Exile on iCylcli-Podding Street

iCycli-Podding, the brand new sport. I do it every morning, its an extreme sport in that its dangerous. What is it? Listening to your iPod as you cycle to work in the morning. I do it most mornings, don't advise it, and its probably illegal.

This morning was a lovely crisp sunny morning. It feels like summer is just starting to break, and I was listening to Exile on Main street. The weather combined with the upbeat music almost made my hangover completely disappear.

I don't know if its just that I discovered this album at a particular age or stage in life, but none of the rest of the Stones stuff comes near it. I know its the "Classic Album", but I didn't discover it like that. I was probably about 17 and my mum asked me for a list of CD's that I wanted for my Birthday. I was pretty up to date with my wishlist, cos I had a saturday job and absolutely nothing to spend my wages on. I was enjoying some of my dad's stones records, and I thought, yeah here's a list of the stones albums I don't have, told her to get me one and she found exile on mainstreet. What astounded me was that it wasn't a stones album at all. At that age I always thought of the Stones as writers of some pretty good pop rock songs, which were generally performed better by your average pub rock band. I could play the drums and thought Charlie Watts was simplistic and boring. Keith Richards was cool, but not as obvious a guitarist as Hendrix. I was never into Van Halen twiddle, but at that point, I never associated a kick ass riff with being talent in a guitarist, I considered that song writing. But probably most importantly, I couldn't see much teenage angst in a 50 yr old Mick Jagger.

Little did I know, that this Gem of an album existed. One of the first "Albums" I ever "heard". Its almost impossible to grow up in the UK and not experience the Beatles or the Stones as a collection of specific songs. As a child of the 80's I knew the riff to satisfaction from the Marathon(Now snickers) advert before I could tie my shoe laces. These songs were such pop classics, that if you were lucky enough to listen to a stones album, and not a greatest hits collection(Could be a future rant), it was very difficult to learn to see the "unknown" hits which hadn't been over played. I expected to find a few new songs on exile between the hits I knew. Unfortunately there are no hits, on exile, there aren't even any songs. Theres only one unit - The Album. The coherency across the whole album is unlike most(especially with modern recording techniques). The studio, the atmosphere, the time is the instrument in itself, that the stoned musicians tag along to. Far less obvious, very few hooks, few stand out tracks. Charlie Watts drumming; Essential!!!. The simplistic riffs of Keef; The life blood and heartbeat. And Mick Jagger's cod-old-bluesman-I'm-not-a-white-middle-class-Londoner; Bizarrely not cringeworthy.

It all comes together wonderfully. If asked now, I don't think anyone would know who played on what takes of what tracks, and I don't think it would have made a difference to the album. The album is a frame around a specific moment in time, and its been done wonderfully. Pre-Concept-Album, I think it is a concept album, the concept is that the album isn't just a collection of songs.