You have to have this album if you want to really appreciate the importance of The Rolling Stones impact on Rock & Roll. This is one of the best recorded works of a band ever.

This musta been the first Lp I bought with my own money. Got all the Beetle records for birthday, x-mas presents and, suddenly, teenbopper allowance in hand, found myself at Sears wondering what fab sounds I might add to my growing stack of disturbed fun. Well, here was the latest by the "next best thing," or something. A big sprawl of distorted steel guitars, grunting mutterings, splash drunk drums, honkytonk tinklings, groaning bass murk and lo-fi gospel pleatings. The formula was ironed on this one ~ degenerated Chuck Berry, deranged blues, discombobulated country ~ no epics, social statements or orchestration. Mainly what I heard (at the time) was crumb-bum sound and intoxicated grunge. Long and loose. Not Sgt Pepper. Not even Sticky Fingers. A buncha B-sides and demos. Who woulda guessed right then and there it was the Stones' last ~ and all-powerful ~ jam out extraordinaire? Yup, it's all one run, slapdash intuition, but there are peaks, elemental licks and outrageous lines like syncopated waves on a grimacing ocean of adolescent ire. Nanker Phelge. Yet, the wearied debauchery of old men, too. Hardly anyone, including Lester Bangs, got "it" at the time; that fuzzy jacked-up inertia, more than any other quality, was the intransigent essence of rocknroll, laid out low and feral, an overextended reverb hum of insentient discontent made luminous, disgruntled, horny, surly and lazy. Bewildering, and weirdly hungry. There I was, 12 years old, holding my 7 bucks, ready for revolution and it, what, like, ended that week. If you ever find a gurl who digs this album, marry her on the spot.

Rock `n' roll as it was meant to be played: Loose, ragged, raw, and emotive. Exile On Main Street is fun. It's sexy. It's rough and chaotic. It's depressed and jubilant, nervous and uninhibited, tense and cathartic all at once. Blood and sweat and booze drip from its walls. It boogies and hops and screams. It's the sound of a great band going for broke, throwing themselves into every song, into every lick, into every note, every moment of music. It speaks to every aspect of this whole "human experience" thing we've got going. It communicates joy and misery. It's here to help us celebrate the good times and dance the bad times into bloody submission. It's here to help turn our boring days into raucous nights. The Rolling Stones are here to save the world with rock `n' roll. Play it loud.

This album is so good that not even Mick Jagger was happy with it. That's good enough for me, as I have come to the conclusion that Mick has poor taste in music. I've heard his solo albums, and they suck. This, however, is a masterpiece of eclectic blues boogie, and it sure as hell rocks. Pay no attention to the negative reviews you may have read about Exile, just buy the cd and get on with your life. Such creativity, such awesome power, such a display of guitar tectronics that you'll be bowled over before you can finish listening to it. It is, however, an album that takes time to get used to. While that may sound confusing, it just is what it is. Exile On Main Street is the definitive Rolling Stones album. It has it all.

I'll probably be killed for writing this, but honestly, this is the most overrated Stones Album. I'm amiss as to where people got the idea that this album is the best album, or at least one of the best albums, the Stone ever put out. Really, it's just okay, nothing more. Listen to Exile again, then listen to the two best albums the Stones put out. #1) Let It Bleed; #2) Beggars Banquet. Everything else seems kind of sad after those two, especially Exile. So, skip Exile and go straight to Let it Bleed and Beggars Banquent--not only the two best Stones albums, but also two of the best rock albums ever put out.