“The first time I saw Nellcôte I thought that surely I was going to be able to handle the curse of exile. It was an incredible house, right on the edge of Cap Ferrat, overlooking the bay of Villefranche (…) I woke up thinking: is this my house? It’s about time things were done right. We felt we deserved such greatness after the misery of the UK.” it states Keith Richards in “Vida” his autobiography, however that charming and transitional place would become a fundamental place, since there Mick Jagger, Richards, Bill Wyman, Mick Taylor and Charlie Watts would begin to shape “Exile”.
The initial intention of the band was to record in Nice or Cannes, but for logistical reasons it was impossible, although they were all in France, each one had chosen different destinations, Richards’s house became the venue chosen from immense basement that he owned and the possibility of being able to use a mobile studio that they had put together.
As can be seen in the documentary “Stones in Exile” (2010), those multiple rooms in the basement were not at all luxurious, quite the opposite. Full of humidity and cables to have electricity, the atmosphere was quite dense and gloomy.
“Now I realize that ‘Exile’ was made in very chaotic circumstances and with very innovative recording media. Although that seemed to us the least of our problems. The most threatening was: do we have songs? And then came: do we have the sound? Everything else was secondary.” Keith assured in “Life”.
Some musicians also passed through that place, such as Bobby Keys, Jim Price, Nicky Hopkins, Ian Stewart, and Gram Parsons. That didn’t help much. Parsons followed Richards in his vices and it is said that Jagger did not like that friendship because he feared that his guitarist would end up recording an album with the singer.
The rules of the recording were imposed by Richards and his unbalanced schedules, it should be noted that Keith was going through a difficult time due to his drug addiction, each Stone handled it as best he could. Taylor confessed that he did not like the atmosphere and tried to stay as little time as possible in the mansion, as did Jagger, who was frequently absent.
“Rare was the day when there were no more than forty people at the table at lunchtime, and the funny thing is that they were different every day. You got up in the morning, went down to breakfast and you could find Anita (wife of Keith) smoking a joint sitting on the stairs and next to him Keith rehearsing with the acoustic ‘Sweet Virginia’, and while in the next room, Bill had been doing his bass parts since 10 in the morning with a friend of Keith asleep about amps. Obviously it would have been difficult to do that in England,” Mick Taylor said of those days.
Work on Nellcôte ended in October 1971, after French police came to the mansion to question its residents about visiting drug dealers. From this period came the first versions of “Tumbling Dice” (called “Good Time Woman”), “Sweet Black Angel”, “Let It Loose” and “Rip This Joint”and the final versions of “Casino Boogie”, “Happy”, “Rocks Off”, “Soul Survivor”, and “Ventilator Blues”.
From there the production moved to Los Angeles and it could be said that everything took on a certain “normality”. At this stage the songs were added “I Just Want to See His Face”, “Torn and Frayed” and “Loving Cup”. The critical reception was not very good, the album was blamed for poor production (it is understood from where), however over the years “Exile” was revalued. The stories behind their conception may have raised the bar, but without a doubt the answer is in their songs, 18 of the best songs shape the definitive album within the extensive discography of the stones.
Source: Ambito
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