The Greatest of All Time

[chasea]

The Greatest of All Time



In 1972, The Rolling Stones found themselves unwelcome in their own country. As targets of several public drug raids, and forced into tax exile, The Stones moved to the south of France to begin work their tenth album. Recorded under extraordinary circumstances, Exile on Main St. stands as the pinnacle of The Stones’ Stonesiness. Everything about the making album was done in a style completely unique to the band.

To record what is thought by many to be the greatest rock and roll album of all time, the band convened in the dank basement of Nellcôte, a house that served as former Gestapo headquarters during the second World War. A traveling circus of friends, session musicians, producers, engineers, managers, wives, girlfriends, dope dealers, and hired thugs all made the trip. The music, recorded in the basement at odd hours by whomever happened to be around, reflects the chaotic atmosphere of what was going on upstairs. The recording schedule was dictated by Keith's drug use.

The packaging of the Exile reflects the atmosphere in which the album was made. The cover photo, taken by Robert Frank, is a collage of circus sideshow freaks found on the wall of a tattoo parlor somewhere along Route 66. On the back of the album is a series of similar photos of The Stones, taken while finishing the album in Los Angeles. Inside, the track list is scrawled by Mick.

It is perhaps the best example of the all-too ubiquitous black, white, and red color scheme. The album cover screams “Rock and Roll.” And the 18 songs inside, without a real hit to speak of, do not fail to deliver.

Perfect art for the perfect album.

[e-RICHIE]

jew ever where these cats would be if brian jones knew how to swim atmo?

[Archibald]

jew ever where these cats would be if brian jones knew how to swim atmo?

Is that English?

[chasea]

Is that English?

I got his meaning. Brian was out of the band way before he was out of the band. Spent his last recording sessions crying and talking to himself. He'd long lost interest in the guitar. But his sitar on Paint It Black and his marimba on Under My Thumb come to mind.

Funny thing is Brian was a strong swimmer. At one point, he'd gone way out into the ocean, while on several substances, and was thought to be a goner. Makes his death that much more suspicious. There was never any real conclusion drawn there, as his coroner's report reads "death by misadventure."

I gotta say, 68-72 were my favorite years for the band. The Mick Taylor years.

[Archibald]

Pretty sure Jeff Buckley took swimming lessons from Jones.

Nice write up, btw. Congrats on the new section, too. I'm not much of a dresser or style maven (<- that's for you Richard. It's Yiddish; means expert.), but it's all good reading.

[dashDustin]

The Americans is the only coffee table book I have. And it's not really a coffee table book. But it's quite awesome.

[chasea]

Same year Merckx won the Giro and the Tour, a couple classics, and broke the hour record. 1972 was a good year for the greats.

[Til Dropp]

Growing up though I had my favorite songs and enough 8-track tapes and albums of Stones I never was one to wait in line overnight to get their concert tickets (was much more of Zep, Hendrix, Jeff Beck... and closet Floyd guy). Now I genuinely appreciate Stones (and the Who) much more so... get older and 'my generation' nostalgia takes over I suppose. I always dug Exile album cover for sure... one of the iconic images of the time. I miss the 'album' days. Having thousands of tunes in iTune/iPod is not quite the same thing as taking a record out of an album jacket, put it on turntable and flipping it to listen to B side....

[nahtnoj]

I want a Pegoretti Love #3 with this album art plastered all over it.

[chasea]

I want a Pegoretti Love #3 with this album art plastered all over it.

I deplore intricate paint work or theme bikes. Yet I've thought the same thing for as long as I can remember.

It would be a TOTAL bitch to get this to work on a bike frame.

I've been doing stencils with spray paint for years. I've been studying about spray guns and airbrushes online. One of these days I'm going to get around to bothering guys in paint shops.

Here's the deal: You fund my education, and in return, we each get a matching Exile frame.

[nahtnoj]

I deplore intricate paint work or theme bikes. Yet I've thought the same thing for as long as I can remember.

It would be a TOTAL bitch to get this to work on a bike frame.

I've been doing stencils with spray paint for years. I've been studying about spray guns and airbrushes online. One of these days I'm going to get around to bothering guys in paint shops.

Here's the deal: You fund my education, and in return, we each get a matching Exile frame.

Have you seen the Peg "You Really?" paint scheme? Its essentially a bunch of pin-up photos. The scheme I'm picturing merges the imagery style of "You Really?" with the colors of "Baci". Which are the colors of Exile.

I've been giving lots of thought to picking up a torch. You wanna do the paint?

[chasea]

I also would like to see this on a Pegoretti Love #3

[Yodelinpol]

Good thread.

I like the Mick Taylor era the most as well...

I also love the few records right before then. Aftermath, Between the Buttons, Flowers (outtakes of songs from Aftermath and Buttons that were left off the american releases).... Satanic Majesties... well not so much but a few tunes...

I love how Exile sounds so live and real and fresh but was actually very edited (spliced) If you do it right and are not editing to make things perfect but are editing to get the best parts of takes with the right feel etc... then great things can happen on records..

You can edit to make things more human or you can edit to make things less human. Most robots choose the latter.

[nahtnoj]

I love how Exile sounds so live and real and fresh but was actually very edited (spliced) If you do it right and are not editing to make things perfect but are editing to get the best parts of takes with the right feel etc... then great things can happen on records..

You can edit to make things more human or you can edit to make things less human. Most robots choose the latter.

Imperfection is perfection.

[davids]

I’d have to go with this one, from the other end of the decade:



By the time they made “London Calling” the Clash were already the best band in the world, despite the partial stumble of “Give Em Enough Rope” (Sandy Pearlman doing his best to turn them into the BOC and fortunately failing…)

They were great from the start – “The Clash” mastered punk from the inside out, and that record remains as fresh a document of the anger, hope and humor of a bunch of disaffected young Brits as has ever been seen. The three masterful singles that followed leap, quantum-like, from great (Clash City Rockers) to stunning (Complete Control) to perfect (White Man in Hammersmith Palais) as their world expanded from council tenancy bedsits to London, Europe and beyond. The music is ferocious – a metallic, raw crunch that railed like the hardest rock spun through with threads of reggae. And even buried under Pearlman’s glossy production, the slam and throb comes through on the second full length.

So I waited for the new record – a double album produced by the legendary Guy Stevens! – from the best band in the world with great anticipation. My friend Regina, even more of a music nerd than I, reserved a copy of the import at Schoolkids’ Records (of blessed memory…) and I met her at her dorm room as soon as she picked it up. We had just a few minutes before we had to run off to our classes and, quickly scanning the jacket, decided that “Revolution Rock” looked like a promising blast of angry punk rock to introduce us to the record. So she dropped the needle on the last track on side 4.

Those of you who know the record know what we got. A soft, insistent groove, growing louder & louder before Mick Jones yelps, “Say you stand/by your man/tell me something/I don’t understand…” I was mesmerized. This music was not what I expected, not even what I thought I wanted to hear. But it was fucking great and, as I listened, I realized it was exactly what I wanted to hear. And it was, without a doubt, the Clash.

I spent the next month listening to almost nothing but “London Calling”. Yeah there was ‘punk’ on the record, but there was rockabilly, calypso, blatant rip-offs of Frankie Ford, the Spanish Civil War, Montgomery Clift and the apocalypse. The Clash took it all in and made it all theirs. It was completely inspiring. Nothing in my life has opened my eyes and expanded my horizons like this record. A bunch of punks from Brixton could channel Gene Vincent and Marvin Gaye with equal commitment, and sing about Hollywood film stars and Jamaican slums with equal empathy. I needed to embrace the world with the same passion and openness as they did. It changed my life.

But yeah. “Exile” is pretty great record too.

[Yodelinpol]

Man I love Give Em Enough Rope.

[chasea]

The Rolling Stones | Unseen Pictures | Style and Substance | Esquire UK

[brunop]

speakin' of swimmin' and rock n' roll...why did jimi have a pool of vomit anyway? huh? much less goin' swimmin' in it!

[vertical_doug]

For pure genius, I don't know if you can beat Miles Davis and Kind of Blue. The last track Flamenco Sketches is pure bliss.

[RickM]

So Agreed. Its is the best Stones album and arguably the "greatest" r+r album ever, although personally I think that's an eat-your-tail kind of discussion to have. As for London Calling, excellent. Band From The Same Era That Never Got Deserved Recognition And Whom You should Give A Solid Listen To; Stiff Little Fingers.


Funny thing...I can remember having pretty much this exact same thread dialogue (Exile=Greatest...London=Close Second, What about Miles...etc..) a few years ago on the old VeloNews forum.