The Rolling Stones - Exile On Main St. [11]

Title: The Rolling Stones - Exile On Main St.
Year/Genre/Sub-Genre/City: 1972, Blues Rock, Roots Rock, London, England 10/26
Matrix #: COC 2-2900 (Rolling Stones Records, yellow label, 2xLP); runout not legible in photo
Condition: EX (LM) | Members: Mick J (43' - ), Keith R (43' - ), Charlie W (41' - 21'), Bill W (36' - ), Mick T (49' - ) | Producer: Jimmy Miller
Cultural Facts: [11]

1. The Exile Was Literal: After breaking with manager Allen Klein, the band discovered a huge unpaid British tax bill, and adviser Prince Rupert Loewenstein warned that staying home could cost them 83 to 98 percent of their profits. After a short farewell tour of England they left for France in April 1971, and Keith rented Villa Nellcote above Villefranche-sur-Mer. The title is not a pose: they could not afford to live in their own country.
2. Robbed While Watching TV: Nellcote was such an open house that in fall 1971 burglars walked out the front gate with a pile of Keith's guitars, Bobby Keys' saxophone and Bill Wyman's bass while people sat watching television in the living room. Wyman later called it proof of how loose things were out there. Meanwhile down in the damp cellar where this album was cut, engineer Andy Johns said the guitars would drift out of tune halfway through a song.
3. Not Actually a Tattoo Parlor: The famous front collage is a single 1950s photo by Swiss-born Robert Frank, long titled Tattoo Parlor, but museums now say it was most likely shot at Hubert's Dime Museum and Flea Circus near Times Square, of a board of sideshow performer pictures. The Stones then hired Frank to film their 1972 tour, hated the raw result, and a 1977 court ruling limited that film, with its unprintable title, to about four archival screenings a year, only with Frank present.