Exile on Main St.: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones

Let’s get a few things out of the way before we start this review of Robert Greenfield’s EXILE ON MAIN ST.: A SEASON IN HELL WITH THE ROLLING STONES:

1. I’m a Stones fan.
2. EXILE ON MAIN ST., STICKY FINGERS and LET IT BLEED are my three favorite albums by them.
3. I’ve got a ton of live recordings, studio outtakes and rehearsals from this time period.
4. I used to have a bootleg copy of COCKSUCKER BLUES (way overrated, folks)
5. I’ve read Greenfield’s previous Stones book about the 1972 tour.

So it comes with great sadness that this review could not be more postive, but EXILE is more like a kiss-and-tell for the drug set, going into various stories of how the drugs were prevalent and who supplied them. With so many rock clichés, it can get a bit repetitive, and does. You know what you learn in this book? That Keith Richards and Mick Jagger sometimes don’t get along, that Keith seems like a child who needs to get his own way, and that spite and bitterness are also band members of the Stones. But you already knew all that.

There is very little talk about the making of the EXILE album. It goes into greater detail about why the band set up in France, why they chose to record at the villa Keith rented, and how bad Mick Taylor was treated by Keith and Mick. Greenfield uses varous sources for this tome, some more believable then others.

The last section offers “where are they now?”-type closure, and also goes into how the album was viewed as a mixed bag when it first came out. He brings up, of course, the Liz Phair record that is a supposed answer to the Stones’ classic, with a passing sentence about looking for Pussy Galore’s version instead. (I would so love to be there when some old Stones fans pop that on their stereo.) He even writes in the book that if you’re looking for a more detailed account about the making of the album, go somewhere else. Way to sell a book, Rob. If you’re curious about this time period in the Stones’ life, read Greenfield’s other book instead; it’s a lot more fascinating, since it was written at the time of the tour, rather than looking back on the experience 30 years later. –Bruce Grossman

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About Bruce Grossman

Bruce writes the "Bullets, Broads, Blackmail and Bombs" weekly column. He lives in Massachusetts.