Exile on Main St.

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Exile on Main St.
Studio album by The Rolling Stones
Released	12 May 1972
Recorded	10 July - late July 1972, 14 October - 23 November 1971, 4 December - 19 December 1971, 10 January - 25 March 1972
Genre	Rock
Length	67:17
Label	Rolling Stones/Virgin
Producer(s)	Jimmy Miller
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Rolling Stone link Robert Christgau (A+) link
The Rolling Stones chronology
Sticky Fingers (1971)	Exile on Main St. (1972)	Goats Head Soup (1973)

Exile on Main St. is a 1972 double album by The Rolling Stones. Initially greeted with lukewarm reviews, the album has since been critically reappraised and is often considered their best album, and one of the most revered of the rock era.

Contents 1 History 2 Track listing 3 Personnel 3.1 Additional personnel 4 Recording personnel 5 Charts 6 Certifications

[edit] History

Legend has it that the album was recorded in the basement of Keith Richards' new home, Nellcôte, at Villefranche-sur-Mer, near Nice, France. In reality, many basic tracks were recorded in 1969 and 1970 at Olympic Studios and Mick Jagger's Stargroves country house in England during sessions for Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers. These tracks, together with additional basic tracks recorded at Keith's villa in June 1971 (most probably only "Rip this Joint", "Shake Your Hips", "Casino Boogie", "Happy", "I Just Wanna See His Face", "Turd on the Run" and "Ventilator Blues"), were taken to Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles and 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. Also some tracks (like "Rocks Off and "Loving Cup") were freshly recorded in Los Angeles.

The basic band for the Nellcôte sessions is believed to have consisted of Keith Richards, Bobby Keys, Mick Taylor, Charlie Watts, Jimmy Miller, and Mick Jagger when he was available and/or interested. Bassist Bill Wyman did not find the ambience surrounding the Richards villa to be endearing 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 upright bassist Bill Plummer. Wyman noted in his memoir Stone Alone that there was a clear dichotomy between the band members who freely indulged in drugs (namely Richards, Miller and Keys) and those who more or less abstained (Wyman, Watts, and Jagger).

Producer Jimmy Miller, a notable drummer in his own right, covered for an absentee Watts on "Happy" and "Shine a Light". Thousands of dollars of heroin flowed through the mansion on a weekly basis in addition to a contingent of backseat drivers that included the likes of William S. Burroughs, Terry Southern, and Gram Parsons. Contrary to popular belief, Parsons does not appear on the album and was asked to leave Nellcôte in early July 1971, the result of both his obnoxious behavior and an attempt by Richards to clean the house of drug users as the result of pressure from the French police.

Although newlywed Jagger was frequently missing from Nellcôte, he immediately took charge during the second stage of recording in Los Angeles, arranging for keyboardists Billy Preston & Dr. John and the cream of the city's session backup vocalists to record layers of overdubs. 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.

The elongated recording sessions and differing methodologies on the part of Jagger and Richards reflected the growing disparity in their personal lives. During the course of the making of the album, Jagger had married first wife Bianca Pérez Macías resulting in their only child, Jade, being born in October 1971. Keith Richards was firmly ensconced with partner Anita Pallenberg, yet both were in the throes of heroin addiction, which Richards wouldn't overcome until the turn of the decade. Even though the album served as an encapsulation of the "cosmic American music" theory so ardently proselytized by Parsons and is often described as being Richards' finest moment, Jagger was already expressing his boredom with rock and roll in several interviews at the time of the album's release. With Richards largely beholden to heroin, the group's subsequent 1970s releases—directed largely by Jagger—would experiment in varying degrees with other musical genres, moving away from the thoroughly roots-based sound of "Exile."

Released in May 1972, having been preceded by the Top 10 hit "Tumbling Dice", Exile On Main St. was an immediate commercial success, hitting #1 worldwide just as the band embarked on their famed 1972 American Tour, their first in the U.S. in three years, and during which they played many songs from the new album. "Happy", sung by Keith Richards, would be a Top 30 US hit later that summer. Although its initial critics considered Exile on Main St. to be a ragged record, its legend grew steadily over time and has since been considered by many as The Rolling Stones' finest hour. It is currently certified triple platinum in the US alone.

In 1998 Q magazine readers voted Exile on Main St. the 42nd greatest album of all time, while in 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 3 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 1987 it was ranked #3 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the greatest 100 albums of the period 1967-1987, then in 2003 it was listed as number 7 on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Also in 2003, Pitchfork Media ranked it number eleven on their Top 100 Albums of the 1970s. In 2001, the TV network VH1 placed it at number 12 on their best albums survey. 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. [1]

In 1994, Exile on Main St. was remastered and reissued on one CD by Virgin Records.

The album's 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, and Liz Phair titled hers Exile in Guyville. Phair even claims her album to be a song-by-song "response" to Exile on Main St. According to "U2 at the End of the World," an early name for Achtung Baby was "Cruising Down Main Street."

[edit] Track listing

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

1. "Rocks Off" – 4:32 Recorded in LA, early 1972
2. "Rip This Joint" – 2:23 Features Bill Plummer on upright bass
3. "Shake Your Hips" (Slim Harpo) – 2:59 Recordings started in Spring 1970 at Stargroves
4. "Casino Boogie" – 3:33 Features Richards on bass
5. "Tumbling Dice" – 3:45 Features Jagger on guitar and Mick Taylor on bass. Recordings started at Stargroves, Spring 1970, under the working title "Goodtime Women Blues"
6. "Sweet Virginia" – 4:25 Recorded in mid-1970 at Stargroves
7. "Torn & Frayed" – 4:17 Features Mick Taylor on bass and Al Perkins on pedal steel guitar. Recorded in L., early 1972
8. "Sweet Black Angel" – 2:54 Features Jimmy Miller on percussion. Recorded early 1970 at Stargroves
9. "Loving Cup" – 4:23Recorded in LA, early 1972
10. "Happy" – 3:04 Features Richards on lead vocal and bass and producer Jimmy Miller on drums
11. "Turd on the Run" – 2:37 Features Bill Plummer on upright bass
12. "Ventilator Blues" (Jagger, Richards, Mick Taylor) – 3:24
13. "I Just Want to See His Face" – 2:52 Features Bill Plummer on upright bass and Richards on piano
14. "Let It Loose" – 5:17 Features Dr. John among others on backing vocals. Recordings started at Stargroves, early 1970.
15. "All Down the Line" – 3:49 Features Bill Plummer on upright bass and Bill Wyman on electric bass. Recorded at Stargroves, spring 1970, and Sunset Sound, early 1972
16. "Stop Breaking Down" (Robert Johnson) – 4:34 Features Jagger on rhythm guitar
17. "Shine a Light" – 4:14 Features Miller on drums and Billy Preston on organ. An early version was recorded in Spring 1970, and released in 1970, by Leon Russell as "Get a Line on You," together with Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman, Mick Taylor and Ringo Starr.
18. "Soul Survivor" – 3:49 Features Richards on bass. Recorded in LA, early 1972

[edit] Personnel

• Mick Jagger – guitar, harmonica, keyboards, vocals
• Keith Richards – guitar, bass, piano, keyboards, vocals
• Mick Taylor – guitar, bass
• Charlie Watts – drums
• Bill Wyman – bass, keyboards, vocals

[edit] Additional personnel

• Ian Stewart – piano, keyboards
• Mac Rebennack (Dr. John) – backing vocals
• Billy Preston – organ, piano, keyboards, vocals
• Bill Plummer – double bass
• Nicky Hopkins – piano, keyboards
• Clydie King – backing vocals
• Jim Price – organ, trombone, trumpet
• Bobby Keys – horn, saxophone
• Amyl Nitrate – percussion, marimba
• Al Perkins – pedal steel guitar
• Jerry Kirkland – backing vocals
• Tammi Lynn – vocals
• Kathi McDonald – backing vocals
• Jimmy Miller – drums
• Merry Clayton – vocals
• Vanetta Field – backing vocals
• Shirley Goodman – Backing vocals
• Joe Green – backing vocals

[edit] Recording personnel

• Glyn Johns – engineer
• Andy Johns – engineer
• Joe Zaganno – engineer
• Jeremy Gee – engineer

• Robert Frank – photography
• Norman Seeff – design
• John Van Hamersveld – design

[edit] Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1972	UK Top 50 Albums	1
1972 1973	Billboard Pop Albums Billboard Pop Albums	1 137

Single

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1972	"Tumbling Dice"	UK Top 50 Singles	5
1972	"Tumbling Dice"	The Billboard Hot 100	7
1972	"Happy"	The Billboard Hot 100	22

[edit] Certifications

Organization	Level	Date
RIAA – USA	Gold	May 30, 1972
RIAA – USA	Platinum	May 31, 2000

The Rolling Stones
Mick Jagger | Keith Richards | Charlie Watts | Ron Wood
Former members
Brian Jones | Bill Wyman | Mick Taylor | Ian Stewart | Dick Taylor
See also
Chuck Leavell | Darryl Jones | Andrew Loog Oldham | Allen Klein
Related articles
Discography | The Glimmer Twins | Nanker Phelge | Rolling Stones Records | Rock and Roll Circus
Categories
The Rolling Stones | Members | Albums | Singles | Songs | Tours
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