When I first read that a remastered version of the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St. was going to be released my reaction was sceptical. It is one of my favourite albums by any band – hardly a week goes by that I don’t listen to it in its entirety – but I had a hard time seeing the upcoming release as anything other than a money-making exercise. The announcement that ten previously unheard tracks from the Exile sessions would be included did little to change my mind nor did my first listen to one of them “Plundered My Soul” when it was played on the radio as I was driving home late one night in early May. While I was busy being sophisticated and cynical I also knew that I’d be making sure I procured a copy of the release. Why, I asked myself, deny the inevitable even if it is inexplicable?
After hunting around for the best possible price both online, on and off the High (or should that be Main?) Street I brought my copy home. I’ve listened to both discs a few times now and I like what I hear. I can’t say I’ve noticed any earth-shattering. ear-orgasming difference between the version of the album I already had and the remastered version that comprises the first disc of the two CD set. There are a few spots where things seem just a bit clearer, a bit more distinct that recording engineers, produces and other techie types could probably describe with many polysyllabic words. My guess is that with at least a quarter of those instances I only think I’m noticing differences s I’m listening so hard for them. The other three-quarters I would say are genuine, if subtle, improvements that are entirely in keeping with the album’s original genius. They are unnecessary, but welcome.
For me the real surprise of this re-release came with the second disc of ten bonus tracks. I actually like most of them. Rather than being extras meant to do nothing more than shift units and provide answers to questions in the pub-quizzes of the future these track sound, for the most part, like they belong to the same loose and dirty family as the original Exile numbers. They don’t just live in the same neighbourhood, they’re from the same street. I’m still not very impressed with “Plundered My Soul” and “So Divine (Aladdin Story)” contains a riff that sounds too much like an attempt to revisit “Paint it Black” for my taste but I wouldn’t cross the room or dig my iPod out of my pocket to skip either of these tracks. I’m infatuated with an alternative, guitar-driven take of “Loving Cup” that is, for most of its 5 minutes and 25 seconds, slower than the piano-based version that made the final cut to the orignal release. In many ways this new version of an old track distills the Stones that I love; it’s loose, and funky (NOT SLOPPY) and even a bit dirty. For anyone out there (could there actually be anyone?) who wasn’t sure if innuendo and double-entendre were being played with in the lyrics to this song at one point in the alternative take Messrs. Jagger and Richards seem to refer to a “furry cup” rather than the vessel named in the title. “Dancing in the Light” also does a great job of fitting seamlessly into the spirit and quality of the original Exile. I know that some new vocals were added to this track but I can’t tell where which, I think, speaks volumes. The final track, “Title 5″ is short, has no vocal and features the trio of Richards, Watts and Wyman and is something of surprise despite its hints of Chuck Berry and a few others in Richards’ playing. I can’t quite figure it out but I’m going to enjoy trying.
And that, I think, leads to the point and success of this remastered version of Exile and the accompanying bonus tracks. People continue to listen to the album in the original form because it was and is special. The remastering doesn’t mess with that; it doesn’t stand in the way of Exile being Exile meaning that those of us who are intimately, perhaps too familiar with the album can continue to listen to it again and again and again. While I can understand why the bonus tracks didn’t appear on the original album they are in keeping with their more widely known brethren and, like them, they will bear and reward repeated listening rather than being easily dismissed as a collection of outtakes that should have stayed in some dusty box marked 1972.
’)
