When Exile on Main St. was released in 1972, I was thirteen. The creepy album cover freaked me out, before learning what it was. This was the follow-up to Warhol’s amazing Sticky Fingers zipper album art. It is a photograph by another great artist, Robert Frank. (Frank also directed the Stones’ unreleased documentary film of their 1972 tour Cocksucker Blues).
The photo titled Tattoo Parlor, 8th Avenue (a collage of circus side-show freaks) was shot by the late, great Robert Frank in 1958. It’s an outtake from his book The Americans. One of the featured photos in the composite (of Congo the Jungle Creep) was taken by the legendary Diane Arbus. The freakiest one is Three Ball Charlie who out-does a chipmunk by fitting three balls of various sizes in his wide mouth!
I also didn’t realize the album title’s significance until later – you can’t really hide in exile in the “main street” of a town. The photos of the band are ironically taken in the seedy Main St. section of Los Angeles, an unusual place for rich tax exiles to be seen. (The Stones album title Beggar’s Banquet was another strange pun. Beggars don’t usually get invited to a banquet, to which they must R.S.V.P.).
Reluctantly leaving their beloved home in England (for tax reasons – hence, the title Exile…) the Stones became outsiders more than ever before – not unlike the outcasts on their album cover. Although they were the hottest band in the world, they were not logistically able to live normally, or within society at all. Of course, being The Rolling Stones, they took this situation to an extreme.
Most ironically, these wealthy tax exiles recorded their double album in depravity and squalor in the basement of the magnificent decaying waterfront mansion Nellcôte, which Keith rented in the south of France. Their only extravagant expense was on drugs. It was an endless all-day/all-night party of heroin, friends, women, children, strangers and criminals. Unpaid drug dealers eventually stole the band’s instruments and ratted them out to the authorities, hence another exile – from France.
The shambolic, yet cohesive result was a ragged swagger of blues, gospel, country, soul and rock n’ roll – all extremely tight, yet seemingly falling apart. (Allegedly, the Beatles’ album title Rubber Soul was an extension of their mocking moniker for the Stones, “Plastic Soul.” This was supposedly the way black musicians referred to Mick Jagger). However, there is nothing plastic about Exile. It all sounds raunchy and free – true anarchy. It’s amazing that they got one album out of this sordid situation, let alone a double disc with so many miraculous moments. It was a chance for us to hear gritty music without a bearded guy wearing a cowboy regalia singing it. Instead, we got the grungy glamour of Jagger singing in an American southern accent, and the heroin chic of Keith! As much as Jagger tried to be authentic in his words and phrasing, Mick, Keith and all the musicians (at times swapping instruments) created an entirely unique twist on several familiar genres, with a magical glimmer lighting up the darkness.
There were frequent absences by various band members, both mentally and physically. Mick (who was now married to Bianca), Charlie and Bill commuted each day from their homes to Nellcôte. Keith (living at the mansion with Anita Pallenberg) didn’t make it downstairs to many sessions due to his dates with heroin – yet despite all of this, a double album ensued. This was not unlike the intermittent absences to the studio by the Beatles, and the fractured recording of their double (white) album in 1968. It’s amazing that both bands produced so much impactful material out of their most disorganized recording sessions.
Recording began at Mick’s home in England, Stargroves and at Olympic Studios in 1969. Nine songs were completed in the basement of Nellcôte. The album was produced by Jimmy Miller from America (who played drums and more on some of the tracks when band members were absent). It was mixed in L.A. in early 1972, mostly by Jagger mostly by Jagger, who in hindsight thinks it sounds “lousy” although it has a “particular feeling.” At the time, Mick felt that it was his responsibility to finish the record himself, rather than have it done by “drunks and junkies.” Public reaction (as with all true masterpieces) was general disdain. Over the years, closed minds opened to finally realize its glory. From: https://madelinex.com/2022/07/16/exile-on-main-st/
