it was those 2 and aftermath (my personal favorite) that lead to my no higher than 4th statement.

I wouldnt have a problem ranking any of those 3 as their best though I personally prefer Exile.

Nice to have a pretty deep catalog, eh?

It might have been, if "Rock Music, in its purest form" meant anything.

Yes, it is. But the great thing, and I think why most people name check Exile, is that it seems to be the culmination of all their sonic stylings..without doing Aftermath, then Let it Bleed, then Sticky Fingers, you couldn't get to Exile.

That's my take on it. Not saying that any of those albums are bad in anywway, and I love them all, Exile has that extra magic, and by magic I guess I mean all the songs they stole from Gram Parsons and Ry Cooder, a little dab of Heroin, and some South of France Style Decadence.

Exile is 10 times better when played as 4 sides rather than one long cd.

And the overdub sessions in LA where so many animals where present that it should have been illegal.

A year or two ago, the editor of Harp wrote a destroy your idols style piece against Exile. I wish I kept it because it would have sparked an interesting debate. One of his biggest complaints was that all the decadence interfered with the recording process. He claimed that the whole band (and if memory serves Keith and Mick) were rarely in the studio at the same time and that more session musicians were used than on any Stones album to that point. In his opinion, a lot of the magic of the best rock n' roll band in the world playing together was lost or watered down as a result.

I'm sure all the GA boys have a more thorough knowledge of the sessions than I do, but listening to the album I can kind of say Yeah I could see that being so. Any reactions?

A lot of that is sour grapes by Wyman and Mick Taylor who felt slighted that they were just hanging around either doing nothing or recording parts only to have rerecorded by Jagger and Richards....

Mick and Keith I think got what they wanted in France and then took it to LA to overdub vocals and horn parts and clean up the product.

This nonsense that Exile is some sort of roots recorded live deal is really only half true: Keith and Mick knew what they wanted but the conditions and their condition is what made it work in the end. It just took a little more than most people think.

what a great year.
nevertheless, ziggy is the Greatest Album of All Time (as proven in the bitterbuffao listmania which was never quite listed).

Harvest never gets old for me. That's my vote.

i couldn't decide between big star and bowie, but ended voting Big Star because I felt sorry for it not having any votes.

this is a toss-up for me...top two would be Exile and Superfly...Exile rocks so much, but superfly is sooo good....hmm, I'll go Exile.

every album on there kicks ass imo.

exile.

I kind of had you pegged as the first Big Star voter

I think tomorrow I'm gonna do a really lean year for some contrast

would people prefer if I revealed the next day's year in each thread or do you want to be surprised?

Surprise.

yr killing me SK.

You know that we're the only ones. Still, :rock:

big star.

excuse me
must
vomit

Yes? Spawn a negative reaction? Well, I never...

1. Bowie
2. Can
3. Big Star
4. Nick Drake
5. Faust

haha. yeah it's got to the point where I'm surprised if there are no negative comments..

I finally got around to reading their "Close to the Edge" biography...pretty good stuff. I recommend.

my #2 behind bowie