Search - Rolling Stones :: Exile on Main Street

A place, not a CD

02/27/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I came to terms with Exile when asked by a friend what I thought the five all-time greatest Stones songs were - songs that will still be alive 50 years from now. My response was fairly quick - Satisfaction, Gimme Shelter, You Can't Always Get What You Want, Wild Horses, and Sympathy for the Devil. Just my opinion. But I realized immediately none were from Exile, which I think is the Stones' all-time best album. Yes, Tumbling Dice and Happy are up there, and some cuts on Exile are, IMHO, absolutely awesome (viz their cover of Robert Johnson's Stop Breaking Down) - but clearly Exile is not not rich in standout hits. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Like few other albums, Exile is a world, a place I immerse myself in - a distillation of American blues and gospel and country and rock - a funky smokefilled bar or afternoon fishfry or steamy bordello, with beer and bourbon, pianos and slide guitars and hard-partying working people letting it loose, shining a light, shaking their hips, boogieing, scraping the sh*t off their shoes, rocking the joint all down the line. Exile critics cite no outstanding hit songs and too much "fill" and murky production/garage band sound. But that's the point, the genius of the album. The album IS the song - I love that murky sound - I listen more to my scratchy old vinyl than to the new cleaned up CD I just bought from Amazon - Exile is where the Stones perhaps peaked, where, catalyzed by Taylor's sinuous guitar playing off Richard's rythmn funk and Hopkin's/Stewart's honky tonk piano, they finally came home to the country blues where they began, when Brian Jones, God rest his soul, alias Elmo Lewis, played slide guitar in a London bar and 18 year-old Keith actually thought he was seeing Elmore James - smokey, funky, rockin, wailing, torn and frayed poor white trash and juke joint black, the soundtrack of Saturday night, til my late night friends leave me in the cold grey dawn. Hang out in Exile. Accept it on its own terms. It will be, I firmly believe, the Stones ALBUM (not song) that will stand the test of time. Pass me the bourbon - quick- the band's coming on for another set and the night's still young."

"...It's My Heart That You Stole..."

Mark Barry at Reckless Records, Lon | UK | 05/18/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Following an album like 1971's magnificent "Sticky Fingers" was always going to be a tall order, but The Stones did it with swagger and panache. "Exile On Main St" was released 12 May 1972 as a 2LP set on Rolling Stones Records COC 69100 in the UK and on COC 2-2900 in the USA. It reached the coveted number 1 spot on both sides of the pond - and like The Beatles "White Album" before it - is a flawed and sprawling thing, but considered by most to be a masterpiece nonetheless.



This 17 May 2010 reissue (18 May in the USA) is the 2CD expanded version of that double on Rolling Stones/Polydor 273 429-5. Disc 1 has the full compliment of 18 tracks at 67:18 minutes, while Disc 2 is a new 10-track mixture of previously unreleased outtakes and alternate versions at 41:12 minutes. All songs are by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards except "Ventilator Blues" which is co-written with Mick Taylor, while "Shake Your Hips" and "Stop Breaking Down" are Slim Harpo and Robert Johnson cover versions. As with "Sticky Fingers", the additional musicians and producer (Jimmy Miller) added hugely to the power of almost every song and should be noted for it - Bobby Keys on Saxophone, Jim Price on Trumpet, Nicky Hopkins, Ian Stewart and Billy Preston on Piano and Organ with lady-soul veterans Clydie King and Vanetta Fields on Backing Vocals. Dr. John also sang backup on "Let It Loose".



SOUND:

As with the 2009 reissues STEPHEN MARCUSSEN (over 1000 mastering credits to his name including the "Alfie" soundtrack with Mick Jagger) and STEWART WHITMORE of Marcussen Mastering have remastered the original tapes and the sound is glorious throughout. "Loving Cup" followed by "Happy" are beautifully clear and "Tumbling Dice" is at last full and in your face. Most every track is improved - the instrumentation in your speakers with a fabulous live and shambolic feel. The acoustic and harmonica opening of "Sweet Virginia" and the drums of "All Down The Line" are superb. To me it's a huge improvement, a balls-to-the-wall triumph. Downsides - the hiss level on "Shine A Light" that was there in the first place is now more accented as it is on the frantic "Rip This Joint". Some despised the 2009 remasters, so this will be more of the same for them, but most I suspect will absolutely love it. Wish I could say the same about the presentation...



PACKAGING:

Very poor I'm afraid. The front flap and rear of the original 2LP cover are produced on the outside of the digipak (as they should be) with the inner LP photo spread reproduced on the inside of the digipak, BUT the original vinyl double also had two fantastic inner sleeves and a set of fold-out postcards (only came with 1st pressings and they're now very rare). Only 1 of the 4 sides of the two inner sleeves is reproduced! That the idiots would not bother picturing the 'postcards' seems to be par for the course for Stones reissues these days, but that great shot of Mick & Keith at the mike with whiskey bottle in hand is missing - as is the "I Don't Want To Talk About Jesus I Just Want To See His face" quote on the other side - unbelievable! The supposedly exclusive 12-page booklet is different to all other issues, but turns out to be just black and white photos of the session and no liner notes whatsoever - none! The track-by-track details are now only bland black and white printed listings, which lose all of the inner sleeves magical artwork. It's an insult that this supposedly 'deluxe' reissue cavalierly misses out on crucial visual elements of the original release - it's hugely unimaginative and workmanlike at best.



BONUS DISC:

Although the 10 bonus tracks have the same original backing band - and despite what the track-by-track credits 'don't' tell you - it's obvious that the first 5 have had 'treatment' of some kind - vocal tracks added on/redone recently.



"Pass The Wine (Sophia Loren)" is an ok opener, but the track that sounds most like a genuine outtake peach is "Plundered My Soul" which is fantastic (it was issued in April 2010 as a limited edition Record Shop Day 7" single in the USA and UK). Best approximation is that it sounds like the B-side "Tumbling Dice" should always have had (lyrics above). "I'm Not Signifying" is ok, but hardly great, but there then follows a genuinely lovely ballad "Following The River" complete with the new girls giving it some soulful backing vocals (Lisa Fischer and Cindy Mizelle). It's far better than you think. "Dancing In The Light" is a jaunty mid-tempo song similar to "Hide Your Love" off "Goat's Head Soup". The opening of "So Divine (Aladdin Story) is closer to Brian Jones Rolling Stones circa "Dandelion" and its really interesting - Jim Price on vibes and Bobby Keys on some kind-of treated saxophone sound. There follows two "Alternate Takes" of "Loving Cup" and "Soul Survivor". Now these are far closer to what we want - "Loving Cup" opens with a lovely Nicky Hopkins piano refrain and suddenly it's "there" - that shambolic feel to everything - especially the guitars of Richards and Taylor duelling to the end yet complimenting each other so perfectly. Now this I will love. And then another gem - Keith carrying the vocals and sloppy stuff on "Soul Survivor" instead of Mick - and it works - and when that riffing guitar kicks in, I'm balling my eyes out and there's chills on my arms. "Good Time Women" is a forerunner for "Tumbling Dice" and is fab - rough and tumble as well. "Title 5" opens with studio chatter of "Take 1" and is a strange little rocking instrumental which kind of peters out, interesting but that's all...



Ok - so there's no live stuff and there should be (legendarily good), the "All Down The Line" Alternate Take that's on the B-side of the "Plundering My Soul" 7" single isn't on here either, which is just stupid - and the 4-track Excerpts 7" Flexi single from the April 1972 NME in the UK with song edits and an exclusive "Exile On Main Street Blues" track is nowhere to be seen let alone pictured either. But overall - I'm kind of shocked at how good Disc 2 is. I'll ignore some of these newer makeovers for sure, but those Alternate Takes are thrilling.



In May 2012, "Exile" will be 40 years old and Mick and Keef will be more Zimmer Frames than Glimmer Twins. But that won't stop this coolest of double-albums from being the absolute business. I suspect the real truth about this 2CD reissue is far simpler - men around the world will see this digital temptress pouting on the shelf of their local megastore, feel a quickening of the pulse and a movement in their trouser area - and be unable to resist.



And you know, you can't help but feel that these two canny English lads already know this.



God bless The Rolling Stones and roll on "Some Girls...

(due later this year apparently)



PS:

HMV in the UK have issued "Exile" with the digipak inside an exclusive card slipcase (Polydor 274 102-3). I've pictured both sides of it for fans.



The Japanese, however, have not surprisingly got the most desirable version of them all; it's inside a 14-disc box set called "From The 70's To 00's" which contains all their albums from "Sticky Fingers" through to "A Bigger Bang". They are all on the SHM-CD format (Super High Materials) and each has the original album artwork repro'd on one of those 5" Mini LP sleeves we so love (UICY-91558). "Exile" is included - being the 2010 Remaster version - and is in a gatefold card sleeve complete with its original fold-out postcards and two inner sleeves."

What makes this the best Stones album?

John Stodder | livin' just enough | 12/18/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For decades, it has been a truism that Exile on Main Street is the greatest album the Stones ever made, and that after this album, their career has gone slowly but exorably downhill. Lately I've seen posts on this and other sites challenging "Exile," saying essentially that the album is wildly overrated, and doesn't have the songs that other Stones albums have--"Beggars Banquet," "Let it Bleed" "Sticky Fingers" "Some Girls" and even "Goats Head Soup" getting the nods from these revisionist thinkers. They have half a point, these folks. There is nothing that hits the incredible highs of "Gimme Shelter," "Street Fighting Man," "Brown Sugar," "Angie," "Beast of Burden," "Wild Horse" or "Shattered" on this album. The two hits that this album generated, "Tumbling Dice" and "Happy" are much-loved, but didn't have the impact of the above singles. And against their earlier 60s hits like "Paint it Black" or "Satisfaction"--forget it. All that's granted. If someone wanted to be very reductive, much of "Exiles..." just sounds like a boogie album typical of its era--in the early 70s there was sort of a roots revival going on, so lots of bands were doing a sort of combination of blues and gospel with lots of tambourines shaking, pianos rolling, and backup women singers. Stretches of "Exile..." certainly have that Delaney and Bonnie feel. Other songs sound like attempts to emulate early Little Feat, or Gram Parsons, who famously partied with Keith throughout the making of some of this album.So what makes this album their greatest? It's hard to describe, but here's my best shot: It's about "feel." Never before or since did the Stones manage to create such a consistent and compelling mood that lasts from the first song to the last. It is a very naked album, both musically and lyrically. I know it was worked and worked, but the result is an album that sounds like the Stones are playing not in some French basement, but in YOUR basement. And, on this album like no other, they are singing their lives. The songs are grooves over which Mick and Keith simply testify as to what's rattling around their heads--encounters with women, thoughts on life as a rock and roller, spiritual, moral and political questions, from the sublime to the obscene. In its own way, this is a "confessional" album like Joni Mitchell's "Blue" or Neil Young's "Harvest," except unlike those two artists who equate honesty with a quiet and stripped down musical approach, the Stones say what's in their hearts to a rocking beat. And, they don't glorify it. "I only get my rocks off when I'm sleeping." They are nostaglic, isolated, scared, bored, tired, loaded, wondering what will happen to them, recognizing that this life they are leading is artificial and perhaps even dangerous, but a mystery. So they lean on that backbeat and those fat chords, and seemingly just spill all of it, in an almost stream of consciousness way. To me, "Exile on Main Street" is really just one long song that carries the album's title, a self-contradicting phrase (like "Hide in Plain Sight") that evokes a peculiar sense of paranoia that only a bunch of guys who became international superstars would feel, that sense that here you are in plain sight for everyone to see, but you're gone, you don't live in the same world as your fans anymore, the pleasures of ordinary life have been ripped away and replaced with something that may be much better in some ways, enviable, yes, but also frightening and hard to decipher. Musically, when you compare "Exile..." with other Stones albums, the main difference I find is that most other Stones albums are highly eclectic. Take "Sticky Fingers." You get some great rock songs, but you also get a jazzy, Latin-tinged jam, some country songs, some orchestral numbers--the mood changes radically several times, and in the end, it's just a collection of great songs without any particular theme. Ditto with "Let it Bleed," "Beggars Banquet" or "Goats Head Soup"--Fantastic albums with lots of great songs, but somewhat randomly assembled musically. I go to those albums for songs that I want to hear, and don't always track them all the way through. But lovers of "Exile..." usually start at the beginning and just follow it all the way through, like a movie. And man, it delivers. And today, 30 years on, it still sounds very fresh. In my personal little list of the greatest rock albums, this is one of the top 10, along with "Revolver," "John Wesley Harding," "London Calling," "St. Dominic's Preview," "Pet Sounds," "Songs in the Key of Life," "Blood on the Tracks," and the aforementioned "Blue." And like all of them, "Exiles..." comes from the heart, and that's what makes it great."