Does anyone else really dig the pedal steel guitar in Torn and Frayed?

Here's the live version from the Toronto Palais gig 2002:

[download.yousendit.com]

Also, here's a great song review from allmusic.com

It is telling that the Rolling Stones chose Robert Frank as the photographer and tour documentary filmmaker for their sprawling masterwork, Exile on Main St.. The record is their work most focused on the American roots of rock & roll, encompassing a wide scope of genres: gospel, blues, country, hard rock, and soul music. Their outsider perspective as British interpreters of American-originated music never seems like anything less than authentic. Like the Stones, Frank was an outsider to the United States, an émigré from Switzerland, and in his famous collection of photographs from the '40s and '50s called The Americans, he got right at the heart of America and its people — in urban and rural settings both. Fittingly, it features an introduction by author Jack Kerouac. The album cover integrates photos from the book, Frank's photos of the band, and vintage portraits of sideshow freaks. The rough art direction hinted at the rough-and-tumble nature of the basement-recorded material therein, and even foreshadowed punk rock's edgy graphics. The original vinyl release of Exile on Main St. was organized into sides with songs similar in tone or genre. Side one is the hard rock & roll side; side two is the country/ folk side. "Torn and Frayed" comes from the acoustic-based side two. It is a twangy, three-chord honky tonk, but not typically country. The progression of the chords brings gospel music to mind. The song is driven by the acoustic guitar of Keith Richards, but the song is rich in texture: the pedal steel guitar of Al Perkins; a clean, country Telecaster, also played by Richards; Billy Price's organ; and Nicky Hopkins' piano are prominent, all converging in a chiming, mournful wail. The music comes as close to definitive country-rock or Stax-like country-soul as anything from the era, barring Gram Parsons — an immediate influence on the Stones. Jagger sings an oblique, impressionistic lyric that seems most influenced, if not by The Americans itself, then certainly by the same sort of subject matter and vivid, sepia-toned imagery: the street-level characters on the edge of America and "that crazy feeling in America when the sun is hot on the streets and the music comes out of a jukebox or a funeral," which is how Kerouac described Frank's photos but could easily be applied to the musical sweep of Exile. The lyrics of "Torn and Frayed" follow a vagabond-like guitar player whose "coat is torn and frayed," into "ballrooms and smelly bordellos/And dressing rooms filled with parasites." Live versions from the era fail to do "Torn and Frayed" justice; the song needs the textured, acoustic-based approach of the original. The electric live versions sound like plodding Southern rock rather than the mixture of R&B and country that is uniquely the Stones.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-05-12 05:54 by LeedsLungs71.

Love everything about Torn & Frayed, pedal steel included.

Great lyrics - always loved "...but the codeine'll fix it - doctor prescribes, drugstore supplies, who's gonna help him to kick it?"

Genius.

Count me with cosoprim on this. I enjoy T & F almost as much as I enjoy T & A! (and i'm not talkin about stonestod!)

Yeah, great song, one of my favorites on Exile. Also love the live version from Palais Royale 2002.

LeedsLungs71, I just love it. I can hear that song again and again and again, and I never get tired of it. Thanks to the beautiful pedal steel it must be my favourite song on Exile, and it's probably on my top ten list of all Stones songs. And I agree with you Elmo Lewis, they played a great version at Palais Royale - especially Ronnie shined on T&F.

i love the version of Palais Royale, but i think Shine A Light is the best from Exile.

The Worst, and SeNdEr - collective reality check please! Err . . . Exile is the album that features Tumbling Dice . . . obviously the BEST!

My favorite varies from day to day.

True enough Elmo - I suppose I'm just in a TD kinda mood today . . .

Well, maybe I should put like Keith then;
"if I choose one, I'd be killing all of my other babies"
Tumbling Dice, Torn and Frayed, Soul Survivor, Shine a Light - fantastic songs on a fantasic album.

Elmo Lewis Wrote:
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> My favorite varies from day to day.


That's just it - I tried to make an "Exile Top 5" just now and ended up with 15 songs and like 5 ties.

Impossible to judge the best from Exile and stick to it - too much great material on there.

So true.

That's why it's the best . . .

Listening to Exile is a totally religious experience for me. If I were a Christian, I would say The Lord had something to do with the creation of Exile. If I was a Buddhist, I would say Buddha was in there as well.

It is such a divine masterpiece. I hear timeless music in so many of the tracks.

Exile could be the catalyst for me to stray from my atheist beliefs! haha!

If I were a Stones-er I would say that the Stones had something to do with the creation of Exile.

moreover, if I were a druggie (or a realist) I would say that drugs had something to do with its creation . . .

and if I were Ferrante, I'd say Mick's a p*ssy and can't sing for a shit.

I get what LL71 is saying - they tap into the divine on here.

They were receiving transmissions.

divine, modif.
1. [Having qualities of a god ]
-- Syn. godlike, godly, supernal, superhuman, celestial,
almighty, unearthly, heavenly, deific, eternal, beatific,
deiform, supreme, spiritual, ambrosial, angelic, theistic,
deistic, eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, all-
powerful, ghostly, superphysical, supernatural,
transcendent, hyperphysical, extramundane, transmundane,
Elysian, Arcadian, Olympian, Jovian, Christlike, immaculate,
paradisiacal, all-loving, beyond praise; see also perfect 2.

That sums up Exile!

smile: yeah Exile lays the faith out real clear all right
and All Down the Line is like the creed or the decalogue or something

Keith, be well - all the way, baby, all the way

One thing I don't get about this review is when he talks about live electric versions of Torn & Frayed.

"Live versions from the era fail to do "Torn and Frayed" justice; the song needs the textured, acoustic-based approach of the original. The electric live versions sound like plodding Southern rock rather than the mixture of R&B and country that is uniquely the Stones."

Hey! What's wrong with plodding Southern rock?

with sssoul Wrote:
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> smile: yeah Exile lays the faith out real clear
> all right
> and All Down the Line is like the creed or the
> decalogue or something
>


Yeah....you're right again....

Hound Dog Wrote:
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> One thing I don't get about this review is when he
> talks about live electric versions of Torn &
> Frayed.
>
> "Live versions from the era fail to do "Torn and
> Frayed" justice; the song needs the textured,
> acoustic-based approach of the original. The
> electric live versions sound like plodding
> Southern rock rather than the mixture of R&B and
> country that is uniquely the Stones."


I don't get it either.What era & what versions is he talking about?It was played once in 1972 & twice in 2002 and that has been it.

LeedsLungs71 Wrote:
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> Does anyone else really dig the pedal steel guitar
> in Torn and Frayed?
>

best song on Exile and one of my favourite 5 or 6 songs the Stones have ever done

so - yep..I 'dig' everything about it!

Wasn't the organ on Torn And Frayed "not supposed to be there", just like Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone?

I read somewhere that Mick hates the way Exile sounds. Wouldn't it be great if they got together in the spirit of the Stripped sessions and came out with a new, alternative edition of it? Better yet, I would love for them to pull a Pink Floyd on us and play the entire album at a live show. May not be appropriate for a stadium show, but it would be awesome in a club or even arena.

Raoul Duke Wrote:
Better yet, I would love for them to pull a Pink Floyd on us and play the entire album at a live show. May not be appropriate for a stadium show, but it would be awesome in a club or even arena.


Raoul - That would be a cloud I don't think I could ever come down off of.
___________________________________________

Cosmoprim wrote:

Great lyrics - always loved "...but the codeine'll fix it - doctor prescribes, drugstore supplies, who's gonna help him to kick it?"

Yeah Cosmo, that's my favorite line too. One of their best ever.

Raoul Duke, Mick mentioned in an interview that Exile was very bad produced, with horrible mixes. I couldn't disagree more.

CindyC Wrote:
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> Raoul - That would be a cloud I don't think I
> could ever come down off of.

I agree. I can't think of anything better I could ask of them. Alas, as elating as it would be, I don't think there is the slightest chance that is going to happen.