Rocks Off Keith Richards deep dive.

[bourbonsamurai]

I've been learning this song lately, obsessively, as one does.  first off, this is an Ampeg VT22 or V4 that Keith is using here, for an amp.  these are 80lb amps, and they're frighteningly loud.  i'm guessing this was not an issue at Nellcote when they recorded it.  there are three main guitar parts here, two of which are nearly identical, except one of them occasionally uses a tremolo.  when you're listening to it in headphones, you can hear clearly how keith is laying back on one of the parts, so the impact of the other is not interfered with.  anybody else here know this tune?  i'd love to know what y'all think of it.  me, i think this is the filthiest tune ever waxed.  it's so fucking depraved, it's almost gross.  i could talk about this track, all the parts, how it was mixed, you name it, forever.  
 

[Dinosaur David B]

Of course I know it. I've been a huge Stones fan my whole life. I even keep an Ampeg 15 watt head around for when I want that Sticky Fingers sound -- that Ampeg sort of chirpy bark you hear on Brown Sugar and Can't You hear Me Knockin.  I know you're not recording, Cary, but for others who might be, if you're recording, you can also get close to that sound in the studio by running your guitar through an Ampeg SVT bass plug in through the simulated SVT bass cab. Then EQ to taste.

As for Rocks Off, it's probably the most familiar sounding, Stonesy song/guitar sound (ala Sticky) song on an otherwise unconventional sounding album. Put another way, to me, Rocks Off sounds more like Sticky than it does the rest of Exile. Your mileage may vary. That familiarity may be why they kicked off the album with it, because nothing about Rocks Off points to where the rest of Exile is headed. In fact, as soon as it ends, the rest of Exile (IMO) headed away from that kind of sound and song. 

Rocks Off's amp sound (hard left) is softer with less of that Ampeg trebly bark that that of say, Can't You hear Me Knockin.  Could easily be Keith just rolled the volume back on the guitar, or maybe he just didn't have the amp as cranked in the Nellcote basements for obvious reasons. The guitar on the right is the complementary part, it sounds a bit darker, less trebly. 

Rocks Off may well be the big Ampegs -- I haven't researched it, but if you told me small Fender combos, I might believe that, too. They seemed to have both on hand. Maybe one side's Ampeg, the other's Fender.

Ampeg head and big cab on left


Fender combos in the first two baffles (first one mic'd), Ampeg cab behind it in second one. 

 
 
 
 
 
 

[bourbonsamurai]

i knew you'd have input.  i'm really curious as to what got used where, on this whole record.  totally agree that this sounds like Sticky Fingers.  i don't think Rip This Joint, Ventilator Blues, or Tumbling Dice would have been out of place on Sticky, either.  i also think you could swap Loving Cup for Moonlight Mile.

[Dinosaur David B]

Up front, I'll say (or say again if you've heard it from me before) Sticky is my favorite Stones album, and I personally think it's their best studio album. I've definitely grown to appreciate Exile more in recent years, but (like Mick has said) it has never been, and never will be my favorite Stones album.  I personally find it too unfocussed, low fi, and all over the place. Heroin will do that.   

But it captures a moment in time.
  

[bourbonsamurai]

Up front, I'll say (or say again if you've heard it from me before) Sticky is my favorite Stones album, and I personally think it's their best studio album. I've definitely grown to appreciate Exile more in recent years, but (like Mick has said) it has never been, and never will be my favorite Stones album.  I personally find it too unfocussed, low fi, and all over the place. Heroin will do that.   

But it captures a moment in time.
  

 

Exile is probably the #1 Stones record that gets covered in New Orleans.  me and the singer in one of my old bands used to sit in as a duo with some other acts around town, and play stuff from this record we couldn't, elsewhere.  Exile is no doubt my favorite record of theirs.  have you ever heard their cover of "Drift Away" from the It's Only Rock n Roll sessions?