The Rolling Stones ‘Exile On Main Street’ Turns 50

The Rolling Stones ‘Exile On Main Street’ has clocked up its 50th birthday. ‘Exile On Main Street’ was released on 12 May 1972.

The album came in an incredible creative run for The Stones following ‘Stick Fingers’ (1971), ‘Let It Bleed’ (1969) and ‘Beggars Banquet (1968) and preceding ‘Goats Head Soup’ (1973) and ‘Its Only Rock and Roll’ (1974).

The lead single off the album was ‘Tumbling Dice’ followed by Keith Richards ‘Happy’. 50 years later, those two songs are still played at nearly every Rolling Stones show.

‘Exile On Main Street’ was a double album in its day but is now a single CD. The tracklisting:
LP One
Side One
1. “Rocks Off” (4:31)
2. “Rip This Joint” (2:22)
3. “Shake Your Hips” (2:59)
4. “Casino Boogie” (3:33)
5. “Tumbling Dice” (3:45)

Side Two
1. “Sweet Virginia” (4:27)
2. “Torn and Frayed” (4:17)
3. “Sweet Black Angel” (2:54)
4. “Loving Cup” (4:25)

LP Two
Side Three
1. “Happy” (3:04)
2. “Turd on the Run” (2:36)
3. “Ventilator Blues” (3:24)
4. “I Just Want to See His Face” (2:52)
5. “Let It Loose” (5:16)

Side Four
1. “All Down the Line” (3:49)
2. “Stop Breaking Down” (4:34)
3. “Shine a Light” (4:14)
4. “Soul Survivor” (3:49)

‘Exile On Main Street’ began with sessions in October 1970 and was mainly recorded between 10 July 1971 and Match 1972 at Keith Richards’ Nellcôte mansion in the south of France. Richards leased the house from April 1971 to October 1973. The early recordings “Rocks Off”, “Rip This Joint”, “Casino Boogie”, “Tumbling Dice”, “Torn and Frayed”, “Happy”, “Turd on the Run”, “Ventilator Blues” and “Soul Survivor” took place in the basement.

The final sessions for “Tumbling Dice”, “Loving Cup”, “Let It Loose” and “Shine a Light” took place in Los Angeles and featured Billy Preston and Dr John.

Keith’s country flavour was inspired by Gram Parsons. Jagger’s soul influence came from his time in Los Angeles when he, Billy Preston and Charlie Watts visited the church where Aretha Franklin was working on what would become ‘Amazing Grace’. As a result of the Soul vs Country flavour critics found the album inconsistent but fans made it a number one record regardless.

‘Exile On Main Street’ is now arguably one of the greatest Stones albums of all-time.

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