Remastered and boasting unreleased tracks, this Stones masterpiece is MusicRadar's Classic Album Of The Month, Joe Bosso, Fri 7 May 2010, 4:10 pm BST
You can listen to Tumbling Dice from this album below:
Exile On Main St reissue: intro
The Rolling Stones' Exile On Main St reissue will be released 17 May 2010 (18 May in the US) Welcome to MusicRadar's new Classic Album Of The Month feature. Every month, we'll put an important release back in the spotlight, breaking the album down track-by-track and looking in depth at technique, gear and production. Think DVD-style commentary but for musicians! To kick us off, a stone-cold classic from 1972 gets expanded and dusted down for 2010…
Although hard to comprehend now, upon its release in May 1972, Exile On Main St, The Rolling Stones’ grand, sprawling double LP, confounded most critics and fans.
A staggering, encyclopedic examination of American roots music - gospel, folk, country, soul, R&B, boogie-woogie rock ’n’ roll, it's all there - Exile marked the end of the Stones’ four-album hot streak, one which included Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers. (OK, we can call it five if you throw in the live album Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out.)
The reason for all of the head-scratching was simple: During most of their early career, The Rolling Stones were known as the greatest ’singles’ band in the world. But as they came to equal The Beatles and embraced the album as a true art form, with Exile they reached their creative peak while pulling off the ultimate irony: They released a two-record set with nary a hit single to be found. (Tumbling Dice came the closest, peaking at number five in the UK and number seven in the US - this from a band that routinely racked up number ones.)
Produced by Jimmy Miller and recorded mostly in the basement of Keith Richards' rented French Riviera villa Nellcôte (the band were forced to flee England at the time to avoid paying enormous taxes, thus the ’Exile’ part of the title), with additional tracking and overdubs in Los Angeles, the album reflected, in sound and spirit, the ’elegantly wasted’ state of the group and the various friends, hangers-on and dope dealers that partied from dusk till dawn.
The decades have been kind to Exile On Main St. The voluminous, panoramic work that tested the patience of most listeners in 1972 is now regarded as one of rock’s unqualified masterpieces.
On 17 May 2010 (18 May in the US), Exile On Main St will be reissued in remastered form with a bonus CD featuring 10 previously unreleased tracks from that album’s sessions (some of which have been recently ’sweetened' by the Stones' current boardsman Don Was, with brand-new vocals, guitar overdubs and background singers).
MusicRadar gives you the track-by-track lowdown of this essential desert island disc(s). More importantly, we answer the question: Are 'polished' Stones better than their dirty and dusty originals?
Read on below....
http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/the-rolling-stones-exile-on-main-st-reissue-reviewed-track-by-track-249986#
Backround (from Wikipedia)
Exile on Main St.
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Exile on Main St.
Studio album by The Rolling Stones
Released 12 May 1972
Recorded July 1971 – March 1972
Genre Rock, blues-rock, country rock, folk, soul, gospel, Boogie-woogie
Length 67:17
Language English
Label Rolling Stones/Atlantic
Producer Jimmy Miller
The Rolling Stones chronology
Sticky Fingers
(1971) Exile on Main St.
(1972) Goats Head Soup
(1973)
Singles from Exile on Main St.
1. "Tumbling Dice"/"Sweet Black Angel"
Released: 14 April 1972
2. "Happy"/"All Down the Line"
Released: 15 July 1972
3. "Plundered My Soul"/"All Down the Line (Alternate take)"
Released: 17 April 2010
Exile on Main St. is the tenth studio album by The Rolling Stones. Released as a double LP in May 1972, it draws on many genres including rock & roll, blues, country and soul and calypso. Exile on Main St. was initially greeted by reviewers with condemnation or high praise, but it has since become almost universally regarded as a masterpiece.[1]
A remastered version of the album was released in Europe on May 17, 2010 and in the United States on May 18, 2010, featuring 10 new tracks, including "Plundered My Soul", "Dancing in the Light", "Following the River" and "Pass the Wine" as well as alternate versions of "Soul Survivor" and "Loving Cup".[2]
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Recording
o 1.1 Nellcôte
o 1.2 Los Angeles
* 2 Release and reception
* 3 Legacy
o 3.1 Band appraisal
o 3.2 Re-release
o 3.3 Accolades and cultural references
* 4 Album cover and layout design
* 5 Track listing
* 6 Personnel
* 7 Sales chart performance
* 8 Sales certifications
* 9 References
* 10 External links
Recording
Exile on Main St. is an album composed of songs written and recorded between 1968 and 1972. Of the earlier songs, the band's singer Mick Jagger said in 2003, "...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 the songs "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses" from Sticky Fingers. Most 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, who owed more taxes than they could pay, left England before the government would seize their assets. Mick Jagger settled in Paris with his new bride Bianca, and guitarist Keith Richards rented a luxurious villa, Nellcôte, in Villefranche-sur-Mer, near Nice. The other members settled in various places in the south of France. After unsucessfully looking for a recording studio in France that would be suitable for the next Rolling Stones album, it was decided they would record at Nellcôte using the band's remote recording truck brought in from England.
[edit] Nellcôte
Recording began in earnest sometime near the middle of June. The 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 dollars of heroin flowed through the mansion each week in addition to a contingent of visitors that included William S. Burroughs, Terry Southern, Gram Parsons and Marshall Chess (who was running the Rolling Stones' new label).[4] Parsons was asked to leave Nellcôte in early July, 1971, the result of his obnoxious behaviour and an attempt by Richards to clean the house of drug users as the result of pressure from the French police.
Richards' substance abuse prevented him from attending the sessions that continued in his basement, while Mick Jagger and Bill 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, Bobby Keys, Mick Taylor, Charlie Watts, 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 ambience of Richards' villa and sat out many of the French sessions. As Wyman appeared on only eight songs of the released album, the other bass parts were played by Taylor, Richards and on four tracks, the upright bassist Bill Plummer. Wyman noted in his memoir Stone Alone that there was a dichotomy between the band members who freely indulged in drugs (Richards, Miller, Keys, Taylor, the engineer Andy Johns) and those who abstained to varying degrees (Wyman, Watts and Jagger).[4]
[edit] Los Angeles
Additional basic tracks (probably only "Rip this Joint", "Shake Your Hips", "Casino Boogie", "Happy", "Rocks Off", "Turd on the Run" and "Ventilator Blues")[3] were begun in the basement of Nellcôte and taken to Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles where numerous overdubs (all piano and keyboard parts, all lead and backing vocals, all guitar and bass overdubs) were added during sessions that meandered from December 1971 until May 1972. Some tracks (such as "Torn and Frayed" and "Loving Cup") were freshly recorded in Los Angeles.[3] Although Jagger (who had recently wed Bianca Jagger) was frequently missing from Nellcôte,[4] 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.[3] The final gospel-inflected arrangements of "Tumbling Dice", "Loving Cup", "Let It Loose" and "Shine a Light" were inspired by Jagger and Preston's visit to a local evangelical church.[3]
The extended recording sessions and differing methods on the part of Jagger and Richards reflected the growing disparity in their personal lives.[4] During the making of the album, Jagger had married which was followed 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,[4] which Richards would not overcome until the turn of the decade. 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.[4] With Richards' effectiveness seriously undermined by his dependence on heroin, the group's subsequent 1970s releases—directed largely by Jagger—would experiment in varying degrees with other musical genres, moving away from the roots-based sound of Exile on Main St.[4]
Preceded by the UK and US Top 10 hit "Tumbling Dice", Exile on Main St. was released in May 1972. It was an immediate commercial success, reaching #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. "Happy", sung by Richards, would be a Top 30 US hit later that summer.
Many critics judged Exile on Main St. to be a ragged and impenetrable record at the time of its release. Lenny Kaye, writing in Rolling Stone magazine, was typical of contemporary critics who did not consider the album as anything special.[13] According to Kaye, "[t]here are songs that are better, there are songs that are worse,...and others you'll probably lift the needle for when the time is due." Kaye concludes by assuring his readers that "the great Stones album of their mature period is yet to come".
On the initial critical and commercial reaction, 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."[14]
Other critics praised the album's rawness and different styles, from blues to country to soul. The music critic Robert Christgau concluded in 1972: "Incontrovertibly the year’s best, this fagged-out masterpiece is the summum of Rock ’72...Exile explores new depths of record-studio murk, burying Mick’s voice under layers of cynicism, angst, and ennui..."[3]
In 1994 Exile on Main St. was remastered and reissued by Virgin Records.
The original double album contained 12 black-and-white postcards featuring the Rolling Stones in the company of two unidentified women.
The album was reissued again on May 17, 2010 in the United Kingdom, and on May 18, 2010 in the United States by The Rolling Stones' new distributor, Universal Music Enterprises.[15]
Legacy
Band appraisal
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 think rock & roll is getting a bit... 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]
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."[14] Jagger also stated he didn't understand the praise amongst Rolling Stones' fans because the album did not yield very many "hits".[According to the Rolling Stones, the Rolling Stones, Chronicle Books, October 2003.]
Of the album, Richards said, "Exile was a double album. And because it's a double album you're 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 shit — if it's good they'll get it some time down the road."[14]
[edit] Re-release
Universal Music, which remastered and re-released the rest of the post-1971 Rolling Stones catalogue in 2009,[16] issued a new remastering of Exile on Main St. in a deluxe package in May 2010.[17] New tracks include 'Plundered My Soul', 'Dancing in the Light', 'Following the River' and 'Pass the Wine'.[17] The package also includes new versions of 'Soul Survivor' and 'Loving Cup'.[17] 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.'"[18]
Most of the tracks were left as originally recorded at the time, with Richards continuing, "There wasn't much to be done and I really didn't want to get in the way of what was there. It was missing a bit of body here and there, and I stroked something on acoustic here and there. But otherwise, I really wanted to leave them pretty much as they were. Mick wanted to sort of fix some vocal things, but otherwise, basically they are as we left them 39 years ago. Mick did need to sing an actual vocal on Plundered My Soul because there wasn't one and Mick Taylor also recorded lead & rhythm guitar in London.""[18] The rest of the songs were, however, only completed in the studio for this release, with lyrics written and both lead and backing vocals newly recorded. [19]
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.[20] Phish, who had played the album in its entirety live in concert before, were the first confirmed act to join the salute.
[edit] Accolades and cultural references
In 1998 Q magazine readers voted Exile on Main St. the 42nd greatest album of all time,[21] while in 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 3 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.[22] In 1987 it was ranked #3 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the greatest 100 albums of the period 1967-1987.[23] In 1993, Entertainment Weekly named it #1 on their list of "100 Greatest CDs".[24] In 2003, Pitchfork Media ranked it number eleven on their Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.[25] In 2001, the TV network VH1 placed it at number 22 on their best albums survey.[26] 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 #6 on the "Definitive 200" list of albums that "every music lover should own."[citation needed]
The album and its title has frequently been referenced by other bands in their own album titles. For example, 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. Confrontational garage-trash noise-rock band Pussy Galore released a complete cover of the album that reflected their own personal and musical interpretations of the songs, as opposed to paying tribute to the original sound. 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.
On October 31, 2009, American rock band Phish covered Exile on Main St. in its entirety as the "musical costume" for their Halloween show in Indio, California. A parody/homage of the album features as the main theme of the website X-File On Main St.
The Departed, a 2006 film by Martin Scorsese, features a scene in which Bill Costigan mails Madelyn Madden an Exile on Main St. jewel case containing an incriminating recording of Colin Sullivan conspiring with crime boss Frank Costello.
In a Season 6, Part 2 episode of The Sopranos titled The Blue Comet, Tony and his sister Janice are discussing their Uncle Junior, and Tony shouts, "...and as for your husband [Bobby], Janice, Exile on Main Street!"
[edit] Album cover and layout design
Exile on Main St. featured a gatefold cover and included a series of 12 perforated postcards with a sequence of images inserts, all of which were shot by photographer Robert Frank.
Track listing
All songs written and composed by Jagger/Richards, except where noted.
Side one
No. Title Length
1. "Rocks Off" 4:31
2. "Rip This Joint" 2:22
3. "Shake Your Hips" (Slim Harpo) 2:59
4. "Casino Boogie" 3:33
5. "Tumbling Dice" 3:45
Side two
No. Title Length
6. "Sweet Virginia" 4:25
7. "Torn and Frayed" 4:17
8. "Sweet Black Angel" 2:54
9. "Loving Cup" 4:25
Side three
No. Title Length
10. "Happy" 3:04
11. "Turd on the Run" 2:36
12. "Ventilator Blues" (Jagger/Richards/Taylor) 3:24
13. "I Just Want to See His Face" 2:52
14. "Let It Loose" 5:16
Side four
No. Title Length
15. "All Down the Line" 3:49
16. "Stop Breaking Down" (Robert Johnson) 4:34
17. "Shine a Light" 4:14
18. "Soul Survivor" 3:49
2010 bonus CD tracks
No. Title Length
1. "Pass the Wine (Sophia Loren)" 4:54
2. "Plundered My Soul" 3:59
3. "I'm Not Signifying" 3:55
4. "Following the River" 4:52
5. "Dancing in the Light" 4:21
6. "So Divine (Aladdin Story)" 4:32
7. "Loving Cup" (Alternate take) 5:26
8. "Soul Survivor" (Alternate take) 3:59
9. "Good Time Women" 3:21
10. "Title 5" 1:47
Personnel
The Rolling Stones
* Mick Jagger – lead vocals, harmonica, guitar, percussion, tambourine, and maracas
* Keith Richards – guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals, and piano
* Mick Taylor – guitar, slide guitar, bass guitar and backing vocals
* Charlie Watts – drums
* Bill Wyman – bass guitar and upright bass
Additional musicians
* Venetta Fields – backing vocals
* Shirley Goodman – backing vocals
* Joe Green – backing vocals
* Nicky Hopkins – piano
* Bobby Keys – saxophone and percussion
* Clydie King – backing vocals
* Jerry Kirkland – backing vocals
* Tami Lynn – backing vocals
* Kathi McDonald – backing vocals
* Lisa Fischer – backing vocals
* Cindy Mizelle – backing vocals
* Jimmy Miller – drums, percussion, and maracas
* Al Perkins – pedal steel guitar
* Bill Plummer – upright bass
* Billy Preston – piano and organ
* Jim Price – trumpet, trombone, and organ
* Mac Rebennack (Dr. John) – backing vocals and piano
* Ian Stewart – piano
* Richard Washington – marimba
* David Campbell – strings arrangement
Production
* Robert Frank – photography
* Jeremy Gee – engineer
* Andy Johns – engineer
* Glyn Johns – engineer
* Norman Seeff – photography of postcard inserts
* Nick Watterton – engineer
* John Van Hamersveld – design
* Joe Zaganno – engineer
Sales chart performance
Album
Year Chart Position
1972 UK Top 50 Albums 1
1972 Billboard Pop Albums 1
Singles
Year Song Chart Position
1972 "Tumbling Dice" UK Top 50 Singles 5
1972 "Tumbling Dice" Billboard Hot 100 7
1972 "Happy" Billboard Hot 100 22
2010 "Plundered My Soul" UK Top 200 Singles 200
2010 "Plundered My Soul" Billboard Singles Sales 2
2010 "Plundered My Soul" Billboard Triple A 16
2010 "Plundered My Soul" Billboard Heritage Rock 15
2010 "Plundered My Soul" Billboard Rock Digital Songs 31
2010 "Plundered My Soul" Billboard Rock Songs 44
[edit] Sales certifications
Organization Level Date
RIAA – USA Gold[27] 30 May 1972
RIAA – USA Platinum[27] 31 May 2000
[edit] References
1. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Exile on Main St.". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=A4kq4g40ttv6z. Retrieved 2006-07-06.
2. ^ Itzkoff, Dave (26 February 2010). "Seen Much Better Days: Rolling Stones Return to ‘Main Street'". The New York Times. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/seen-much-better-days-rolling-stones-return-to-main-street/. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
3. ^ a b c d e f g h "Exile on Main St.". timeisonourside.com. http://timeisonourside.com/lpExile.html. Retrieved 2006-07-06.
4. ^ a b c d e f g Greenfield, Robert. "Making Their Masterpiece: Exile on Main St.". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/therollingstones/articles/story/11569598/the_rolling_stones_making_their_masterpiece_exile_on_main_street. Retrieved 2006-07-06.
5. ^ PopMatters Review
6. ^ Blender Review
7. ^ (07/09/1994)
8. ^ Allmusic Review
9. ^ Robert Christgau Review
10. ^ Rolling Stone Review
11. ^ BBC Review
12. ^ One Thirty BPM Review
13. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/therollingstones/albums/album/236885/review/5940372/exile_on_main_st
14. ^ a b c Loewenstein, Dora; Philip Dodd (2003). According to the Rolling Stones. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 0-8118-4060-3.
15. ^ http://blog.newsok.com/television/2010/03/17/9332/
16. ^ Cavanagh, David. "ALBUM REVIEWS: THE ROLLING STONES REISSUES". Uncut. IPC Media. http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/the_rolling_stones/reviews/13146. Retrieved 2010-05-17.
17. ^ a b c "ROLLING STONES REISSUE 'EXILE ON MAIN STREET'". Uncut. IPC Media. http://www.uncut.co.uk/news/the_rolling_stones/news/13967. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
18. ^ a b Greene, Andy. "The Secrets Behind the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main Street" Reissue". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/32635178/the_secrets_behind_the_rolling_stones_exile_on_main_street_reissue/3. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
19. ^ Cashmere, Paul. "Rolling Stones Exile On Main Street Not As Genuine As We Thought". Undercover.com.au. http://undercover.com.au/News-Story.aspx?id=10930. Retrieved 2010-05-17.
20. ^ Collis, Chris. "Phish to appear on Jimmy Fallon's Exile on Main St. tribute week". Entertainment Weekly. http://music-mix.ew.com/2010/03/30/phish-to-appear-on-jimmy-fallons-exile-on-main-street-tribute-week-what-should-they-play-who-else-should-perform/. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
21. ^ "Q Readers All Time Top 100 Albums". Q. February, 1998 (accessed 8 July 2007).
22. ^ Greatest British Albums "100 Greatest British Albums". Q. June, 2000 (accessed 8 July 2007).
23. ^ "TOP 100 ALBUMS OF THE LAST 20 YEARS ". Rolling Stone. September, 1987 (accessed 8 July 2007).
24. ^ "ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY'S 100 Greatest CDs". Entertainment Weekly. 1993 (accessed 16 May 2010).
25. ^ "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s". Pitchfork. 23 June 2004 (accessed 8 July 2007).
26. ^ "Greatest Albums of Rock and Roll". VH1. 23 June 2001 (accessed 8 July 2007).
27. ^ a b "Gold & Platinum". http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
External links
* Exile on Main St. on RollingStones.com
* Rolling Stone magazine's original 1972 review
* Separated at Birth? Exile on Main St. & Physical Graffiti
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exile_on_Main_St.
