EXILE SESSIONS
September 27, 2009 – 3:55 amWhen these Stones sessions reached Sister Morphine’s Cool, Cool Hand, he gave us the diamonds.
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THE ROLLING STONES
I Gave You Diamonds, You Give Me Disease: The Exile Outtakes [Sister Morphine 15, 1CD]
Recorded at Ville Nellcote, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France, May to September 1971. Mostly excellent soundboard. Released in 2008.
With talk of Rolling Stones deluxe editions coming out in 2010, let us all recall what Exile On Main Street’s producer Jimmy Miller said of the Nellcote sessions, that there was enough material to put out two double albums. I Gave You Diamonds collects all the songs associated with Exile that have appeared on various Stones bootlegs onto one disc. With Sister Morphine’s mysterious remasterer, Cool Cool Hand, on the knobs, the healing is done. Absolutely no hiss on almost all tracks and a stereo clarity that’s hard to beat.
When the tax exiles moved to a villa in France at the beckoning of Keith Richards, the villa’s huge basement kitchen was converted into a recording studio where booze and food was in abundance. The relaxed atmosphere helped loosened up the sessions and here and there are long jams dedicated to the muse. Presented here are shambolic early versions of Shine A Light and Tumbling Dice.
These were also the early years of guitarist Mick Taylor’s involvement with the Stones as a recording unit. It seems he was still in awe and the stronger influence was Gram Parsons’ cosmic country music rather that Taylor’s technically awesome solos. The country twang in the guitars, the honkytonk piano of Nicky Hopkins and the demonic rhythm and bass of Wyman and Watts all blend to offer one of the best country rock albums to emerge in 1972. Still it manages to retain the Rolling Stones imprint, mainly for the strong subject matter of waste and being wasted. Or sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.
Sister Morphine is a Stones’ specialist label and you can tell where and how they whip Empress Valley into a distant third. This is probably the best collection of Exile outtakes till an official release.
- Professor Red 
Note: Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality MP3s - sample rate of 192 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.
Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. Please try again later. Kindly email us at [email protected] if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files.
Track 01. Exile On Main Street Blues (the 1972 NME flexi-disc excerpt) (1.2MB)
Track 02. Get A Line On You (early version of Shine A Light) (6.0MB)
Track 03. Good Time Women (early version of Tumbling Dice) (4.5MB)
Track 04. Shake Your Hips (a Sam Moore aka Slim Harpo composition) (5.8MB)
Track 05. Hillside Blues (outtake, 11min version) (15.8MB - visit the html page to download the track)
Track 06. Sweet Virginia (alternate) (5.9MB)
Track 07. Bent Green Needles (early instrumental version of Sweet Black Angel) (4.1MB)
Track 08. Loving Cup (early version, possibly late ’60s) (9.0MB)
Track 09. Ventilator Blues (rehearsal; credited to Mick Taylor as well) (8.1MB)
Track 10. I Ain’t Signifying (outtake) (5.2MB)
Track 11. Let It Loose (instrumental take) (8.0MB)
Track 12. All Down The Line (alternate acoustic version) (6.0MB)
Track 13. Travelin’ Man (unreleased) (8.1MB)
Track 14. Stop Breaking Down (alternate) (6.2MB)
Track 15. Shine A Light (5.5MB)
Track 16. I’m Going Down (alternate; credited to Mick Taylor as well) (3.7MB)
To record 1972’s Exile On Main Street, the Stones delved into their archives from 1968 onwards to see whether there were any tunes suitable for release they had missed. There were none. Exile remains a critical success and as time passes, a favourite of new fans as well. Buy it here.
10 Responses to “EXILE SESSIONS”
Thanks for posting this. It’s my favorite Stones album. Note: Mick Taylor was not given credit for many things he did with the Stones.
By JBB on Sep 29, 2009
Wow, incredible ,thanks Professor Red
By nijle on Sep 29, 2009
Thanks foir this, Big O! Exile has always been my rad favo Stones release. I’ve lived that life myself. Anyone know where I can my blood changed? Lovin’ it!
By Adam Dean on Oct 3, 2009
Thank you BigO for the excellent outtakes from the Exile of Main Street Sessions. Ventilator Blues was never a favorite of mine on the album because of the mix but on the outtake here, you can actually hear the Mick Taylor guitar parts. You guys never fail to impress. It is also interesting to note that of all the Exile songs, “Sweet Virginia”; “Sweet Black Angel”; “Loving Cup”; “Stop Breaking Down” and “Shine A Light” all had their origins in either the Let It Bleed or Sticky Fingers sessions.
By Malcolm on Oct 13, 2009
Thanks!
By Nick D on Apr 18, 2010
Thanks - great stuff.
By Renfrew Zetz on May 26, 2010
This are some killer Stones tracks!
Bravo Big O!
By Luis Torregrosa on Aug 24, 2010
Thank you! I’ve had earworm of the licks from Hillside Blues since playing my old cassette of this stuff a week ago. It was killing me!
By Brian McKeith on Jun 2, 2012
fabulous and many thanks! can’t get HIllside Blues to download from html page…?
By andy m on Jan 8, 2015
HI People,
i’m from Germany - and i’m seayrching - still for a long long time - this ORIGINAL CD!!!
Is theyr anybody, who sells this?! For me?”!?!
Greetings
Reinhard from Ex East Germany!
By reinhard Böttger on Jun 27, 2018