Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger has spoken about work on ‘lost’ tracks recorded as part of ‘Exile On Main Street’.
Secluded in France during the summer of 1972, The Rolling Stones began work on what would become one of their finest albums. ‘Exile On Main Street’ has gone down in history as the band’s most drugged up recording, yet conversely contains some of their most varied and daring material.
Set to be re-issued this summer, ‘Exile On Main Street’ will be accompanied by a variety of newly discovered tracks. The backing tapes were recorded alongside the parent album, but never used.
Speaking to BBC News, Mick Jagger claimed that the material had never really been lost. “Well, they weren’t really lost. It was just no-one had really looked at them. There wasn’t a bag at the bottom of someone’s drawer.”
“They were in our tape store, mouldering away” he continued. “Tapes don’t have a very good shelf life – so you bake them in the oven, get them out, play them and transfer them to somewhere else.”
Some of the unreleased material has been completed by the present day incarnation of The Rolling Stones, with Mick Jagger adding vocals to instrumental dubs. The singer explained that the material was recorded in the mood of the original album.
“It’s not particularly difficult, technically” he claimed. “It’s just an attitude in your head when you’re singing. Don Was (producer) said that in those days there wasn’t a tremendous amount of subtlety. You just started and then, wham, barraged on ’til you finished.”
Asked about the atmosphere of the original recording the singer stated: “The wild nights, the orgies, the drug taking! I remember it well. Every bit of it!”
Rolling Stones are set to re-issue ‘Exile On Main Street’ later this summer.
