We Got the Beat

The Rolling Stones return to Exile and remind everyone of when they truly rocked

Exile on Main Street shows the Stones at their 1970s' best.
Keith Richards in his more modern days.

Let’s start off with what’s new (and controversial) about the deluxe reissue of Exile On Main Street the 1972 double-album masterpiece by the Rolling Stones: The bonus tracks.

Inevitably, these tracks will infuriate some purists who claim, and rightfully so, that they’re not the true product of the Exile sessions since Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and the boys added some studio embellishments in preparation for the new release.

Considering that Tattoo You (which is generally regarded as the band’s last great album) was a bunch of '70s leftovers reworked as a last resort, the quibbles over what was recorded when seems trivial at best.

Thus, we’re left with some intriguing Frankenstein creations of old tracks cleaned up and finished by new contributions, some of which feel totally at peace with the original album. “Plundered My Soul” is a standout, Mick adding appropriately addled vocals to a long-lost instrumental track that works a similar groove to “Tumbling Dice.”

(And kudos to the boys for inviting Mick Taylor, who famously left the band for a solo career that never took off, to come back and help finish off the song.) The soulful piano ballad “Following The River,” features Jagger at his most tender, the gritty rocker “Dancing In the Light,” contains some hilarious lyrics and a killer groove, and the exotic “So Divine (Aladdin Song),” is a moody marvel that slinks along on a seductive snake-charmer riff.

Other revelations include an alternate take of “Loving Cup,” on which the band starts slowly, feeling its way before revving it up for an exhilarating finish, and “Good Time Women,” an early take on “Tumbling Dice.”

The priciest edition of the album also includes a documentary, Stones In Exile, which reflects on the circumstances surrounding the making of the album, how the group left England as tax exiles and recorded the bulk of the album in a hedonistic spree at Keith Richards’ villa in France.

That legend sometimes overshadows the music itself, but if this reissue does anything else, it should serve to remind everyone what startlingly brilliant work this is.

Yes, there is squalor and debauchery, much of which may have seeped in from the surroundings. But there is also the band taking all of their American music influences, from rockabilly to folk to country to gospel and, of course, to blues, and blending them into a visceral powerhouse.

When the Stones were great

It’s impossible to overstate what Taylor’s presence meant to the group.

The band had a swaggering groove with him that they never achieved before or since. His subtle fills and emotional solos allowed Richards to focus on the riffs, and he’s got some beauties here, from the Chuck Berry-in-a-strip-club intro licks of “Rocks Off,” to the legendary opening bars of “Tumbling Dice.” Charlie Watts is a marvel as usual, unerringly brilliant in supplying what was necessary to each song, while Bill Wyman’s low-key bass work provides a great rhythmic sway.

The catch-as-catch –can recording sessions also allowed for some notable guests to deliver essential contributions. Dr. John’s rollicking piano on “Let It Loose” adds some Southern grit to the track, and Billy Preston’s keyboard work on “Shine A Light” pumps up the mournful majesty.

Stones’ supporting players Bobby Keys (saxophone), Jim Price (horns), Nicky Hopkins (piano) and Ian Stewart (piano) all have stellar moments. And even when hardly anyone was around, magic could happen: Richards took some idle studio time and turned it into “Happy,” perhaps his most memorable lead vocal in group history.

For all of the rock and roll wildness included in its conception, what’s surprising about Exile is how much ambivalence to the lifestyle creeps in to the music. Jagger’s lyrics reveal that even decadence can seem routine.

Check out this eye-opening couplet from “Rocks Off”: “I’m zipping through the days at lightning speed/Plug in, flush out, and fuck and fight and feed.” Elsewhere, “Torn And Frayed” finds Jagger painting a portrait of Richards as a frazzled, disheveled mess, while the menacing “Ventilator Blues” is the downside of the rock and roll dream, all paranoia and anguish.

Much of the genre moves on the album can be seen then as a search for meaning in the midst of chaos. Nowhere does Jagger sound more at home than on the country songs, from the charmingly shambolic “Sweet Virginia” to the bucolic idyll “Loving Cup.” The gospel influence, supposedly sparked by the band’s time spent with Preston, lifts several songs into grandeur without any strain whatsoever, the music acting with healing power.

All of this is evident on “Shine A Light,” Jagger’s moving elegy for Brian Jones and the album’s emotional centerpiece. Mick sees how the celebrity hangers-on can take you down a dead end (“And your late-night friends leave you/In the cold, grey dawn”), and his disgust for the fate of his friend is evident. But he grants him benediction in the chorus, simply asking that the afterlife provides Jones his favorite music.

Grace notes like these are what make this album so special. It’s easy to paint the Stones as caricatures, but their best music tears all of those preconceived notions away with its depth and craft.

Quite simply, Exile On Main Street is not only the Stones at their peak, it is also one of the absolute musical pinnacles in the history of rock and roll. Any excuse to revisit this music this sublime is worth it.

Adobe Flash Required for flash player. "Plundered My Soul"

Adobe Flash Required for flash player. "So Divine (Aladdin Story)"

Adobe Flash Required for flash player. "Shine a Light"

Hear Mick and Keith discuss the landmark album below:

Adobe Flash Required for flash player. 'Old Exile,' New Lyrics

Adobe Flash Required for flash player. An 'Exile' in France

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Movie Review

New horror movie Faces of Death puts a modern twist on cult classic

Photo courtesy of of IFC Films

Dacre Montgomery in Faces of Death.

True horror fans will likely be familiar with the 1978 cult film Faces of Death, which purported to be a documentary showing real-life killings in gory detail. It didn’t, of course, but that didn’t stop rumors from continuing to spread for decades. Now, almost 50 years and multiple sequels later, comes a new version of Faces of Death, an actual movie that pays homage to the original in interesting ways.

Margot (Barbie Ferreira) works at a YouTube-like company called Kino as a content moderator, flagging videos that violate the company’s policies. This means her job often involves seeing some truly despicable things from all manner of depraved people. One day, though, she comes across a video that seems a little too real, and after seeing more similar videos, she starts to believe they’re genuine murders.

Going against her company NDA, she starts to investigate the videos on her own, which puts her on the radar of Arthur (Dacre Montgomery), who is actually kidnapping people and killing them on camera through methods seen in the original Faces of Death film. It’s not long before Arthur tracks her down, with a plan to make her one of his next victims.

Written and directed by Daniel Goldhaber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) and co-written by Isa Mazzei, the film is not so much scary as it is creepy, with the occasional gross-out sequence. The idea of having someone emulate the killings in the cult film is a good idea, and pairing it with the modern-day attention economy — in which content creators go to increasing lengths for clicks — is a clever twist on a concept that other films have done.

The film as a whole is a commentary on how social media and video sharing sites have often decided to prioritize profits over the well-being of their users. Margot is shown allowing videos involving violence and sexual assault to stay on the site while nixing ones depicting how to use Narcan or demonstrating putting on a condom on a banana. Josh (Jermaine Fowler), Margot’s boss, is even explicit in the company mandate that outrageous videos drive views.

While Arthur has the makings of a good villain, there are few attempts to make him seem truly diabolical. His kidnappings often seem more spur-of-the-moment than calculated, and even though he has a well thought-out dungeon at home, the house’s location in the suburbs seems to make him vulnerable to easy discovery. Goldhaber and Mazzei leave more than a few unanswered questions along the way that take away from the intensity of the story.

Ferreira is yet another actor from Euphoria who’s capitalizing on her exposure from that show. She plays Margot’s increasing anxiety well, and when the action ratchets up in the final act, she meets the moment in a satisfying way. Montgomery returns to the vibe he had while playing the evil Billy on Stranger Things, and even though his character doesn’t fully live up to his potential, Montgomery sells his evil for all it’s worth.

The new Faces of Death may not be what some are expecting given the reputation of the previous films, but it’s a solid horror/thriller that uses the brand as a launching pad into something different. It doesn’t make much of a dent in the scare department, but it does give its violence and gore a degree of relevance in today’s often desensitized world.

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Faces of Death is now playing in theaters.

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