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Tyler: After the one-two opening punch of “Rocks Off” and “Rip This Joint,” the boys couldn’t help but gear down in tempo. “Shake Your Hips.”

Peter: It’s a cover of a song by Slim Harpo from 1966. I just listened to the original for the first time for this chat!

They’re similar!

Tyler: I didn’t know it was a cover, or, more probably, didn’t recall the detail from Keith’s memoir.

Peter: It was Mick’s idea to cover it (I learned from Wikipedia). They were going for a ’50s sound. To me it just sounds like Exile on Main St.

Tyler: Yeah, it’s part of the fabric. You couldn’t just lift it out.

Peter: Right. Exactly. It’s part of it.

The original was not a hit. It stalled at number 116. It got a second life here. Good tune.

Tyler: It’s a good sign for the rest of the album—in a universe where we haven’t yet heard it—that Mick isn’t fucking around or doing any schtick. It’s striking, how well “Shake Your Hips” works as a Stones song, so much so that my ignorant ass wasn’t aware of its origin. There’s no bit here. Just all-time rock-star frontman strut.

Peter: Next up is “Casino Boogie,” a sort of laid-back blues groove. It’s got loads of sax from Bobby Keys, and a truly bizarre set of lyrics that I only recently learned were written using a William Burroughs-style cut-up technique.

In an interview with Uncut in April 2010, Jagger explained, “That song was done in cut-ups. It’s in the style of William Burroughs, and so-on. ‘Million Dollar Sad’ doesn’t mean anything. We did it in LA in the studio. We just wrote phrases on bits of paper and cut them up. The Burroughs style. And then you throw them into a hat, pick them out and assemble them into verses. We did it for one number, but it worked. We probably did it ‘cos we couldn’t think of anything to write.”

Tyler: It includes what I’ll begrudgingly here call “the c-word.” Scandalous!

Peter: I’d honestly never noticed until I was reading the lyrics for this! It is indeed in there.

Anyway, I love it, weird lyrics and all.

Tyler: It’s great! Everything here is. End of chat. No jokes!

Peter: Thanks for coming, everyone! Tip your wait staff!

Wait staff?

Tyler: People were hired to work this chat.

Peter: This song is a good example of one of Exile‘s defining characteristics—Keith’s backing vocals. He’s all over the place on this album. Here on “Casino Boogie,” he’s mixed so prominently, at times it’s almost like a duet. I think he sounds terrific.

In fact, I think I’m going to say something shocking, Tyler. Get ready.

Tyler: My God, man! The tension!

Peter: It’s one of our patented Hot Takes!

Tyler: Bulletin board material for the Stones tour jet.

Peter: Mick & Keith never topped their combined vocals on Exile. This is the best singing they ever did together.

Did you spit coffee on your computer?

Tyler: Sputter sputter why I never!

Peter: I’ve got a follow-up! Sax in rock records usually sucks. Exile is one of the exceptions that proves the rule.

It’s a BOGO!

(Buy One Get One on Hot Takes!)

Tyler: Bobby Keys brought the heat. Brings the heat? He passed away, if memory serves?

Peter: Did he? Well, RIP to a real one, ’cause that guy was a character.

And, yes, he kicks ass on “Casino Boogie.”

Tyler: 2014. He stuck around for a good long while. We’re spoiled by the three remaining Stones’ incredible longevity.

Peter: It really is incredible.

I heard Keith used to get blood transfusions from younger, healthier people, which honestly sounds like a good idea for him.

Tyler: Seriously. In his autobiography he details how he would track his doses of heroin, writing the amounts in a notebook and everything.

Peter: Okay, next up is “Tumbling Dice.” It was the lead single. It’s probably the only song I was already familiar with when I first bought Exile circa ’95 or so. It’s fine. It might be my least favorite song on here, and the only one that kind of breaks the spell.

Tyler: Really!

It’s probably the most accessible track outta the bunch, punching through the murk a little, but I still love it. It’s a sentimental favorite, as, kinda like you, it was my inroads to the rest of Exile.

Peter: I think it’s that “otherness” I find unwelcome. It stands out, and I really like the murk.

The rest of the album is so raw. It feels like I’m in the basement at Nellcôte with the band. This sounds more like a studio creation.

Tyler: Your heated takes are blowing our readers away!

Peter: I won’t apologize for being right!

I kid. It’s a fine song. It’s just on an excellent album with a lot of top competition. I do like the extended outro.

Tyler: It’s a fitting side-closer. Allows the band to remuddy the floor immediately after.

Peter: “Sweet Virginia” is another little gem. Super fun. A great sort of country rave-up, with another extended dose of Bobby Keys on the sax.

Tyler: It’s got a spontaneous air. That chorus. “Come on,” “come on!”, “come on down, sweet Virginia…”

Peter: The background vocals are a chaotic mess.

This is one of the songs Gram Parsons had something to do with. He didn’t get a writing credit, of course.

Tyler: Y’know they called him “Golden Gram?”

That’s not true.

Peter: I bet someone called him that at some point.

To be clear, I love the chaotic background vocals!

Tyler: You can’t arrange that kinda sound.

Peter: Exactly. Lightning in a bottle.

Tyler: “Torn And Frayed” is next. Another winner that would sound more slapdash if it didn’t follow “Sweet Virginia.” Feels autobiographical—“onstage, the band has got problems.”

Peter: Yeah, this and “Sweet Virginia,” make another nice pairing. The sequencing on this album is terrific.

Mick Taylor’s on the bass. Nicky Hopkins on piano!

And more excellent backing vocals from Keith.

Tyler: They’re truly gifted. It’s astonishing. All those drugs and all that drama, and they’re assembling perfect lineups to play not too perfectly, the songs indelible and sequenced for maximum effect. The guys have been around now for sixty-odd years, and 50-plus since Exile, so it’s easy for the layperson to overlook just how special is Jagger-Richards.

Peter: Indeed.

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