Feb 282010
The Rolling Stones are set to reissue Exile on Main Street in expanded bonus-track – even unfinished-leftover-track-completed-years-later-by-surviving-members-a la-The Beatles’ “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love” (but with neither Mick nor Keef having to die first) bonus track – format! This will surely be their best album since Exile…!
One name in particular stood out for me from this report:
Were you expecting Jeff Lynne?
The Super-Bonus Deluxe has an e.p. of the band doing five songs from the Was/Not Was catalog. I can’t wait to hear their version of “Shake Your Head (Let’s Go To Bed”…
Right, and the Blu-Ray Super-Bonus Deluxe simply is an ep of the 5 best songs from Exile….
Are they f-ing stupid? A rhetorical question, please note.
And how much does “Plundered My Soul” sound like a song from Bridges to Babylon?
This is the second coolest thing to ever happen and you all know it (the coolest being the original release of Exile). The Stones have gone back into their archives and touched them up before, and I didn’t see any of you whining that Waiting on a Friend wasn’t the original, Waiting on My Friend version, nor did anyone get their knickers in a knot over Jagger redoing the lyrics to So Young. These cuts are on a separate record, the way a bonus should be done. I’m really interested to hear if there’s any lyrics to put to Dancing in the Light, and also to see if some of the songs I’ve had for years are getting new titles.
This is going to kick major ass, and I can’t wait.
2000 Man, your faith in these lunkheads, however much misplaced, is touching in the extreme.
I only hope they do a decent remaster this time. Exile has got to be the worst sounding remastered CD (where the vinyl always sounded great and the 1st press CD was the cassette mastering which was kinda dull but mostly untouched)
Everything that could ever have been done to “Exile…” was achieved in this epic performance of the album in its entirety:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh1bx1Ab2Sk
Actually, it’s not half as bad as I thought it would be.
I don’t know, jungleland, the early 90s remaster (when they also reissued with “original artwork”) sounds ok to me, better than the flat original CBS cd issue. Since then, I don’t know what’s been done.
Mick sounds like a chipmunk on most of it (the Virgin remaster)and the horns are brought up way in front…I just never liked that CD mastering (other Stones CDs sound great remastered, esp, Beggars and Let It Bleed. It’s like they took all of the murkiness out and made it too sterile.
New Rolling Stone Mag suggests that Don Was was hired to sift through the reels looking for good stuff and helped engineer the addition of some acoustic guitars and additional vocals to the unfinished tracks. They also suggest that Mick Taylor might have done some overdubs…..
I dunno, jungleland – that first Virgin remaster sounds good to me, and I’ve got a lot of different versions of Exile. I think currently the best sounding version is a remaster by a fan called Mickboy that takes Japanese lp’s and cleans them up in a real studio, not just on his PC.
Stones fandom is pretty psyched about this. This is really the first time the band has gone into the vaults in a meaningful way. Unfortunately, because Exile was not just recorded at Nellcote, some of the old Sunset Sound tracks may never see the light of day, like the acoustic All Down the Line and Hillside Blues. There’s a lot of known early 70’s tracks, and they’ve mentioned some that weren’t known for this release, so this should be real cool. I don’t even care if I don’t like the remaster of Exile itself, I’ve got several I like just fine, but this is gonna be swell if you ask me.