Song of the Day: “Plundered My Soul”

If you’ve been living on another planet for the past week or so you may not know Exile On Main Street, the classic 1972 album by the Rolling Stones, was re-released yesterday with a whole bunch of bonus junk.  Exile shows up on a lot of “best of all time” lists, and it’s famous for a number of things including its gloriously shitty “basement” sound.  That apparently happened because some of the songs were supposedly put together and recorded in the basement of a mansion in the south of France.

So when they said they were reissuing Exile with remastered sound, I wondered: “What, are they going to make it sound shittier than it did in 1972?”  Well, yeah … kind of.  The new version sounds pretty good – mainly louder – and it makes you wonder how much of it really was recorded in a basement.  That’s the way it is with the Rolling Stones: you get the music, and you get the myth.  Pick up a copy of the new Exile on Main Street and you get plenty of both.

Video: “Plundered My Soul”

Official Rolling Stones website

Rock Moment: Nastiest Rolling Stones songs

The Rolling Stones - they don't look so bad!

(Editor’s Note: This entire post – the text, the music, hell even the photos – should be considered NFSW, especially after the jump.  And don’t expect me to explain any of the following.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about you are certainly in the wrong place.  This is the Rolling Stones, after all.)

There’s been a bit of hoopla the past few days about the pending re-release of Exile On Main Street, the 1972 classic album by the Rolling Stones.  The new version, to be in stores Tuesday, features a remastered album and some outtakes that may or may not have been subject to some 21st-century tinkering.

Perhaps one of the best things about Exile On Main Street is its legend – the album was formulated by the band along with various girlfriends, drug dealers, hangers-on and such at a French chateau where the band had relocated in order to escape British tax authorities.  The scene was decadent to say the least, and a lot of that debauchery found its way into the grooves of Exile.  (This story from the New York Post goes into all the detail you should require.)

Of course, the Rolling Stones are rock’s ultimate bad boys – Keith Moon may have tried, but no one will ever top the Stones for sheer rock and roll revelry.  These boys were (and still are) the quintessential rock stars.  As they lived the life, they also sang about it.  So here, to celebrate the re-emergence of Exile on Main Street, are some of the Stones’ other most nastiest moments.  In ah … ascending order!

1. “Brand New Car” (from Voodoo Lounge, 1994) – You would think by this time the boys would be a little tamer – after all, they were in their ’50s when this was recorded.  “I got a brand new car,” sings Mick Jagger, “and I like to drive real hard.”  Mmm-hmm.  Now he’s going to take her on the highway for a little spin, and uh oh- he’s gonna jack her up baby, and open up her hood.  Mick’s giving her some stick to get her motor running and … finally he invites you to “go ahead, feel the fur.”  Ah, yes.  (Voodoo Lounge was a real fun album, if you like this kind of thing – check out “Sparks Will Fly” and “Suck On The Jugular,” hahaha.)

MP3: “Brand New Car”

2. “Brown Sugar” (from Sticky Fingers, 1971) – Let it be said right off the bat: “Brown Sugar” was a No. 1 radio hit back in 1971.  Of course, that era’s radio also played the Kinks’ “Lola” (about a transvestite), “Walk On The Wild Side” by Lou Reed (about god-knows-what) and so on.  “Brown Sugar” is perhaps the naughtiest of all – not that you can make out the lyrics by listening to the song.  I’ve listened to this song pretty much since it came out and I still had to Google it to get the correct lyrics.  It’s about some hot nights down in New Orleans with the slaves, with an old slaver who you can “Hear him whip the women just around midnight” and that house boy who “knows what he’s doin’ alright.”  And of course the song’s chorus goes “Ah brown sugar how come you taste so good/A-ha brown sugar just like a young girl should.”  Uh, I think the history lesson’s over kids!

MP3: “Brown Sugar”