Spinner

Rolling Stones' 'Exile' Producer Hopes to Mine Band's Vaults for More Rarities

Longtime Rolling Stones producer Don Was, who first worked with the band in '93, recently got to revisit a childhood favorite, mining through 300 hours of tape to come up with the 10 bonus songs for the just-released 'Exile On Main Street' reissue. Despite having worked with the band for 17 years, going back to an album that was influential in his own life as a kid was special for Was.

"The honest to god's truth is last week when I was in New York they handed me one of the records for the first time and to look at the credits and see produced by Jimmy Miller, the Glimmer Twins and Don Was, I actually kind of welled up a little bit," Was tells Spinner. "It's pretty deep -- real deep."

What other albums would be that deep for him? "Like I told Mick [Jagger] the other day, I said, 'Come on, bring on 'Some Girls,'" Was says laughing. Is the Stones '78 classic, an album that found them embracing disco with 'Miss You' and provided such classics as 'Beast of Burden' and 'Shattered,' ripe for the same sort of 'Exile' bonus treatment? "I know there's stuff there," Was says. And what did Jagger say in resposne? "He didn't say 'no.'"

Was also says that one of the Stones' most prolific and enduring periods has outtakes that could hopefully someday see the light of day. "Obviously, with the Stones you'd say, 'Let's listen to the 'Let It Bleed,' 'Beggars Banquet' period and I know what's there," he says. "You could combine that era and that's good stuff."

In the meantime, Was is still glowing from being able to sift through all of those hours of tapes from 'Exile.' Is there anything that surprised him listening to that material? "One thing that really struck me was what I could hear from all the banter in-between songs and what was going on in that basement -- it's really not that different from a Stones session today," he says. That is surprising considering that the Stones famously rented a house in the South of France to record the album and the era is considered one of their wildest. Was doesn't doubt that stuff is going on, but it didn't affect the music. "There was a crazy scene going on around them, but they were on their game and that's not what I expected," he says. "I pictured it to be all Jack Daniels, heroin and girls."

Download 'Exile on Main Street' on iTunes

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David S.

Are the Stones running low on money?

May 22 2010 at 4:41 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mark

"Miss You"? Disco? What an idiot!

May 22 2010 at 1:39 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
4 replies to Mark's comment
Phill Powell

Why should Don Was well up with tears when he sees the new reissue? He sure as hell didn't produce "Exile On Main Street." Jimmy Miller and Mick & Keith did. He had nothing to do with it, just these tacked-on extra tracks.

As a matter of fact, the best thing that the Rolling Stones could do would be to get the hell away from Don Was. He's a good producer, but he doesn't know how to produce the Stones. And why do the Glimmer Twins need to work with any producer at this point? Why don't they just do it themselves? Does he understand the Stones sound better than they do?

May 22 2010 at 12:18 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Wish Belkin

Everything they did after Brian Jones kinda sucked.

May 21 2010 at 10:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
duncanmax912

Some Girls was the last really good Stones album... It would be great to hear anything left over from that period in their career!!

May 21 2010 at 10:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
wenandmike

Don Was is absolutely right. The Stones should do at least a couple more re-issues along the lines of the "Exile" package, which is outstanding. Obviously not every album is right for this sort of treatment, but almost anything from Mick Taylor's tenure with the band is worth looking into. Plus, it's fairly well known that "Start Me Up" was a reggae number during work-ups, and the version we all know was the only
"rock" take they did. I'd love to hear that song in a reggae version. Also, PLEASE put Keith's 45 of "The Harder They Come" and "Run, Rudolph, Run" on a CD. My old vinyl version is about shot.

May 21 2010 at 9:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to wenandmike's comment
Tom

I have heard the SMU reggae-ish version. Different lyrics. Great stuff. There are many unreleased songs.
Most fans want the live stuff from the '71,72,73 time period with Mick Taylor released. Plus, the soundtrack to the '72 tour movie "Ladies and Gentlemen'.
Mick-open the vaults!

May 21 2010 at 9:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
irocker350

"What a drag it is getting old"

May 21 2010 at 9:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to irocker350's comment
Barry

Not whenyou're the Stones!

May 22 2010 at 2:08 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply