Rolling Stones Re-release “Exile on Main Street” and a Making-of DVD

Rolling in L.A. with the Stones

By Michael Simmons Thursday, May 13 2010

On May 18, the Rolling Stones’ 1972 classic Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street will be re-released in three editions: the remastered album, a version with bonus tracks and a superdeluxe set with vinyl, DVD and booklet (rumors of a super-duper-deluxe set complete with hypodermic and burnt spoon remain unconfirmed). The DVD is a super-cool behind-the-scenes during the making of “Exile on Main Street” in the early 1970′s. A must see for rock music fans and Stones fans.

Time has justified Exile’s mythological standing as a masterpiece of murk, an ??ber-bluesy collection of spooky grooves. Fans know of (and have mythologized) the band’s infamous sessions at Nellc??te in the south of France . And while it’s true that most of the album’s basic tracks were recorded there, where the Stones had been taxed into self-exile, Exile was actually wrapped and mixed right here in Los Angeles .

The sunlight, the drive to work, the way the girls look. L.A. ‘s got a very strong set.

Marshall Chess
president of Rolling Stones Records

After the French heat got hip to Nellcote’s pharmaceutical follies, the Stones fled and arrived in L.A. on November 29, 1971. ” L.A. added a whole dimension to Exile’s mixing and assembly,” recalls Marshall Chess, who, as president of Rolling Stones Records, was privy to the inside. “The sunlight, the drive to work, the way the girls look. L.A.’s got a very strong set.”

Chess says Mick Jagger was in charge of sessions at Sunset Sound Recorders, still open for business today at the same spot: 6650 Sunset Boulevard, at Cherokee. “We utilized Dr. John and Billy Preston for help. Dr. John got us backup singers. Billy brought that gospel sound to the vocals. They were crucial to the overall sound of the tracks. In some ways they might’ve been called part-writers. A lot of times it’d be stagnant and Billy Preston would put his shit on it and it would change the riff and texture.” Chess remembers “Happy,” “Casino Boogie,” “Ventilator Blues,” “Torn and Frayed” and “Loving Cup” getting extensive overhauls at Sunset Sound.

Former Beatles employee Chris O’Dell was personal assistant to the Stones at the time: “Keith [Richards] was going through his usual Keith stuff. They weren’t organized in the studio. I remember many nights being there for hours. It felt like it didn’t ever click. Maybe that’s the way they recorded. I was used to the Beatles and how refined their sessions were.”

O’Dell leased homes for Jagger, Richards and Mick Taylor in Bel Air, while Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts usually stayed at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. “They were the toast of the town. They got invited to everything that happened,” O’Dell recalls. “Mick’s a very social person. Always has been.” The boys partied with Papa John Phillips and Natalie Wood and visited Ike and Tina Turner’s studio in Inglewood.

O’Dell’s then-boyfriend, former Band road manager and Mean Streets producer Jonathan Taplin, recommended photographer Robert Frank for the album cover and sent Jagger a copy of Frank’s heralded photo collection The Americans. Frank was flown in from New York and they all went down to L.A. ‘s Skid Row on pregentrified Main Street to shoot ??? hence the album’s title.

“I just remember how easygoing it was, just walking down the street and people following us and everybody getting high,” says O’Dell. “The street people came out and went, ‘Heeeyyy, are you Mick fucking Jagger?’ He’d laugh and they’d follow us.” Frank used a Super-8 movie camera and the Stones stills on Exile’s cover are frames from that film.

Chess says 1 a.m. business meetings with lawyers were not uncommon, and fondly recounts regular jaunts with Keith to Canter’s on Fairfax for strawberry shortcake with real whipped cream. Both he and Keith bought Ferrari Dinos at Hollywood Sports Cars, a legendary dealership that’s no longer in business. But there was a dark side too.
“After Altamont there were death threats from the Hell’s Angels,” says Chess. “When we got to L.A. , Mick and I bought pistols. I had a .38 hammerless Smith & Wesson. Mick was paranoid about the Angels.” But overall, Chess says, L.A. was a positive experience that put the icing on one of the great rock & roll albums of all time. “They were drawn to all things American. The Stones love American music and fit really well in L.A. ”

Bringing it all back to 2010, it’s the jones for new music on the bonus tracks that has Stones freaks scratching. Don Was, the Stones’ producer since 1993, was brought in last year to mix and oversee overdubs for unfinished outtakes. He recounts his marching orders: “Keith sent me a fax sayin’, ‘You don’t have to make it sound like Exile. It is Exile.’”

Was explains what he believes to be the key to Exile’s off-kilter sound: “It reminded me of what Miles [ Davis ] was doin’. There’s this apparent looseness to it, but it’s holdin’ together. The thing that makes [the Stones] great is that they all feel the beat in a little different place. If you listen to the tracks individually, you go, ‘This is a mess.’ When you put it all together, it creates this looseness, but it still grooves. There’s a centrifugal force that holds the band together. With Exile, they pushed the centrifugal force as far out as you can and still have the center hold.”

Speaking of the Stones, what do you make of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8CtWUY7nvg

Thank You from Lightning in a Bottle

A Thank You from Forever for LiB

It’s been two weeks since LIB and we can still hardly believe what we got to see and experience and learn under those oak trees. We keep hearing the echoes of beats. We keep seeing flashes of so many radiant smiling faces. We keep feeling the ground shake with the magnificent force of daring minds and dancing feet. We are forever grateful.

It is YOU who helped to make LIB08 a truly life-changing experience, and for this we offer our gratitude not just with words, but with images! Check out the faces on the LIB08 Thank You page, and add your own. ~ Pass it on…

The Lightning in a Bottle
Producers and Crew

Much Lightning in a Bottle Photos and Video to See

Visit the LiB website for a non-stop treat of visual snacks… It’ll make you cry for joy… and eager for next year!

Kate Stewart Jazz Music Review

Some information from a friend of the community, Jazz singer Kate Stewart.

Dear Friends & Associates:

I’m pleased to report that Jazz Review has just done a write-up on my CD, “They All Come Back”. I’ve copied and pasted it below, but if you would like to see the original, you can click here:

• JazzReview.com

Thanks for all you support in the past – please know how much it is appreciated!

Best,

Kate

P.S. See my review in the Italian Magazine, Genovatune. And, as always, you can hear some music samples at MySpace

Featured Artist:

• K8 Stewart Experience

CD Title:

• They All Come Back

Style:

• Jazz Vocals

Musicians:

• Kate Stewart (Vocals)
• Jamieson Trotter (Piano)
• Sherman Ferguson (Drums)
• Dan Lutz (Bass)
• John Baxter (Guitar)

Review in JazzReview.com magazine:

I honestly never thought that I would ever hear a CD (in this case an EP-CD) with both ???Autumn Leaves??? and Leonard Cohen???s ???I???m Your Man??? as tracks, but Kate Stewart proved me wrong.

New singers and their initial efforts are always a challenge to review. It???s like watching a young pitcher (I apologize in advance for the sports analogy) making their major league debut. You can determine whether the pitcher has the equipment (arm) to be able to succeed in the big leagues, but it’s hard to predict whether the pitcher will evolve into a real big league pitcher. But without the arm, it will not happen. (I already apologized for the sports analogy ??? right?)

Well based on this EP-CD, I can definitely conclude that Kate Stewart has the equipment (in this case voice) to become an excellent jazz singer. But natural ability alone does not guarantee that someone will evolve into being a singer ??? in another genre Linda Ronstadt comes to mind.

I would bet though based on this effort that Kate will evolve into a fine jazz vocalist. She has been a lifetime devotee of jazz and began singing in clubs out East when she was 16, so her style is more polished than on most maiden efforts. She definitely shows more than glimmers of the singer she might well end up being.

I tried, I mean really tried, to use another word, but alas for want of that other word her voice can best be described as sultry ??? which one would not expect based on the picture of the perky, svelte blonde beaming at us on the back of the CD.

Mostly she knows how to sing. I especially liked he straight ahead interpretation of Johnny Mercer???s ???Too Marvelous for Words.??? Her interpretation of the Leonard Cohen classic was also quite good. She has an excellent combo backing her, and the arrangements allowed their abilities to be demonstrated without taking away from Kate???s own efforts.

All in all Kate Stewart is definitely worth a listen ??? it will be interesting to see how her career and style evolves.

Tracks: How Long Has This Been Going On?, I’m Your Man, They All Come Back, Autumn Leaves, Too Marvelous for Words

Artist’s Website:

http://MySpace.com/k8stewartexperience

Reviewed by: Tom Schaefer

Worship THAT!? Never!

The occasionally overwhelming darkness of life can seem to be all encompassing. Depressing beyond belief. Beyond hope. I’m looking at life through those dark filters at the moment. Actually, for quite too long now… It’s not pretty… but I’ve seen uglier, and lived through worse.

They say that god works in mysterious ways…

But something has lifted my spirits, if even just a little bit. I’m here watching the end of a mediocre movie called “Devil’s Advocate”. It’s not all that great. In it, Al Pacino plays Satan in human form… an attorney, no less… And he is giving a belligerent, indignant speech about God, his nemesis. It is this speech that has given my spirits a boost and a grin for the day. A ray of hope and sunshine. Redemption can come in odd, unexpected ways. I’ll take it! I accept!

I hope you enjoy this transcript as much as I enjoy bringing it to your attention:

God? …..Is that it..?

…God!?

Well, I’ll tell ya… let me give you a little inside information about “god”:

God likes to watch.
He’s a prankster.

Think about it :

He gives man instincts…
He gives you this extraordinary gift…

And then what does he do..? I swear, for his own amusement… his own private cosmic gag reel…

He sets the rules in opposition. It’s the goof of all time:

Look… but don’t touch…
Touch… but don’t taste…
Taste… but don’t swallow…

Ha ha ha!

And while you’re jumping from one foot to the next, what is he doing?

He’s laughing his sick f cking ass off..!

He’s a tight-ass..!
He’s a SADIST..!
He’s an absentee landlord..!

Worship *THAT* !?!…

NEVER!

Al Pacino as Satan in Devil’s Advocate

Even though Pacino is playing the devil… that particular description doesn’t sound so devilish at all… Sounds pretty logical to me! And I don’t have much use for those bankrupt, irrelevant concepts known as ‘god’ and ‘devil’….

Update: OK.. I finished watching the movie since I originally posted this message.

Twan’s quick capsule review:

“Piece of Shit!”

But that doesn’t diminish the quoted text above. That much is golden!