Exile on Main Street While a few of my best fishing buddies share my taste for“ licorice,” others would sooner throw themselves from my Rav 4 as we pass eastward into the Columbia River Gorge. For this group, I like to play“ Exile on Main Street,” the Rolling Stones 1972 magnum opus and the culmination of the incredible creative output that led to the release of“ Beggar’ s Banquet,”“ Let It Bleed,”“ Get Yer Ya Yas Out” and“ Sticky Fingers” over the previous four years.( When I hear any Stones’ recording after 1977’ s“ Some Girls,” I find myself banging my head against the wall while shouting,“ Why?” Okay, I admit it, that happens during“ Goat’ s Head Soup” and“ It’ s Only Rock‘ n Roll” too.)
In my book,“ Exile” may be the best compendium of American popular music ever put to vinyl— certainly the best put forward by an English band. Had I only one album side to listen to, it would be the“ country side,” # 2 on Exile. The influence of Keith Richard’ s pal( and country rock pioneer) Gram Parsons shines through here, especially on“ Torn on Frayed,” which includes the delectable pedal steel licks of Nashville session man Al Perkins.(“ Exile” was the record that got me reading liner notes.) The song recounts the story of a wasted guitar player— could it be autobiographical? While Jagger sings the root, Richards harmonizes high above, struggling at times to stay in tune. His caterwauling underscores the fragility and bravado of a musician who’ s putting it on the line, night after night.
“ They think he’ s bad He thinks they’ re mad And the guitar player gets restless But his coat is torn and frayed It’ s seen much better days Just as long as the guitar plays Let him steal your heart away”
At the tail end of“ Torn & Frayed” and throughout the rest of Exile, guitarist Mick Taylor adds the tasteful stylings that for me defined much of the Stones’ sound at the time. Grams Parsons overdosed; Mick Taylor, one can infer, feared a similar outcome, and exited the band after Goat’ s Head Soup. Life around the Stones— at least in that period— was apparently fraught with peril.
Lou Reed’ s New York If we’ ve recently spun“ Exile,” I might go in a slightly different direction and suggest to my friends that we listen to Lou Reed’ s“ New York,” whether we’ re headed to the Deschutes or out the coast, or even down to the Umpqua.
I remember being on a subway in Manhattan in the winter of 1990 just after“ New York” came out, and thinking that the simple arrangements and first-person narratives on the record truly captured the gestalt of the times.( The New York I knew in the 70s and 80s, when I was growing up in Connecticut, was truly one long“ Dirty Boulevard.”) If alone in the car and headed to the fishing grounds, I generally replay the opening track“ Romeo had Juliet” at least three times to wallow in the slightly mucky counterpoint of Reed’ s crunchy guitar and Rob Wasserman’ s singing Clevinger Upright Bass.( An interesting musical six degrees of separation: before his death, Wasserman backed both Reed and the Dead’ s Bob Weir on various tours … though never on the same bill, to the best of my knowledge.)
Iggy Pop’ s Lust For Life Many of our day trips to the Deschutes— especially during summer— bring us back to town in the wee hours. To power through those last few miles before the darkness of the Gorge gives way to the lights of Troutdale, I have a few go-to singles.
One is Iggy Pop’ s“ Lust for Life.” Written and produced by David Bowie and featuring Bowie’ s fabulous band of the mid-70’ s( including the Sales brothers on bass and drums and Bowie himself on backing vocals and keyboards), Lust for Life can’ t help but get you moving … or keep you awake. I’ ve always been amused at how many major brands