On the run, with nothing to prove and no one to please but themselves, the Stones craft their enduring masterpiece.
It’s not their most successful album, but on its 50th Anniversary, Exile on Main Street continues to live up to its long-held regard as The Rolling Stones at their very best.
There’s a good deal of myth and conflicting stories that surround the record, but a large factor as to why it’s so cherished is the mood and atmosphere captured of a band at their ragged, ramshackle creative peak.
Left to their own devices, Exile on Main Street sets an intoxicating scene of a group, their families and friends soaking up lazy days of excess and merriment at Keith Richards' villa, Nellcote, during a hot Southern French summer.
The Rolling Stones had nothing to prove when making the classic Exile on Main St.The good times kick off hard and fast with 'Rocks Off' and ‘Rip This Joint’, followed by the sparse and rattling Slim Harpo cover 'Shake Your Hips'.
Country ballad 'Sweet Virginia' draws you deeper into the band’s French villa basement. You can visualise the setup of acoustic guitar and harmonica, Bobby Keys' sax, and Charlie Watts' shuffling drums and the peripheral conversations that go on as they play.
The scene smacks of a languid charm of a room of friends gently reeling and reminiscing, as they 'drop their reds… greens… and blues'.
Whilst drugs and booze fuel many of the album's tracks, there’s plenty of heartfelt emotion bursting from tracks like ‘Loving Cup’ as well as the Richards’ fronted ‘Happy’, a straight up celebration of life’s simple joys.
Elsewhere the stifling basement heat hangs thick in the air, the desperate need for a fan giving inspiration to 'Ventilator Blues' on which Mick Taylor's guitar and Nicky Hopkins' piano make star turns.
And the cards, chips and craps scatter as Nellcote's gambling indulgences fan the soulful groove of 'Tumbling Dice'.
It's a potent combination of magic, myth and raggedness which has made this double record a permanent favourite for musicians the world over, including our very own Tim Rogers.
"Exile on Main Street does feel like a perennial in my life.
"It's like ‘Alright, let's get down, let's get a little bit dirty, a little bit lascivious, a little bit naughty.’ And it reminds me that this rock'n'roll music we make, it's rooting music, it's celebrating music, drinking and drugging, all the good things.
"And it will still be my favourite record for the next 52 years."
