Fact #117174
When:
Short story:
The Rolling Stones, along with their mobile recording studio, move into guitarist Keith Richards’ villa in Cap Ferrat, France, Europe, and start work on songs which will be used on the album Exile On Main Street.Full article:
Mick Jagger (1995 interview) : Exile on Main Street was done in different pieces. There's this part which is recorded at Olympic [Studios], maybe a third. Another part is recorded in my house in the country in England. And half of it's recorded in Keith's basement in the South of France, and it's all mixed in LA.
Stoned is the word that might describe (the band at the time). (Laughs) It's the first album Mick Taylor's on, really. So it's different than previous albums, which had Brian on them - or Brian not on them, as the case may be. It was a difficult period, because we had all these lawsuits going with Allen Klein. We had to leave England because of tax problems. We had no money and went to live in the South of France - the first album we made where we weren't based in England, thus the title.
Keith Richards (1977 interview) : Recording at my place (Villefranche-sur-mer, France) was a necessity. The idea was to find another place to record like a farmhouse in the hills. But they couldn't find anywhere, so eventually they turned around and looked at me. I looked at Anita and said, Hey, babe, we're gonna have to handle it. Anita had to organize dinner sometimes for something like 18 people. We redid the basement kitchen into the studio.
Andy Johns (engineer, 1977 interview) : I remember Gram Parsons sitting in the kitchen in France one day, while we were overdubbing vocals or something. It was crazy. Someone is sitting in the kitchen overdubbing guitar and people are sitting at the table, talking, knives, forks, plates clanking.
Mick Jagger (1995 interview) : Staying up all night... Stoned on something; one thing or another. So I don't think it was particularly pleasant. I didn't have a very good time. It was this communal thing where you don't know whether you're recording or living or having dinner; you don't know when you're gonna play, when you're gonna sing - very difficult. Too many hangers-on. I went with the flow, and the album got made. These things have a certain energy, and there's a certain flow to it, and it got impossible. Everyone was so out of it. And the engineers, the producers - all the people that were supposed to be organized - were more disorganized than anybody.
Jimmy Miller (producer, 1977 interview) : I think that was Keith's album. Mick was always jumping off to Paris 'cause Bianca was pregnant and having labor pains. I remember many mornings after great nights of recording, I'd come over to Keith's for lunch. And within a few minutes of seeing him I could tell something was wrong. He'd say, ‘Mick's pissed off to Paris again’. I sensed resentment in his voice because he felt we were starting to get something, and when Mick returned the magic might be gone.
Mick Taylor : My favorite two Rolling Stones records during the period I was with them, are Exile On Main Street and Sticky Fingers.
(1993)
Mick Jagger : It's a bit overrated, to be honest. Compared to Let it Bleed and Beggars Banquet, which I think are more of a piece, I don't see it's as thematic as the other two. I'm not saying it's not good. It doesn't contain as many outstanding songs as the previous (sic) two records. I think the playing's quite good. It's got a raw quality, but I don't think all around it's as good.
(1995)
Keith Richards : The stuff I was writing and the music I was doing in the 70s, which is basically when I was on smack (heroin), I couldn't have done better straight. And maybe I wouldn't have done as well straight. Music and drugs- I don't really correlate one thing with the other. One is what you're putting out and the other is what you're putting in. I never felt any different about my music because of it.
(2002)
Mick Jagger (vocalist, Rolling Stones) : We recorded in Keith’s disgusting basement, which looked like a prison. I like really big rooms to record in. The humidity was incredible. I couldn’t stand it. As soon as I opened my mouth to sing, my voice was gone. It was so humid that all the guitars were out of tune by the time we got to the end of each number.
Keith Richards (guitarist, Rolling Stones) : It was 120 degrees. Everyone sat around sweating and playing with their pants off. That’s when I got into Jack Daniels because you’re trying to get the back-up vocals finished on a track, or the lead vocal on Happy, and the voice starts to go. This’ll give you another half an hour. It’s those fumes that do it, man.
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Stoned is the word that might describe (the band at the time). (Laughs) It's the first album Mick Taylor's on, really. So it's different than previous albums, which had Brian on them - or Brian not on them, as the case may be. It was a difficult period, because we had all these lawsuits going with Allen Klein. We had to leave England because of tax problems. We had no money and went to live in the South of France - the first album we made where we weren't based in England, thus the title.
Keith Richards (1977 interview) : Recording at my place (Villefranche-sur-mer, France) was a necessity. The idea was to find another place to record like a farmhouse in the hills. But they couldn't find anywhere, so eventually they turned around and looked at me. I looked at Anita and said, Hey, babe, we're gonna have to handle it. Anita had to organize dinner sometimes for something like 18 people. We redid the basement kitchen into the studio.
Andy Johns (engineer, 1977 interview) : I remember Gram Parsons sitting in the kitchen in France one day, while we were overdubbing vocals or something. It was crazy. Someone is sitting in the kitchen overdubbing guitar and people are sitting at the table, talking, knives, forks, plates clanking.
Mick Jagger (1995 interview) : Staying up all night... Stoned on something; one thing or another. So I don't think it was particularly pleasant. I didn't have a very good time. It was this communal thing where you don't know whether you're recording or living or having dinner; you don't know when you're gonna play, when you're gonna sing - very difficult. Too many hangers-on. I went with the flow, and the album got made. These things have a certain energy, and there's a certain flow to it, and it got impossible. Everyone was so out of it. And the engineers, the producers - all the people that were supposed to be organized - were more disorganized than anybody.
Jimmy Miller (producer, 1977 interview) : I think that was Keith's album. Mick was always jumping off to Paris 'cause Bianca was pregnant and having labor pains. I remember many mornings after great nights of recording, I'd come over to Keith's for lunch. And within a few minutes of seeing him I could tell something was wrong. He'd say, ‘Mick's pissed off to Paris again’. I sensed resentment in his voice because he felt we were starting to get something, and when Mick returned the magic might be gone.
Mick Taylor : My favorite two Rolling Stones records during the period I was with them, are Exile On Main Street and Sticky Fingers.
(1993)
Mick Jagger : It's a bit overrated, to be honest. Compared to Let it Bleed and Beggars Banquet, which I think are more of a piece, I don't see it's as thematic as the other two. I'm not saying it's not good. It doesn't contain as many outstanding songs as the previous (sic) two records. I think the playing's quite good. It's got a raw quality, but I don't think all around it's as good.
(1995)
Keith Richards : The stuff I was writing and the music I was doing in the 70s, which is basically when I was on smack (heroin), I couldn't have done better straight. And maybe I wouldn't have done as well straight. Music and drugs- I don't really correlate one thing with the other. One is what you're putting out and the other is what you're putting in. I never felt any different about my music because of it.
(2002)
Mick Jagger (vocalist, Rolling Stones) : We recorded in Keith’s disgusting basement, which looked like a prison. I like really big rooms to record in. The humidity was incredible. I couldn’t stand it. As soon as I opened my mouth to sing, my voice was gone. It was so humid that all the guitars were out of tune by the time we got to the end of each number.
Keith Richards (guitarist, Rolling Stones) : It was 120 degrees. Everyone sat around sweating and playing with their pants off. That’s when I got into Jack Daniels because you’re trying to get the back-up vocals finished on a track, or the lead vocal on Happy, and the voice starts to go. This’ll give you another half an hour. It’s those fumes that do it, man.