Exile on Main St

Certain Songs #2075: The Rolling Stones – “Soul Survivor”

April 3, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Exile on Main St.
Year: 1972

. . .

Unlike the final songs on Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers — “Salt of The Earth,” “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and “Moonlight Mile,” for those of you keeping score at home — the final song on Exile on Main St. wasn’t a huge production. That might be because Exile on Main St. was in itself a huge production, and they didn’t need to put a huge capper on it.

Certain Songs #2074: The Rolling Stones – “Shine A Light”

April 2, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Exile on Main St.
Year: 1972

. . .

“Shine a Light” is another older song that ended up finding its final form on Exile on Main St. Other than that, all of my various sources are wildly at odds about it. It’s usually seen as a love song from Mick to his guitarist, but whether that guitarist is Brian Jones (that’s how old it is) or Keith Richards is in dispute.

It also seems like it might have been one of the songs that actually skipped Keith’s basement: an early version — called “Get a Line on You” — was recorded (but not released) in 1969 for a Leon Russell album and featured Mick singing backed by Russell, and Ringo Starr on the drums, and was basically a Mick solo track, though it wasn’t officially released until 1994.

Certain Songs #2073: The Rolling Stones – “All Down The Line”

April 1, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Exile on Main St.
Year: 1972

. . .

My favorite story about “All Down The Line” is that after they finished it in Los Angeles, Mick was sure that it was the single, and when engineer Andy Johns disagreed, they had Ian Stewart take it to a local radio station so that they could sit in a limo and listen to it over the radio.

But which station? This is the part that fascinates me, even more than the Stones had the kind of clout in 1972 to take an unheard song and get it played on the radio. Of course they did: one of the miracles of Exile was that they made it while being some of the most famous people on the entire planet.

Certain Songs #2072: The Rolling Stones – “Let It Loose”

March 31, 2021 by Jim Connelly

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.

Certain Songs #2071: The Rolling Stones – “I Just Want to See His Face”

March 30, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Exile on Main St.
Year: 1972

. . .

A track like “I Just Want To See His Face” is why double albums were created in the first place.

While it’s a song that is too weird and off-brand to have ever made the cut on a single album, it’s perfect for the second disc of a double album, where some of the weirder songs tended to live back when double albums were originally a thing.

Certain Songs #2070: The Rolling Stones – “Happy”

March 29, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Exile on Main St.
Year: 1972

. . .

Maybe it was a coincidence, but I love how the first disc of Exile on Main St. ended with Mick’s greatest love song and the second disc picks right up with Keith’s greatest love song.

And, of course, “Happy” isn’t just Keith’s greatest love song, but Keith’s greatest Keith song, to boot. And on some days, maybe my very favorite Rolling Stones song, a song that is exactly as advertised: an unrepentant burst of ecstasy in song form. “Happy” was written just after Keith found out that Anita Pallenberg was pregnant with their second child, Angela, and he was so anxious to get it out that none of the other Stones even play on it.

Certain Songs #2069: The Rolling Stones – “Loving Cup”

March 27, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Exile on Main St.
Year: 1972

. . .

“Loving Cup” is one of the oldest songs on Exile On Main St. — they played it at the Hyde Park show in 1969 — having first been attempted during the Let It Bleed sessions, and then ignored until they figured out how to make it work in Keith’s basement.

And that’s just as well, because while “Torn and Frayed” is the song that got me into side two of Exile on Main St., I think I love “Loving Cup” even more, and am here to say that it’s easily Mick Jagger’s greatest love song.

Certain Songs #2068: The Rolling Stones – “Torn and Frayed”

March 26, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Exile on Main St.
Year: 1972

. . .

If side two of Exile on Main St. is the key to understanding the full album, then “Torn and Frayed” is the key to understanding side two of Exile on Main St.

Or so it seems to me. Because that’s basically what happened with me: at some point after listening to Exile on Main St. a few times, I fell deeply in love with “Torn and Frayed,” and suddenly the rest of the side, and subsequently the rest of the album, fell right into place. And now, I consider it the best of all of their country songs, including “Sweet Virginia” and even “Dead Flowers.”

Certain Songs #2066: The Rolling Stones – “Tumbling Dice”

March 24, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Exile on Main St.
Year: 1972

. . .

One of the things about discovering Exile on Main St. back in the day — and I’m guessing that it’s still kinda true today — is that unlike Sticky Fingers and Let It Bleed, it doesn’t have a lot of songs that are either live standards or radio standards. Only two, really: “Happy” and “Tumbling Dice.”This means that you can treat Exile more as a unified thing, not a record that’s got a bunch of songs you might be already very familiar with.

And, of course, “Tumbling Dice” was so ubiquitous when I was a kid, it took a bit for me to view it as part of Exile as opposed to its own thing. But, of course, I eventually did, as it’s such a key to the record.

Certain Songs #2065: The Rolling Stones – “Rip This Joint”

March 23, 2021 by Jim Connelly

Album: Exile on Main St.
Year: 1972

. . .

Every single source I’ve read about “Rip This Joint” would like you to know that it’s the fastest song the Rolling Stones have ever recorded, a barn-burning of scorcher that leaps out of the speakers after the fade of “Rocks Off.” And after three straight records where the second song on the record was always slower than the first song, it means something that they upped the tempo for the second song on Exile on Main St.