The Rolling Stones Survivor - Exile on Main St - Round 2

[bono_212]

THIS POLL IS ONLY 24 HOURS

Casino Boogie and Turd on the Run were the first two songs to be knocked out of competition from Exile with 7 and 5 votes, respectively.

Other songs receiving votes:

Sweet Virginia - 1
Sweet Black Angel - 3
Ventilator Blues - 2
I Just Want to See His Face - 3

Please: VOTE FOR YOUR TWO LEAST FAVORITE SONGS

THIS POLL IS ONLY 24 HOURS

Once we get to where we have about 10 songs left, I'll change it back to Least favorite, but I may go ahead and stick to 24 hour polls. After this album, we will return to the regular "vote for you X favorite songs" 48 hour polls.

 

[bono_212]

Two votes for Ventilator Blues? I love that sleazy guitar riff and the moment when the horns come in in the chorus is just sublime. Very representative of this record in terms how bluesy and laid-back it is, but still having ambitious songwriting behind it.

I find this album more soulful then bluesy. But I really like Ventilator Blues as well, and 2 votes is a shame. Even more of a shame is the votes for I Just Want to See His Face. But I think those two songs are the best indicators of why this album is SO hard to vote for. I don't know if there's been a better album that puts the phrase The whole is greater other than the sum of the parts into best use than this one. Those two tracks, IMO, need each other to be one great long song. But each one individually just aren't as strong. And to a larger extent, I think outside of about three songs, that's true for the album as a whole. Exile is phenomenal, but when I'm listening for individual highlight songs, they're harder to put a finger on.

That being said, this last listen proved that while "Turd on the Run" is not as bad as its title (in fact, I quite like it), I don't mind seeing it go, either. My votes in round one were for Casino Boogie and Sweet Black Angel, but voting was HARD. This time I'm going with Sweet Black Angel and Shake Your Hips.

Top Five:
Shine a Light
Tumbling Dice
Let It Loose
Happy
and...pphhhewww...I'm really not sure. Today I'm going to say Stop Breaking Down, but tomorrow it might be Loving Cup...or Torn and Frayed...or Rocks Off...fuck. I love this album.

 

[cobl04]

Stop Breaking Down doesn't do much for me. Oh and it's two votes, whoops. Add one to Shake Your Hips. I like the coconuts in the background of Sweet Black Angel and I've always thought Just Wanna See His Face is pretty cool.

 

[bono_212]

Stop Breaking Down doesn't do much for me. Oh and it's two votes, whoops. Add one to Shake Your Hips. I like the coconuts in the background of Sweet Black Angel and I've always thought Just Wanna See His Face is pretty cool.

I like the backing vocals on almost every song, but that particular song just feels like they went to the well too many times, and it falls a little flat, IMO.

But, yes, manual vote in for Shake Your Hips.

 

[iron yuppie]

Laz won me over with his argument about All Down the Line being too generic to hang with the others. I don't know about the other choice for now, though. Maybe I Just Want to See His Face, which is fine as a mood piece but doesn't hold up well on its own.

 

[lazarus]

Yeah time to direct my energy toward getting rid of a true non-descript track in All Down The Line.

And I know it has defenders, but fuck Soul Survivor.

 

[lazarus]

Yeah time to direct my energy toward getting rid of a true non-descript track in All Down The Line.

And I know it has defenders, but fuck Soul Survivor. Not only is it a weak closer, but seems so redundant after 17 tracks. What does it really add to the palette at that point?

 

[DaveC]

Soul Survivor is fucking great. The breakdown at the end kicks all kinds of ass, although I do wish it and Shine a Light were flipped on the track listing. This is by far my favourite Stones album.

My picks:
Rocks Off
Tumbling Dice
Soul Survivor
Shine a Light

Then the last spot is a tie between Ventilator Blues, Rip This Joint, and Let it Loose. After this round it’s gonna start to get reeeeeal hard.

 

[bono_212]

As I've said before, I only don't like Soul Survivor's placement on the album. The song itself,