"Exile On Main Street" vs. the world

Rolling Stones' classic double album might be rock's greatest

Forgive me, friends. Here we are, 348 posts into my trusty ol’ Substack, 581 wonderful subscribers out there, 61 over the last 30 days and I haven’t written a Substack about THE ROLLING STONES yet? What kind of a guy do they think I am?

Holy Tumbling Dice! How did that happen? I’m not certain, but let me amend that oversight right now before tariffs take over our world. And let me say this to open the discussion: It may well be that their double album, “Exile On Main Street” is the greatest rock and roll double album ever made.

Of course, you can’t forget Bob Dylan’s “Blonde On Blonde” and the Who’s “Tommy” and “Quadrophenia” and The Clash’s magnificent “London Calling” which shared some similarities with the Stones here, Derek and the Dominoes’ “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs,” The Beatles “White Album” and Led Zeppelin’s “Physical Graffifi” — all albums I bought when they first came out, albums I’ve listened to over and over. Wonderful work by all of them, albums to cherish.

But if ever a particular double album evoked a moment in time, a particular location and an album that summoned the sort of triumphant defiance that has fueled rock and roll since it started, well, it’s hard to beat the Stones’ “Exile On Main Street.”

The year was 1971 and the bad boy Stones were feeling persona non grata in their own country. Their ninth album, “Sticky Fingers” — an album cover of Mick Jagger’s crotch that included a working zipper (that must have been fun in production) — was riding high on the charts here and in the U.K. but proper ol’ England didn’t seem as charmed by their randy musical exports.

As Keith Richards said some years ago, the oppressive tax system — wasn’t the only reason they headed for another country. "There was a feeling you were being edged out of your own country by the British government," he remembers in “Stones In Exile,” an hour-long documentary about the record. "They were scared by the number of fans we had, I suppose. They couldn't ignore that we were a force to be reckoned with."

At the time, England’s Labour government had a 93% tax on high earners (Somebody please make sure no MAGA folks read this. No heart attacks from this Substack) so the Stones headed for the south of France as tax exiles. Hence the album title was literal. And there were other reasons, namely drug busts, Brian Jones’ mysterious drowning death, the murder at a Rolling Stones’ free concert at Altamont and assorted and various arrests, catty comments in the press, the sorts of things rebellious, rich rock and rollers tend to do.

Keith Richards and Mick Jagger share vocals and some Jack Daniels

So the band and their assorted friends, hangers-on, drug dealers and onlookers took up residence at a place called Villa Nellcôte, a house Richards had rented. They felt like exiles from society, from their homeland and that isolation — and plenty of drugs — seemed to fuel their creativity with 18 songs that ran the gamut from rock to country to country blues to soul songs, rich, fresh, exciting sounds from a band that, despite all the hassles — maybe even because of all the hassles — seemed to hit a creative peak. It’s a wonderful album with a bit of everything for everyone.

It was almost as if their attitude foreshadowed The Clash when they went into the studio to make “London Calling,”; they felt as if it was them against the world, their very last stand against the record company and they were going to make the most of it. The Stones didn’t see it quite that way, it was more like, “Kick us out of our country, eh? Trying to ignore us, eh? Here’s a DOUBLE album. How’s them apples?”

With time off, a lovely setting, plenty of money, drugs and fun, it was an idyllic time for the Stones, even for Richards, who happened be heavily into heroin at the time, but remembers that period fondly.

“We would record from late in the afternoon until five or six in the morning, and suddenly the dawn comes up and I’ve got this boat,” he writes in his wonderful memoir, “Life,” “Go down the steps through the cave to the dockside; let’s take Mandrax (his boat) to Italy for breakfast…No passport, right past Monte Carlo as the sun’s coming up with music ringing in our ears. Take a cassette player and play something we’ve done…just pull up at the wharf and have a nice Italian breakfast. We liked the way the Italians cooked their eggs, and the bread. And with the fact that you had actually crossed a border, and nobody knew shit or did shit about it, there was an extra sense of freedom.”

There was no particular formality to the recording sessions. There were people coming and going, food, drugs, parties, living the lives of rich rock stars, recording when the mood struck. Maybe even when it didn’t. No deadlines. No rush.

Keith Richards sprawls at Villa Nellcote where “Exile On Main Street” was recorded.

There were no restrictions, not a lot of interference from the gendarme, they were young, they had the world by the short and curlies, in the old phrase and they all the time they wanted. They brought in a mobile recording unit, reconfigured the basement and began to accumulate the songs. “Rocks Off,” “Tumbling Dice,” “All Down The Line,” “Rip This Joint,” “Happy,” a collection of music that reflected their influences, what they’d learned, how they grew, where they wanted to go.

It’s the sort of record that takes you there and you can listen in, imagining Keith and Mick harmonizing on a chorus, like in the photo above, or the whole bunch of them kicking it all in on songs that will echo down the years, songs that demonstrate what rock and roll really is. Or can be, when conditions are right and the band feels as if it has something to prove, something to say, something they wanted the whole world to hear.

As Keith says in “Stones In Exile” - “It was us against the world, boys.” And they won, didn’t they?

HERE’S “THE STONES IN EXILE”