternate mix)/Good Time Women [Tumbling Dice]/Title 5/All Down The Line (alternate version)

Found on CD:

• Exile On Main Street – Get the 1994 Virgin remaster . The 2010 Universal contains the above-mentioned bonus tracks and is obligatory for completists for that reason alone, but the sound of the album itself is poor.

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SELECTED CRITICAL NOTICES FOR THE ROLLING STONES' EXILE ON MAIN STREET:

• “This is at once the worst studio album the Stones have ever made, and the most maddeningly inconsistent and strangely depressing release of their career.’’ — Lester Bangs, Creem, 1972
• “"I hated it." — Ellen Willis, New Yorker, 1972
• "The great Stones album of their mature period is yet to come." -- Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 1972
• "Exile is not one of my favorite albums...generally I think it sounds lousy. Of course I'm ultimately responsible for it, but it's really not good and there's no concerted effort or intention " -- Mick Jagger, 2003

It was 1970 and Prince Rupert Loewenstein, newly installed as The Rolling Stones’ chief advisor, was coming to grips with the state of the band’s finances as they extricated themselves from the vise-grip of Allen Klein. As he did so he made a very unpleasant discovery: not only had Allen Klein stolen the rights to the Stones’ recorded legacy out from under them, he had also neglected to pay any of the Stones’ income taxes on their earnings over the previous four years.

And those pre-tax earnings had been voluminous indeed. Loewenstein calculated that each member of the band now personally owed many millions of pounds in back-taxes to Inland Revenue, while their actual earnings to date (as well as most future earnings streams from their Decca/London work) resided squarely with Klein and ABKCO in the United States. Due to the UK’s extortionate marginal tax rates upon high earners (ranging from 75% to 90% of every pound earned over the top bracket, depending on the type of income), he quickly deduced that the Stones would likely spend the rest of their lives working off their back-tax debt if they attempted to dig themselves out of their hole whilst remaining UK citizens.

The only sane option, Loewenstein therefore determined, was for the Stones to reluctantly become England’s first tax-exile rock group. The decision was announced in early 1971 and the Stones embarked upon a brief ten-day “farewell tour” of England in March, making sure to depart the country and formally establish domicile elsewhere before the official release of Sticky Fingers at the end of April 1971 (so that its worldwide revenues could not be claimed as taxable income by the Exchequer).

Famously, the “elsewhere” chosen by the Stones was France. The original idea was for the band to find a suitable studio in France to record their next album in, but this quickly changed when no technologically acceptable independent French facilities could be found. The solution turned out to be still located in England: the Stones had created a mobile recording studio and set it up in the driveway of Jagger’s Stargroves mansion, first using it on the latter stages of Sticky Fingers (e.g., “Bitch” and “Moonlight Mile”). It quickly became a popular choice for other major UK bands (particularly Led Zeppelin, who used it to record significant chunks of Led Zeppelin III and IV).As Keith Richards was renting the most suitable (relatively speaking) space for recording, The Mobile was brought down from Stargroves and parked in front of Nellcôte, his estate outside Nice, in the south of France. Thus were the sessions inaugurated that would lead to Exile On Main Street, an album which, as Prince Rupert notes, is surely the only major record in rock history to contain a reference to tax-planning in its title.

A warning, then: this album is seriously in danger of drowning in its own mythology. "Don't you see? The Rolling Stones were themselves exiles on main street, forced to live away from their homes and in exile from their muse!" Nonsense. They were junkie rockstar tax fugitives holed up the south of France drinking whiskey straight from the bottle, injecting heroin straight into their heads, and banging groupies 'til their nether regions turned green and fell off. That they also happened to be the greatest rock and roll band in the world at the time is the only truly relevant consideration. And Exile On Main Street, a seemingly effortless, accidentally encylopedic double-album covering every single relevant rootsy musical genre -- from rock to country to blues to gospel to stuff they haven't even come up with a proper name for yet -- is the proof.

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Two perspectives on a myth:

Thesis #1: Exile On Main Street is really Keith’s album

The standard line. The stories are well-known and oft-told: Keith strung out on the torrents of smack then flowing through Nellcôte like a minor river, holed up in the claustrophobic basement studio with whomever deigned to show up when he happened to be conscious, recording one legendary number after another. (Notably this usually excluded Mick Jagger — busy getting married to rapacious social climber Bianca Pérez-Mora Macias at the time — and Bill Wyman, who was frankly dismayed by the drug-use and time-wasting.) “Rocks Off,” bruited about with countless unsatisfactory mixes until Richards awoke from a dope-sleep at 4:00am to demand that Andy Johns record a guitar overdub that had come to him in a dream (you can hear it on the album). “Ventilator Blues,” a gutbucket blues written with Mick Taylor about the poorly functioning air-conditioning system in the basement. “Tumbling Dice,” where Richards insisted on recording the introductory guitar line over a hundred times before he was satisfied with the way it swung. Wyman (absent from many of these sessions out of frustration, leaving Mick Taylor to take over many of his duties on bass) would later remark that he could understand spending two hours, or even two days on a song...“but not two ****ing weeks.”

Unpredictability was also part of the legend; Richards would insist the band obsessively work on a song for two weeks — Watts got so sick of trying to play the outro to “Tumbling Dice” to Keith’s satisfaction that he turned the sticks over to Jimmy Miller, leaving the final album version a fusion of both men’s performances — and then suddenly dervish forth with a completed classic in less than an hour. One day Richards did the unthinkable and actually showed up to record before everyone else — his usual M.O. was to get down to business at the reasonable hour of 4:00am. Impatient to begin work, yet with nary a Stone to be found, he dragooned the only warm bodies around (producer Jimmy Miller and horn players Bobby Keys and Jim Price, available because they lived with Richards at Nellcôte and shared in all his vices) to help him on a new song. Forty minutes later, the result? “Happy,” a song whose joyous spontaneity needed only a (superb) Mick backing vocal added later to become The Keef Anthem par excellence.

Thesis #2: Exile On Main Street is really Mick’s album

It seems like nobody thinks to ask how Exile actually became a double album. It wasn't originally supposed to be one — the Nellcôte sessions had begun as Just Another Stones Record — and its development into one is a matter of chance, the result of Jagger reacting to the unfinished work Richards had dumped on him.

And “dumped” is a fair characterization — the Nellcôte sessions, although extensive, were actually not all that productive, and they began deteriorating swiftly. Richards’ drug habit was spiralling out of control, and the suffocating clutch of hangers-on and drug-dealers, swollen to the size (and often behavior) of an occupation army made it nearly impossible to get anything done. The French police were closing in as well, as one might imagine they would be, given that the volume of drug traffic flowing in and out of Nellcôte by late 1971 bore as many similarities to that of a South American narco-terrorist regime as it did to a rock group. By the time Richards fled France in late 1971, on the heels of an impending conviction in absentia for drug trafficking, only ten of the 18 songs that would make the final album had been recorded in any form. And Richards was now in less shape than ever before to contribute creatively.

This is where Jagger stepped in. Largely absent during the Nellcôte debauchery (he spent most of his time in Paris with his new wife), he took control of the uncompleted material, booked a month’s worth of studio time in Los Angeles, and set about overdubbing vocals and backing instruments onto the unfinished material in an effort to coax usable recordings out of the ten songs Richards had left him with before crashing out into a junkie haze for most of the Los Angeles sessions.

For all of the hype about how Exile represents the full flowering of Keith Richards’ musical genius, the ironic truth is that the key musical advancement that defines Exile On Main Street, and sets it apart musically from nearly everything else the Stones did, was Jagger’s contribution, and comes from these December 1971 Los Angeles ‘rescue’ sessions. As it so happened he was inspired by one of the guest musicians and backing vocalists hanging around at the time: Billy Preston. Preston took Jagger to Sunday church, and the freewheeling gospel vibrancy of the services had a huge effect on him. Within days, the dark revival stomp “I Just Want To See His Face” and a remake of “Shine A Light” (Jagger’s tribute to Brian Jones) had been recorded, “Let It Loose” had been given a complete gospel makeover, “Sweet Virginia” had been exhumed from the Sticky Fingers sessions and given a ragged communal choral singalong, and “Torn And Frayed” had been recorded for good measure as Mick’s commentary on Richards’ present state of mind.

None of the new tracks felt disposable, and the presence of several other Sticky Fingers-era outtakes of equal quality in the vaults (“Sweet Black Angel,” “Shake Your Hips,” “Stop Breaking Down”) naturally suggested that, instead of playing Sophie’s Choice with the material, the Stones should release it all as a double album. Thus was Exile On Main Street’s “comprehensive” approach to rock, folk, country, blues, soul and gospel born of chance and contingency — an album whose unified ‘sense of purpose’ was less a function of original intent than a patchwork quilt assembled from fragments into a serendipitously seamless whole.

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The most curious thing about this album is that the question most often asked, by fans and critics alike, is not “how did The Rolling Stones manage to make an album as good as Exile On Main Street?” but rather “why haven’t The Rolling Stones ever managed to make an album since 1972 as good as Exile On Main Street?” The second question can really only be answered by reference to the first, however — and this first question is impossible to answer as usually phrased because, again, what few people ever seem to understand about Exile On Main Street is that it wasn’t planned. This isn’t what was supposed to happen. The entire album, in the shape that it finally emerged, was an accident, and an awful lot of drugs. The Stones didn’t set out to make an encylopedia of American music with Exile, that’s simply what the album came to be once the Nellcôte tracks had been combined with older Sticky Fingers-era blues covers, the newer Jagger-directed gospel and country numbers, and the conceptual sonic glue of the Keys/Price horn section. (Keys and Price play on all but five of Exile’s 18 tracks — “Torn And Frayed,” “Sweet Black Angel,” “Turd On The Run,” "I Just Want To See His Face," and “Stop Breaking Down." Tellingly, these are either Los Angeles tracks or older Sticky Fingers-era recordings.)

Exile also manages to make a virtue out of its dog’s breakfast of assorted recordings through the miracles of track-sequencing: a comparatively brief 66 minutes as a double LP, its songs are also ingeniously arranged to conceal their disparate sources so that the album flows together as an indivisible whole. Each of the four sides has its own sonic texture and identity, and the varied genres of the songs prevent the record from ever seeming monochromatic. (Side Three in particular, which begins with a Stones anthem and continues through rockabilly, electric blues, hoodoo jungle stomp, and gospel balladry, is the single most successfully diverse side of music the band would ever release.)

There is precisely one song on the record ("Casino Boogie") that's less than utterly necessary to the conceit at hand, but everything else holds together, the smaller more mysterious songs like "I Just Want To See His Face" and "Sweet Black Angel" being the necessary glue holding together the monster star turns like "Tumbling Dice," "Happy" (an observation: Keith Richards sings pretty good for a guy who sounds like he's constantly falling off of a cliff), "Let It Loose," and "All Down The Line." They manage to put this stuff across so sincerely and convincingly that they almost make you forget the fact that "Soul Survivor" is actually all about -- arrrr, matey! -- life as a pirate sailing the high seas. (I **** you not. Check the lyrics.)

Anyway, this is why, despite many worthy subsequent releases, the Stones would never be able to make an album quite like Exile On Main Street again: because they hadn't consciously tried to make Exile. It happened on instinct, came about via contingency, and was therefore impossible to repeat (particularly in the drug-weakened state during the rest of the 1970s). Did the drugs play a role? Most assuredly: Richards was well on his way to hopeless junkie status by the end of the Exile sessions. (His heroin dependency increasing nearly as quickly as the list of countries where the band was persona non grata, Richards became more and more of a passenger during the 1970s and would never regain the central musical role he played between 1968-1972.) Mick Taylor, Jimmy Miller, and engineer Andy Johns were also all in the thrall of heroin addiction, and while the drug lent itself to obsessive behavior and restless musical experimentation, it wasn’t exactly conducive to audiophile recording sessions. Soon all of them would depart from the Stones camp (Richards too, if only in spirit), and there was no way a band in such a weakened state could attempt something as ambitious as Exile.

But the drugs were ultimately secondary. As tightrope walkers will tell you, the reason they're able to do what they do, even without a net, is because they never let themselves think about what they're doing. They simply let their training and instincts take over. The minute they start to ponder the fact that they're easily capable of falling hundreds of feet to their deaths -- that's when danger sets in. When The Stones tried consciously to return to Exile-like material in later years (particularly on It's Only Rock 'N' Roll) and the results were always less than satisfying precisely because they betrayed a calculation that's entirely absent from the Exile, the most instinctive, unplanned -- and flawless -- double album of the entire rock era.

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No songs from Exile are in their top 10 on Spotify: The Rolling Stones

 

I'm the same. Contrary to the popular line that Exile is spotty (I think many just don't like the length and sprawling variety of double albums in general), I personally like every track on Exile. By contrast, I could do without Sister Morphine, Dead Flowers and You Gotta Move.

That said, "Bitch" is arguably my favorite Stones song! Right next to "Gimme Shelter" and "Jumpin Jack Flash".

 

Both killer for sure - but he also outdid himself with “Before They Make Me Run.”

 

The music, feel, mood & groove have all been well documented - and rightly so. But not mentioned as much is the high point of Mick's lyric writing. The words are a delight - once deciphered with repeated listening. "Who's that woman on your arm, all dressed up to do you harm?" "She comes every time she pirouettes on me." "I'm all sixes, sevens and nines." "See your face dancing in the flame, feel your mouth kissing me again, what a beautiful buzz, what a beautiful buzz!"

 

A little down the road Bangs had totally flipped his thoughts on Exile On Main Street.
He came to love and treasure the LP.
It was a different Stones record in many ways when I first heard it in 1972.
It was all over the map musically. Then (and even 50 years later) still comes across as disjointed to my ears.
Great songs next to "uh what were they thinking?" songs.
From a later article by Bangs:
Exile is dense enough to be compulsive: hard to hear, at first, the precision and fury behind the murk ensure that you’ll come back, hearing more with each playing. What you hear sooner or later is two things: an intuition for nonstop getdown perhaps unmatched since the Rolling Stones Now! and a strange kind of humility and love emerging from a dazed frenzy. If, as they assert, they’re soul survivors, they certainly know what you can lose by surviving. As they and we see friends falling all around us, only the Stones have cut the callousness of ’72 to say with something beyond narcissistic sentiment what words remain for those slipping away.
Exile is about casualties, and partying in the face of them. The party is obvious. The casualties are inevitable.
– Lester Bangs, “I Only Get My Rocks Off When I’m Dreaming: So You Say You Missed the Stones Too? Cheer up, We’re a Majority!” Creem, January 1973
I agree with Bangs' last thoughts "Exile is about casualties, and partying in the face of them. The party is obvious. The casualties are inevitable."
And after the disaster of Altamont, that may have been a mantra for the Stones in the early 70's.

 

While I don’t agree with everything in that post, it is one incredible piece of writing and gave me new insights into this album. Bravo - really - just amazing - thank you for sharing it!

 

Excellent write up.

 

Here's another : "Kissing **** in Cannes"
The next album would have a storm of controversy about the lyrics of one specific song. Never heard so much as a whisper about Casino Boogie'.

 

And the beauty is none need to be and I am almost truly glad none are.

 

In my opinion it’s the most solid album in rock history. 18 good songs.

 

I strongly suggest you check the writers other Stones LP write ups then!

 

The meandering provides the best moments.

I am in the one of my favorite albums ever club

jb

 

Absolutely! The best album by The Stones. I respect folks that champion Beggars Banquet or Aftermath. Still EOMS blew the doors out! A wild diversity of songs that create a cohesive product. And did I mention that's it's a great album to listen to while you're making that 90-mile trip?

 

It took me years to get Exile.

It's great, never been my go-to but easily their crowning achievement.

 

No there's not...but 'Start Me Up ' is there. Yawn.

 

I purchased my first copy of Exile on Main Street at a thrift shop in San Francisco. I had no way to listen to it but I loved looking at that 3 inch by 3 inch piece of paper glued onto that black rectangular plastic cartridge. I didn't actually listen to the album until a few years later on vinyl (the reissue). And "Start Me Up"? Don't get me started on that song! That tour was the first time I ever saw the Stones so yes I agree that previous tours produced better shows but it doesn't change my experience. And the Tattoo You show I saw is almost universally acclaimed as one of the very best Tattoo You shows of that tour. I'm not going to tell anyone which one it was but I will give you everyone a clue in Riddler fashion:

 

Any chance there is a 50th Anniversary version or even a reissue of the 2010 expanded edition on vinyl?

 

their greatest and one of the greatest double albums ever made....

 

For me it's a four way tie of four of the greatest albums ever released. Consecutively too!

 

My ranking of Stones albums:

1) Let It Bleed
2) Beggars Banquet
3) Sticky Fingers
4) Tattoo You
5) Exile on Main Street

But the gaps between them are small. They are all 5-star albums IMO.

 

I was 22 years late to the party for Exile. Except for the hits, I never really got into it until the '94 reissue on Virgin, which removed just enough murk for me to finally dig into the songs. (Yes, I'm well aware that some feel that Exile is all about the murk!)

Still too much filler to suit me, but if you pick out the 10 best songs, it stands proudly with Beggars/Bleed/Sticky. And they haven't come close to it since.