Exile on Main Street

Exile on Main St. is the tenth studio album by English rock band The Rolling Stones. It was released as a double LP in 1972 and drew on influences from rock & roll, blues, country and soul. Initially "Exile" was greeted with lukewarm reviews, but is now widely considered among the band's finest work and one of the defining masterpieces of the rock era. In 2003, the album was ranked number 7, the band's highest position, on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

They recorded it, toured behind it and then moved on creating Goats Head Soup, It's Only Rock 'n' Roll, Black and Blue and Some Girls without ever giving Exile a second thought. Fortunately for them, the rest of the world did. At eighteen songs, four sides and a battery of genres and styles embraced, it's not an easy album to love on first listen. A newcomer to the Stones isn't going to get it, neither will someone who doesn't understand country music, the blues or Chuck Berry. However, these eclectic torrent of influences all helped permeate and give birth to what many consider the greatest rock n' roll record ever. If we only ever had the music, which in itself would be enough, but the legacy behind Exile On Main Street is so much more.

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London, England, in 1962. The first stable line-up consisted of Brian Jones (guitar, harmonica), Mick Jagger (lead vocals), Keith Richards (guitar, backing vocals), Bill Wyman (bass), Charlie Watts (drums), and Ian Stewart (piano)…

Which Chuck E. Weiss do we talk about here? The one who so impressed blues legends Lightnin Hopkins and Willie Dixon as a Denver teenager that they took him out in their road bands? The one who lived in LA's Tropicana Hotel in the 70s alongside Tom Waits and Rickie Lee Jones, ending up namechecked on the classic Waits albums Small Change and Nighthawks at the Diner, and in Rickie Lee Jones hit "Chuck E.'s in Love"? The one who has recorded with Tom Waits, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Roger Miller, Dr. John, Willie Dixon? Whichever Chuck E. Weiss you choose, he's a legend, and his 2014 album, Red Beans and Weiss, delivers on the big personality. Executive produced by Johnny Depp and Tom Waits, Red Beans and Weiss blends blues, barrelhouse, and bluster into a highly entertaining whole.