Rolling Stones - Plundered My Soul
The Stones will soon release a remastered version of their classic double-LP Exile on Main Street with additional songs recorded around that time but never completed.
There are certain moments in your life you recall with vivid detail. The day I bought Exile is one of them.
I was 16 and picked it up on vinyl at Sound Connection, back when it was on 101 Street. Cameron Guitars was down the block so I stopped in to check out the old Gretsch I was always eyeing and got into a conversation with the guy working that day. He saw the record and told me most of the songs were played in open-G tuning, with a capo used to change the key on different songs.
I spent the next months with my guitar tuned to open-G, sitting next to my stereo and deciphering every lick from Keith Richards and Mick Taylor.
That album is still among my favourites. The wailing steel guitar on Torn & Frayed just rips though to my soul and sends chills down my spine. The drums kicking in on Loving Cup is one of the best moments in music, topped only by the horns blasting their way in towards the end of the song.
I feel like Orpheus when I listen to the album in its entirety. The Stones narrate a journey to an underworld of debauchery replete with casinos, wine and women. When Keith Richards takes the vocals at the album’s midpoint on Happy, it offers a chance to breathe, but shortly after “your spine is cracking” and “your hands, they shake,” on Ventilator Blues, leaving you longing for even a glimpse of the saviour on Just Want to See His Face.
By the time Mick Jagger sings a message of hope on Shine A Light, the second to last song, there’s a feeling of overwhelming exhaustion. You might be “drunk in the alley” with your “clothes all torn,” but Mick wishes the good Lord to shine a light on you and “make every song your favourite tune.” The album comes to a close with the fitting Soul Survivor, a song that seems to look back at the journey.
Plundered My Soul was one of those incomplete “from the vaults” songs. In a recent interview, Mick and Keith talked about adding vocal and guitar tracks.
I’m not sure where this would fit in the album listing, but hearing it brings back all those feelings of listening to Exile on Main Street that first time nearly 20 years ago.
