Rolling Stones Exile On Main Street CD

The Rolling Stones: Mick Jagger (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Keith Richards (vocals, guitar, piano, bass); Mick Taylor (guitar, bass); Bill Wyman (bass); Charlie Watts (drums).
Additional personnel: Al Perkins (steel guitar); Bobby Keys (saxophone, percussion); Jim Price (trumpet, trombone, organ); Ian Stewart, Nicky Hopkins (piano); Billy Preston (keyboards); Amyl Nitrate (marimba); Bill Plummer (acoustic & electric basses); Jimmy Miller (drums, percussion); Clydie King, Vanetta, Jerry Kirkland, Tammi Lynn, Shirley Goodman, Joe Green, Kathi McDonald (background vocals).
The Rolling Stones: Keith Richards, Mick Taylor, Bill Wyman (bass instrument); Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts .
Personnel: Mick Jagger (vocals, guitar, harp, harmonica, keyboards); Keith Richards (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); Mick Taylor (vocals, guitar); Billy Preston (vocals, piano, organ, keyboards); Dr. John (vocals, organ); Bill Wyman (vocals, keyboards, synthesizer); Clydie King, Shirley Goodman, Jerry Kirkland, Joe Green, Kathi McDonald, Venetta Fields (vocals, background vocals); Tammy Lann, Merry Clayton (vocals); M. Taylor (guitar); Al Perkins (steel guitar); Bobby Keys (saxophone, horns); B.B. Keys (saxophone, percussion); Jim Price (trumpet, trombone, horns, piano, organ); B. Preston (piano, organ); Ian Stewart, Nicky Hopkins (piano, keyboards); Amyl Nitrate (marimba, percussion); Bill Plummer (upright bass); Jimmy Miller (drums, percussion); C. Watts, Charlie Watts (drums); Tamiya Lynn, Joe Green's Novelty Orchestra, Vanetta Field, Mac Rebennack (background vocals).
Additional personnel: Jack Price (trumpet, trombone); Amyl Nitrate (marimba); Bill Plummer (acoustic bass guitar); Clydie King, Ian Stewart, Jimmy Miller , Al Perkins , Mac Rebennack, Nicky Hopkins, Billy Preston, Bobby Keys.
Recording information: Rolling Stones Mobile, Nellcote, France.
Director: Norman Seeff.
Photographers: Norman Seeff; Robert Frank.
Arrangers: M. Taylor; C. Watts.
Greeted with decidedly mixed reviews upon its original release, Exile on Main St. has become generally regarded as the Rolling Stones' finest album. Part of the reason why the record was initially greeted with hesitant reviews is that it takes a while to assimilate. A sprawling, weary double album encompassing rock & roll, blues, soul, and country, Exile doesn't try anything new on the surface, but the substance is new. Taking the bleakness that underpinned Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers to an extreme, Exile is a weary record, and not just lyrically. Jagger's vocals are buried in the mix, and the music is a series of dark, dense jams, with Keith Richards and Mick Taylor spinning off incredible riffs and solos. And the songs continue the breakthroughs of their three previous albums. No longer does their country sound forced or kitschy -- it's lived-in and complex, just like the group's forays into soul and gospel. While the songs, including the masterpieces "Rocks Off," "Tumbling Dice," "Torn and Frayed," "Happy," "Let It Loose," and "Shine a Light," are all terrific, they blend together, with only certain lyrics and guitar lines emerging from the murk. It's the kind of record that's gripping on the very first listen, but each subsequent listen reveals something new. Few other albums, let alone double albums, have been so rich and masterful as Exile on Main St., and it stands not only as one of the Stones' best records, but sets a remarkably high standard for all of hard rock. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Still inspired by their STICKY FINGERS recording sessions in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, EXILE ON MAIN STREET found the Rolling Stones sounding more like a Southern fried juke-joint band than ever before. That EXILE was recorded in a basement is no surprise, either--much of it sounds as if it was recorded live at a gospel revival, with a final mix that gives no hierarchy to specific instruments. The result is a swampy, most exhilarating chunk of rock & roll euphoria.
EXILE shRolling Stone (12/11/03, p.90) - Ranked #7 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "...EXILE ON MAIN STREET is the Stones at their fighting best, armed with blues, playing to win..."
Rolling Stone (7/6/72, p.54) - "...continual topping of one's self can only go on for so long, after which one must sit back and sustain what has already been built. And with EXILE the Stones have chosen to sustain for the moment..." -Lenny Kaye
Q (6/00, p.91) - Ranked #3 in Q's "100 Greatest British Albums" - "...The Stones were at their most creative. The music simply flowed. The sound that emerged was dirty, sexy, soulful, f&#!ed-up and funky....a dizzy peak which the Stones never scaled again..."
NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) - Ranked #11 in NME's list of the `Greatest Albums Of All Time.'
NME (Magazine) (9/11/93, p.18) - Ranked #5 among The Greatest Albums Of The '70s - "...Definitive cigarette-in-mouth, fall-about rock 'n' roll..."
NME (Magazine) (7/9/94, p.43) - 10 - Classic - "...stands as perhaps the band's finest hour. A sprawling, dense yet compelling concoction of their romance with America's black musics..."