Exile on Main St.

I picked up a used copy of the 2010 double-disc reissue, to compare w/the 1994 CD that I've always had. My not-so-golden ears verdict on the 2010 version: Do Not Like!! It's an excessively "boosted & brightened" remaster, with levels & separation that sound very (to get technical) "messed with." Beyond that, just the act of scraping the dirt off this album feels wrong... it strips away all the atmosphere & mystique! It's like "brightening up" Dragnet, or Slanted & Enchanted, or, uh... Man of the Woods! (Great photos in the booklet, though, of the shirtless band dudes lounging flat on their backs while "recording the album.")

Btw - the back cover of the '94 CD says it was remastered by Bob Ludwig "using Apogee UV22 Super CD Encoding [...] a unique new process capturing all the fine detail of the original analogue master on standard audio equipment." I'd like to hear the OG vinyl someday; but in the meantime, I'll take this Apogee stuff at face value, b/c the '94 CD sounds great.

I've always heard that the '94 reissue (that's the one on Virgin, right?) is indeed the best.

Yeah that’s the one.

Fell in love with this one on a used cassette, which probably had its own murk. Then a used 94 cd, which is damaged on Stop Breaking Down. My SO got a zipper Sticky Fingers at an estate sale the other day, and the Exile post cards fell out. I’ve never hear it on LP. This is all a sign.

I just paid $2 on eBay (+ $2.75 shipping) for a used copy of the 1994 Tattoo You CD (“Condition is Good. Case has some cracking.”) — on the theory that the ‘94 remasters must be the ones to get.

I owned the '94 cassette in years. It lived in my car.

I think I also have that 94 CD (but since I don't really use CDs anymore, I'm not sure...).
I haven't really noticed any major differences on the latest remaster on spotify, though.

I think something’s up there... when I listen to Exile at my desk (via YT Music, not Spotify), I’ve also been listening to the “2010 Remaster” — and those audio files do indeed sound like the CD I was used to (thus my surprise & revulsion when I played the actual 2010 disc)! The online version also doesn’t contain the bonus disc, which seems like more evidence that it’s mislabeled...

Spotify has the 2010 Re-Mastered and the Deluxe Version, which is the one i listen to.

Love this track "Good Time Women" on the bonus disc (it's sort of a proto-"Tumbling Dice"). The alt take of "Soul Survivor" is also awesome... the louche-ness of Keith's(?) vocal!

"Well just can't fuck it, and I just can't suck it, every time that she walks by.... Uh huh huh.... Et cetera, et cetera... ex cetrrraaaa....."

!!

Just got the ‘94 Ludwig CD for $2 at my local Salvation Army - pretty stoked!

Slept through a good part of Knives Out--just tired--but I liked hearing "Sweet Virginia" at the end.

Haha — my friend texted me about that song being in the movie (’cuz he knows I’ve been on an Exile kick).

i was so happy that they used it :D

playing it late and I got as far as All Down the Line before my daughters sent me to bed

GIMME LITTLE DRINK

i was so happy that they used it :D

Well, now I have to see this movie.

doc from 2010 up on youtube

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

ooh thx

GIMME LITTLE DRINK

otm

very much enjoyed that doc

The high harmony on sweet Virginia - I always thought that was maybe one of the various guys in the studio who happened to be next to a mic. But the doc shows that it’s Keith

Yep! Don’t sleep on Keith’s harmonies, he has a really nice high register (or used to)

Yea I mean I’ve been a fan for years, just never heard that particular timbre I guess coming from old keef

i loled at Wyman crying about not having Branston Pickle or whatever while staying in the south of France

haha

omg yes i just watched the doc yesterday and was like that is the most Wyman thing, pouting about fkn PG Tips & “french milk is shit”

Haha yeah, i got flashbacks of Nick Mason moaning endlessly about apple pies 'with no crust' in '.. Pompeii'.

I missed the last revive. Will absolutely watch that in the near future.

omg yes i just watched the doc yesterday and was like that is the most Wyman thing, pouting about fkn PG Tips & “french milk is shit”

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, January 12, 2021 7:13 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Haha yeah, i got flashbacks of Nick Mason moaning endlessly about apple pies 'with no crust' in '.. Pompeii'.

― piscesx, Tuesday, January 12, 2021 7:36 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

this is englishness incarnate btw

am reminded of that Python sketch with eric idle going on about brits abroad moaning of the absence of watney's red barrel

playing it late and I got as far as All Down the Line before my daughters sent me to bed

― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Saturday, November 30, 2019 5:21 AM (one year ago)

last night, after getting my daughter ready for bed, I left my phone sitting on her dresser with this album playing... I dozed off in the armchair to "Casino Boogie" and woke up in an empty room to "Let it Loose." good little nap :)

btw, there are some hot takes of a few of these songs on the Ladies and Gentlemen 1972 tour album (...plus a bunch of other songs that are not from Exile, and thus less notable).

Yeah, I just watched that film a few days ago. (Sadly the BD seems to have fallen OOP!) One of my favorite concert films. Granted the filmmaking isn't particularly special, the sound is a little muddy and the detail and focus in the picture isn't great (it's not a brightly lit stage like in the Some Girls: Texas '78 film), but the picture and sound quality is still a more than adequate - like if it was a bootleg it would be stupendous. It simply captures great performances from arguably the greatest Stones tour.

Anyone ever notice that 2:32 into "Exile" someone audibly sniffs into the microphone? Seems fitting giving it's the start of this album.

Er, into "Rocks Off."

joe's got a cough, sounds kinda rough

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.

― Thus Sang Freud, Wednesday, April 17, 2019 4:55 PM

OK, I hear this now (I didn't get it before)

People are always debating what a single LP White Album would look like, but I don’t see much discussion of Exile. Let’s say it’s 1972, and you’re the label rep who has been tasked with reducing Exile to a single record. What goes on your version?

despite all three being great I could lose the songs after All Down the Line. I don’t suppose that’s going to make it a single record though

Rocks Off
Rip This Joint
Tumbling Dice
Happy
Sweet Virginia
Loving Cup

All Down the Line
Ventilator Blues
Let It Loose
Shine a Light
Soul Survivor

‘People took so many drugs, they forgot they played on it’ – stars on Exile on Main St, the Rolling Stones’ sprawling masterpiece

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/may/09/drugs-exile-on-main-st-rolling-stones-sprawling-masterpiece-50-rocks-off-cote-dazur

Rocks Off
Shake Your Hips
Tumbling Dice
Torn and Frayed
Loving Cup

Happy
Sweet Virginia
All Down the Line
Let It Loose
Shine a Light
Soul Survivor

if you take the full set of situations in which a musician really doesn't remember playing on a recording (for example, david bowie and a lot of station to station, i think?), i wonder what percentage of them fall on the Better than average recording side and how many on the Worse.

trick question. if you don't remember playing on a recording that sucks, either no one will tell you about it later, or they will and you won't believe it.

Supposedly Alice Cooper can't remember making about three of his early 80s albums.

Side one
1. Rocks Off
2. Rip This Joint
3. Shake Your Hips
4. Casino Boogie
5. Sweet Virginia

Side two
1. Happy
2. All Down The Line
3. Stop Breaking Down
4. Sweet Black Angel
5. Ventilator Blues
6. I Just Want To See His Face

I think this record would lose a lot of the balance between weird murk and pop if you trimmed it more than a few songs. Side three after Happy is what makes the album really strange and more than just a long Stones record; I love the way Let It Loose builds up out of the uncomfortable swirl of See His Face. The other thing about it is there is a lot less difference here between the really polished and studio-sweetened stuff and the half-written stuff. It really does all kind of blend together way more than their other records since and maybe including Aftermath. So I say just lose Torn and Frayed and Stop Breaking Down and call it good. If you need to make it no longer than Aftermath, I guess you could go 14 tracks, and also lose Casino Boogie and Soul Survivor.

On the other hand, Goats Head should have been a double with all the weird reject songs they'd been sitting on sprinkled around it Physical Graffiti-style, songs like Traveling Man and the stuff from side two of Metamorphosis. I wouldn't mind Angie so much if it segued into Cocksucker Blues.

People are always debating what a single LP White Album would look like, but I don’t see much discussion of Exile

because there's a *ton* of filler/bullshit on the white album and almost none on exile

Sounds about right.