Supermallet

The version of Out of Time on that collection, IIRC, is an alternate version from Metamorphosis with strings that, IMO, is better than the version on Aftermath.

TerryW

Yes, is does have strings. I like it as well but still prefer the original.

CapRockBrewingCo.

This is on my desert island list. Every track on this album is good - and yet none would be considered big mainstream hits.

My second favorite RS album would be Beggars Banquet.

Supermallet

Exile is their best, followed by Sticky Fingers, then Let It Bleed, then Between The Buttons (UK version). Some Girls rounds out the top five.

bigjim25

They are more of a live group. When are they going to release a live CD?

rw2516

FYI. They've put up for download from Stones site three shows. Brussells 1973, LA 1975 and Hampton 1981. $5 apiece. Excellent sound.

rw2516

My top five(in order)
1. Let It Bleed
2. Beggars
3. Exile
4. Sticky
5. Some Girls

I in now way allude that Goat's Head Soup is one of their best, but it's my favorite. I think it's it's a good solid album, no masterpiece. Overall consensus seems to rate it as mediocre. Curious what people consider it's major flaws.

Funkpie

The pop stuff is their worst aspect, IMO. Their bluesier stuff is ok, even in spite of Mick Jagger. Keith Richards is a total hack though, and the band wouldn't have been anything without Mick Taylor.

Mordred

I can't figure it out, but I really don't enjoy Exile. Maybe I need to give it more of an effort, but I don't remember anything really grabbing me from that album. Pretty sure I've like every other album they've released before Bigger Bang, so it's just something about Exile. I can't figure out what everybody else is hearing that I'm missing, because I obviously like The Rolling Stones a lot.

statcat

Aftermath is my favorite album by them.

Satanic Majesties Request gets a ton of slack but I think it's an interesting psychedelic album. A few terrible songs but I like most of it.

Buttmunker

It was a "minor" hit (peaked at #25) - but I just recently discovered She's A Rainbow from their Satanic Majesties Request album....and it's fantastic!

statcat

they were definitely listening to She Comes in Colors by Love when they wrote that.

Buttmunker

Can you point out the "terrible" from the "listenable?"

I know I once heard their opening number (with backing vocals by Lennon & McCartney, for gosh sake!) and it was terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE!! (the Fab Two should have sang on She's A Rainbow - LOL)

After that opening number ("Sing This All Together"), I stopped listening. Maybe I missed something, because I know I missed She's A Rainbow, so I know I maybe missed some other goodies.

Hokeyboy

I love it for everything it is: a rambling, sometimes sloppy, basement-recorded exercise in self-indulgence that nonetheless comes together as a fantastic album experience and a collection of great songs that hang together better than any other Stones album. Exile is one of those albums that I can never just pick and choose from. It's almost always a start-to-finish experience, and an amazing one at that.

I agree with 'mallet that Between the Buttons is a Top 5'er for sure. But for some reasons I've never quite warmed up entirely to Some Girls.

cdollaz

Exile is a middle-of-the-pack Stones album for me. My top 5:

Sticky Fingers
Let It Bleed
Goats Head Soup
Some Girls
Tattoo You

Flashback

I remember hearing Rocks Off (1st song) from Exile... and that was it.
Loved the album right from the start.

Sticky Fingers is my favorite though, really love the song Sway which I do not believe is considered a hit song.

I did like Some Girls but maybe that was influenced by growing up outside NYC.
Seemed like it was on all the time (Miss You/Shattered/Beast of Burden) but I really do like Before They Make Me Run which I do not believe was a hit song.

No worries though - not everyone like the Stones - or so I have heard

bacigalup

Wow, you mean the 2nd song following it, Citadel, turned you off ???

To me, Citadel,She's a Rainbow, & 2000 Light Years from Home are the best cuts off the album.

Thank God this was their only foray into psychedelic music!!!

rw2516

The Stones are notorious for over recording. From the Some Girls sessions they had enough left over for the entire Emotional Rescue album and most of Tattoo You(which is all leftovers). Plus the extra disc of leftovers just released. After recording Some Girls in '78 they didn't record any new stuff till '84 for Undercover. There's enough Voodoo Lounge leftovers for 2-3 more albums.
With Exile I have to wonder if they just decided to use more of the stuff they had. Buried within Exile it may be possible to find a single LP follow up to Sticky Fingers.

Buttmunker

Does anybody else feel that, with the loss of Brian Jones in 1969, that the Stones lacked something going forward? Some little ingredient that Brian provided to the songs he had a part of - like the recorder (flute) on Ruby Tuesday, or the sitar on Paint It Black, or the mellotron on She's A Rainbow, or the mirimba on Under My Thumb and Out of Time.

The Stones were obviously good after Jones' death, but afterwards they became a straight-up rock band - but without the little niceties that Brian provided.

cdollaz

No.

statcat

I like Citadel, 2000 Man, The Lantern, 2000 Light Years From Home. 2000 Light Years from Home is my favorite song on it. The Pretty Things had a way better transition from blues rock to psychedelic music than the stones did.

statcat

yes I do think so, but for me the cut off point with the stones is when Mick Taylor was out.

foofighters7

Brian Jones was terrific and added a great deal to the early Stones. It was all about the extra instrument he introduced to the song.


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Check out these 3 terrific songs and see that he is playing a different instrument in each song. The instrument adds SO Freakin' much to these songs. I feel if he didn't go off the rails like he did he could have been terrific once he came into his own with songwriting.

Still, The Stones were and are great without him. Who knows what could have been.

Buttmunker

I emphatically agree. You can have a hundred guitar players, but if you add a recorder to the mix, it makes it just that much more special.

I'm waiting patiently for a DVD set that features all their promotional videos and TV performances. I recently ordered the Ed Sullivan 6 Shows, and I suppose that will have to satisfy me for now. Maybe, now that it is the 50th Anniversary of the band, they'll give us something akin to "The Beatles Anthology."

Supermallet

Brian Jones had been sidelined within The Stones since 1965. Originally The Stones were his band. It was a blues band, he was the leader, and that was it. Then their manager encouraged Mick and Keith to write rock songs and within a year Jones was relegated to being a sideman in his own band. This is actually way he's playing so many different instruments, because Mick and Keith would push him off in a corner and he'd mess around with stuff while they wrote.

Jones lost himself in drugs long before he died. He barely plays on Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed because he had no interest in coming to the sessions and no one wanted him there when he did show up. Keith plays almost all the guitar parts on Let It Bleed.

The Rolling Stones weren't like The Beatles. While The Beatles were John and Paul's band, they encouraged George and Ringo throughout the band's career. The Stones were vicious to each other. Mick and Keith picked on Brian relentlessly. I read an anecdote about how once Charlie Watts made a suggestion and Mick and Keith started cracking up and ran around the studio telling everyone how Charlie had spoken up and suggested something. Mick Taylor has often spoken about how Keith would be incredibly vicious to him throughout his tenure with the band.

Anyway, I think The Stones hit a creative peak from 69-72, which is post-Brian Jones, but I think their 60's stuff has a unique sound and it's due to Jones' tinkering.