Exile on Main St

Background

While Pussy Galore's version is an intentionally deconstructionist approach to remaking the original album, most of the songs on the album remain recognizable and reconcilable to their original versions. One notable exception is Pussy Galore's performance of "Shine A Light", which, while itself an actual recording of that song, was purposefully distorted essentially beyond recognition. On a bootleg which circulates among fans, titled "Exile On Main Street (Unmixed Version)" or simply "Exile Unmixed", many performances that were purposefully obscured on the official release are clearly audible and it seems that the group did make somewhat of a sincere attempt to learn all eighteen songs from the original LP.

In addition to the general chaos, purposeful distortion, and incomprehensible mixing and editing, the record also contains bits of dialog from the band members arguing and yelling at one another, as well as some original Rolling Stones versions of tracks from "Exile..." bleeding through the mix at points. One notable appearance comes from what appears to be a copy of The Velvet Underground's song "Heroin", though it sounds as if it is skipping on a damaged vinyl record.

Reception

NME ranked the album number 253 in "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in October 2013. David Browne called the album "the symbolic passing of the irreverent torch."

Personnel

Adapted from the Exile on Main St liner notes.

Pussy Galore

Bob Bert – drums, percussion, vocals

Julie Cafritz – electric guitar, vocals

Neil Hagerty – electric guitar, violin, percussion, vocals, mixing

Cristina Martinez – electric guitar, vocals

Jon Spencer – lead vocals, electric guitar, percussion, mixing

Production

Rick Hall – mixing, cover art

Pussy Galore – production