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Peter: Hey, happy 2026! It’s our first chat of the new year!

Tyler: Indeed it is! To mark the occasion of a fresh chapter in this strange thing called life, we’re…going back to the well! Time for a classic-style Peter & Tyler Rolling Stones review.

Peter: This is a biggie.

Tyler: Hackney Diamonds! Again!

Peter: I’ve already forgotten almost everything about that album. I liked the first single.

It was better than Black and Blue. Probably.

Tyler: They’re both fairly abominable. Equal opportunity trash.

Peter: Did we hate Hackney Diamonds? I honestly don’t remember.

Tyler: I think it’s terrible. You were kinder, if memory serves.

But! Not to talk garbage are we here today!

Peter: That’s right, Tyler. We’re here today to talk about my favorite Stones album, Exile On Main St.

Tyler: Yeah, I think it tops my list as well. This is the one.

Peter: Not only is Exile my favorite Stones album, it’s also my favorite album of all time by any artist in any genre (it’s actually a tie between Exile and Joanna Newsom’s Ys., but longterm readers will know that we’re not allowed to discuss Ys. because Tyler’s a hater).

Tyler: I’m not a hater! I’m hopelessly ill-informed.

Peter: I kid! People love our playful banter.

Tyler: Ain’t we a pair of scamps!

Peter: I’ve always been enamored with the mythology around the Stones, and Exile might be their most mythical moment.

Tyler: Many years ago, I read Keith’s stratospheric autobiography. The prevailing impression I have of the Exile sessions, at least those in France, is that of a hazy basement-bound mess, one of those all-time rock-‘n-roll petri dishes out of which somehow, someway, blossomed beauty.

Peter: Tony Sanchez’s 1979 tell-all, Up and Down With the Rolling Stones, has a lot of great stories from those sessions.

But, yes, “hazy basement-bound mess,” does kind of sum it up. The whole affair is bathed in a sludgy, narcotic, haze.

Tyler: Oh, to have been there. It might not actually have been very pleasant without a 24/7 booze buzz and the sort of immense talent that’ll produce, say, “Sweet Black Angel” with walls sweating centuries around you.

Peter: Yeah, and Keith was slipping deeper and deeper into heroin addiction at this point. Neil Young famously said, “Every junkie’s like a settin’ sun,” and goodness was Keith shining brightly here.

Tyler: That he held on to make an album is something else, even without the album being a double and one of the greatest ever recorded.

Peter: Absolutely. I love the sound of this album, you know? The vibe. You really feel like you’re there with the band, in the basement at Nellcôte.

Tyler: Something about the smeary quality of that sound lends it immediacy. When you’re in a small room with a band playing, it doesn’t often sound perfectly separated, all the levels in their right place. Here on Exile, that lack of precision in the blend somehow gives the work a strange warmth.

Peter: The whole thing kicks off with one of the greatest opening two song salvos of all time -“Rocks Off,” into “Rip This Joint.” It doesn’t get any better than that.

Tyler: “Rocks Off,” man, talk about your hall of fame openers. And yeah, “Rip This Joint” right after! Lord, straight outta the gate.

Peter: You mentioned the murky mix and it’s really on display on “Rocks Off.” Mick’s vocals get buried at times. Different instruments burst out of the churning chaos unexpectedly. The whole affair feels like it’s in imminent danger of breaking down completely, but, somehow, it hangs together.

The lyrics you can make out are terrific. “The sunshine bores the daylights out of me.”

Tyler: It establishes the Mick we’re working with here, too. He’s believable. The poise is there but there is no pose. “Rocks Off” is as sexually frustrated as “Satisfaction,” and it’s not always easy to buy that from Jagger.

I listen to Exile and wonder what kinda role Mick played in the whole scene.

Peter: I think he’s newly married to Bianca around the time of Exile?

Tyler: Ah, what a honeymoon.

Peter: I don’t think Bianca spent much time at Nellcôte.

But, Mick being distracted left Keith in charge, sort of.

Tyler: The authenticity on display gives it that Keith air. Mick added the horns and backing vocals in sessions in L.A., no?

Not to diss those contributions. The approaches may never have folded together better.

Peter: Right. I wonder what it sounded like in the raw mixes. I’m guessing pretty grungy.

Tyler: How are those tapes not a holy grail in bootlegging?

Peter: Good question!

Jason Ankeny at Allmusic says “Rocks Off,” “perfectly sets the mood for what’s to follow – murky, gritty, and menacingly raw, its strung-out incoherence captures the record’s debauched brilliance with marble-mouthed eloquence.” Well said.

Tyler: Definitely. Can we bring in Ankeny as a Writers’ Loom ringer?

Peter: Maybe if one of us gets cancer and it’s a Make a Wish sort of situation.

I think one time I claimed I had Stiff Person Syndrome but it turned out to be a hoax.

In one of our chats, I mean.

Tyler: Deep cut!

Peter: The Loomers love it.

Tyler: Especially that rascally Laura.

Topical humor!

Peter: I meant fans of Writer’s Loom! Our many fans!

We call them Loomers. I assumed.

Tyler: Works for me. “Loomite” sounds like we’re running a death cult.

Peter: “Rocks Off” gives way to “Rip This Joint,” and, hold on to your hats, because it rocks super hard.

Tyler: It kicks ass through and through.

One of those, just, “How did they do that?” moments, following up “Rocks Off” with something even higher-energy.

Peter: “Rip This Joint” is the fastest Rolling Stones track, clocking in at around 197 beats per minute. I remember reading once that Keith said Mick didn’t like playing it live because it was too fast.

Tyler: Love Keith taking a shot at Mick there.

Peter: Session musician Bill Plummer is playing double bass on this. Bill Wyman didn’t show up for a lot of these sessions, so a mix of Plummer, Keith, and Mick Taylor ended up playing bass on about half the tracks.

Tyler: Moral paragon Bill Wyman was no doubt repulsed by the Nellcôte debauchery.

Peter: Yeah, I think he’s said things to that effect. But, also, everything was on Keith-time. You never knew when he was going to be ready to play. Bill didn’t like waiting around. Because he didn’t do drugs.

Tyler: “I looked around and was just disgusted. My 13-year-old girlfriend agreed.” -B.Wyman.

We must never forsake an opportunity to remind the world that Bill Wyman married a 13-year-old.

Peter: It’s how we give back.

We also get a big dose of Bobby Keys (playing saxophone) on this track, and he’s a big part of the mythology of the times. He and Gram Parsons were Keith’s drug buddies at Nellcôte, and the three of them were all making a lot of bad choices. Together!

Tyler: It cannot be overstated how much of a miracle it is that Keith Richards is still alive, kicking, and playing today. What a gift.

Peter: It’s true. He’s made of some remarkable material.

I understand why this album was originally met with mixed reviews. It is dense. It is murky. It doesn’t have a lot of big radio-friendly moments. But what it does have is some kind of dark magic that pulls you in, and once it gets hold of you, it doesn’t let go.

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