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33 1/3 SERIES BOOK #18 - Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street

Are Liner Notes Not Enough For You?

33 1/3 is a series of short books about the making of wide variety of albums, written by a diverse group of authors/artists with titles ranging from Aja by Steely Dan to Zeppelin IV. The series contains over fifty titles and is acclaimed and loved by fans, musicians and scholars alike. These are for the music nuts out there who appreciate fantastic design, and smart, fun writing. Each book in the series takes an important album and breaks it down in startling minutiae. We love these books…you will, too!

Thirty-Three and a Third is a series of short books about critically acclaimed and much-loved albums of the past 40 years. Over 50,000 copies have been sold! “Passionate, obsessive, and smart.” —Nylon “…an inspired new series of short books about beloved works of vinyl.” —Details Description Tracing the creation of Exile on Main St. from the original songwriting done while touring America through the final editing in Los Angeles, Bill Janovitz explains how an album recorded by a British band in a villa on the French Riviera is pure American rock & roll. Looking at each song individually, Janovitz unveils the innovative recording techniques, personal struggles, and rock & roll mythmaking that culminated in this pivotal album. Excerpt Exile is exactly what rock & roll should sound like: a bunch of musicians playing a bunch of great songs in a room together, playing off of each other, musical communion, sounds bleeding into each other, snare drum rattling away even while not being hit, amps humming, bottles falling, feet shuffling, ghostly voices mumbling on and off-mike, whoops of excitement, shouts of encouragement, performances without a net, masks off, urgency. It is the kind of record that goes beyond the songs themselves to create a monolithic sense of atmosphere. It conveys a sense of time and place and spirit, yet it is timeless. Its influence is still heard today. Keith Richards has said, tongue in cheek, the record “was the first grunge record.”