“Now, the album is the thing”: a look at the contents of the Super-Deluxe “Exile on Main St.” Re-issue
That picture is a page from picture book, with photos by Ethan Russell, on the making of the “Exile on Main St.”. It is included in the whiz-bang edition of the “Exile” release. The quote is from the Riff Sorcerer himself, Keith Richards. Oh, Keith…if you only knew then what would become of the album now. Not only are we back to singles…most of them are shit. The album, pity the poor album. Only a few dedicated fans of it left…so they say.
I don’t believe them though, dearest Keef. I am on the album’s side…a true Champion, in fact. I love the album…so much so that I have reverted back to the black circle, where the album was born. You would be proud, Keef…I have a rule now. When I buy a new album I have to listen to it straight through, first song to last, at least ten times before I start cherry picking songs.
By dong this, I get the flavour of the set…the way the artist intended it. Plus, I get a better feel for each of the songs as they were sequenced…they were done so for a reason, right? Who’s with me? Who will fight he good fight…?
Newcomers, now is your chance. Go out and buy one of Keef’s children: The “Exile” re-issue. It doesn’t have to be the super-deluxe package, it can just be the CD. The important part is that you get it and listen to it front to back. If you have virgin “Exile” ears, believe me and millions of others, you will be floored at the diversity and dynamism of this collection of sounds, riffs, honks and yelps.
This is an album in the truest sense of the word. It demands to be listed from start to finish in its entirety. You will thank us, the Album Champions, later for it.
Here are some snaps of the super-deluxe “Exile on Main St” re-issue package. It just showed up at my office. I am definitely sneaking out early to get home and devour this tonight…from start to finish.
I don’t know how many of these “super-deluxe” Exile’s they made, but I am #07851
I’m with you, mate. As a card-carrying album completist, I cannot agree with you more. I follow a very similar start-to-finish process when debuting a new to my ears album. And Exile is one of those muddy sets that will inspire me to get another turntable one day, but that is another story.I do fear that the digital age will kill the album, though. You only have to look at any teenager’s iTunes library where a complete album is an accidental exception. A friend’s kid, for instance, had the first three tracks from Highway 61 Revisited buried in his massive (and very cool) library. He loved each of the three tracks but was completely oblivious and had never even heard the last three tracks. Imagine that for a minute. The title track, Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues and Desolation Row. Did I just hear you sigh? I felt sorry for him.Perhaps, though, I am fretting for no reason. As Keef’s ’71 quote above proves: the pendulum swings, and swings and swings and swings.
@horringbone Now, Kip…You KNOW I had you in mind when I wrote this. You are the most complete completist I know. That is why your music collection is MASSIVE.I tend to agree with you on the digi-effect on the album. From my/our perspective, I feel sorry for our young friend, too. He is lacking the context. There is a reason why the called it “bubble-gum” and “pop”; its a quick hit, taste…that fades twice as fast. The album…context…creates an event. Without that, the drive-thru culture takes over. I love context. It is life’s glue. Sigh.Excuse me while I flip the record to side four of Exile.Sigh (this time its a good thing)
I bought the wax probable 12 years ago and listened to it tons, but never in full. Too much work getting up and down!I’ve got the CD too, only had some of the tracks on the my iPod.Headed on a work trip today and forgot my iPod. Disaster. No Jerry, no SRV but I did have some Otis and Willie in the car. So I went into best buy for the Exile remaster. Couldn’t find it anywhere, thought I had the wrong release day, so I picked up the new Black Keys. Store guy asked me if I was looking for something and I said “Exile on Main Street, the remaster”. Kid says “Whose it by”They had it in the back, still not on display. I told him its one of the best records made, I would buy it for him if he would listen to it. So I got the deluxe and got him the regular release.I listened to it a couple times straight on the next part of the drive and realized its probable the first time I’ve listened to it all the way through. After listening to the bonus disc I’m glad I only got the kid just the album.What a great album…
@ozzybeef Luke, you should win an award for this. You are a true Album Champion. We need to check back in with this kid to find out what he thought…find out if he went start to finish…find out if he was sanctified!Sad that he had no idea…but you and I are Freaks…Real, Real Gone…we are last of a dying breed…Album Champions.I love the fact that…in case of emergency…you had Willie and Otis in the car. Were they in the boot next to the spare gas can?
Community service at its very very best, Luke. Seriously well played, mate!!We are seeing the “no idea” era emerge more and more every day now. I was enjoying a cross-generational relationship last year (I was obviously the dinosaur) when I happened to mention Dylan. In hindsight, when she answered, “who?” it was the beginning of the end. And so it goes.
Today I drove about 600 miles back home. Louisville > Lexington > Cincinnati > Indianapolis > Chicago. Listened to this baby the whole time and feel like new every time.
@ozzybeef Roadtrip! Crazy eh, one album for a 600 mile trip…and it worked! Window down and elbow sticking out…
I too am a believer and evangelist of the track order. The effects and meaning of music can be amplified, affected, or indeed, made, by their context and surrounding. There’s no denying this truth, just as there’s no denying that the greatest wine can be spoiled by sitting in sewerage and hatred, or the cheapest most disgusting liquor can taste like salvation when you are harbouring that desperate thirst for liberation.What a great loss it is, for those not recognizing or respecting such a simple truth. For the random shuffle player, and the iTunes single track downloader. The greatest shame comes to those encouraged by the modern distribution … indeed, some albums are so difficult to acquire in their original form, even an appreciator of music would succumb to buying a compilation or ‘best of’ album. And without that wake-up call, never realize what they have lost. Having experienced that growing up as a wee child, finding my way through the history of music, to me, such thoughts trigger bitter past emotions, feeling like I had been misled and wasted by forces beyond my control,… and when I got around to hearing those songs in their original context and realizing, my god, what have they done? Songs that made no sense before, and did nothing to me, … in the context of the original album, punctured me to the bone, and became a permanent fixture in my existence.I take every opportunity to expound on the merits and significance of the track order. Every significant album I buy (from someone deserving of that respect), for that first listen, I always listen to it from start to finish, with all the lights in the house turned off. Dear humble listeners and lovers of music… these artists, people, dead beings, you so admire … spent months and years and lifetimes making the music you are hearing. The least you can do is grant them a dedicated moment of your day, just once, if you claim to love them so much. Oh how it guts me when I see a big appreciator, a passionate listener, discard and cut up and utilize such music as wallpaper in their kitchenettes, like a Mona Lisa coffee-top rag, as the soundtrack to their elevator lives, as some ironic detachment of their own reality… and then boast or criticize works because it did not suit their household needs. Dear humble listeners, I mean not to scorn or spite, but hear my words as sad lonesome pleading.
Great post, idlehead. It’s always nice to hear from fellow music heads with a passion for albums. We are, however, in the midst of a pivotal dark period in recorded music’s constant evolution. Not since the CD launched has the scene been altered so dramatically. We now have a generation of music lovers that not only may have never heard of Dylan, but have zero interest in putting an entire album into their iTunes. Even if it’s high quality, they have a monster hard drive, it’s free and it comes with beaucoup recommendations. They couldn’t give a tinker’s cuss. It’s a mainstream world of ‘Ministry of Sound’ compilations, but there will always be room for us in it. Rock on!