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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Wildest cat from montana, May 1, 2022.

  1. George Blair

    George Blair Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    All the more reason to love it.
     
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  2. Wildest cat from montana

    Wildest cat from montana Humble Reader Thread Starter

    Location:
    ontario canada
    I'd be interested to see your ten-best list.
     
  3. BroJB

    BroJB Large Marge sent me.

    Location:
    New Orleans
    I love it because its the Stones playing relaxed. Just taking their time, not trying to present some fabricated veneer of being the devil kings of rock & roll or whatever.

    Amd without the production gloss of their other records, its one of the very few Stones albums that sounds fully organic and effortless.

    Their finest hour. No doubt.
     
  4. cathandler

    cathandler Senior Member

    Location:
    maine
    EOMS is a great double album that would have been an ever greater single album. The same goes for the White Album.
     
  5. SuddenSam

    SuddenSam Forum Resident

    Location:
    Littleton, MA. USA
    I’m not sure I understand why you would say it’s “too country,” and then cite…….”Sweet Virginia,” maybe the most overtly country song the Stones ever did, as one of your favorite songs on the album.
     
  6. BroJB

    BroJB Large Marge sent me.

    Location:
    New Orleans
    There are definitely multidisk records that could use a pruning (Sandinista comes to mind) but Exile is not one of them.

    The length of it is part if why its great. It takes its time and slowly draws you into its world.

    By the end of the first side, you're right there in the South of France with them, in some kind of murky John Lee Hooker/William Burroughs/rock stars on drugs netherworld.

    And it keeps delivering.

    Honestly, once I'm in the groove with this record, there's not a moment I don't enjoy.
     
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  7. Merrick

    Merrick The return of the Thin White Duke

    Location:
    Portland
    The album is an accidental masterpiece and miracle. It was the pinnacle of The Stones approach to rock and roll: Ramshackle, messy, sounding like the wheels could come off the cart at any second and the music being all the more thrilling for it.

    And of course shortly after this the wheels did come off, GHS and IORR are two giant steps down in quality and even the better post-Exile albums fail to recapture the freewheeling, devil may care spirit of this record.

    A lot of hay has been made about the murkiness of the record. I think this aspect is overblown. Sonically, the record isn’t that poorly recorded or mixed. Anyone who has a good vinyl copy, or the SACD, or the 94 Virgin can attest that the recordings themselves are solid. The murk I think is coming not from the recording quality, but from the band themselves. It comes through in the music, in the lyrics, in the performances, and it gives the album a unique feel among the band’s catalog.

    Is it the greatest rock and roll album ever recorded? Maybe, there are certainly several contenders to that particular throne. However, there is undoubtedly no record that embodies this mode of rock and roll more thoroughly than Exile. This album has all the excesses, all the brilliance, all the nitty gritty of rock and roll at the height of rock’s golden age. The fact that those excesses would soon swallow the band nearly whole only adds to the album’s mystique. It’s a unique moment in time captured and preserved and it still resonates 50 years on.
     
  8. pwhytey

    pwhytey Forum Resident

    During the first lockdown in 2020 I bought a heap of classic albums that I'd always read about but had never actually heard. Exile was one of them and I have to confess I didn't really warm to it. I liked the sound of it, but it was a bit of a slog to get through. Aftermath, Between The Buttons and Sticky Fingers are all much easier to love — but maybe that's the point with Exile? It requires a bit more work? I'll need to keep listening to it and maybe it will click.
     
  9. John LaMartine

    John LaMartine Lizard King wannabe

    Location:
    Roseville CA
    Ah, the never-ending critiques of Exile. To those of you who find it to be the 'greatest / best' Stones and/or rock album, etc. - I applaud your enthusiasm and devotion. As Keith would say: "Gold Rings on you".

    I have listened to this album many times since 1972 - some of it is very good. Sadly, though, as a whole experience, it just doesn't click for me, never did. I would agree with comments above that it might have worked better as a single disc.

    Wildest cat asked about a '10 best' list. I'll give it a try:

    Rocks Off
    Rip This Joint
    Casino Boogie
    Sweet Black Angel
    Happy
    Ventilator Blues
    I Just Want To See His Face
    All Down The Line
    Stop Breaking Down
    Soul Survivor

    Doing this, of course, could lead to all sorts of "how could you leave off [insert any the missing 8 titles]? " comments. Well, obviously, I like these 10 quite a bit better than the others. Anyway, Exile continues to be a great conversation piece. Keep 'em coming! :p
     
  10. Doomster

    Doomster Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    One compliment I would pay the album is that it is probably my most played Stones record and also the one I’m least burned out on - yes, it’s less immediate and accessible than their bigger hits, but it has some kind of voodoo richness, depth and authenticity that, for me, it just doesn’t get stale.
     
  11. Doomster

    Doomster Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    To add - I understand that Exile is polarizing, and even as a believer, I am not surprised by that at all:

    1. The acclaim bestowed on it and the mythology that surrounds it, versus where it’s greatness actually lies, means a listener now often arrives with expectations that are initially, and perhaps subsequently, completely confounded. There are no big hits, no “Paint It Black” or “Jumpin’ Jack Flash, so why are people going on about this?? As a friend once said “… but, er, it just sounds like bad county and western to me.”
    :confused:

    2. Toto, whilst I have a feeling we ARE in Kansas now, not all ‘Stones fans will necessarily love Americana, and even if they did, this isn’t exactly The Band … the deep blues-soul-gospel-country-rock gumbo that the band divine on Exile, run through a uniquely drugged up and blissed out ‘Stonesian filter, is maybe the least mainstream or accessible material the band ever recorded. Look at all the stadiums the ‘Stones have filled in the years since … that multi-generational ticket buying army isn’t there for a bleary, torn and frayed roots experience. So, it’s perfectly reasonable and possible, even unsurprising and logical, that lots of folks who are crazy about ALL the hits on Hot Rocks, simply have no time for or interest in for the kind of music Exile channels.

    3. Once Exile grabs you, it never lets go. But for that to happen, you need to grab it first and listen and listen, which happened when you spent a bunch of money and were damn well going to listen to a record for at least a week to figure out how you felt about it. In the Spotify era, it will be interesting to see how records, never mind double albums, that really are single, cohesive pieces of work are consumed by future generations.
     
  12. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Think for consistency their best album is Beggars Banquet.
     
  13. PossiblyIndecisive

    PossiblyIndecisive Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    I've listened to it multiple times in an attempt to try and understand why it's regarded so highly. I still don't get it. A big step down in quality from their previous albums.
     
  14. Cranny

    Cranny Forum Resident

    Location:
    Switzerland
    I love the way Exile starts with Rocks Off, the first thing you notice is the out of tune rhythm guitar which sets the chaotic feel of this mess-terpiece :bdance:
     
  15. Sear

    Sear Dad rocker

    Location:
    Tarragona (Spain)
    Sticky Fingers is the only classic Stones LP I don't have and I don't plan to buy it.
     
  16. Nike

    Nike Duke

    Location:
    Croatia
    What!!!!
     
  17. Doomster

    Doomster Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Odd one to boycott, it’s their second best for me, but fair enough!
     
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  18. PossiblyIndecisive

    PossiblyIndecisive Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    That's like building a car and deciding to leave out the engine.
     
  19. Sear

    Sear Dad rocker

    Location:
    Tarragona (Spain)
    I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I don't care at all about Sticky Fingers
     
  20. Neonbeam

    Neonbeam All Art Was Once Contemporary

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    Well, I guess the difference you are hearing between "It's Only Rock N Roll" and "Exile On Main St." is the difference between 1972 and 1974. Very different times.

    Concerning "Exile", I was fascinated by that album before I even knew it, when I saw it as a six year old in my uncle's collection. The cover intrigued me.

    When I later got into the Stones - via "Between The Buttons" - I was amazed when I learned what my Uncle's album actually was. To this day I love the record. One of the great classic double discs ever. The whole Stones run from 1968 to 1976 is fantastic.
     
  21. Doomster

    Doomster Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Fair enough … it’d be a boring world if everyone liked the same things.
     
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  22. Doomster

    Doomster Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Hey if it doesn’t grab you, it doesn’t grab you.

    Amongst many, Steely Dan and (partly) Rush are bands where I struggle to understand the level of gushing, and I’ve tried too.

    So I obviously can’t be surprised that the inverse applies.
     
  23. edrebber

    edrebber Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Goats Head Soup has 3 great songs, Coming Down Again, Heartbreaker, and Angie, that I like better than the songs on Exile on Main Street, but the rest of the songs are not as good as anything on Exile on Main Street in my opinion.
     
  24. Cranny

    Cranny Forum Resident

    Location:
    Switzerland
    I don`t care what anyone thinks Goats Heat Soup is better than Exile on Main Street, although I love them both.
     
  25. edrebber

    edrebber Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    The lyrics were difficult for me to understand on Exile on Main Street, and I liked it more after the lyrics became readily available on the internet.
     

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