The Stones: Exile

[garth cartwright]

Anyone else watch this on BBC1? Essentially part of the hype linked to the remastered Exile On Main St (with extra trax) it certainly was watchable and made me remember that as a youth I could think of nothing better in life than being a member of the Stones. While the Stones controlled the production of the documentary (so ensuring this presented a very positive spin on the recording of Exile) it was better than many "Making Of" doc's.

Presented as a collage of voices, photos and film footage (not all of it from 71) the film told the story of how the Stones fled high UK taxes for the South of France and came to work on what became Exile in the basement of Keith's mansion over a hot summer. Keith and Anita looked more glamorous than any other couple in the history of rock. That both have aged awfully (due to their lifestyles) was not addressed - this was about the romance of rocknroll. Charlie Watts remains the coolest musician on earth. Jagger kept his usual distance, intelligent if disingenuous. The live footage was great - they must have been such a band to see! Great to see a focus on Ventilator Blues - one of my fave Stones trax - with Bobby Keys (who comes across as a dumb redneck) recalling how he helped Charlie find the song's groove.

Overall an entertaining look at a sometimes great (if overrated) album and how it got made in rock's glory days.

[Adam Blake]

A friend of mine came round with the "extra tracks" the other day. Guess what? They're not very good. Maybe they should have stayed in the vaults where they belonged.

Still and all, I surely do hope that Mick and Keith make lots of money from the re-release of their last worthwhile project. I'm sure that would make them happy. I gather it's No.1 so lots of people are buying it. The last time I checked my vinyl copy it sounded just fine so I won't be joining them. And I won't be watching this documentary, thanks anyway.

[NormanD]

I watched about fifteen minutes of this tiresome documentary, then tired and went to bed to read instead. Sorry, "documentary" - it was an over-extended promo. Apart from my peripheral interest in those times I now find little of interest in them anymore. I did then, now I don't. I can see beautiful-looking people on the bus every day.

I liked much of the original album, though it would have made a far better single, but for the rambling.

Tax exiles? My heart bleeds.

[AndyM]

I surely do hope that Mick and Keith make lots of money from the re-release of their last worthwhile project.

No room in your heart for 'Start Me Up' or the better tracks from 'Some Girls' ? I guess not.

[john poole]

it would have made a far better single

Can't agree - I wouldn't have wanted to have lost any of the tracks, and it always seemed to be an album of four distinct sides. I wouldn't defend the "documentary" though. Might be more interested in the bonus tracks had they been left as originally recorded and not subject to new overdubbing.

[Ian M]

Yes, it was well put together - Steven Kijak (who made the fascinating doc about Scott Walker a few years ago) was apparently inspired by the Robert Frank footage (some of which he incorporated) from the infamous unreleased Cocksucker Blues. Frank was also responsible for the cover, and it felt like an attempt to recapture that distant era in the grainy, collaged, impressionistic way Frank was doing even then. Much better than the standard BBC4 interview/archive method, I thought it evoked a vanished age, one neer to be repeated, rather well. For all the legendary hedonism, there was a kind of innocence about it all, maybe because of youth, the insularity of England at the time ("no proper milk, or HP sauce". bleats Wyman). That their best album came out of the shambles that seemed to prevail is remarkable, but it is probably the roughness, the swampy atmosphere of a claustrophobic, stifling basement at 5 in the morning, the sense of dislocation, that gives the music the atmospheric raw quality which makes it work so well. I thought Kijak gave us some flavour of that, as well as the spontaneity and chance which combined in a way which you can't plan or repeat. So, in that sense, it was a product of its time and circumstances, and for me, that's why it was interesting.


Getting all judgemental about the Stones now seems....superfluous, to me.

[Adam Blake]

No room in your heart for 'Start Me Up' or the better tracks from 'Some Girls' ? I guess not.

You guessed right. I'm sick to death of all that crap. But I will always love their 60s output. When they mattered and Jagger sounded like he meant it.

[jackdaw version]

The Stones are an object lesson in the value of quitting while you're ahead — which they unfortunately didn't do, eventually becoming the most overrated, overhyped irrelevant band of greedy old has-beens ever. Ooops, that was a bit over the top.

[howard male]

Norman wrote –

I liked much of the original album, though it would have made a far better single, but for the rambling.

What, you mean just ‘Tumbling Dice’? As that’s one of my favourite Stones tracks I’d have to agree with you. ;-)

[garth cartwright]

I think you would enjoy this Adam. Jagger is only really in the early part and then he's sidelined as he wasn't living in the mansion where recording was going on. I was interested to learn how they went about recording and the problems they had (heat, echo etc) and the creative process. Fascinating comments from Jimmy Miller, Andy Johns, Bobby Keys, Mick Taylor and others on this. As Ian noted it's imaginatively packaged in a Robert Frank style.

Yes, the Stones went on to become caricatures but who hasn't? Ray Charles made bad albums, supported Reagan and played one of the worst gigs I've ever seen with a pick-up band at his last London performance. Lennon made bad albums and invested in the fur trade. Miles made bad albums and boasted of beating his wives etc.

Exile remains a major creative statement from the 70s. Worth celebrating and this programme does it justice..

[jackdaw version]

. . .
Exile remains a major creative statement from the 70s. Worth celebrating and this programme does it justice..

Well, it helped keep Chris Strachwitz in operation so it can't be all bad, I suppose.

I listened to some of the vinyl last week — so as to avoid hyping myself into buying the ludicrous CD. It was moderately enjoyable. Since when was the Seventies about moderation?

[will vine]

It's an album I couldn't imagine being without, but it is over-hyped mostly I suspect by people of a certain age who lost contact with the Stones at around this time....which, now I come to think of it, includes me. Can't remember the book I read about this period at Nellcote but it made the tv documentary feel very sanitised.