Netflix Catchup: "Stones in Exile"

Before I tuned into this the other day, I read Steven Rubio's review, and since I agree with everything he said, I'll link to it here.

A little further down the road, you'll be reading what I think about the album when it shows up on my all-time Top 50 list, but for now suffice to say that I love the album, so there was no reason why I wouldn't enjoy this. In addition to what Steven wrote, it was fun to see Mick and Charlie returning to the site where the album was recorded, and trying to remember exactly where each instrument was set up. And I might add, looking none the worse for wear, especially Charlie in a really cool suit.

And Steven is right - Bobby Keys is hysterical (I had no idea he was good old southern boy), especially when he tells the story about showing Charlie how to do the drum parts on "Shake Your Hips" and then comments about how ludicrous it was for Bobby Keys to be trying to tell Charlie Watts how to play the drums.

Steven is also right about what Anita Pallenberg looked like back in the day - I'm not sure "luminous beauty" does her justice. Of course, the brief glimpse we get of what she looks like today (essentially, a female version of Keith Richards) serves to remind us that you can't live the lifestyle that she and Keith were living back in the 1970s and not have it do a lot of damage.

There's also a very telling comment from Jake Weber (who served as the Stones' "Chief Joint Roller" at age 8 during that summer), who correctly notes that what he was witnessing at the time was a descent into a darkness from which Keith almost did not emerge. It was decadent for certain, but at the time one could have been forgiven for overlooking that because it also epitomized what the outlaw world of rock and roll was all about.

And then, of course, there's the music. 40-plus years later, it's amazing to me that "Exile" was not greeted at the time as the masterpiece that it clearly is. But that's a story for another day.

Well worth seeking out, especially if one is a fan of the Stones.