imho best there is to this point, in either book or film
** Standard Spoilers Alert here **
while i would have loved to see Martin Scorcese tackle this project, he didn't so that's just 'fish and whistle' (altho he does have a couple short comments included) ...
but as far as a document covering perhaps the most important and creative period in Rolling Stones history (one of the most important periods of any band truly) it is by far the best to this point, and i fear probably the best we will get ... and i think it's gotten a bit of too rough a treatment here imho ...
the "Season in Hell" book which many call "the" book on Exile is frankly so rife with errors (too many for me to list; i don't have the energy sorry but i bet if you google it you can find plenty of listings on the errors) so that book is useless in the end ...
the book from the 33 1/3 series of rock books (some of which are good) is just blah and should be considered a heavy sedative it is written in such a boring fashion and there are absolutely no new revelations that we all are not well-versed in (assuming you someone who thrive on their music ... it might serve as an adequate introduction for the completely uninitiated but there are also continuations of apocrophyal material, just as in the "Hell" book, which has been disproven in many Stones interviews over the years, etc ... so be prepared for such things but they are easily found as innacurate 'round the net ... also do not operate heavy machinery or tend to young children during or after reading)
and that ladies and gentlemen, is all there is really on documenting what i personally consider the most important and greatest of the Stones albums ... of course this can begin an all-night debate on the 'greatness' of all Stones albums and which is 'the greatest representation of THEIR greatness' so it is of course in my very humblest of opinions as i realize arguments can be easily made for six other albums in their career, as well as where they all fall in the greatest of the year, decade, or genre ... so i'll try and not go into too much of that of course but i do tend to favor a raw and rough roadhouse sound in general so of course that colors my view of all music admittedly (i'm a big fan of Neil Young's rough and ready sound so you get the idea) ...
so for the documentary itself, it is entertaining and does give us a good feel for the time they spent recording in the basement of the large house in the south of france ... most interesting is that everyone, and everyone that came for any length of time apparently, brought their families so it was as much a commune as a gathering of the Stones for work on their next album ... this is of course not a typical way in which albums are made with some families taking up residence in the 'recording house' itself so it was a 24/ type thing ... luckily the Stones had their mobile recording studio which made it possible to even record at the location despite the difficulties even this advantage presented ...
hearing the up-to-date rememberances of those high and heady days (and high is very, very high apparently even by the Stones standards) and gives us a bit more info of what went on day-to-day generally speaking ... the 'out of their element' part really is interesting to consider even the seemingly simple problem of not being able to get those products off the grocer's shelf you've had all your life would be quite an adjustment as you'd have to experiment and it had to be annoying ... think of what everything in america we are so used to (those of us in america) ... and while now, sadly enough, franchises and such have perforated other cultures and countries but this was 1971-1972 and such things had not occured yet ... so 'exile' truly has many facets of the meaning of that simple word and it comes thru on the album ...
but anyway i'm rambling as anyone who has ever read anything i've posted knows i do far too often so i'll wrap it up here (which means there will be another four long paragraphs or so lol) ... get the dvd with the bonus material since if you want all you can get then that's all we're getting to this point ...
also just a short point on the remastering of the original album done by Don Was is brilliant, absolutely brilliant (imho) ... of course, one of the complaints about the album from the start is that it sounds far more like it was recorded in a dark, dank, old basement instead of a top-flight studio ... well, of course it did since that is where they recorded it ... and i loved that sound from the start ... but what Was did was not try and rid the album of this but just make it, i don't know how to describe it ... he just made it more 'exile-est' ... it's better but it is not a betrayal of the original product ... it doesn't make it crystal clear like far too many albums are these days but it is simply beautiful ... i've listened to this remaster probably once every ten to fourteen days since its release ... i suppose that says something about my love of Was' work and the Stones work originally ...
oh and the bits of interviews from "Wicked" Bobby Keys, the Stones' pretty regular saxophonist, is just hilarious and great ... a good ol' boy rock-n-rolling hellraiser from the south he must be quite a treat to just sit and listen to tell stories all night long ... as he describes the sessions and the situations as "boy, that's sh*tting in tall cotton" is just too funny ... it's meant to be a good thing by the way lol ...
so don't shy off this too much esp since it's probably the best at least i will be lucky enough to see in what's left of my life ...
take care,
cormac
"One star in the sky
so I named it Otis Redding"
-- John Hiatt