Rolling Stones - Exile On Main Street, complete - nice

	£		79
	$		105

The Item For Sale Is:

Artist:           Rolling Stones

Title:            Exile On Main Street

Release info: Rolling Stones (COC 69100) 1972 Original UK Issue Double Album with Inner Sleeves and Postcards

Condition (Sleeve 1st) : EX/EX

Track List:

Rocks Off

Rip This Joint

Hip Shake

Casino Boogie

Tumbling Dice

Sweet Virginia

Torn & Frayed

Black Angel

Loving Cup

Happy

Turd on the Run

Ventilator Blues

Just Wanna See His Face

Let It Loose

All Down the Line

Stop Breaking Down

Shine a Light

Soul Survivor

 The last of the Stones run of truly classic albums which started with “Beggars Banquet” four years earlier and a strong contender for the title of rock‘s greatest ever double album.

Possibly their finest album, this one has less of a rythym and bluesy feel than “Beggars Banquet” and “Let It Bleed” and a less commercial sound than it‘s predecessor “Sticky Fingers”. Instead this has a raw, loose, rootsy feel almost heading towards being a rockier version of The Band’s first couple of albums at times with the mixture of country, gospel and soul influences but still retaining enough of a RnB and distinctly sloppy Stones sound. In many ways it’s proof of just how great they were that they could produce an album that sounds so sloppy and badly produced and yet still have it acclaimed as a masterpiece by all who hear it but hey, rock n roll was never meant to be perfect and it’s the looseness here which takes it so damn close to perfection. The sound throughout has that loose sleazy atmosphere of the Stones live performances from around that era and perhaps that’s where the greatness comes from, they were comfortable enough to just go into the studio and record the songs as if they were live and if the odd little error crept in well, what the hell, it sounds good so just leave it.

When I first heard this in the late seventies I was looking for the hits, the anthemic Stones sound of “Honky Tonk Woman“, “Satisfaction”, “Jumping Jack Flash” etc and I just didn’t get this album at all. I kept playing it and playing it thinking that I was missing something before I finally got the fact that I wasn’t missing anything at all, everything I was looking for was there just not as I was expecting to find it and like all great albums the hooks are there to keep you playing it and playing it and getting more enjoyment each time it’s played.

The word “classic” is much over-used when it comes to records. It seem as if every album over twenty years old is a “Classic” but in the true sense of the word then this is as classic as anything and if I had the task of compiling a list of albums every home should have then this would be high on that list.

This isn’t the world’s rarest record and it’s not one I would usually consider putting up for auction, this would normally just go on a list at a set price but it gives me as much pleasure to offer a truly classic but rather common album in fine condition as it does to offer the big rarities and so as early pressings of this album in good condition are becoming hard to find and are getting sought after then an Excellent condition early pressing of this wonderful album complete with all postcards and inners shouldn’t be missed.

Condition:

Sleeve: Pretty strong. It‘s a stupid design with the sleeve made of thinish matt card in gatefold format but with the records both housed in the right hand pocket which is accessed from the centre of the gatefold. This leaves the sleeve prone to creasing and tears but this copy is unusually good for an early pressing.

The front sleeve is very clean with no real flaws, there are no tears of any kind, no writing. There’s one very light inconsequential crease coming down the centre of the sleeve which is well hidden by the design, this is caused by the way the sleeve opens out and is present on most copies but on this copy is very light.

The rear is also in fine shape, no writing, no tears and just a couple of light incosequential creases. There’s also a slight mark, just a little indentation where the zip from the Sticky Fingers sleeve sat against this one on a shelf, this usually left this sleeve bad scratched however this copy is only very slightly marked and you’ll have to look closely to see the mark, certainly at arms length unless you know what you’re looking for you won’t see it.

Inside the gatefold is clean with no writing, tears or creases. The pocket where the records are housed is in fine condition, this is usually coming away from the main part of the sleeve because of the strain of fitting two records and some postcards in there but this is still in one piece, I suppose it may have been reglued at some point but if that’s the case then a good job was made of it and it’s undetectable.

The top seam is unworn.

The bottom seam is unworn.

The left hand spine is wide, square and clean with no wear or damage, there‘s no witing on this spine but if there were it would be readable..

The right hand spine (which is formed by the pocket where the records sit) is also clean with no wear and all of the writing is clearly readable.

Both inner sleeves are present and in fine condition, both are clean with no writing or creases. Both contain the notation that “this stereo record can be played on a mono record deck if wired with a compatable cartridge” or words to that effect (I forget how it goes exactly but you’ve seen it loads of times on records from this era), this was missed off later pressings.

A full set of twelve postcards is present and in good condition. All are clean and still joined together although the perforations between the second and third card are torn across for about half the width of the card and these will split easily if not handled carefully. The whole strip of postcards is too long to fit in one photo so I folded it in half and made it into two photos, the strip itself is still joined together as one strip - it has not been split into two.

All four labels are perfect, very clean with no writing, tears or stickers and no visible spindle wear.

Records: Both discs are also in really nice shape. They’re both made of thickish vinyl (this was before the oil crisis which led to thinner records) and both have the “Rolling Stones Records” note scratched onto the run off grooves which wasn‘t on later pressings. The stampers used are A2/B2/C1/D2 which I guess indicates a very early pressing of this classic album. At some time very early in their life someone has placed them in new inner sleeves which have then been placed inside the inners which come with the records. This means that the records have not been exposed to the rather harsh card of the album inners. Visually this has left both records looking fine in normal light with a nice dark sheen and only one very light visible mark right at the start of side two, this is a small scuff mark about half a centimetre long which is very light and totally inaudible even at high volume. When held under a harsh light there are only some very light hairline marks visible of the sort caused by taking the record in and out of the sleeve and which are totally inaudible. The records in this copy don’t suffer from this as much as usual because they were protected by extra inner sleeves.

When played both records are as good as you could hope for. The sound is clear and clean across the full dynamic range (although this isn’t helped much by the rather muddy production) and totally deviod of any distortion of any kind in either channel. There is no surface noise at all throughout the entire album apart from the occasional very very light crackle between tracks (not between every track, just from time to time) which will only be audible at high volume and is drowned out as soon as the music starts and so nothing to really worry about. Obviously a pair of records which have been well cared for from the time when they were first bought and really nothing spoiled my enjoyment of this classic album when I played it and I have to tell you that I enjoyed it so much that I played it twice!

Terms of trade are available on the about me page and it is your responsibility to read them as they are non-negotiable and by bidding you are agreeing that you will abide by those terms.

If you do decide to bid for this item I wish you luck and if not, well, thanks for looking and remember to look at my other items for sale you may find something more to your taste there.