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Rolling Stones 1972

Before the Rolling Stones began torturing the world with countless tours and album re-releases, their leathery and distorted faces no longer recognizable (apart from Jagger's whaleshark mouth) from the fresh faced English bluesmen - they made good blues-soaked rock and roll albums. Before all the flamboyant shit, the Rolling Stones made an album called Exile on Main St.

Cover - Exile on Main St.

Exile on Main St. has a place in the pantheon of rock n' roll legend. Recorded at Keith Richards' new la de da diggings, Nellcote, near Nice, France, the sprawling mansion soon became the epitome of rock n' roll circus: drugs, booze, debauchery with an endless stream of world famous drug addict hangers on. These included such as Beat writer William S. Burroughs, singer Gram Parsons and actor Terry Southern.

Some of the madness of this is represented in the exceptional cover art, which undoubtedly aided the success of the album: a random collection of black and white photographs of vaudeville performers, gypsy dancers, and trapeze artists. One photograph shows a negro showman with three lemons crammed into his stretched mouth. The desperate nature of the red font of the title scrawled across the album's top right hand corner reinforces the special nature of Exile on Main St.

In tiger, tiger's humble opinion it is one of the greatest albums ever made. As with The Beatles' self titled album, the album that soon became known simply as Exile was recorded at a time when the band wasn't at it's most cohesive: lead singer Jagger recently married and uninterested in rock and roll; Keith Richards down the well of heroin addiction, of which he would not reappear until the end of the decade. The resultant unrest within the rest of the band makes this album sound raw and aggressive, with very punk rock styling, a remarkable sound for 1972. It debuted at no. 1 on the charts, driven by the success of the first radio release, ‘Tumbling Dice'.

It is said that the blues gospel feel of songs such as ‘Tumbling Dice', ‘Loving Cup', ‘Let it Loose' and Shine a Light' were influenced by Jagger and session keyboardist Billy Preston's visit to a local evangelical church.

The immediate success of Exile provided a fillip for the 1972 tour of the US. Exile safeguarded the Rolling Stones from being seen as a ‘Sixties' band being left behind in the new age of a vastly different music taste of the ‘70s.

Exile on Main Street is often referenced in the top 5 to 10 of all-time greatest albums lists.

Buy the album. Sprawl yourself on the floor, close to the stereo. Play it loud and stare at the cover art (get yourself a copy on double vinyl, preferably, because the cover art and liner notes are kickass). This is the most rock and roll rock and roll gets.

That's my rock and roll ramble.

Jackson Duxbury