Reissuing classic Rolling Stones Jagger, Richards revisit ‘Main St.’

May 19, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES

Keith Richards remem- bers the period in the early 1970s when the Rolling Stones were working on “Exile on Main St.” as a fairly down time. The parts he remembers at all, that is.

That’s partly due to the fact that the recording sessions took place as the Stones guitarist and songwriter’s heroin habit took hold in a big way, a habit that took him nearly a decade to shake. But it wasn’t strictly the drugs he was referring to when he spoke recently about that fabled phase in his and the group’s life.

It’s a period he and Mick Jagger have been revisiting in depth while preparing an elaborate new reissue of the landmark “Exile” double album as well as a new documentary of that period, “Stones in Exile,” being released simultaneously.

“The word ‘debauchery’ comes up an awful lot,” Richards, 66, said with a sly chuckle. “Drugs did, too — there was quite a bit of that. But when you’re making a record, you’re totally focused on that. You don’t really consider what else is going on; you don’t have time for it. Debauchery is the last thing on your mind ... I’m down in a bunker trying to make a record.”

Indeed, the word “down” came up more often than “debauchery” or “drugs” during the conversation with Richards, one of a small handful of interviews he and Jagger agreed to in conjunction with the reissue of “Exile,” widely considered to be one of the group’s finest. The album was released Tuesday.

There was a siege mentality to the making of “Exile,” recorded as it was mostly in a foreign environment after the band members relocated to the South of France to avoid paying massive income-tax bills back home in England.

Richards rented Villa Nellcote, a 19th century mansion in Villefranche-sur-Mer, Nice, that had been used by the Gestapo during World War II, which added to the dark undercurrent.

By the time the band decamped for Los Angeles to put finishing touches on the basic tracks recorded in the mansion’s basement, the band felt relief.

“It was a joy to get to LA after being locked down in that bunker for months,” Richards said, adding with an edgy laugh: “Tell it to Hitler.” In fact, the “Main St.” of the title refers to the downtown Los Angeles thoroughfare.

Most of the Stones’ catalog has been remastered and reissued at various times over the years. But the arrival of an expanded reissue of “Exile on Main St.,” including 10 bonus tracks recorded around the same time, constitutes a Big Event in any Stones fan’s book.

When Rolling Stone published its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003, “Exile” ranked No. 7. Critic Robert Christgau puts it at the top of his assessment of the Stones’ recorded output, bestowing an A-plus rating.

Jagger has dissed “Exile” periodically, grousing at various times about the way his vocals were buried in the sonic mix, the ramshackle manner in which much of it was recorded and the retro feel of many of the songs at a time when the singer was pushing for greater musical experimentation.

But after spending a good chunk of the last year revisiting the period, the vocalist who defined rock swagger calls it “a special album.”

“I don’t really have a favorite Stones album, to be honest,” Jagger, also 66, said in a separate interview. “You have songs you like one day, songs you like on another day ... but there’s not one [album] I treasure above all others. It depends on what you’re in the mood for. But ‘Exile’ is very good ... It’s got a lot to offer, there’s a lot of depth in it and it holds up.”

The Stones’ self-imposed exile to France stemmed from a tax rate in England that could exceed 90 percent for those with the greatest incomes, which led many entertainers to establish homes elsewhere.