Track Listing

1. Rocks Off
2. Rip This Joint
3. Shake Your Hips
4. Casino Boogie
5. Tumbling Dice
6. Sweet Virginia
7. Torn And Frayed
8. Sweet Black Angel
9. Loving Cup
10. Happy
11. Turd On The Run
12. Ventilator Blues
13. I Just Want To See His Face
14. Let It Loose
15. All Down The Line
16. Stop Breakin' Down
17. Shine A Light
18. Soul Survivor

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #87510 in Music
• Released on: 1994-05-05
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Limited Edition

CD Description
Still inspired by their STICKY FINGERS recording sessions in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, EXILE ON MAIN STREET found the Rolling Stones sounding more like a Southern fried juke-joint band than ever before. That EXILE was recorded in a basement is no surprise, either--much of it sounds as if it was recorded live at a gospel revival, with a final mix that gives nohierarchy to specific instruments. The result is a swampy, most exhilarating chunk of rock & roll euphoria.
EXILE sharpens the country, blues, and gospel tendencies the Stones began exploring in the late '60s on albums like BEGGAR'S BANQUET. Here, armed with an assortment of backing musicians and vocalists, the band virtually inhabits the spirit of each style, distilling the whole to a ragged, soulful perfection.From the escalating, horn-driven vamps of "Rocks Off" through the back porch singalong "Sweet Virginia" to the mean blues stomp of "Ventilator Blues" and the church-like strains of "Shine a Light", EXILE's double-album length plays like a weary, boozed-up sermon on the very meaning of rock music. This is the closest the band ever came to religion, and it still has the power to convert.

Customer Reviews

The best Stones album.
Exile on Main Street is undoubtedly the apex of the Stones' career & one of the classic albums of all time. It sounds so effortless, made by a bunch of tax exiles in France, lost in music & the excesses of the rock& roll lifestyle.

This is even better than previous albums Let it Bleed & Sticky Fingers (which was also reissued in a similar CD-sleeve to this edition & was remastered accordingly)- the fusion of blues, rock & roll & Parsons-inflected country continues here. Along with the usual classic Stones line-up (including the undervalued Mick Taylor) there are guests such as Al Perkins (Manassas), Dr John & 'Amyl Nitrate' (who's that then?).

All 18-tracks are great- amusing that Pussy Galore would cover this complete album in the 80s & Liz Phair's classic Exile in Guyville would use this as a template for its own feminist take on the world of male rock. There are classic Stones-rockers- All Down the Line, Soul Survivor, Turd on the Run, Rip This Joint. There are country-inflected tracks- Torn & Frayed (big influence on The Charlatans Just When You're Thinkin it Over), Sweet Virginia & Casino Boogie. There's the crude Co*ksucker Blues, aka Ventilator Blues & the odd soundscape of I Just Want to see His Face. Rocks off pre-empts Primal Scream's career & sounds like the Stones meets Sly & the Family Stone.

The two fave moments for me are Keith Richard's finest vocal, Happy & the epic Let it Loose. Exile on Main Street is one of the classic double-albums, like Tommy, Warehouse (Songs&Stories), Sign'O'the Times & Songs in the Key of Life. It has to be owned by anyone who claims to have a passing interest in rock music.

It would be downhill for The Stones after, the odd great track like Beast of Burden & Start Me Up not compensating for patchy albums like Black or Blue or Dirty Work.