DH writes:
Because it has a vibe to it that no other Stones album has. It’s the sound of dead ends, soured romance, bad breaks, sick friends, and a quest for good times that can seem futile. Not a “fun” theme, but one that holds the album together.
As with the White Album, not every song is a gem, but each one complements the ones around it. “I Just Wanna See His Face” is three minutes from the end of an impromptu jam — by itself, not much. But hearing it crossfaded from the funk of “Ventilator Blues,” and then having it followed by the mournful “Let it Loose,” it’s hard to imagine anything taking its place.
Contrary to some claims in this conversation, ‘Exile’ isn’t badly recorded. The record’s sound is deliberate in its density, but the component parts of every track are clear if you listen for them. Jagger’s vocals are vivid and dynamic, even though they’re further down in the mix than is customary.
If your idea of the Rolling Stones is of the slick hitmakers of ‘Some Girls’ and ‘Tattoo You,’ then ‘Exile’ is a disorienting listen. But if you can settle into the mood of it, you’re in for a thrilling ride.
SBW writes:
Exile on Main Street is my favorite albums of all time, and it should be one of your favorites too! No but seriously if you don’t like it that’s perfectly fine, but it is a great album and very rewarding when you get into it. I’ll try to split this into multiple categories to make it easier on the reader.
The Rawness/ Production
One of the main things about the album is the raw production, it tends to be the reason why people either hate it or love it. The production is murky, with the vocals being buried a lot of the time, while the guitars, drums and horns are at the forefront. There is very little overdubs and many of the songs came out of jam sessions. It’s just a very raw, emotion album, there’s kind of a tired energy throughout that fits it well.
The Emotion/ Mood
In my opinion, There’s two types of rock records: those you feel, and those you don’t. Exile on Main Street is one of those records you have to feel and completely take in, you can’t just play it as background music. You need to feel the raw excitement of “Rocks Off, “Rip This Joint” or “All Down the Line”. You need to feel the druggy haze of “I just want to see his face”. You need to feel Mick letting out all of his emotions of being tax exiled from their home country, loosing his former bandmate, loosing former Gfs, the drug busts, all the pain on “Let it Loose” and “Shine a Light”.
The diversity of genres
Usually regarded as blues record, it’s mainly a “Roots Rock record”, combining elements of roots genres, such as: Rockabilly (Rip this joint), Folk (sweet black Angel), country (Torn and frayed), country folk (sweet Virginia), gospel (shine a light, I just want to see his face), R&B/Soul (Loving Cup, let it loose), and ofc the Blues, ranging from electric blues (shake your hips), boogie rock (casino boogie) to standard blues rock (soul survivor, stop breaking down). There’s also songs like “Happy”, that combine multiple genres, the song has a Blues oriented riff, Pop oriented hook/chorus, soul flavored horns and a country influenced guitar solo.
The Guitars
This might be The Rolling Stones best guitar album. The guitar tones are some of the best you’ll ever hear, Keith has some underrated riffs here, and the two guitar team of Keith Richards and Mick Taylor are at their peak, with Keith playing some of his grooviest rhythm guitar, and Mick Taylor playing some of his most calculated solos. An example of this is “All Down the Line”, where Keith plays a fast, chugging rhythm guitar that drives the groove of the song, while Mick Taylor plays a raucous slide guitar solo. “Stop Breaking Down” is another example of the two working as a team, with Keith playing a mean, rough sounding, slow rhythm guitar, while Mick Taylor plays some “whiney” slide guitar that’s the total opposite of the rhythm guitar style but it fits so well. “Ventilator Blues” is loaded with guitars, containing about 4: An electric slide guitar (Mick Taylor) playing the main riff, while an acoustic slide guitar messes around a bit in the background, along with a non slide electric guitar, and towards the end Mick Taylor let’s loose and plays a melodic blues solo, one of his most underrated.
The Drums
Similar to the guitars, the production of this album really makes the drums come out, and may be Charlie’s (R.I.P.) finest hour. The tone of the snare is incredible. A perfect example of the iconic Exile drum sound is “Loving Cup”, although it’s a ballad, the cracking snare is at the forefront, with Charlie playing some of his most tasteful fills. The drumming on the album is quite stylistically diverse, ranging from the Swing inflected “Casino Boogie”, high energy with lots of fills on “Rip This Joint”, to just holding a groove on “All Down the Line”, and songs where there is both, like “Rocks Off”, which is just a solid, simple groove for the first 3 minutes, but at that 3 min mark Charlie picks up the tempo and intensity of the drumming, and throws a fill every now and then. “Sweet Virginia” has a heavy country shuffle-rhythm backbeat, and on the next country influenced song “torn and frayed” you think he will play something similar, but completely turns it around and plays something different. May Charlie Watts Rest In Peace ❤️
Uncommon ideas/techniques for the type of music it is
There is a lot of techniques, lyrics and instruments here that you won’t find on Blues/Roots rock records before Exile. Let’s use “Sweet Black Angel” for example: it’s a folk song at heart, being acoustic driven and political in nature, but it also has a washboard player as well as Charlie playing Pots and Pans, towards the end they include a very pretty Marimba solo, which throws in elements of world music in a folk song. “Let it Loose”’s arpeggiated guitar riff is filtered through a Leslie speaker, which was pretty common in rock songs of the day, but not a full on Gospel/ Soul tune that “Let it Loose” is. The intro song “Rocks Off” has a section about two minutes in where the guitars and vocals start “phasing” which makes it sound like they’re in space floating around, it almost sounds like something that would’ve found it’s way onto 1967’s “Their Satanic Majesties Request”. “Casino Boogie” has lyrics that are complete gibberish, the reason being that the Stones utilized a Beat Poet technique popularized by William S. Burroughs called “Cut Up technique”, a technique where “a finished and fully linear text and cutting it in pieces with a few or single words on each piece. The resulting pieces are then rearranged into a new text”, it’s gibberish, but poetic gibberish haha. Another song with a unique lyrical structure is “Tumbling Dice”, as the verses in the song decrease in number of lines, the chorus actually increases its number of lines, which I think is one of the reasons the song is so interesting on re listens. The album is also drenched with horns (Trumpets, Saxophones and even a Trombone), with them making it into songs where they usually aren’t used, such as “Sweet Virginia” an acoustic, anthemic country folk tune, contains a great saxophone solo from “Bobby Keys”. You see exactly what I mean by this? Then there’s the entirety of “I just want to see his face” a gospel song driven by an electric keyboard, double bass and some psychedelic bass drums and percussion, how many bands can say they have a song like that? Very few.
(Steel drums, an instrument used towards the end of the song “Loving Cup”)
The Lyrics
Most of the lyrics on Exile can be categorized into two sections: those that are hard to decipher and open to multiple interpretations, and those that are very direct. The ones that are direct (rip this joint, torn and frayed, shine a light, happy) are catchy and easy to sing, but are surprisingly packed with a lot of emotion. “Torn and frayed” is about Keith, and the lifestyle he was living at the time, on the verge of dying from heroin while being surrounded by all types of freaks and fakes, shine a light is about recently deceased band member Brian Jones. “Ventilator Blues” is about getting old, aging and dying. Stuff like “Sweet Virginia” leaves the listener wondering whether the song is a celebration of some sorts or a drug song. It’s the juxtaposition of those types of lyrics that make the album so fun and relistenable.
The iconic album cover
The cover is a black and white collage of a bunch unique characters from the past (such as performer “three ball Charlie” who could fit 3 pool balls in his mouth), it looks old timey yet surprisingly modern and trendy, which is a perfect way to describe the album itself.
10/10 album.
