Book Review – Exile On Main St.

Robert Greenfield's Look at A Season In Hell With the Rolling Stones

May 8, 2009

Greenfield's snapshot of the summer of '71 with the Stones in the south of France as they record Exile On Main Street is more gossip than musical insight.

Robert Greenfield is a freelance journalist, former Rolling Stone magazine associate editor, and author of several books on pop culture, including biographies on Timothy Leary, Jerry Garcia, and promoter Bill Graham.

His 2006 book Exile On Main St.: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones, is a snapshot of a moment in time, 35 years earlier, the summer of 1971, the south of France. The Stones were turning the corner from merely stardom to superstardom, and truly were in exile, escaping Britain’s outrageously high tax burdens for those who made the kind of money these rockers were now bringing in.

Keith Richards Rents Villa Nellcote to Record Exile On Main Street

Guitarist Keith Richards and girlfriend Anita Pallenberg had rented Villa Nellcote, a formidable mansion outside Nice, perched on the edge the Mediterranean. Here the Rolling Stones were to record their next album, Exile on Main Street, using the band’s mobile recording studio.

Exile On Main Street (the album) was released in May ’72 to lukewarm reviews. A dense album with no signature hits, it took years to find its place as not only one of the Stones’ very best recordings but perhaps one of rock’s best albums. Judging from the title of Greenfield’s book then, one might expect this book to be primarily about the recording of one the greatest rock n roll band’s greatest albums. Not so.

The biggest disappointment here is the lack of coverage of the actual music making. In 258 pages, one is hard-pressed to find ten that refer to the songwriting, rehearsal or recording of the songs that became Exile On Main Street. Rather, Greenfield goes into minute detail about the decadent, drug-infused goings-on at Nellcote.

Only the reader who will take anything they can get about the lifestyles of Mick, Keith and the boys will find this book satisfying. There is no shortage of drug-soaked anecdotes, while Keith, who Greenfield seems to idolize, manages to come across as a cross between a hero and a victim, while most every one of the dozens of "houseguests" is a problem in one way or another.

Hearsay & Misinformation Subtract From Book's Credibility

Taken for what it is, Exile On Main St. (the book) would be acceptable if it weren’t for several other problems that subtract from the credibility of even gossip. One is that Greenfield’s stories are often second or third hand, or even further removed from a time, three and half decades ago, where most of the participants were wasted every waking hour for weeks on end.

Worse, the author spends a great many pages throughout the book snidely attempting to discredit the published stories by other writers (particularly “Spanish Tony” Sanchez) about this same subject matter. Yet Greenfield himself refers more than once to “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” as a Sticky Fingers track. Not only wrong, but very basic knowledge for Stones fans.

Robert Greenfield is clearly both a good writer and a true lover of rock 'n roll, which makes Exile On Main St. all the more a disappointment. For fans who’ve read every last book and article on the Rolling Stones, looking to fill in the few remaining cracks we don’t yet know about the band's private moments, this book will help do so.

Greenfield, Robert, Exile on Main St.: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones. 2006, DeCapo Press, 258 pages. (ISBN 978-0-306-81563-8).

The copyright of the article Book Review – Exile On Main St. in Musician Biographies is owned by Dale Van Every. Permission to republish Book Review – Exile On Main St. in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.