This closing track to the towering Exile on Main Street album is probably one of the better-known forgotten gems (if that makes any sense?) when it was used as the title for a Rolling Stones concert film in the 2000s; but it deserves more appreciation for its incredible arrangement and production. Exile is rightly considered as the peak of the Stones' discography, it acts as the ultimate British tribute to Americana from the blues to honky tonk to rock n roll, gospel soul, country and rockabilly and more in all their guises and sub genres. There remains a strong traditionalism to the song writing, while the DIY basement recording setup of Chateaux Nellcôte also helps. It is a bit of a mystery how a bunch of middle-class rock stars from the South of England with their entourage of famous actors and models in tow could create an album of working-class roots music in a luxurious South of France retreat; definitely no authenticity and stacked with appropriation, but still rustic and faithful set of standards..actually songs that would become standards.
So, it starts with an echoplex guitar jangle, the harmonics ricocheting off the studio baffles, the volume bumped up as the chamber reverb skitters away. This sound of the rattling of the electronic components of the echoplex will return and seep in and out of the song at certain points as if to retain an acoustic ambience. The crunchy interior of the analogue echo unit and the studio confines are almost tangible; as the scurrying clicks of the reverb signal flap away our ears can almost paint an image of how small the room is in the way sonar is used to create a visualisation of the interior of, say, a cave. The locust sounding crackles get closer than further away establishing a sonic landscape not fully explored by this song but creates an eardrum gripping intro.
The song proper then begins as a couple big piano notes punch in with Mick Jagger's tired vocal in tow, as if still feeling the effects from the night before. The lyrics, the lonely chords and vocal place us squarely in a lonely hotel room (Room 1009 by the way), Jagger seemingly describes a fictitious account of stumbling across an OD victim. The watery organ drenches the track like a flood, every element reverberates to some degree, even the aforementioned 'locusts' reverb clicks scatter as we enter turn it up for the evangelical gospel chorus. It's a positive, beaming lyric and the cold confessional verses solidify the song's going to church feel but also grimy, harsh reality of coming back down off a drug; the song and life in general is full of slowdowns and fast highs.
The angelic backing ooh's are treated with a Hammond Leslie Amp, almost as if the echo is slowly infecting all the elements of this song, it completely metamorphosizes the backing vocals from their original form. The Leslie amp drowns the choral vocals in a sudsy distortion, so heavy is the warping of this it practically mutates the rich, human voices into a synthetic instrument that can be moulded and shapeshift like a synthesizer. This strange sound is most pronounced at around the three-minute mark, where during the middle eight, the soupy organ is played with a lot of resonance and the reverb filter cranked up to create a high tactile riddling that sounds like a Xylophone.
The slide guitar licks are restrained and the upbeat piano of the chorus are powerfully feel good in their simplicity; it all brings to mind the other epic closer in their discography; You Can't Always Get What You Want. But the organ and reverb machinations are what set this apart from your typical rock ballad; this is an immersive experience on a surround sound level.
The ending is a return to the gospel vocals and the xylophone sounding organ part of the middle eight, rapidly panning and disappearing down the sink hole like a stream of rainwater down a gutter after the deluge has ended. The cleansing effect of it is apparent as the waves of those 'organ voices' briefly submerge your earphones under the lapping waters before your head re-emerges bobbing up again; it's astounding how the Stones could blend choir vocals, organ and an amp into a representation of the sea and the tides.
It's so affecting, it feels the song has been one big ol sobbing section, wringing out all the pain, the ending the perfect feeling of drained as the 'river of tears' , represented by the combined vocals/organ, wash away.
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