Well this is where they planted there feet and stood up and said cross this line. This along with Sticky and, Big Hits ( HIGH TIDE AND GREEN GRASS), stand all along for me. This being on top. Exile comes right on along But I have collected these first before Exile it will be next. What a hoot to listen to these ablums again. And they sounding as good as them old reel tapes I had back when. Whew!!! Solid stuff. From the Stones. And yes I appoaching 60 in age.

the rolling stones the dirty rock and roll band to rival the clean cut beatles and they certainly out do themselves with this release as too say i wasn't born in 1969 i wasn't even a twinkle in my father eye yet!! but nearly 40 years later i've finally picked up this classic remastered and ready to blast out of my speakers and i've done that for the past week since i've got it..
the stones were always a band you asscoiated with smokin' behind the bike-sheds during break time..or the dirtness dripping from their songs and this is the band who made a song "paint it black" on their first album "aftermath" when the beatles were doing the "love me do" sugar sweet pop singles this band had the charisma from the beginning
and this album is my first favorite out of their three timeless classics "beggar's banquet" and "exile on main street"
and as another reviewer has stated this is the first time keith richards has taken the lead vocal spot on "you got silver"

this album of course features the classics "you can't always get what you want" which they still play now in their live sets
plus it features my favorite "love in vain" "midnight rambler"
and "country honk"
a masterpiece from the band who made the blues dirty
the greatest the rolling stones

There are a few songs that are so great, I remember exactly where I was when I first heard them. "Good Vibrations." "Well-Respected Man." "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)." "Aja." "1999."

One of those songs is the lead track on this album. I was in bed. My clock-radio had just gone off and I was listening to a good station. The timing was perfect; I was a groggy high school freshman who'd struggled all the previous night with geometry, so I didn't want to get up right away. The DJ said, "we've got the new Rolling Stones," and proceeded to play "Gimme Shelter." It gave me chills. I'd heard a lot of great Stones songs up to that point, like "Street Fighting Man," "Sympathy for the Devil," "Paint It, Black," and "Let's Spend the Night Together," but this was something else, a cry from the heart of all the paranoia of 1969, but even more timeless, the sound of the apocalyptic doom closing in. It was perfect that Jagger shared the lead vocals with Merry Clayton. The climax of the song is when she loses control over her voice singing the word "murder," which becomes a harrowing screech. But, as the last verse said, "love is just a kiss away." You don't have to face the madness of the world alone.

I got the album right away. Interestingly, the Stones let go of the intensity of that first song, which gives way to the beautiful reading of Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain," followed by three songs in a somewhat comical mode. Side two started with "Midnight Rambler" which was wonderfully ambiguous. Were we supposed to hate him or admire him? Plus, that song is one of Charlie Watts' best drum songs, with all the changes of pace. Then, Keith sings something romantic, Jagger sends up the Stones' image in the brilliant "Monkey Man," and finally, they get serious again in "You Can't Always Get What You Want," which is as close as the Stones or any other rock group gets to something like the "Ode to Joy" in Beethoven's Ninth. It is the perfect bookend to "Gimme Shelter." Nicky Hopkins' plays a joyous gospel piano solo at the end, and I think it's Billy Preston on the organ here.

The remastering of all the Stones' albums is wonderful, but this one seems like the topper. The acoustic songs especially have a wonderful sense of space. The original production by Jimmy Miller was brilliant here, as it was on all the albums he did with them. Miller's the one who mixed Watts' drums way up so we could hear how great he was. He's the one who dirtied up the guitar sounds. His contribution to the Stones' legacy cannot be underestimated.

If you don't have this, go for it.