Posted by Mr. Ventilator on October 08, 1999 at 08:25:13:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Exile On Main Street posted by God and Coffee on October 08, 1999 at 02:20:49:
Thanks. I did not know this about Exile. Doesn't change my opinion on it though. Just like knowing that Ya-Ya's was overdubbed doesn't change my opinion that that is a great record too.
I think the contrast between Exile and Tattoo You is instructive. Both do have some songs which had been around for a while (on Exile, for instance, "Loving Cup" had been played in Hyde Park in '69). But on Exile, the "sound" of the album is consistent across all the songs. They SOUND like they were all recorded in Keith's smoke-filled basement, even if they weren't. The album is "of a piece". TY is totally different. It sounds like the songs were recorded in severall different sessions, and thrown together in order to put a record out. For better or worse (worse in my opinion), the album lacks a unified feel. I have the same issue to a lesser extent with Voodoo Lounge. These are both good albums, but they don't come together in the way that Exile does.
: Except we know that most of Exile was overdubbed, re-recorded, and mixed in studios in Los Angeles, especially all those horns. That it was recorded downstairs in a dungeon in the south of France is what I call "the myth of Exile." Maybe the songs were written down there, but they weren't ready from prime time yet. In fact, they probably came out sounding like a pile of crap. It took major doctoring in the studio to turn that into a passable album. I've never understood the mythicality that surrounds it and think it must relate to the tour or to nostalgia or to this false impression of how that record was constructed. Of course, Tattoo You was similarly constructed, and that turned out good, too. It can be done. But the really powerful records like "Sticky Fingers," "Some Girls," and "Voodoo Lounge" at least sound like they're recorded more or less live--and in fact we know VL was recorded more or less live, during a 3 week span (after admittedly several months of composing) in Ireland. B2B and, I suspect, Emotional Rescue and Goats Head Soup are completely the opposite, purely manufactured. They sure sound like it, at least.