Ryan McNeil
In rock & roll, there are stories, and there are legends. Then there are the details surrounding The Rolling Stones’ recording of “Exile On Main Street”…which deserves a whole category all its own. This year has brought a remastered version of the album, and with it, a well-executed documentary, STONES IN EXILE.
The songs of Exile On Main Street are the musical equivalent of trying to jog through a muddy field. They are tough. They are laboured. They’re a dirty, dirty grind. The visuals of STONES IN EXILE compliments that sound perfectly, as they too are very rough, raw, and grimy.
Much of those dingy images are actually outtakes from Robert Frank’s unauthorized 1972 film COCKSUCKER BLUES, and here they have been cobbled together to evoke the musty, sweaty, debauchery that led to one of rock’s greatest albums. However, that footage alone wouldn’t do this story justice. The added element that adds an outlaw elegance is the inclusion of still photographs captured by Dominique Tarle. At first glance, these images evoke true rock & roll decadence – making it easy to understand how so many beggars and hangers on were drawn to the place as the album was being made.
The lofty ceilings and elegant fixtures of the mansion captured by Tarle are the yin; The humid basement and omnipresent debauchery of the basement captured by Frank are the yang. The way they have been brought together is what makes this film work. We hear story after story from the likes of Anita Pallenburg, Bobby Keys, Mick Taylor, Bill Wyman, and of course Mick & Keith. However, we only hear their stories as we watch those fantastic visuals. The fact that the ‘talking heads’ are kept off-camera allows us to drown that much deeper in the stunning visuals.
The visuals and anecdotes are of course heightened by the omnipresent score provided by the eighteen legendary tracks that make up “Exile on Main Street”. They might be legendary now, but as the film points out, the fact that they ever saw the light of day is a minor miracle. To call the “Exile” sessions haphazard would be generous. To quote saxophonist Bobby Keys: “Those songs were as unrehearsed as a hiccup.”
However, in one of the film’s best moments, engineer Andy Johns points out that The Stones have something deeper in them that they seem to be able to let out at will…and it all starts with a look. The math of this phenomenon is explained as the piano intro for “Loving Cup” chimes out; an atypical Stones track that exemplifies them at their very best.
The drawback for me watching STONES IN EXILE was my fandom. The Rolling Stones have been one of my very favorite bands for close to twenty years now, and in that time I’ve consumed as much information about them as I could get my hands on. What I’m saying, is that a lot of the tales told in this film were ones I could recite. That doesn’t hold it back at all as a film, just my experience watching it.
STONES IN EXILE played at NXNE on Saturday, June 19th. It is available on dvd on Tuesday, June 21st.