Exile on Main Street [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

The Rolling Stones | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 26, 1994)
• Original Release Date: 1972
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Virgin Records Us
• ASIN: B000000W5L
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (671 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,495 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

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 Breaking Down

17. Shine A Light

18. Soul Survivor

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Before Keith Richards's bad habits took over for a time in the mid-'70s, his work ethic was quite high. Stories abound of the long, if somewhat off-schedule, hours he spent working on this classic album in the basement of his home in France. Hanging together as much because of great songwriting ("Rocks Off," "Soul Survivor") as its fabled grungy atmosphere, Exile caps the Stones' great 1968-'72 run with a force that belies their supposed spiritual tiredness. What some of these songs are about is anybody's guess--Keith claims "Ventilator Blues" was inspired by a grate, while the song plays like an ode to a pistol--but that's just part of this album's hazy game. --Rickey Wright

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

246 of 255 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Classic Album in an Overpriced Package May 18, 2010

By Exile On My Street VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Let me start by saying this is one of the greatest rock albums in history and quite possibly my favorite by a phenomenal rock and roll band at the peak of their powers. So now that you're asking yourself why I gave this package only three stars allow me to explain. The point is simple-it's too much money and all of the individual components of this set are available separately with what amounts to less money than the whole enchilada.

In this set you get the remastered original album on disc one. As with all of the 2009 Stones remasters, this version is somewhat clearer but louder and compressed. I do not feel the minimal increase in clarity is worth suffering through the loss of dynamic range. In addition, the first thing I noticed was that certain instruments and Jagger's voice appear to be a little too high-ended in parts. The vocals are more upfront than before and, in effect, brings a different sound to the entire mix that makes the entire recording seem out of place from what I am used to. The 1994 Virgin remaster is a much better product so I do not feel the CD upgrade is necessary. In fact, upon listening, the '94 Virgin sounds much closer to the vinyl version enclosed in this package.

The vinyl, if you aren't aware, is 180 gram quality virgin vinyl and it sounds stellar!! The remastering really brings a special clarity to the recording without sacrificing the dynamic range, which is my main problem with the CD.

The second disc are what most fans are interested in and after one listen I can tell you that these are worth it. Yes, there were overdubs and lyrics added to songs that previously had none and contain modern day Jagger vocals. Someone familiar enough with the sound of Exile will be able to pick out which parts were recently overdubbed and which parts are from the original Exile sessions. That may sound like a problem but it really isn't because otherwise, the songs chosen would have been mostly instrumentals if left in their unfinished state and more importantly, the songs are good. As good as these new songs are the real gems are the original alternate versions of 'Tumblin' Dice' titled 'Good Time Women', alternate 'Loving Cup' and an alternate of 'Soul Survivor' with Keith on lead vocals and different lyrics. Hearing these three songs makes you wonder why they didn't put more alternate versions on this disc as I'm sure fans like myself would love to hear them. However, we have waited this long so now I'm simply nitpicking. These new songs are very welcome and a pleasure to listen to. As of this writing I have only listened to the outtakes disc one time but 'Plundered My Soul', 'I'm Not Signifying' and 'Following the River' appear to be the standout tunes.

Another problem with this set is the DVD. It is not the complete 'Stones in Exile' DVD but a promo containing snippets of that, 'Sucker Blues' and 'Ladies and Gentlemen.' It runs for 30 minutes and the 'Stones in Exile' DVD to be released in June is 151 minutes. You do the math. Hence, this DVD will become useless in a few weeks for a diehard fan.

The four postcards are cool and the 65 page booklet is interesting with some rarely seen photographs, but not necessary, in my opinion.

The reason's I feel this set is too expensive and only gave it three stars are as follows:

If you purchase each item separately, excluding the postcards and book (which are not available separately to my knowledge) this set gets a lot cheaper.

The vinyl - $33

Remastered Deluxe set - $20

Stones in Exile DVD - $13, released in June

That is a total of $66.00 so unless you feel the book and four postcards make up for the remaining $70 of the cost, this set is not worth it as a whole. Additionally, Target is selling the outtakes disc as a separate disc for $10 as of this writing and, as previously mentioned, the DVD is not the FULL 'Stones in Exile' DVD.

I'm sure people will comment on my giving one of the greatest albums ever made only three stars when this should easily be a five star set. Based on the material here it comes close if you take each piece of it and judge it on it's own merits. As a boxset, however, you must take the entire package into account and in this instance, the whole does not equal the sum of it's parts, as sorry as I am to say that. 'Exile' is a classic and the outtakes are enough to make any Stones fan salivate and, as a fan, I love everything here. But as a consumer, it's simply too much money for what you're getting, when everything included here, minus the book and postcards, can be found cheaper than this entire set combined.

I hope I was able to save some of you some hard-earned cash because I certainly wish I knew then what I know now in regards to this set.

536 of 570 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A place, not a CD February 26, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

I came to terms with Exile when asked by a friend what I thought the five all-time greatest Stones songs were - songs that will still be alive 50 years from now. My response was fairly quick - Satisfaction, Gimme Shelter, You Can't Always Get What You Want, Wild Horses, and Sympathy for the Devil. Just my opinion. But I realized immediately none were from Exile, which I think is the Stones' all-time best album. Yes, Tumbling Dice and Happy are up there, and some cuts on Exile are, IMHO, absolutely awesome (viz their cover of Robert Johnson's Stop Breaking Down) - but clearly Exile is not not rich in standout hits. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Like few other albums, Exile is a world, a place I immerse myself in - a distillation of American blues and gospel and country and rock - a funky smokefilled bar or afternoon fishfry or steamy bordello, with beer and bourbon, pianos and slide guitars and hard-partying working people letting it loose, shining a light, shaking their hips, boogieing, scraping the sh*t off their shoes, rocking the joint all down the line. Exile critics cite no outstanding hit songs and too much "fill" and murky production/garage band sound. But that's the point, the genius of the album. The album IS the song - I love that murky sound - I listen more to my scratchy old vinyl than to the new cleaned up CD I just bought from Amazon - Exile is where the Stones perhaps peaked, where, catalyzed by Taylor's sinuous guitar playing off Richard's rythmn funk and Hopkin's/Stewart's honky tonk piano, they finally came home to the country blues where they began, when Brian Jones, God rest his soul, alias Elmo Lewis, played slide guitar in a London bar and 18 year-old Keith actually thought he was seeing Elmore James - smokey, funky, rockin, wailing, torn and frayed poor white trash and juke joint black, the soundtrack of Saturday night, til my late night friends leave me in the cold grey dawn. Hang out in Exile. Accept it on its own terms. It will be, I firmly believe, the Stones ALBUM (not song) that will stand the test of time. Pass me the bourbon - quick- the band's coming on for another set and the night's still young.

138 of 145 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What makes this the best Stones album? December 18, 2002

By John Stodder

Format:Audio CD

For decades, it has been a truism that Exile on Main Street is the greatest album the Stones ever made, and that after this album, their career has gone slowly but exorably downhill. Lately I've seen posts on this and other sites challenging "Exile," saying essentially that the album is wildly overrated, and doesn't have the songs that other Stones albums have--"Beggars Banquet," "Let it Bleed" "Sticky Fingers" "Some Girls" and even "Goats Head Soup" getting the nods from these revisionist thinkers.

They have half a point, these folks. There is nothing that hits the incredible highs of "Gimme Shelter," "Street Fighting Man," "Brown Sugar," "Angie," "Beast of Burden," "Wild Horse" or "Shattered" on this album. The two hits that this album generated, "Tumbling Dice" and "Happy" are much-loved, but didn't have the impact of the above singles. And against their earlier 60s hits like "Paint it Black" or "Satisfaction"--forget it.

All that's granted. If someone wanted to be very reductive, much of "Exiles..." just sounds like a boogie album typical of its era--in the early 70s there was sort of a roots revival going on, so lots of bands were doing a sort of combination of blues and gospel with lots of tambourines shaking, pianos rolling, and backup women singers. Stretches of "Exile..." certainly have that Delaney and Bonnie feel. Other songs sound like attempts to emulate early Little Feat, or Gram Parsons, who famously partied with Keith throughout the making of some of this album.

So what makes this album their greatest?

It's hard to describe, but here's my best shot: It's about "feel." Never before or since did the Stones manage to create such a consistent and compelling mood that lasts from the first song to the last. It is a very naked album, both musically and lyrically. I know it was worked and worked, but the result is an album that sounds like the Stones are playing not in some French basement, but in YOUR basement. And, on this album like no other, they are singing their lives. The songs are grooves over which Mick and Keith simply testify as to what's rattling around their heads--encounters with women, thoughts on life as a rock and roller, spiritual, moral and political questions, from the sublime to the obscene. In its own way, this is a "confessional" album like Joni Mitchell's "Blue" or Neil Young's "Harvest," except unlike those two artists who equate honesty with a quiet and stripped down musical approach, the Stones say what's in their hearts to a rocking beat. And, they don't glorify it. "I only get my rocks off when I'm sleeping." They are nostaglic, isolated, scared, bored, tired, loaded, wondering what will happen to them, recognizing that this life they are leading is artificial and perhaps even dangerous, but a mystery. So they lean on that backbeat and those fat chords, and seemingly just spill all of it, in an almost stream of consciousness way.

To me, "Exile on Main Street" is really just one long song that carries the album's title, a self-contradicting phrase (like "Hide in Plain Sight") that evokes a peculiar sense of paranoia that only a bunch of guys who became international superstars would feel, that sense that here you are in plain sight for everyone to see, but you're gone, you don't live in the same world as your fans anymore, the pleasures of ordinary life have been ripped away and replaced with something that may be much better in some ways, enviable, yes, but also frightening and hard to decipher.

Musically, when you compare "Exile..." with other Stones albums, the main difference I find is that most other Stones albums are highly eclectic. Take "Sticky Fingers." You get some great rock songs, but you also get a jazzy, Latin-tinged jam, some country songs, some orchestral numbers--the mood changes radically several times, and in the end, it's just a collection of great songs without any particular theme. Ditto with "Let it Bleed," "Beggars Banquet" or "Goats Head Soup"--Fantastic albums with lots of great songs, but somewhat randomly assembled musically. I go to those albums for songs that I want to hear, and don't always track them all the way through. But lovers of "Exile..." usually start at the beginning and just follow it all the way through, like a movie. And man, it delivers. And today, 30 years on, it still sounds very fresh.

In my personal little list of the greatest rock albums, this is one of the top 10, along with "Revolver," "John Wesley Harding," "London Calling," "St. Dominic's Preview," "Pet Sounds," "Songs in the Key of Life," "Blood on the Tracks," and the aforementioned "Blue." And like all of them, "Exiles..." comes from the heart, and that's what makes it great.