How 'Exile on Main St.' Killed the Rolling Stones. Jack Hamilton. May 25, 2010 > Universal 'Rocks Off,' the first track of the Rolling Stones's Exile On Main Street. Stream Exile On Main Street (2010 Re-Mastered) by The Rolling Stones and tens of millions of other songs on all your devices with Amazon Music Unlimited. Exclusive discount for Prime members. Exclusive discount for Prime members. Check out our album review of Artist's Exile on Main Street on Rolling Stone.com.
There are songs that are better, there are songs that are worse, there are songs thatâll become your favorites and others youâll probably lift the needle for when their time is due. But in the end, Exile on Main Street spends its four sides shading the same song in as many variations as there are Rolling Stone readymades to fill them, and if on the one hand they prove the groupâs eternal constancy and appeal, itâs on the other that you can leave the album and still feel vaguely unsatisfied, not quite brought to the peaks that this band of bands has always held out as a special prize in the past.
The Stones have never set themselves in the forefront of any musical revolution, instead preferring to take whatâs already been laid down and then gear it to its highest most slashing level. Along this road theyâve displayed a succession of sneeringly believable poses, in a tradition so grand that in lesser hands they could have become predictable, coupled with an acute sense of social perception and the kind of dynamism that often made everything else seem beside the point.
Through a spectral community alchemy, weâve chosen the Stones to bring our darkness into light, in each case via a construct that fits the time and prevailing mood perfectly. And, as a result, they alone have become the last of the great hopes. If you canât bleed on the Stones, who can you bleed on?
In that light, Exile on Main Street is not just another album, a two-month binge for the rack-jobbers and then onto whoeverâs up next. Backed by an impending tour and a monumental picture-book, its mere presence in record stores makes a statement. And as a result, the group has been given a responsibility to their audience which canât be dropped by the wayside, nor should be, given the two-way street on which music always has to function. Performers should not let their public make career decisions for them, but the best artisans of any era have worked closely within their audienceâs expectations, either totally transcending them (the Beatles in their up-to-and-including Sgt. Pepper period) or manipulating them (Dylan, continually).
The Stones have prospered by making the classic assertion whenever it was demanded of them. Coming out of Satanic Majesties Request, the unholy trio of âJumpinâ Jack Flash,â âStreet Fighting Manâ and âSympathy for the Devilâ were the blockbusters that brought them back in the running. After, through âMidnight Rambler,â âHonky Tonk Women,â âBrown Sugar,â âBitchâ and those jagged-edge opening bars of âCanât You Hear Me Knocking,â theyâve never failed to make that affirmation of their superiority when it was most needed, of the fact that others may come and go but the Rolling Stones will always be.
This continual topping of oneâs self can only go on for so long, after which one must sit back and sustain what has already been built. And with Exile on Main Street, the Stones have chosen to sustain for the moment, stabilizing their pasts and presenting few directions for their future. The fact that they do it so well is testament to one of the finest bands in the world. The fact that they take a minimum of chances, even given the room of their first double album set, tends to dull that finish a bit.
![]()
Exile on Main Street is the Rolling Stones at their most dense and impenetrable. In the tradition of Phil Spector, theyâve constructed a wash of sound in which to frame their songs, yet where Spector always aimed to create an impression of space and airiness, the Stones group everything together in one solid mass, providing a tangled jungle through which you have to move toward the meat of the material. Only occasionally does an instrument or voice break through to the surface, and even then it seems subordinate to the ongoing mix, and without the impact that a break in the sound should logically have.
One consequence of this style is that most of the hard-core action on the record revolves around Charlie Wattsâ snare drum. The sound gives him room not only to set the pace rhythmically but to also provide the bulk of the drive and magnetism. Another is that because Jaggerâs voice has been dropped to the level of just another instrument, burying him even more than usual, he has been freed from any restrictions the lyrics might have once imposed. The ulterior motives of mumbling aside, with much of the record completely unintelligible â though the words I could make out generally whetted my appetite to hear more â heâs been left with something akin to pure singing, utilizing only his uncanny sense of style to carry him home from there. His performances here are among the finest heâs graced us with in a long time, a virtual drama which amply proves to me that thereâs no other vocalist who can touch him, note for garbled note.
![]()
As for Keith, Bill and Mick T., their presence comes off as subdued, never overly apparent until you put your head between the speakers. In the case of the last two, this is perfectly understandable. Wyman has never been a front man, and his bass has never been recorded with an eye to clarity. Heâs the bottom, and he fulfills his support role with a grace that is unfailingly admirable. Mick Taylor falls about the same, chosen to take Brianâs place as much because he could be counted on to stay in the background as for his perfect counterpoint guitar skills. With Keith, however, except for a couple of spectacular chording exhibitions and some lethal openings, his instrumental wizardry is practically nowhere to be seen, unless you happen to look particularly hard behind Nicky Hopkinsâ piano or the dual horns of Price/Keys. It hurts the album, as the bone earring has often provided the marker on which the Stones rise or fall.
Happily, though, Exile on Main Street has the Rolling Stones sounding like a full-fledged five-into-one band. Much of the self-consciousness that marred Sticky Fingers has apparently vanished, as well as that albumâs tendency to touch every marker on the Hot 100. Itâs been replaced by a tight focus on basic components of the Stonesâ sound as weâve always known it, knock-down rock and roll stemming from blues, backed with a pervading feeling of blackness that the Stones have seldom failed to handle well.
The album begins with âRocks Off,â a proto-typical Stonesâ opener whose impact is greatest in its first 15 seconds. Kicked off by one of Richardsâ patented guitar scratchings, a Jagger aside and Charlieâs sharp crack, it moves into the kind of song the Stones have built a reputation on, great choruses and well-judged horn bursts, painlessly running you through the motions until youâre out of the track and into the album. But if thatâs one of its assets, it also stands for one of its deficiencies â thereâs nothing distinctive about the tune. Stonesâ openers of the past have generally served to set the mood for the mayhem to follow; this one tells you that weâre in for nothing new.
âRip This Jointâ is a stunner, getting down to the business at hand with the kind of music the Rolling Stones were born to play. It starts at a pace that yanks you into its locomotion full tilt, and never lets up from there; the sax solo is the purest of rock and roll. Slim Harpoâs âShake Your Hipsâ mounts up as another plus, with a mild boogie tempo and a fine mannered vocal from Jagger. The guitars are the focal point here, and they work with each other like a pair of Corsican twins. âCasino Boogieâ sounds at times as if it were a Seventies remake from the chord progression of âSpider and the Fly,â and for what itâs worth, I suppose Iâd rather listen to âjump right ahead in my webâ any day.
But itâs left to âTumbling Diceâ to not just place a cherry on the first side, but to also provide one of the albumâs only real moves towards a classic. As the guitar figure slowly falls into Charlieâs inevitable smack, the song builds to the kind of majesty the Stones at their best have always provided. Nothing is out of place here, Keithâs simple guitar figure providing the nicest of bridges, the chorus touching the upper levels of heaven and spurring on Jagger, set up by an arrangement that is both unique and imaginative. Itâs definitely the cut that deserved the single, and the fact that itâs not likely to touch Number One shows weâve perhaps come a little further than we originally intended.
Side Two is the only side on Exile without a barrelhouse rocker, and drags as a result. I wish for once the Stones could do a country song in the way theyâve apparently always wanted, without feeling the need to hoke it up in some fashion. âSweet Virginiaâ is a perfectly friendly lazy shuffle that gets hung on an overemphasized âshitâ in the chorus. âTorn and Frayedâ has trouble getting started, but as it inexorably rolls to its coda the Stones find their flow and relax back, allowing the tune to lovingly expand. âSweet Black Angel,â with its vaguely West Indian rhythm and Jagger playing Desmond Dekker, comes off as a pleasant experiment that works, while âLoving Cupâ is curiously faceless, though it must be admitted the group works enough out-of-the-ordinary breaks and bridges to give it at least a fighting chance; the semi-soul fade on the end is rhythmically satisfying but basically undeveloped, adding to the cutâs lack of impression.
The third side is perhaps the best organized of any on Exile. Beginning with the closest thing to a pop number Mick and Keith have written on the album, âHappyâ lives up to its title from start to finish. Itâs a natural-born single, and its position as a side opener seems to suggest the group thinks so too. âTurd on the Run,â even belying its gimmicky title, is a superb little hustler; if Keith can be said to have a showpiece on this album, this is it. Taking off from a jangly âMaybelleneâ rhythm guitar, he misses not a flick of the wrist, sitting behind the force of the instrumental and shoveling it along. âVentilator Bluesâ is all Mick, spreading the guts of his voice all over the microphone, providing an entrance into the gumbo ya-ya of âI Just Want to See His Face,â Jagger and the chorus sinuously wavering around a grand collection of jungle drums. âLet It Looseâ closes out the side, and as befits the albumâs second claim to classic, is one beautiful song, both lyrically and melodically. Like on âTumbling Dice,â everything seems to work as a body here, the gospel chorus providing tension, the leslieâd guitar rounding the mysterious nature of the track, a great performance from Mick and just the right touch of backing instruments. Whoever that voice belongs to hanging off the fade in the end, Iâd like to kiss her right now: sheâs that lovely.
Coming off âLet It Loose,â you might expect Side Four to be the one to really put the album on the target. Not so. With the exception of an energy-ridden âAll Down The Lineâ and about half of âShine a Light,â Exile starts a slide downward which happens so rapidly that you might be left a little dazed as to what exactly happened. âStop Breaking Downâ is such an overdone blues cliché that Iâm surprised it wasnât placed on Jamming With Edward. âShine a Lightâ starts with perhaps the best potential of any song on the album, a slow, moody piece with Mick singing in a way calculated to send chills up your spine. Then, out of nowhere, the band segues into the kind of shlock gospel song that Tommy James has already done better. Then they move you back into the slow piece. Then back into shlock gospel again. Itâs enough to drive you crazy.
After four sides you begin to want some conclusion to the matters at hand, to let you off the hook so you can start all over fresh. âSoul Survivor,â though a pretty decent and upright song in itself, canât provide the kind of kicker that is needed at this point. Itâs typicality, within the oeuvre of the Rolling Stones, means it couldâve been placed anywhere, and with âLet It Looseâ just begging to seal the bottle, thereâs no reason why it should be the last thing left you by the album.
Still, talking about the pieces of Exile on Main Street is somewhat off the mark here, since individually the cuts seem to stand quite well. Only when theyâre taken together, as a lump sum of four sides, is their impact blunted. This would be all right if we were talking about any other group but the Stones. Yet when youâve been given the best, it becomes hard to accept anything less, and if there are few moments that can be faulted on this album, it also must be said that the magic high spots donât come as rapidly.
Exile on Main Street appears to take up where Sticky Fingers left off, with the Stones attempting to deal with their problems and once again slightly missing the mark. Theyâve progressed to the other side of the extreme, wiping out one set of solutions only to be confronted with another. With few exceptions, this has meant that theyâve stuck close to home, doing the sort of things that come naturally, not stepping out of the realm in which they feel most comfortable. Undeniably it makes for some fine music, and it surely is a good sign to see them recording so prolifically again; but I still think that the great Stones album of their mature period is yet to come. Hopefully, Exile on Main Street will give them the solid footing they need to open up, and with a little horizon-expanding (perhaps honed by two months on the road), they might even deliver it to us the next time around.
Exile on Main St. is a studio album by English rock band the Rolling Stones. It was first released as a double album on 12 May 1972 by Rolling Stones Records and was the band's tenth studio album released in the United Kingdom.[2]
![]()
Many tracks were recorded in 1969 and 1970 at Olympic Studios and Jagger's Stargroves country house in England during sessions for Sticky Fingers.[3] and in the summer of 1971 at a rented villa named Nellcôte in the south of France. Guitarist Keith Richards had rented the villa to live in while the band lived abroad as tax exiles. The Stones were already practiced with recording outside of a major studio, as much of the principle recording of their prior album, Sticky Fingers, had been done at Stargroves, lead singer Mick Jagger's country home in Hampshire, using a mobile recording studio. The same mobile studio was moved to Nellcôte and set up in the basement of the villa. Keith Richards lived upstairs in the main house, and frequent house guests, often other musician friends of the band, would wander down to the recording studio to jam with the band and lay down tracks. Daily recording sessions went on for hours into the night, with personnel varying greatly from day to day depending on who was present. Without the confines of a formal studio space, the sessions were fairly loose and unorganized, which shows in the eclectic tableau of songs styles and the sloppy, loose feel of the album.
The recording was completed with overdub sessions at Los Angeles's Sunset Sound and included additional musicians such as pianist Nicky Hopkins, saxophonist Bobby Keys, drummer Jimmy Miller, and horn player Jim Price. The resulting music was rooted in blues, rock and roll, swing, country, and gospel, while the lyrics explored themes of hedonism, sex, and time.
Exile on Main St. was originally met with mixed reviews before a positive critical reassessment during the 1970s. It has since been viewed by critics as the Rolling Stones' best work and has been ranked highly on various lists of the greatest albums. The album contains frequently performed concert staples and was a top-10 charting album in a dozen countries, reaching number one in six, including the UK, US, and Canada. It spawned the hit songs 'Happy', a rare song that featured Keith Richards on vocals, country music ballad 'Sweet Virginia', and world-wide top-ten hit 'Tumbling Dice'.
A remastered and expanded version of the album was released in Europe on 17 May 2010 and in the United States the next day, featuring a bonus disc with 10 new tracks.[4] Unusual for a re-release, it also charted highly at the time of its release, reaching number one in the UK and number two in the US on the album charts.
Recording[edit]
Exile on Main St. was written and recorded between 1969 and 1972. Mick Jagger said 'After we got out of our contract with Allen Klein, we didn't want to give him [those earlier tracks],' as they were forced to do with 'Brown Sugar' and 'Wild Horses' from Sticky Fingers (1971). Many tracks were recorded between 1969 and 1971 at Olympic Studios and Jagger's Stargroves country house in England during sessions for Sticky Fingers.[3]
By the spring of 1971 the Rolling Stones had spent the money they owed in taxes and left Britain before the government could seize their assets. Jagger settled in Paris with his new bride Bianca, and guitarist Keith Richards rented a villa, Nellcôte, in Villefranche-sur-Mer, near Nice. The other members settled in the south of France. As a suitable recording studio could not be found where they could continue work on the album, Richards' basement at Nellcôte became a makeshift studio using the band's mobile recording truck.
Nellcôte[edit]
Recording began in earnest sometime near the middle of June. Bassist Bill Wyman recalls the band working all night, every night, from eight in the evening until three the following morning for the rest of the month. Wyman said of that period, 'Not everyone turned up every night. This was, for me, one of the major frustrations of this whole period. For our previous two albums we had worked well and listened to producer Jimmy Miller. At Nellcôte things were very different and it took me a while to understand why.' By this time Richards had begun a daily habit of using heroin. Thousands of pounds worth of heroin flowed through the mansion each week, along with visitors such as William S. Burroughs, Terry Southern, Gram Parsons and Marshall Chess, the son of famous blues impresario Leonard Chess, who had been recently recruited to serve as president of the Rolling Stones' new eponymous record label.[5] Parsons was asked to leave Nellcôte in early July 1971, the result of his obnoxious behavior and an attempt by Richards to clean the house of drug users as the result of pressure from the French police.[6]
Richards' substance abuse frequently prevented him from attending the sessions that continued in his basement, while Jagger and Wyman were often unable to attend sessions for other reasons. This often left the band in the position of having to record in altered forms. A notable instance was the recording of one of Richards' most famous songs, 'Happy'. Recorded in the basement, Richards said in 1982, 'Happy' was something I did because I was for one time early for a session. There was Bobby Keys and Jimmy Miller. We had nothing to do and had suddenly picked up the guitar and played this riff. So we cut it and it's the record, it's the same. We cut the original track with a baritone sax, a guitar and Jimmy Miller on drums. And the rest of it is built up over that track. It was just an afternoon jam that everybody said, 'Wow, yeah, work on it'.
The basic band for the Nellcôte sessions consisted of Richards, Keys, Mick Taylor, Charlie Watts, Nicky Hopkins, Miller (a skilled drummer in his own right who covered for the absent Watts on the aforementioned 'Happy' and 'Shine a Light'),[3] and Jagger when he was available. Wyman did not like the ambiance of Richards' villa and sat out many of the French sessions. Although Wyman is credited on only eight songs of the released album, he told Bass Player Magazine that the credits are incorrect and that he actually played on more tracks than that. The other bass parts were credited to Taylor, Richards and session bassist Bill Plummer. Wyman noted in his memoir Stone Alone that there was a division between the band members and associates who freely indulged in drugs (Richards, Miller, Keys, Taylor, engineer Andy Johns) and those who abstained to varying degrees (Wyman, Watts and Jagger).[5]
Los Angeles[edit]
Work on basic tracks (probably only 'Rocks Off', 'Rip This Joint', 'Casino Boogie', 'Tumbling Dice', 'Happy', 'Turd on the Run', 'Ventilator Blues' and 'Soul Survivor') began in the basement of Nellcôte and was taken to Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles, where overdubs (all lead and backing vocals, all guitar and bass overdubs) were added during sessions that meandered from December 1971 until March 1972. Some tracks (such as 'Torn and Frayed' and 'Loving Cup') were freshly recorded in Los Angeles. Although Jagger was frequently missing from Nellcôte,[5] he took charge during the second stage of recording in Los Angeles, arranging for the keyboardists Billy Preston and Dr. John and the cream of the city's session backup vocalists to record layers of overdubs. The final gospel-inflected arrangements of 'Tumbling Dice', 'Loving Cup', 'Let It Loose' and 'Shine a Light' were inspired by Jagger, Preston, and Watts' visit to a local evangelical church[3] where Aretha Franklin was recording what would become the live album/movie Amazing Grace.
The extended recording sessions and differing methods on the part of Jagger and Richards reflected the growing disparity in their personal lives.[5] During the making of the album, Jagger had married Bianca, followed closely by the birth of their only child, Jade, in October 1971. Richards was firmly attached to his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg, yet both were in the throes of heroin addiction,[5] which Richards would not overcome until the turn of the decade.
Music and lyrics[edit]
AllMusic called Exile on Main St. 'a sprawling, weary double album', describing it as 'a series of dark, dense jams' that encompass rock & roll, blues, country, and gospel styles.[7] Even though the album is often described as being Richards' finest moment, as Exile is often thought to reflect his vision for a raw, rootsy rock sound, Jagger was already expressing his boredom with rock and roll in several interviews at the time of the album's release.[5] With Richards' effectiveness seriously undermined by his dependence on heroin, the group's subsequent 1970s releases â directed largely by Jagger â would experiment to varying degrees with other musical genres, moving away from the roots-based sound of Exile on Main St.[5] Music biographer John Perry wrote that the Rolling Stones had developed a style of hard rock for the album that was 'entirely modern yet rooted in 1950s rock & roll and 1930s-1940s swing'.[8]
According to Robert Christgau, Exile on Main St. expanded on the hedonistic themes the band had explored on previous albums such as Sticky Fingers: 'It piled all the old themes â sex as power, sex as love, sex as pleasure, distance, craziness, release â on top of an obsession with time that was more than appropriate in men pushing 30 who were still committed to what was once considered youth music.'[9]
Packaging[edit]
For Exile on Main St., Mick Jagger wanted an album cover that reflected the band as 'runaway outlaws using the blues as its weapon against the world', showcasing 'feeling of joyful isolation, grinning in the face of a scary and unknown future'.[10] As the band finished the album in Los Angeles, they approached designer John Van Hamersveld and his photographer partner Norman Seeff, and also invited documentary photographer Robert Frank. The same day Seeff photographed the Stones at their Bel Air mansion, Frank took Jagger for photographs at Los Angeles' Main Street. The location was the 500 block near the Leonide Hotel. At the time there was a pawnshop, a shoeshine business and a pornographic theatre (The Galway Theatre) at the location. (Source: Cinema Treasures, 'Rocks Off' video on YouTube). Still, Van Hamersveld and Jagger chose the cover image from an already existing Frank photograph, an outtake from his seminal 1958 book The Americans.[10][11] Named 'Tattoo Parlor' but possibly taken from Hubert's Dime museum in New York City, the image is a collage of circus performers and freaks,[12] such as 'Three Ball Charlie', a 1930s sideshow performer from Humboldt, Nebraska who holds three balls (a tennis ball, a golf ball, and a '5' billiard ball) in his mouth;[13] Joe 'The Human Corkscrew' Allen, pictured in a postcard-style advertisement, a contortionist with the ability to wiggle and twist through a 13.5-inch (34 cm) hoop;[14] and Hezekiah Trambles, 'The Congo Jungle Freak', a man who dressed as an African savage, in a picture taken by the recently deceased Diane Arbus.[15] The Seeff pictures were repurposed as 12 perforated postcards inside the sleeve, while Frank's Main Street photographs were used in the gatefold and back cover collage made by Van Hamersveld, which features other pictures Frank took of the band and their crew â including their assistant Chris O'Dell, a former acquaintance of Van Hamersveld who brought him to the Stones â and other The Americans outtakes.[11]
Contemporary reception[edit]
Preceded by the UK (No. 5) and US (No. 7) Top 10 hit 'Tumbling Dice', Exile on Main St was released in May 1972. It was an immediate commercial success, reaching No. 1 worldwide just as the band embarked on their celebrated 1972 American Tour. Their first American tour in three years, it featured many songs from the new album. The Richards-sung 'Happy' was released as a second single to capitalize on the tour; it would peak at No. 22 in the United States in August.[16]
Exile on Main St was not well received by most contemporary critics, who found the quality of the songs inconsistent.[17] In a review for Rolling Stone, Lenny Kaye said the record had 'a tight focus on basic components of the Stones' sound as we've always known it,' including blues-based rock music with a 'pervading feeling of blackness'. He nonetheless said the uneven quality of songs meant 'the great Stones album of their mature period is yet to come'.[18] Richard Williams from Melody Maker was more enthusiastic and deemed it the band's best album, writing that it would 'take its place in history' as it 'utterly repulses the sneers and arrows of outraged put down artists. Once and for all, it answers any questions about their ability as rock 'n' rollers.'[19] In a year-end list for Newsday, Christgau named it the year's best album and wrote that 'this fagged-out masterpiece' was the peak of rock music in 1972 as it 'explored new depths of record-studio murk, burying Mick's voice under layers of cynicism, angst and ennui'.[20]
At the time of Exile's release, Jagger said, 'This new album is fucking mad. There's so many different tracks. It's very rock & roll, you know. I didn't want it to be like that. I'm the more experimental person in the group, you see I like to experiment. Not go over the same thing over and over. Since I've left England, I've had this thing I've wanted to do. I'm not against rock & roll, but I really want to experiment. The new album's very rock & roll and it's good. I mean, I'm very bored with rock & roll. The revival. Everyone knows what their roots are, but you've got to explore everywhere. You've got to explore the sky too.'[3]
After the release of Exile on Main St, Allen Klein sued the Rolling Stones for breach of settlement because five songs on the album were composed while Jagger and Richards were under contract with his company, ABKCO: 'Sweet Virginia', 'Loving Cup', 'All Down the Line', 'Shine a Light' and 'Stop Breaking Down' (written by Robert Johnson but re-interpreted by Jagger and Richards). ABKCO acquired publishing rights to the songs, giving it a share of the royalties from Exile on Main St, and was able to publish another album of Rolling Stones songs, More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies).[21]
Legacy and reappraisal[edit]
Critics later reassessed Exile on Main St favourably,[17] and by the late 1970s it had become viewed as the Rolling Stones' greatest album.[30] In retrospect, Bill Janovitz called it 'the greatest, most soulful, rock & roll record ever made' because it seamlessly distills 'perhaps all the essential elements of rock & roll up to 1971, if not beyond'.[31] On the response to the album, Richards said, 'When [Exile] came out it didn't sell particularly well at the beginning, and it was also pretty much universally panned. But within a few years the people who had written the reviews saying it was a piece of crap were extolling it as the best frigging album in the world.'[32]
In 2003, Jagger said, 'Exile is not one of my favourite albums, although I think the record does have a particular feeling. I'm not too sure how great the songs are, but put together it's a nice piece. However, when I listen to Exile it has some of the worst mixes I've ever heard. I'd love to remix the record, not just because of the vocals, but because generally I think it sounds lousy. At the time Jimmy Miller was not functioning properly. I had to finish the whole record myself, because otherwise there were just these drunks and junkies. Of course I'm ultimately responsible for it, but it's really not good and there's no concerted effort or intention.' Jagger also stated he did not understand the praise among Rolling Stones fans because the album did not yield many hits.[33] Of the 18 tracks on the album, only 'Tumbling Dice', 'Happy' and 'All Down the Line' got heavy rotation at concerts. 'Sweet Black Angel', 'Ventilator Blues' and 'Stop Breaking Down' were each performed live only once, while 'Shake Your Hips', 'Casino Boogie', 'Turd on the Run', 'I Just Wanna See His Face', 'Let It Loose' and 'Soul Survivor' have never been played live.[34][better source needed]
Richards also said, 'Exile was a double album. And because itâs a double album youâre going to be hitting different areas, including 'D for Down', and the Stones really felt like exiles. We didn't start off intending to make a double album; we just went down to the south of France to make an album and by the time we'd finished we said, 'We want to put it all out.' The point is that the Stones had reached a point where we no longer had to do what we were told to do. Around the time Andrew Oldham left us, we'd done our time, things were changing and I was no longer interested in hitting Number One in the charts every time. What I want to do is good shitâif it's good they'll get it some time down the road.'[32]
Accolades[edit]Rolling Stones Exile On Main Street 2010 Raritan Valley
Exile on Main St has been ranked on various lists as one of the greatest albums of all time.[35] According to Acclaimed Music, it is the ninth best-ranked record on critics' all-time lists.[36] In 1998, Q magazine readers voted Exile on Main St the 42nd greatest album of all time,[37] while in 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 3 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.[38] In 1987 it was ranked third on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the best 100 albums of the period 1967â1987.[39] In 1993, Entertainment Weekly named it No. 1 on their list of '100 Greatest CDs'.[40] In 2003, Pitchfork Media ranked it number 11 on their Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.[41] In 2001, the TV networkVH1 placed it at number 22 on their best albums survey.[42]
In 2003, the album was ranked 7th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, the highest Rolling Stones album ranked on the list.[43] In 2005, Exile on Main St was ranked number 286 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.[44] The album was ranked number 19 on the October 2006 issue of Guitar World magazine's list of the greatest 100 guitar albums of all time[citation needed]. In 2007, the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame placed the album No. 6 on the 'Definitive 200' list of albums that 'every music lover should own.'[45]Its re-release has a highest normalised rating of 100 on Metacritic based on seven professional reviews, a distinction it shares with other re-releases such as London Calling by The Clash.[46] The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[47] In 2012, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[48]
In popular culture[edit]
The album and its title have been referenced several times in popular culture. The garage-trash noise-rock band Pussy Galore released a complete cover of the album, titled Exile on Main St., that reflected their own personal and musical interpretations of the songs, as opposed to paying tribute to the original sound. John Duffy of Allmusic rated the album three and a half out of five stars,[49] and NME ranked it number 253 in 'The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time'.[50]
The British acid house group Alabama 3 titled its debut album Exile on Coldharbour Lane. Perhaps the most notable reference comes from indie singer/songwriter Liz Phair's debut album Exile in Guyville. Phair herself claims the album to be a direct song-by-song 'response' of sorts to Exile on Main St. [51][52]Post-grunge band Matchbox Twenty paid homage to this album by titling their 2007 retrospective Exile on Mainstream. Industrial Rock band Chemlab named the leading track from their album East Side Militia, 'Exile on Mainline', in reference to the Rolling Stones album.[citation needed]
The Departed, a 2006 film by Martin Scorsese, features a scene in which Bill Costigan mails Madolyn Madden an Exile on Main St jewel case containing an incriminating recording of Colin Sullivan conspiring with crime boss Frank Costello. The same film also uses the song 'Let It Loose' from the album. On 31 October 2009, American rock band Phish covered Exile on Main St in its entirety as the 'musical costume' for their Halloween show in Indio, California. The first episode of the fourth season of the Showtime program Californication is called 'Exile on Main St'. A later episode in the sixth season featured a guest character waking up next to her musician boyfriend who had died from an overdose in the night in room '1009,' a reference to the lyrics of 'Shine a Light'. The same song was also played by Tim Minchin's character in the following episode. The first episode of the sixth season of the hit CW show Supernatural is titled 'Exile on Main Street'.[citation needed]
Reissues[edit]
In 1994, Exile on Main St was remastered and reissued by Virgin Records, along with the rest of the post-Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out catalogue, after the company acquired the masters to the band's output on its own label. This remaster was initially released in a Collector's Edition CD, which replicated in miniature many elements of the original vinyl album packaging, including the postcards insert.
Universal Music, which remastered and re-released the rest of the post-1970 Rolling Stones catalogue in 2009,[53] issued a new remastering of Exile on Main St in a deluxe package in May 2010.[54] Of the ten bonus tracks, only two are undoctored outtakes from the original sessions: an early version of 'Tumbling Dice' entitled 'Good Time Women', and 'Soul Survivor', the latter featuring a Richards lead vocal (with dummy/placeholder lyrics).[55] The other tracks received overdubs just prior to release on this package, with new lead vocals by Jagger on all except 'I'm Not Signifying', backing vocals in places by past and current Stones tour singers Cindy Mizelle and Lisa Fischer, and a new guitar part by Mick Taylor on 'Plundered My Soul.'[55] On the selection of tracks, Richards said, 'Well, basically it's the record and a few tracks we found when we were plundering the vaults. Listening back to everything we said, 'Well, this would be an interesting addition.'.[56] All harmonica heard was added during 2010 sessions by Jagger, and Richards added a new guitar lead on 'So Divine'. 'Title 5' is not an actual outtake from the sessions for Exile, it is an outtake from early 1967 sessions. It features the MRB effect (mid-range boost) from a Vox Conqueror or Supreme amp, as used by Richards in 1967 and 1968. 'Loving Cup' is an outtake from early June 1969, but is actually an edit from two outtakes. The first 2:12 minutes is the well known 'drunk' version, as has been available on bootlegs since the early 1990s, but the second part is spliced from a second, previously unknown take. 'Following the River' features Jagger overdubs on a previously uncirculated track featuring Nicky Hopkins on piano.
Jimmy Fallon announced on his show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, that he would mark the re-release of the album with a week's worth of musicians performing songs from the album.[57]Phish, who had played the album in its entirety live in concert before, were the first confirmed act to join the salute.
The re-released album entered at number one in the UK charts, almost 38 years to the week after it first occupied that position.[58] The album also re-entered at number two in the US charts selling 76,000 during the first week.[59] The bonus disc, available separately as Exile on Main St Rarities Edition exclusively in the US at Target also charted, debuting at number 27 with 15,000 copies sold.
It was released once again in 2011 by Universal Music Enterprises in a Japanese-only SHM-SACD version.
Track listing[edit]
All tracks written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, except where noted.
Personnel[edit]The Rolling Stones[edit]
Session musicians[edit]
Additional personnel[edit]
2010 bonus disc
Charts[edit]
Rolling Stones Exile On Main Street 2010 Raritan Nj
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Exile_on_Main_St.&oldid=913348503'
Comments are closed.
|
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |