ViewGuide

Created Feb 27, 2012 10:21PM PST • Edited Jul 19, 2014 10:15AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Very Good 3.5

   Essential viewing for fans of Exile on Main St. – the essential Stones’ album that set the tone for Seventies rock culture, grew the legend of the greatest rock & roll band in the world and now ranks as one of the greatest in rock history. The Stones had too much fun making it, as this 60 minute documentary shows.

   “The sunshine bores the daylights out of me,” but for Stones fans this small treat won’t. It chronicles their sumptuous exile on the French Riviera during which they made Exile, with a concluding trip to L.A. to finish it. Don’t expect a concert, though several songs get played almost all down the line. It’s a loving cup.

   Do expect the Glimmer Twins in all their shambling brilliance. Stones fans can get satisfaction from that.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Mick & Keith are the transcendent stars, of course. Charlie the bemused & quiet Bill are also present and accounted for, both of them missing their British comfort food, whatever that might be.

   Mick Taylor, the fifth member of the band during this period, appears out of place. Cherubic instead of chiseled, he simply doesn’t look like a Rolling Stone.

   Stones’ session players get significant airtime, especially Texan sax hero Bobby Keys.

   Their entourage creates a Rock People spotting experience.

   • Bianca Jagger is shown bodaciously pregnant with Jade Jagger. Bianca later said “My marriage ended on my wedding day” during the making of Exile. Sure, but a shot of Mick strumming an acoustic guitar while she sits nearby in the balmy air explains why she fell in love with him. Never mind that they look like siblings.
   • Anita Pallenberg is ever present, lovely and seductive. No wonder Keef stole her from Brian Jones.
   • 21st Century celebs pay their homage: Jack Black, Sheryl Crow & Martin Scorsese among them.

5. Male Stars Very Good 3.5

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    The music’s the thing. The film makes clear how the Stones took the time to get it right.

    Let’s remember how great Exile on Main St. is. Interspersed between five supremely great rock songs are a double-album’s worth collection of boogie, blues and country numbers, all full of vinegar. The Top 5?

    • Rocks Off – “The sunshine bores the daylights out of me”
    • Tumbling Dice – “Got to roll me”
    • Happy – “Always had a hole in my pants”
    • All Down the Line – “Heard the diesel drumming, all down the line”
    • Shine a Light – “May the good Lord shine a light on you”

    Only Tumbling Dice hit the Top 40 – twice, for the Stones then for Linda Ronstadt – but each is a better song than most bands might ever hope to have. Truth.

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

12. Play Very Good 3.5

13. Music Perfect 5.0

    Mick reveals that he knew nothing about gambling, but that their housekeeper played dice, leading him to write Tumbling Dice. Think he paid off her debts in thanks?

    He and Keith pay touching tribute to American music, especially their affection for Country. Then they roll into Sweet Virginia, a great country song if ever there was one.

    Keith reveals that Happy was recorded without the full band because they weren’t around the Villa when he came up with it. Instead, Keith himself plays bass and guitar, producer Jimmy Miller plays drums and saxophonist Bobby Keys plays maracas. Mick’s backing vocals were added later. Happy it worked out since Happy is perhaps Keith’s best song.

14. Visuals Great 4.0

    Extensive footage and images of Villa Nellcôte. Nice place if you can get it.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.8

    Sex and drugs and rock-n-roll come to life.

17. Sex Titillating 1.7

18. Violence Gentle 1.0

19. Rudeness Profane 2.6

21. Reality

    Natural 1.0

    The Stones fled Britain’s high tax rates, proving that 1%ers always find a way to thwart a greedy taxman. Hell, their fellow British rock god – George Harrison – turned Taxman into a Beatles’ song.

    How is it then that Mick Jagger and the rest of the rock establishment champion big government with its attendant confiscatory tax rates? Famously attuned to irony and hypocrisy, they’ve obviously failed to look in the mirror regarding their own tax avoidance schemes. Let’s just call them Proto-Tories.

    Who wouldn’t want to go into luxurious exile when the taxman comes calling? However, only rock stars get away with such behavior while maintaining their left-wing cred. Hypocrites.

22. Circumstantial Natural 1.0

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0