(Mick Jagger, Mick Taylor and Keith Richards goofing with guest musicians in front of Villa Nellcote)
 
Just got back from purchasing, that’s right, purchasing, the newly remastered version of Exile on Main St. (I’m about to pop in the bonus disc.  Wow, alternate versions of both Loving Cup and Soul Survivor).  As mentioned previously, I’ve been looking forward to this thing with equal doses of curiosity and dread (no harm done, says Pitchfork, who score it a perfect 10), but, echoing Mr. Laner, what I’m really waiting for comes out June 22nd, the BBC’s making-of-the-album doc, The Stones In Exile.

Judging here by Mick’s grin at Cannes (and despite his periodic downplaying of the album’s signficance), he’s definitely pleased with the end product.  As the mythology behind Exile taps into so many things I’m particularly resonant to beyond the Stones themselves—Los Angeles, the eye of Robert Frank, notions of, well, “exile”— I’m sure I’ll be, ahem, happy, too.

What follows is a stellar clip off Exile, the Stones’ cover of Slim Harpo‘s Shake Your Hips.  Recorded in Montreaux in ‘72, various versions of this have been floating around online, but this one’s looking sharp! 

 
More on Exile:

The Rolling Stones shine a light on ‘Exile on Main St.’ reissue

Rolling Stones set to top British album charts for first time in 16 years

Cannes Film Festival 2010: Stephen Kijak rolls with ‘Stones in Exile’

Sympathy for the tongue: an interview with the logo of wealth and taste

Rolling Stones bonus track: Following The River

 
First the Beatles, next up The Rolling Stones—or at least Exile On Main St.  Saw this weekend that Universal Music is giving Exile the deluxe packaging and remastering treatment for release later this year.  Well, I’m of mixed emotions not sure how I feel about this.  I do love, love immeasurably, that album’s sprawling, bluesy murk—is Exile something that can profit, really, from being cleaned up any further than it was in ‘94?  Or are there sounds in those tracks—sounds as buried as they are essential—whose magic another scrubbing might forever eradicate?

While I/we have a few months to ponder that one, here’s something delightfully raw, circa Exile: little-seen rehearsal footage of that album’s “Loving Cup.”  Similar footage has been floating around on YouTube, but this is a recent addition, with a clapboard opening and (often) excellent sound quality.

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds: You Never Give Me Your Money: Metzger on the Beatles Remasters