Reading the May 16 2011 NEW YORKER MAGAZINE yesterday, I was surprised to see in a Malcolm Gladwell article about innovation in the computer industry, Gladwell use as an analogue how the Stones put together EXILE ON MAIN ST. Funny to be reading about IBM and Xerox and Apple and then see a comparison of what they do to EXILE.

thanks for posting

Thanks for posting the article.

Pretty good. Would be a nice point of departure for a wider look at the band's career.

What's amazed me, actually, is that since at least "Undercover," they've been violating the rules outlined in the piece and getting away with it to a remarkable degree.

Think about it: Not only do the songwriting principals not work together at the outset of the process, but the trust and sympathy between them seems even to have broken down even in the "editing" and "polishing" phases. Beyond that, recording happens under the gun, with a massive and unforgiving deadline (a tour) in place that dictates that they use whatever they've written and recorded together in a very narrow timeframe.

Given all that--plus the idea that everything is created with an eye (an ear) toward football stadia--I think it's a bloody miracle that the albums are as strong as they are. My feeling is that every album after Tattoo You runs at about 50% good-to-great and 50% forgettable-to-embarrassing. That's terrible by the standards set from '63-'81, but it still knocks the stuffing out of virtually all the competition, past and present...

Picks for the day: "Empty Heart," "No Use In Crying," "The Storm," "Had It With You," "Don't Lie To Me"

I don't know, the connection seems forced to me. Gladwell overlooks the fact that mick writes 3 and only 3 verses--all that's needed--and they begin to "cut" the tune. It seems like laziness, or at best, efficiency, rather than overflowing genius. Anyone who actually listens to the Stones would tend to think that's keith's department, and managing the flow is mick's... then again, I like the reversal here. But I think it's an accident.

is it really the case that during Exile, they had "too many ideas"? I thought it was just that songs were piling up, since no album had been released in 1970. Compared to today, they were of course prolific, but it wasn't a special flow for Exile.

I am going to be the contrarian here and say that I am not impressed with Gladwell's shtick. He forms grandiose theories from seemingly unconnected strands of facts (some of which he only appears to know superficially - in one of his books he used The Beatles instead of the Stones as an example). He is very fashionable at the moment and he presents himself well. He has a nice cottage industry for himself with his books, and in certain intellectual corners he is considered some kind of deep, original thinker. I bought his "Outliers" based on the hype. I like to think of myself as a fairly smart guy (some here may disagree!) but I could not get through this pseudo-intellectual horseshit. I predict Gladwell in ten years ago will be the 2021 equivalent of those "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" books that were all the rage 20 years ago, but which I think are slightly embarrassing now.

Besides, anyone who quotes Keith Richards verbatim and takes what he says seriously obviously isn't familiar with his subject.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-05-19 08:13 by 71Tele.