Classic Albums no. 24: THe Rolling Stones - Exile On Main St

[vastar iner]

We've had the Beatles, now let's try the Stones.  Googling around suggests that this one is the best-reviewed of their albums, so similar to Revolver - albeit that one is less clear-cut as the acme of artistic achievement.

00:00 Rocks Off
04:32 Rip This Joint
06:55 Shake Your Hips
09:55 Casino Boogie
13:30 Tumbling Dice
17:17 Sweet Virginia
21:44 Torn And Frayed
26:02 Sweet Black Angel 29:00 Loving Cup
33:26 Happy
36:31 Turd On The Run
39:09 Ventilator Blues
42:36 I Just Want To See His Face
45:31 Let It Loose
50:49 All Down The Line
54:40 Stop Breaking Down
59:14 Shine A Light
1:03:31 Soul Survivor

So, have at it.

[Shireblogger]

Great choice.

[raliverpool]

Spooky enough I'm listening to the Rolling Stones early 1967 album "Between The Buttons" as I type, and I decided to see what's going on within thread updates on Haven Forums, and hey presto I get to review this album which is generally regarded as their best.

But do I think it is? Well I know the answer to that, and you'll find that out and why (hopefully) towards the end of the month.

[thehitparade]

I've listened to this at least three times so far and I just don't get it.

[wonderwall]

Best album the stones did I think although I'm not a if fan of them but think this album is decent.

[Shireblogger]

Rolling Stones – Exile On Main Street

Context
My first Stones LP was “Rolled Gold”, the 1975 greatest hits set; whilst my first studio album was 1989’s “Steel Wheels”. So, for ages, I relied on compilations for their 60s and 70s work, which means I missed out on almost all of “Exile On Main Street” until the late 90s, when I finally bought it. I’ve seen the Stones live three times, I have about 150 tracks of theirs on my iPod, and there isn’t a 60s act I like more. Expect a positive review.
8/10

General Overview
This is the sound of a band seemingly at ease with each other, with their position in the music firmament, and content to have fun. Most of the album feels like an extended blues-funk jam, and it is one of the few double albums which doesn’t drag at all. It is also timeless; it could have been recorded in 1972, 1992 or 2012.
9/10

Intro & Outro
“Rocks Off” sets the tone perfectly. We open with a classic Keith Richards guitar riff, Charlie Watts brings order with the drums, we have bass and tambourine join, Mick Jagger growls “oh yeah” in the background, and then the vocals kick in “I hear you talking when I’m on the street”. We’re only 18 seconds into the record, and you know this is going to be a good experience. “Rip This Joint” and “Shake Your Hips” maintain the pace and vibe. And we’re still going strong by the time we reach track 18 (or side 4 track 4 in old money), and “Soul Survivor”, which has typically full-on Jagger multi-layered vocals, Nicky Hopkins’ fabulous New Orleans piano, and Richards’ assertive guitar pulses. The 67 minutes flies by, and you’re certainly ready for more.
10/10

Music
Richards’ and Jagger’s songwriting seems so effortless, with the Stones’ well developed blend of bar-room r’n’b swinging along in full tilt. The two bluesiest songs are the two non-originals – “Shake Your Hips” and “Stop Breaking Down” – but the rest is authentic enough that the covers don’t sound out of place, whilst the occasional gospel and country impulses fit right in. None of the tracks goes on too long and there’s no indulgence permitted. But there is also a looseness and freedom amongst the highly accomplished musicians to make the recording sound quite intimate.
10/10

Lyrics
It’s a collection of songs about sex and drugs and rock’n’roll, (plus one highly politicised number – “Sweet Black Angel”), but doesn’t include a single cliché. Some of the images are quite decadent (especially for 1972) – for example “Tryin’ to stop the waves behind your eyeballs; Drop your reds, drop your greens, and blues; Thank you for your wine, California; thank you for your sweet and bitter fruits”, from “Sweet Virginia”. Others are rather sordid – “Diamond rings, Vaseline, you gave me a disease” from “Turd On The Run”. My favourite is the paen to touring, “Rip This Joint”, which includes the lines “Gonna roll this joint, gonna get down low; So round and round and round we’ll go; Wam bam, Birmingham; Alabam’ don’t give a damn.”
8/10

Production & Sound
Given the tales of debauchery, excess and friction which accompanied the making of “Exile On Main Street”, it is astonishing there was anything listenable to emerge. The fact that we have a double album of consistently enjoyable boogie means we must all be grateful to producer Jimmy Miller and engineer Andy Johns for getting it down on tape. The rather low-fi sound works well, with “Tumbling Dice” demonstrating the combination of soul and louche most effectively. An over-polished, note perfect release would have been inferior. But most remarkable is the fact that you can’t get away from the feeling that this was one long party, and you only wish you’d been one of the band’s mates at the time.
9/10

High Points
So many strong songs, it is hard to pick a winner. Probably “Sweet Virginia” for me, just ahead of “Tumbling Dice”, “Rocks Off”, “Turd On The Run”, “Rip This Joint”, “Stop Breaking Down” and “Happy”. It was remarkably restrained of the band / record company to only release one single from the album, because there are at least half-a-dozen potential hits.
10/10

Low Points
There’s not one bad track on the album, and nothing interrupts the flow. But the midway point on Side 3 would be the time to nip out to the toilet / bar / kitchen, whilst “Ventilator Blues” and “I Just Want To See His Face” roll past.
5/10

Packaging
I really dislike the artwork. A black-and-white collage of freak show photographs, with the felt-tipped band name and album title barely legible in the top right. Further marks off for not giving songwriter credits to Robert Johnson on “Stop Breaking Down”.
1/10

On balance
This continues to get better every time I listen to it. Whilst compiling this review, it has moved into my Top 10 albums of the 1970s. Is this the best 4-side LP release of all time ? I’m struggling to think of anything better.
9/10

TOTAL SCORE
What a beautiful buzz.
79/100.

For Haven:
8/10

[vastar iner]

OK.  I'm unsure how to review this one.  I would normally do a song by song exegesis in an as live manner.  But that seems wrong for this one.  It's the same, but different.  It doesn't feel like an album as a collection of songs, more of an extended jam session.  Shooting the breeze.  How much effort goes into something that sounds so easy?

I mean, right from the start, it's a bluesy honkytonk, with not much of a chorus, building up and up, rollicking along, before it calms down to psychedelia in what amounts to the bridge. There’s not much I can actually say about “Rocks Off” other than it is absolutely brilliant.

And the same can be said about most of the rest of the album, each one is a variation on a theme.  “Rip This Joint” starts similarly but much quicker. That one is a bit samey throughout, nowhere near as interesting as the opening track. And the third one sounds more like Canned Heat, even more stripped back, and no drum.

“Casino Boogie” is back to something more conventional. This one is more about the bass. Then “Tumbling Dice”. Slower again. More deliberate. This is the song after an entire night’s drinking, blinking into the dawn light and turning it off again.

“Sweet Virginia”. Is this Mull Of Kintyre? No, thankfully. Blues harmonica instead. (I am sure I read somewhere that Jagger is reckoned to be one of the absolute best harmonica players in the world. But it gets overlooked because of everything else. Similar to Paul McCartney - a bassist once told me that Macca was the absolute best bassist there had been.) This is even more down home than the previous one. This is definitely in a rocking chair on a wooden veranda with the good old boys as it’s persisting down with the hooch on tap.

Next one. “Torn And Frayed”. I can see where Lynyrd Skynyrd got their inspiration for “Sweet Home Alabama”. Again no real chorus as such, it’s an extension of the verse. “Sweet Black Angel”. Change of pace and feel.  Like a break as someone gets in more beers and “Loving Cup” is therefore an acoustic to start with.  Before going somewhat psychedelic in the middle. What a beautiful hearse?

And on and on.  It's a similar thing for the remainder of the album.  One that has a false start.  One that sounds like Louisiana Hayride.  One that is deep blues.  One that has an ocean roll of a drum.  One that sounds like Cream.  One that sounds like gospel.  But all of them sound like The Rolling Stones at the absolute peak of their game doing nothing but having a f***ing brilliant time.  There's no art in it - which is all the art in it. 

Beatles albums are iconic because they push the boundaries, they try something new, they changed music forever.  This is a riposte.  That you don't need to change everything, just do what you can with what you have, and make it better than ever before.

The trouble is the Stones seemed to stick to that formula ever since - and never even came close to achieving such dizzy heights again.

9/10.

[vastar iner]

Heh, I didn't read Shireblogger's review before doing mine, but he gets the same vibe as I do...

[raliverpool]

So to recap: 1972, The Beatles had split two years previously, and yet this London rock band had been usurped to their right to claim the crown of the Biggest Band in The World by some hard blues rock group formed by two veteran 1960s session men, and a drummer and singer from the Black Country. Whilst after Who's Next that London rock band were bigger than they ever had been.

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 making them very unpopular with the British media. Mick 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.

This tenth album contained a collection of stockpiled songs written between 1969 & 1972 which were not recorded as they wanted to ensure former manager Allen Klein would not get his hands on them. Wyman noted in his memoir Stone Alone that there was an increasing division between the band members who freely indulged in drugs (Richards, Miller, Keys, Taylor, engineer Andy Johns) and those who abstained to varying degrees (Wyman, Watts and Jagger) during the session recording for this double album. Hence, like The Beatles White Album, a number of tracks did not features all the Stones on them.


Hence we come to this album (#. "Track" length - Rating out of 10):

No. Title Length

All songs written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, except where noted.

No. Title Length Rate (out of 10.0)

Side one

1. "Rocks Off" 4:31 10.0 - Keith Richards ode to the adrenalin rush of a Heroin injection. A perfect frantic, hedonistic, raw, murky, sleazy track for its lyrical content featuring session men Nicky Hopkins on piano, and Jim Price and Bobby Keys on brass.

2. "Rip This Joint" 2:22 8.0 - A frantic rockabilly track with a proto punk feel to it.

3. "Shake Your Hips" (Slim Harpo) 2:59 5.5 - Their straightforward blues cover of the 1965 original. If they had made this album a single album it would surely have been one of the tracks to get dropped.

4. "Casino Boogie" 3:33 8.5 - a straightforward blues rhythm track which produces the swamp “boogie” feel. Its lyrics were written by Mick Jagger where he had read about David Bowie's cut and paste technique and adopted something similar.

5. "Tumbling Dice" 3:45 10.0 - The single culled from the album which reached a disappointing UK #5 & USA #7 (the previous album equivalent "Brown Sugar" reached UK #2 & USA #1). The lyrics tell the story of a gambler who cannot remain faithful to any woman. The music has a blues boogie-woogie rhythm with some great gospel female vocals from Clydie King & Vanetta Fields multi-tracked which The Faces would have killed for.

Side two

6. "Sweet Virginia" 4:27 9.0 - A great country blues shuffle singalong featuring Gram Parsons on backing vocals.

7. "Torn and Frayed" 4:17 9.0 - A straightforward Country Soul track which sounds like a Gram Parsons The Flying Burrito Brothers tribute, not least because it features that group's Al Perkins on Pedal steel guitar.

8. "Sweet Black Angel" 2:54 8.0 - A country-blues ballad, it was written about civil rights activist Angela Davis *, who was facing murder charges at the time (If you needed evidence that Ronald Reagan, J Edgar Hoover; and Richard Nixon were complete and utter b*st*rds then her persecution by them and their Governmental officies is a prime example of it). Unfortunately Jagger's West Indies impression/accent sounds cringeworthy today.

9. "Loving Cup" 4:25 8.5 - A great piano based soulful track where the music builds and builds to its rocking climax.

Side three

10. "Happy" 3:04 8.0 - One of Keith Richards signature tunes which the band regularly plays in concert. A straightforward rocker which was culled as the second single from the album in the USA peaking at USA #22.

11. "Turd on the Run" 2:36 3.5 - (Excuse the pun) A real stinker of a track. A fast unfocussed track lacking anything resembling a strong melody or great musicianship.

12. "Ventilator Blues" (Jagger/Richards/Mick Taylor) 3:24 5.5 - A blues track inspired by Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf Chess recordings. Another album filler.

13. "I Just Want to See His Face" 2:52 4.0 - An improvised voodoo gospel sounding rambling track that just meanders on for the best part of three minutes getting nowhere.

14. "Let It Loose" 5:16 9.5 - An emotional soulful gospel blues ballad with a fervent religious feeling, which builds and builds. It features backing vocals provided by Tami Lynn, Dr. John, Clydie King, Vanetta Field, Shirley Goodman and Joe Green.

Side four

15. "All Down the Line" 3:49 7.0 - The most conventional Stones sounding track on the album = a no nonsense rocker.

16. "Stop Breaking Down" (Robert Johnson) 4:34 6.5 - Rather naughtily the band tried to pass this off as the old Dylan/Simon/Page & Plant moniker "Trad. Arr. by" but got found guilty in 2000, as it was too similar to the Robert Johnson original from 1937 despite the group's attempt at rearranging this blues song.

17. "Shine a Light" 4:14 9.0 - Originally written in 1968 as "Get A Line On You" with lyrics lamenting Brian Jones out of control drug addiction; after his death through drowning in 1969 the band decided to rerecord it with a lot more positive lyrics as a gospel "You Can't Always Get What You Want" type tribute to the fallen Stone who had previously inspired Ray Davies to write the song "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion" about.

18. "Soul Survivor" 3:49 9.5 - A defiant, triumphant finale rock track aimed at their detractors to highlight after a decade in the business, that the Rolling Stones were still going strong, and were going to keep on going.

Overall 8 (139 / 18 = 77.22% (76%-81% category))


A similar album that I rate very highly ..... Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti (1975)





Studio Album Rate:

The Rolling Stones (1964) 6
The Rolling Stones No. 2 (1965) 5
Out of Our Heads (1965) 6
Aftermath (1966) 7
Between the Buttons (1967) 6
Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967) 5
Beggars Banquet (1968) 9
Let It Bleed (1969) 10
Sticky Fingers (1971) 8
Exile On Main St. (1972) 8
Goats Head Soup (1973) 6
It's Only Rock 'n Roll (1974) 5
Black and Blue (1976) 6
Some Girls (1978) 7
Emotional Rescue (1980) 3
Tattoo You (1981) 5
Undercover (1983) 3
Dirty Work (1986) 2
Steel Wheels (1989) 6
Voodoo Lounge (1994) 5
Bridges to Babylon (1997) 3
A Bigger Bang (2005) 4

Truth be told this was the end of their four album purple patch. It was almost as if they had exhausted their own musical formula and template with this exhaustive double album. They never made an album as good as their 1968 to 1972 material again, with 1978's Some Girls being the nearest to their golden era.

[Shireblogger]

Sept 25, 2015 13:44:06 GMT 1 Shireblogger said:

I think we cycle round next to raliverpool. Then it is vastar iner. Then I'd vote for smokeyb making another suggestion, as he's recently submitted a couple of reviews. Then we start the roundabout again with o then Shireblogger.

My proposal is that smokeyb nominates the next album, then it is o, Shireblogger, raliverpool and vastar iner again.

[o]

00:00 Rocks Off – Kicks the album off well, but drags. 5/10
04:32 Rip This Joint – Ah yes, I’m getting the jam feeling on this track, much better 7/10
06:55 Shake Your Hips – bit samey 5/10
09:55 Casino Boogie – Slowing the pace a little, a welcome change of gear. 6/10
13:30 Tumbling Dice – Familiar territory here. 6/10
17:17 Sweet Virginia – Laidback, but drags a little. 5/10
21:44 Torn And Frayed – Nice, but getting a bit samey. 6/10
26:02 Sweet Black Angel – Need a change of pace back up, or it just feels like filler. 5/10
29:00 Loving Cup – Feels like a middle of an album track/filler. 4/10
33:26 Happy – More upbeat and poppy. 6/10
36:31 Turd On The Run – Again, upbeat 5/10
39:09 Ventilator Blues – Starts well, and loses it’s way. 4/10
42:36 I Just Want To See His Face – Bluesy 5/10
45:31 Let It Loose – So laid back it’s horizontal! 5/10
50:49 All Down The Line – Upbeat, but samey to other tracks 4/10
54:40 Stop Breaking Down - Nice enough, but it’s dragging again. 4/10
59:14 Shine A Light – Bit more upbeat. 5/10
1:03:31 Soul Survivor meh
4.5/10, maybe it sounds better in the car or on headphones with a cold drink in my hand, but I just found it all a bit samey and meh, nothing stands out and makes me go “wow!”

[o]

This needs moving to the reviews sub forum.

[Smurfie]

Noted!