Exile on Main St.

It's a good record indeed, but I'd still reach for Aftermath, Between the Buttons, Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Goats Head Soup, Some Girls and even Tattoo You over it.

I’m always thrown by “Rocks Off” when the horns come in... like, where were the horn players hiding in this grungy cave? lol

Their most consistent album

Minus Let It Bleed maybe

I suppose I don't have much time for 'Casino Boogie', 'Turd on the Run' and 'I Just Want to See His Face', but everything else is good to great. I don't know why I don't feel like digging it out more often.

The entrance of the horns on 'Rocks Off' is such a great moment.

So many good things in "Casino Boogie": the slide, the epicene Keef harmonies, Charlie on the hi-hat for the outro, "Judge and jury/walkin' hand in hand."

and the best bobby keys sax solo

You can tell the Decca era was over. Somehow I don't think they would have allowed 'em to put "Kissing cunt in Cannes" in the lyrics, let alone the direct references to cocaine, morphine, needles and spoons on Sticky Fingers ...

there was a song on sticky fingers called 'sister morphine'

That's exactly what I mean.

Their most consistent album

Yeah, I dunno. I think its inconsistency is very much of a piece with other classic "inconsistent" albums, from the White Album to Sandinista!, where the (relative) ups and downs are more than the sum of their parts. It's also maybe a reason why it's less overexposed, since it's not some monolithic slab of radio staples but more of a mysterious beast that evinces more surprises with every listen. And I don't mean inconsistent as in some stuff is better than others, more that sonically it's kind of all over the place.

Sticky Fingers, fwiw, is probably the most consistent, imo. Of the classic albums of the era, I'd say Beggars Banquet is the most inconsistent.

It’s gonna be the death of maaay

this is maybe my favourite record when i'm listening to it, everything about it screams to me. it's funny how Pussy Galore's version, which is fine, is no more scabrous, inspired, fucked up, story of yr life than the original. the *sound* of the thing, that thick, trebly reverie. tbh this shd've been the end of rock music.

Agreed. It's consistent in the way a whirlwind of scum feels consistent when you're caught up in it.

The way "All Down the Line" seems to summarize everything that's already happened, then up the momentum.

I think about this description a lot

Speaking of which, I've been meaning to go though their entire discography in chronological order for a while now. I might as well get around to it.

The demos for this album are so great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJcDdLB_DLs

Side 4 feels different, sonically. It demurks a bit, sounds like an encore or a victory lap. I like that, now, but there were times when i felt like "Let It Loose" should be the climax.

(It is, sort of.)

i love side 3 so much, everything falls apart and more

come on, shine a light is the real climax.

Xp Yeah, 3 is an epic of its own

Don't get me wrong i love the whole album and listening again this morning there's something about the way the clouds part on 4 that's great but

i love side 3 so much, everything falls apart and more

Side 2 > Side 4 > Side 3 > Side 1.

i'd switch side 3 and 4, but otherwise, i can agree with that ranking

3 > 2 > 4 > 1 for me.

1 is brilliant, this is crazy talk

On ILM tbf

I mean in reality it's closer to 1 = 2 = 3 = 4.

That's more like it.

Well, yeag

YEAH

Aet hierarchies are bollocks, twist my arm it's 1-3-2-4 but

Don't matter where you are
Everybody's gonna need a ventilator

3>4>2>1

Just Want to See His Face > Let It Loose is my favorite 8 minutes by them.

absolutely agree

i love the end of "all down the line." best fade ever, mick trying to scream the song back into existence.

and "loving cup," man, still a mystery how it gets from point a to point b. there's a point early on where keith's rhythm anticipates the horn charts. i think that's the key.

I think the key to the whole thing is the breakdown in Rocks Off, when it goes from a huge horny riff monster into this strange amorphous druggy off-kilter psychedelic thing. A tip off.

Another oddity: Charlie is not playing drums on either of the best known radio songs!

Also something I just got: is the album title a drug reference?

That's my favourite part of 'Rocks Off' - I love the sheer sickness of Jagger's croaky vocal. You can still hear the drumming buried very quietly in the mix.

The general narrative goes that the Stones were crap at psychedelia and stopped being psychedelic after Their Satantic Majesties' Request, but I personally love The Stones' take on psychedelia and they nodded to that area of their sound every now and then. 'Can You Hear the Music?' on Goats Head Soup is another one.

There's something hinky happening in there, in "Rocks Off," because while the drums quietly play along in 4/4 I think the guitar goes into something like 6/8 against it. Gives it that queasy vibe.

Charlie is not playing drums on either of the best known radio songs!

Charlie is on the first part of "Tumbling Dice". Jimmy Miller stepped in for the coda.

It's a good record indeed, but I'd still reach for Aftermath, Between the Buttons, Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Goats Head Soup, Some Girls and even Tattoo You over it.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Tuesday, April 16, 2019 7:50 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

one of those rare stopped clock turrican posts

I'm not sure I need to listen to more Stones at this point but my favourite album by them and the only one I would still want to listen to is Exile.
Especially on a hot summer holidays evening !
There are some great extra tracks on the deluxe version of the album (I made myself a playlist with these : "Exile on... Backstreet" !

Exile is my favourite, though I've never listened to any Stones album beyond Goat's Head Soup, an album that does not thrill me too much tbh. I'm not much of a Stones fan, I suppose.

You're not missing much, but Some Girls is really good, and some tracks on Tattoo You and Bridges to Babylon and stuff are good, too.

not to mention Out of Our Heads, Aftermath, Between the Buttons, Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed....

.. I did say after Goat's Head Soup.

I know, but too often we -- I include myself -- forget they had an exemplary pop career before 1971.

after 1971 you need Some Girls and Emotional Rescue, maybe Tattoo You, definitely Dirty Work.

I don't forget any of that stuff, simply because I was familiar with the '60s Decca singles long before I heard Sticky Fingers or Exile on Main St. in full, but I agree that it often feels that American rock critics bizarrely overlook a lot of the Stones' 1963-1967 work.