I know I'll get slaughtered for this but here goes: I think Exile is overrated! There I've said it. Don't get me wrong I do listen to it from time to time but I just don't think it's as good as Sticky Fingers. Every track on Stickys is excellent I don't think you can say the same for Exile.


John Nicholls

..."you're not the only one ..."
but i don't think Exile is overrated, just , and i think that,at the end ,all comes to personal taste...
for me Sticky is better , but at the same time that don't exclude Exile's greatness - and definitely is ONE OF THE GREATEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIMES.
i love both of them, and if i must MUST choose between i'd go for Sticky...
but,at the end of the day,IMO, it doesn't really matter what album is better,greater...or song or ... anything like that,
it is T H E R O L L I N G S T O N E S

and we like it !
cheers

Exile is a strange album....it is a masterpiece when taken as a whole, because (to use a well known phrase) it is greater than the sum of the individual parts. But when you look at individual songs some of them aren't that strong. It's when they're together that it all comes into focus.

SF has some great tracks, but I find some of the songs towards the end of the album are quite weak...Sister Morphine, Moonlight Mile..etc.

It's hard to compare the two really...

Sister Morphine and Moonlight Mile...weak? I thought they were 2 of the standout tracks among an album of standout tracks.

Nothing on Sticky Fingers is weak. And nothing on Exile as well. To be sure they are different albums, however, it is not fair to say Exile is overrated. It is a classic as is Sticky Fingers...

Let's not forget Let it bleed.
Nor Beggar's Banquet.
Or what about Aftermath.
Or Tattoo You.
Some girls?

O, there are so many albums from our boys that contain of great songs only.
I don't think the word "overrated" can ever be used in the right context, when discussing
any album of our boys.

Sticky Fingers is near perfect rock album, well written songs, good variety of tracks, great playing, not too long.

Exile has too much repetition of similar things and too much horns and backing vocalists for my liking.

In theory they could have done a double album at any point circa 1969 - 1972.

I'd call Exile the best R&R album ever, but I still skip over Sweet Black Angel most of the time and Rip This Joint as often as not. They are just not as interesting as the other songs.

Sticky Fingers is amazing as well -- Brown Sugar is the perfect rock and roll song -- but Sister Morphine is a true dud for me. Jagger gives a great vocal, but the lyrics are stoopid.

68-72 was a jaw-dropping run of great music.

Sticky Fingers is my favorite Stones' album. Great cover, great production and Brown Sugar, Bitch, Wild Horses, Sway, Can't You Hear Me Knocking, etc. A perfect representation of the Taylor era.

if i had to explain someone the rolling stones with one album i'd choose sticky fingers. it shows the whole musical spectrum: from smashits (brown sugar) to beautiful ballads (wild horses, i got the blues), from dirty, drunk, swamp-blues (gotta move) to junky-country (dead flowers), from straight forward "punky" rockers (bitch) to dreamin' cinematic poptrips (moonlighmile), from fantastic riffing (can't you hear me knocking) to masterpieces like sway...

the best album of all times (for me)...

but you cant compare it to exile. exile has a vibe and feel to it, i never heard elsewhere. exile is also untouchable...but different.

love em both.....

<but Sister Morphine is a true dud for me. Jagger gives a great vocal, but the lyrics are stoopid.>

Don't forget Ry Cooder!

Sticky Fingers is tighter and nastier. It's got a much better opening track ("Brown Sugar"), and their most famous ballad ("Wild Horses"). But there is so much more music on Exile - and back in 1971, more meant better.

Well I critisised Exile and I'm still alive!! Sister Morphine a Dud? and Moonlight Mile WEAK????????????????? That's a new one on me.


John Nicholls



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-05-28 20:20 by john nicholls.

They're both great, and we're lucky to have 'em. If I may say so, I think some of the people who don't like Exile judge it based on the lack of "bigger" individual songs, which is in my view not the best way to think of the record. It's a whole work, where the minor songs bridge the major ones. Sticky has the obvious "hits", but lovely smaller moments as well, such as Moonlight Mile and I've Got The Blues. Personally, I don't need to pick one over the other, it depends on mood. I love the length of Exile. Sticky Fingers seems to go by too fast. It certainly leaves me wanting more. But that's because it's so good I don't want it to end.

Moonlight Mile is a basically a lot of meandering melodies but there isn't really anything definite there..it sounds a bit laboured and contrived to me. I tend to skip this track.

Sister Morphine could have been a better tune if it had more of a full band sound, it's the minimalistic sound that I don't like. Minimalism is ok for some tunes but I feel this one deserved more instrumentation. I tend to skip this track also.

But there's enough good stuff on SF (and EOMS) to keep me happy

I like both, but I prefer Sticky Fingers. It is, in my oppinion ,of course,the most 'complete' Stones long player. At 10 tracks, it's compact and there is no room for subpar recordings. Exile, whilst an excellent record, is let down by one-or-two 'filler' tracks. It suffers in the same way as The White Album.

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His Majesty
...not too long.

Yes, that's true. Many (especially) modern day records are way too long. Not only Stones' problem. 40-50 minutes is usually a good time for a studio rock album (Exile is great nevertheless it's longer). Live albums are a different story.

I love both albums but Sticky is better if I have to choose between these two masterpieces...

Sticky Fingers!
For me, all tracks are classics, except I Got The Blues and Dead Flowers.
That´s 8/10.

On Exile, I´d say the following are classics:
Rocks Off / Rip This Joint / Tumbling Dice / Sweet Virginia / Torn And Frayed / Loving Cup / Happy / Ventilator Blues / All Down The Line / Stop Breaking Down / Shine A Light.
Which makes 11/18.
Not bad...

Try playing those 8 + 11 at random/shuffle order and you´ll get to heaven...

Edit:
In fact, I just programmed those tracks on the player, opened a beer and cranked up the volume!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-05-28 18:16 by rootsman.

today I think the same as 1972 when I got my first copy of Exile.
It's not as good as Sticky Fingers, Let It Bleed or Beggar's Banquet.

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Single Malt

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His Majesty
...not too long.

Yes, that's true. Many (especially) modern day records are way too long. Not only Stones' problem. 40-50 minutes is usually a good time for a studio rock album (Exile is great nevertheless it's longer). Live albums are a different story.

I love both albums but Sticky is better if I have to choose between these two masterpieces...

Unfortunately bands can't get away with releasing a CD lasting 40 minutes. It was ok back then, when the max vinyl could be was about 45 mins or so (B&B has eight songs!). Nowadays because a CD can be 70 mins long or more then everyone expects the CD to be full up.

I heard a story about the development of the CD. I think it was either the Sony or Phillips boss who wanted the CD to have a certain duration so he could fit his favourite symphony on it!

Sticky is more accessiable than Exile. Yes.
Sticky is not as overwhelming.
Nor as dense and "Murky"

Great posts!

"Well my heavy throbbers itchin' just to lay a solid rhythm down"

Exile is like reading a long book...you kind of live inside it

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novica
but i don't think Exile is overrated, just , and i think that,at the end ,all comes to personal taste...
for me Sticky is better , but at the same time that don't exclude Exile's greatness - and definitely is ONE OF THE GREATEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIMES.

Things are so simple : ''Sticky Fingers'' is the greatest r'n'r album EVER!

Damn! that was THE most accurate, true, non b.s. statement I've ever read bout Exile that sums it all up in one sentence. Great Post WeLoveYou

"Well my heavy throbbers itchin' just to lay a solid rhythm down"

Ehhhh, well, as far as skipping tracks goes, there are more to skip on Exile than on Sticky.

For Sticky Fingers I generally skip over Wild Horses and Dead Flowers.

For Exile On Main Street I skip over I Just Want To See His Face and Sweet Black Angel every time I listen to the album and I usually skip Shake Your Hips. And sometimes All Down The Line and Rip This Joint.

I've never been a big fan of I.J.W.S.H.F. Skip, but I've been listening to more often than ever now.. and after really listening to the song. there is alot of great playing and layer's of things going on... probally their most experimental track since something off of T.S.M.R.

"Well my heavy throbbers itchin' just to lay a solid rhythm down"

Exile is a great song album. I know that's the deal with all albums but it seems to be an album that is not concerned with success or a hit - it's truly about the band playing the songs.

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Marhsall
I've never been a big fan of I.J.W.S.H.F. Skip, but I've been listening to more often than ever now.. and after really listening to the song. there is alot of great playing and layer's of things going on... probally their most experimental track since something off of T.S.M.R.

Me too - currently my fave from Exile! The hypnotic groove is what does it for me. I've always loved Keith's electric piano riff....but it was the Stones In Exile documentary that helped me rediscover this again.

There's a pic of MJ playing guitar in the basement with some guitars in the background and that Jake kid sitting there. There's an electric piano in the pic also - I'm assuming this is the one used for IJWSHF?

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His Majesty
Sticky Fingers is near perfect rock album, well written songs, good variety of tracks, great playing, not too long.

Exile has too much repetition of similar things and too much horns and backing vocalists for my liking.

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71Tele
They're both great, and we're lucky to have 'em. If I may say so, I think some of the people who don't like Exile judge it based on the lack of "bigger" individual songs, which is in my view not the best way to think of the record. It's a whole work, where the minor songs bridge the major ones. Sticky has the obvious "hits", but lovely smaller moments as well, such as Moonlight Mile and I've Got The Blues.Sticky Fingers seems to go by too fast. But that's because it's so good I don't want it to end.

I go with both HM and Tele. Both are masterpieces, but like HM I tend more to Sticky than to Exile. Maybe because Exile is a bit too American for my European ears (Sweet Virginia v Dead Flowers, to say it in a nutshell). I agree with HM about the horns and the backing vocals. Sticky presents a clearer picture of the band itself.

Let me add something to the discussion: Goats Head Soup, the album with undoubtedly the strangest title of all Stones albums, and IORR. To me GHS is like a quiet, sunny autumn afternoon, when the light is soft and the leaves of the trees, most of them already fallen on the ground, are in all different colours. To me GHS represents the band in its last phase, shining one more time so warm and brightly, as well on the album as during the European 1973 Tour. Pure nostalgia. Then finally we have IORR, the definitive end of the until then existing band. At least 3 songs tell us it's over: Ain't To Proud To Beg, It's Only Rock and Roll and Luxury. Mick Taylor is already halfway out of the band, Ron Wood is standing on the threshold of a new and very long Rolling Stones era. IORR marks the end of the wonderful years 1966 - 1973/4, beginning with Aftermath and ending with IORR. Just like Let It Bleed was the last station for Brian, so was IORR for Mick T., both to me the greatest 'third men' The Rolling Stones ever had and who both have proven to be unique as well as irreplacable. I won't deny that the Stones have done some good songs and some nice performances after the Jones-Taylor era, but for me the magic definitely vanished at the end of 1974.

I consider Brian's removal from the band (which in fact was a gradual process, he almost faded away) and the sudden leaving of Taylor as the most dramatic moments in the history of the band itself. The departure of Bill Wyman had far less impact imo and was incomparably less dramatic and decisive: it didn't mark the end of any era of the band at all.

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skipstone
Ehhhh, well, as far as skipping tracks goes, there are more to skip on Exile than on Sticky.

For Sticky Fingers I generally skip over Wild Horses and Dead Flowers.

For Exile On Main Street I skip over I Just Want To See His Face and Sweet Black Angel every time I listen to the album and I usually skip Shake Your Hips. And sometimes All Down The Line and Rip This Joint.

now we know the true origins of your name....