Exile On Main St. 1972 Album

The Rolling Stones

Everyone and their uncles and aunts knows the tales behind the process of making this now-infamous album, which I will not delve into. The point that needs to be made here is, this is the Stones "because-we-can" LP, or double LP, rather. Lots of what is collected here is great, lots of it is unnecessary, and most of it was cut while at least some of the participants (not all) were overindulging in recreational substance abuse. For me, really, the chaotic and wavering "Rocks Off" sets the tone and succinctly sums up the entire record in its' four and a half minutes of run time, showcasing a group of people who had willingly lost control of themselves, but somehow were still able to pull out spots of genius from the haze of excess. Truth be told, the material itself does not match up to past records, and there is too much of it to justify your full, undivided attention. The other thing which strikes me funny about Exile is, despite its' long-running reputation as THE preeminent garage-rock album, it is cleanly executed from a production standpoint - arguably better than Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed. Yet somehow, producer Jimmy Miller's reputation has suffered over the years, thanks to Jagger and Richards throwing him under the bus.