Album: Exile on Main St.
Year: 1972
. . .
A big rambling gospel-soul ballad, “Let It Loose” is quite possibly the most underrated song on Exile on Main St., yet another example of the unholy alliance of the basement-recorded basic tracks recorded in France and vocal (and other) overdubs recorded later in Los Angeles.
One of the more striking things on “Let It Loose” — and the first instrument you hear — is a guitar that doesn’t really sound like a guitar, even though it attacks like a guitar. That’s Keith, of course, running his guitar through a Leslie speaker, giving it a swirling, off-kilter feeling that goes with the lyrics.
Who’s that woman on your arm?
All dressed up to do you harm
And I’m hip to what she’ll do
Give her just about a month or two
Apparently, Keith wrote “Let it Loose,” and the first two verses play almost like a dialog, but it’s possible that it’s at least partially about Mick’s marriage to Bianca, which happened in a hailstorm of publicity a couple of months before the recording of Exile started. And in fact, Keith was kind of annoyed because Mick kept leaving the sessions to go be with her, as Bianca wasn’t even in France with the rest of them. After the opening couplet, Nicky Hopkins slowly wafts in with a tender piano, and at the end of that first verse, the backing vocals echo “give her just about a month or two.”
Those backing vocalists include some of the names we’ve seen on “Tumbling Dice” and “I Just Want To See His Face:” Venetta Fields, Clydie King, and Sherlie Matthews, but also Tami Lynn, Joe Green and Dr. John, and they’re absolutely exquisite, one of the more complicated vocal arrangements on any Stones song. So after the first verse, which was asking some questions, we have some sheepish answers, as Charlie and Bill come in with a slowly majestic beat.
Bit off more than I can chew
And I knew, yeah I knew what it was leading to
Some things, well, I can’t refuse (I cannnnnn’t refuse)
One of them, one of them the bedroom blues
(One of them the bedroom blues
Oooooooooooooooooooh)
After the next verse, there’s a full breakdown: just Keith’s guitar, Nicky’s piano and the backing vocalists, who are going “ooooooooooh-whooooooooo-ooooooooooh” over and over again. Then, as introduced with a big Charlie tom roll, the horns kick in: Bobby Keyes on sax, and Jim Price on trumpet and overdubbed trombone, all of which — plus the choir! — support one of Mick’s greatest, most impassioned vocals:
Ohhhhh yeah
In the bar you’re getting drunk
Ohhhhhhh yeah yeah
I ain’t in love, I ain’t in lust
(Let it loose)
Whooooa no no no
(Let it loose)
Hide the switch and shut the light, won’t you shut it?
(Won’t you shut it? Won’t you shut it?)
Won’t you shut it?
Let it all come down tonight
(Let it loose, let it all come down)
Mick’s vocals on “in the bar you’re getting drunk” — accompanied by a killer Charlie drum roll — are total and utter breakdown soul man, and are nearly topped by his protest-too-much “I ain’t in love, I ain’t in lust”. It’s all pure anguished emotion, and there’s a quick breakdown while the backing vocalists sing “let it loose, let it all come down” a couple of times,
Then, as Mick sings “mayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyybe your friends think / I’m just a straaaaaaaaaaaaaannger” still totally killing it, the drums and horns kick back in as he and the backing vocalists finish up the final verse.
Your face I’ll never see no more
Let it all come down tonight
(Let it loose, let it all come down)
Keep those tears hid out of sight
(Let it loose, let it all come down)
After that, they go into a stunning coda, with Mick and the backing vocalists alternating “let it loose, let it all come down” in varying degrees of intensity — one of the backing vocalists goes up to her breaking point — while the horns continue to shine, Charlie does tom rolls, Nicky Hopkins takes a solo and Keith’s guitar provides the only real anchor.
Obviously, listening to a double album can be somewhat exhausting, but also really rewarding, if you can stick it out, and a song like “Let it Loose” is one of the lesser-known rewards of Exile on Main St. especially since it’s a song they’ve never played live, not even once.
“Let it Loose”
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