This has always seemed to be a hotley contested album by most people, either they think that its the greatest rock and roll album ever made or find it to be TERRIBLEY overrated. I think I am one of the very few out there who can find a middle ground with this record. I can understand the many who find it to be overrated but I really do realise its charms and wonderful chaotic atmosphere coupled with some really great songs.

Who else has opinions on this, one of the most debated about albums in the history of rock music?

it is one of the greatest rock & roll albums ever made, but it also tends to be overrated. how's that?


the best usually does tend to be overrated in some quarters, though.

I've seen (heard) a lot of albums that were waaaaay more overrated than "Exile". If I had to pick my favorite rock album of all time- I'd say this is it.

def enjoy the album. "Rocks Off", "Tumbling Dice", and "Loving Cup" are my favs

It gets a big, big thumbs up from me. Granted, it does have a fair amount of fat on it, but the Stones were absolutely at their peak here and their throw-aways and duds from this era have a density that elevates them above the standard album-track fare.

And, of course, the best songs on this album are the best songs the Stones have ever done, which means that they rank among the best songs anyone's recorded in the rock era. Rock music just doesn't get any harder or more powerful than Tumbling Dice and Happy.

I also love the song 'Rocks Off' and it has some of my favorite lyrics on it like - ''The sunshine bores the daylights of of me, Chasing shadows moonlight mystery''.

I love those lines!

It isn't my favorite album of all time or anything, but I think it's fucking brilliant and probably the Stones' best.

"Let It Loose" and "Shine A Light" are probably my 2 faves.

i think it's a great album, yes. not stellar or anything
and i do skip some tracks. but overall a very good album

it just grows and grows with every listen.

you shouldnt do that kind of question,




Exile... is a big YES

hell yes it's great, but apart from Rocks Off & Tumbling Dice, I think the album takes a while to really get going. Side 2 is better.

I bought it a year ago, listened to it once and never again. I felt there was a lack of melody and I can't help but comparing them to The Beatles, and then they always lose..
And I like Sticky Fingers more, but I guess Exile is a 'grow' album, wich I have to listen 20 times to get it.

BT11 said:

not as melodic, but to their credit, they don't do the fluffy stuff the beatles do (the beatles are my favorite band however). You put on the Stones and it's pretty much guaranteed to be cool

I love Exile. It's more about a sound and an overall feel than the individual songs, for me. I prefer Sticky Fingers BY FAR or Let it Bleed for that matter, but Exile is an undeniable classic.

NorthernLad said:

definitely. Those other two are better song-for-song choices. But Exile gives you a bigger slice of the stones experience. Sorta like (forgive me) Appetite for Destruction vs. Use Your Illusion 1 & 2

NDRU said:

I like the fluffy stuff The Beatles do.

BT11 said:

Me too.

YES

A big fat YES!!!!! Blues-Rock at it's best.....

If only for 'Tumbling Dice' and 'Sweet Virginia' two of the Stones best songs ever!

peace

BT11 said:

I do too, but I don't necessarily want to play Golden Slumbers for my hard rock friends.

One of the best drug induced Rock records ever.
(Rocks by Aerosmith would run a distant 2nd)


In the words of the participants...

We hadn't intended to record in my house. We did look around for studios around there once we'd all decided that was what we were going to do - but although there are plenty of very good French recording engineers now, at that time in the South of France in the early 1970s, there weren't too many. There were no studios with good rooms to work in, the equipment was shabby and nobody felt comfortable in any of the places we looked at. I had this basement, which was really very ugly, but it was the biggest one of all the houses we had down there, and we also had our own mobile recording truck. So we said, Why don't we just forget about looking for a studio. Let's bring in the truck and work around the problems; at least this way we don't have to ask interpreters every time we want to turn it off or on.

- Keith Richards, 2003


You'd sort of jam an acoustic guitar into the corner of one of these cubicles and just start playing and you'd hear it back you'd think, that doesn't sound anything like what I was playing, but it sounds great. So you started to play around with the basement itself, aiming your amplifier up at the ceiling instead of like normal.

- Keith Richards


I think that was Keith's album. Mick was always jumping off to Paris 'cause Bianca was pregnant and having labor pains. I remember many mornings after great nights of recording, I'd come over to Keith's for lunch. And within a few minutes of seeing him I could tell something was wrong. He'd say, Mick's pissed off to Paris again. I sensed resentment in his voice because he felt we were starting to get something, and when Mick returned the magic might be gone.

- Jimmy Miller, 1979


I remember Gram Parsons sitting in the kitchen in France on day, while we were overdubbing vocals or something. It was crazy. Someone is sitting in the kitchen overdubbing guitar and people are sitting at the table, talking, knives, forks, plates clanking.

- Andy Johns, 1979


Stoned is the word that might describe (the band at the time). (Laughs) It's the first album Mick Taylor's on, really (sic). So it's different than previous albums, which had Brian on them - or Brian not on them, as the case may be. It was a difficult period, because we had all these lawsuits going with Allen Klein. We had to leave England because of tax problems. We had no money and went to live in the South of France - the first album we made where we weren't based in England, thus the title.

- Mick Jagger, 1995


(We were j)ust winging it. Staying up all night... Stoned on something; one thing or another. So I don't think it was particularly pleasant. I didn't have a very good time. It was this communal thing where you don't know whether you're recording or living or having dinner; you don't know when you're gonna play, when you're gonna sing - very difficult. Too many hangers-on. I went with the flow, and the album got made. These things have a certain energy, and there's a certain flow to it, and it got impossible. Everyone was so out of it. And the engineers, the producers - all the people that were supposed to be organized - were more disorganized than anybody.

- Mick Jagger, 1995


At the time Jimmy Miller was not functioning properly. I had to finish the whole record myself, because otherwise there were just the drunks and junkies. I was in L.A. trying to finish the record, up against a deadline. It was a joke.

-Mick Jagger, 2003


The stuff I was writing and the music I was doing in the '70s, which is basically when I was on smack (heroin), I couldn't have done better straight. And maybe I wouldn't have done as well straight. Music and drugs - I don't really correlate one thing with the other. One is what you're putting out and the other is what you're putting in. I never felt any different about my music because of it.

- Keith Richards, 2002


It's a bit overrated, to be honest. Compared to Let it Bleed and Beggars Banquet, which I think are more of a piece, I don't see it's as thematic as the other two. I'm not saying it's not good. It doesn't contain as many outstanding songs as the previous (sic) two records. I think the playing's quite good. It's got a raw quality, but I don't think all around it's as good.

- Mick Jagger, 1995


Critics always like to give the Stones bad reviews. One day they're going to be right. They just haven't been right so far, because we always manage - I don't mean to be conceited, but we always manage - to come up with the goods, and the public seem to like it and buy it. Then three years later the reviewers turn around and say, Yeah, that was a great album, after saying at the time, It was a load of old shit. Most of them did that with Exile, and came back and said it was probably one of the greatest albums or packages that the Stones had ever put out. So what? (laughs). I don't care what they say anymore.

- Bill Wyman, 1982


...So there you have it.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

So, Keith´s album uh

I don't care for it. But I do like alot of their hit songs.

theAudience said:

Wouldn't Sly & The Family Stone's There's A Riot Going On get some input as one of the best drug induced rock albums ever recorded too!
[Edited 11/27/06 14:40pm]

silverchild said:

Definitely drug-induced.
I just don't know if I personally would classify it a pure Rock album.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

My favorite Stones album period. I DO like some individual Stones songs more than the ones on here (Sympathy, Brown Sugar, You Can't Always Get, Salt of the Earth to name a few)...but as an album Exile just does it for me more than any other Stones record. I dig every song on there and they all just flow. Hard to describe but simply put, its sleazy, rockin, and RAW.

Definite "Yes" for Exile. It's the best of their run of four back-to-back classic studio albums.