Reviews

THE ROLLING STONES
EXILE ON MAIN STREET
POLYDOR

Sometimes you develop a personal relationship with an album that transcends everything else. It might be that this special recording was the first album you purchased, the first one you shared with a friend, the first one of a particular genre that you heard. While critics might shun the record, you love it and become attached to it for a whole host of reasons that defy rationality.

Exile On Main Street was the first album I ever imported from America, long before the days of credit cards and Amazon. As a student I had conspired with 3 friends to bring in 10 copies of the album so that we might have it weeks before its official Australian release (remembering that there was at least a month’s lag time between a US and a local release).

We sat up all night listening to it and then all of the next two nights as well. No wonder that when the Stones stormed into town a year later we saw all three concerts at Kooyong – shows that remain the best of all time.

My immediate reaction then, listening on what must have been a very lo-fi system, was that this was that Exile was the best rock album ever released. That opinion has not changed in 38 years. No doubt that judgment is informed by the relationship with the album but trying to look at it objectively, it remains the band’s crowning achievement.

Exile On Main Street arrived as the fifth in a series of albums that just might mark the greatest sequence of consecutive album releases of any rock band in history. Its predecessors were Sticky Fingers, Get Yer Ya-Yas Out, Let It Bleed and Beggars Banquet.

Now it arrives again, re-released in three different formats: a single disc of the original recording remastered; a deluxe version with a bonus disc of outtakes; and a super deluxe edition that includes a vinyl copy (two discs), a DVD, replicas of the postcards from the original and a hardback book. I have to say that I am a little disappointed in the presentation of the deluxe version that I purchased. The 12-page booklet in the digipak is basic with just credits and a lot of photos. (It is the music that is important here but they could have done a little better).

While the double album has been acclaimed as a classic as its reputation has grown over the years, it was hardly greeted with the same enthusiasm on its release. This great sprawling album was a link between the classic Stones sound, as heard on ‘Tumbling Dice,’ a tougher, edgier blues that featured on so many of its track and even gospel and country tinges at times.

In 1971, the band might have been locked away in Keith Richards’ house, Nellcôte, in the south of France with producer Jimmy Miller but it sounds as if they were in some shotgun house on the Mississippi delta.

This was to be Mick Taylor’s second complete studio album with the band – he had appeared on several tracks on Let It Bleed and then Sticky Fingers. His presence cannot be underestimated. Other musicians in what was an incredible outfit included Nicky Hopkins, Ian Stewart and Dr John on piano, Bobby Keys (who still plays sax with the band) and Jim price on horns, Al Perkins on pedal steel, and the great Billy Preston on piano and organ. Vanetta Fields, Clydie King and Kathi McDonald were among the backing singers.

Apparently the recording sessions were chaotic and the presence of Gram Parsons (who might have sung on ‘Sweet Virginia’ and who fed Richards’ a steady diet of country music) was a minor distraction for a while. Parsons was eventually persuaded to leave, indicating that Richards and Jagger were a bit more together than legend would have you believe.

The stories of drugs and booze during the recordings sessions have become part of legend and while they no doubt added to the chaos the fact is that the Stones and their associated musicians were able to work on the album - interrupted only by partying - for months. If you are interested, The Stones In Exile documentary (to be reviewed next month) tells the whole tale.

It is astonishing to think that the album was recorded during the summer of 1971, completed in Los Angeles, and released on May 12, 1972, just ten months after recording commenced! That sort of time frame seems impossible for any major act these days.

Nearly four decades on, the original album tracks still excite with their rawness. Something happened on this album that was never recaptured on subsequent releases. The re-mastering doesn’t tamper with original sound but seems to make the original brilliant mix a little clearer.

While ‘Tumbling Dice’ and ‘Happy’ are the best-known songs, the re-release offers a chance to once again explore the depth of the album. And what treasures there are! ‘Rocks Off’ and ‘Rip This Joint’ are two of the best tracks to start any album ever. ‘Sweet Virginia’ sounds better than the faux country pose that Jagger later adopted. ‘Shake Your Hips’ and ‘Stop Breaking Down’ are fine tributes to the influences of Slim Harpo (much under-rated as a model for Jagger’s singing) and Robert Johnson. Dive in anywhere to start your journey.


This is the sound of a band that was absolutely fearless in pursuing its musical vision, able to try anything. It is remarkable given the reported chaos just how coherent the album sounds.

For long-time fans and others already familiar with the albums 18 tracks the ten-track bonus disc will be what they turn to first. This might be a mixed bag because Jagger has tampered with the original recordings by overdubbing new parts on some songs. Yet, despite its limitations, as an album it is better than any studio recording the band has released since Tattoo You in 1981!

For ‘Plundered My Soul’ Jagger recorded new vocals and enlisted Mick Taylor to add guitar — the first time they had been in a studio together in 36 years. ‘Pass The Wine (Sophia Loren)’ is another face lifted track that is very funky and sounds like it could have come from the Emotional Rescue album. Strings have been added to the ballad ‘Following The River’ and there is obviously a new vocal from Jagger, catering to his worst instincts, making it the least authentic sounding track of them all.

There are two outtakes of songs on the original: ‘Loving Cup’ (slower here) and a sloppy ‘Soul Survivor’ with Richards’ on lead vocals. ‘I’m Not Signifying,’ ‘Good Time Women’ (a prototype for ‘Tumbling Dice’), ‘So Divine (Aladdin Story)’ and the interesting instrumental ‘Title 5’ complete the disc.

The greatest rock album of all time? I certainly haven’t changed my mind on that.