Counterbalance No. 8: The Rolling Stones - 'Exile on Main St.'

In 1972, the Rolling Stones were holed up in a rickety mansion in the South of France, writing an epic love letter to American music. Counterbalance examines the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St and separates the fever from the funk house—now!

                                      
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In 1972, the Rolling Stones were holed up in a rickety mansion in the South of France, writing an epic love letter to American music. Counterbalance examines the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St and separates the fever from the funk house—now!

For director Oliver Murray, music exists in the air, but the emotional archives of former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman gives viewers a tactile experience of this band's story in The Quiet One.

Confessin' the Blues highlights the importance of blues music, but next time, remove the Rolling Stones from the conversation.

On Chicago Plays the Stones, ten Chicago-based blues artists remake a dozen Rolling Stones compositions, with mixed results.

Here's 10 albums that never happened but are still discussed among fans and often recreated in some shape or form by the original artists, inspired musicians, or just hungry fans.

Things get hazy with drugs and bloody with violence, but hipster Hannah remains happy.

This set of early Rolling Stones recordings by the BBC is a lively, energetic revisiting of the band ready to invade the world between 1963 and 1965.

Despite (or perhaps because of) the outside pressures the Rolling Stones faced in recording Satanic Majesties, it stands 50 years later as arguably the most experimental, tongue-in-cheek, and underappreciated album of their long history.

Metaphysical Graffiti is a greatest hits rock/philosophy compilation that showcases the coolest professor around.

On their new album, the Stones return to their origins -- but now with greater authority and skill

A self-described “oral history jukebox” gives behind-the-scenes details about popular songs and the historical circumstances that shaped pop culture as we know it.

Frank Ocean's Endless, the decidedly less commercial of his two recent releases, might just be a victory for artists who've been forced to release music to fulfill contractual obligations. Here's a look at some of history's more significant spite albums.

Rich Cohen, who covered the band for Rolling Stone in 1994, documents the Stones' historical and cultural importance in a new biography.

Persona -- the “I” of the song -- has evolved, broadened, and expanded to more fully represent a diversity of experiences as well as emotional, political, and cultural orientations.

When you’re Mick Jagger, some things never change.

The From the Vault series adds infinite layers of the Rolling Stones' performances for diehard and casual fans alike.

Goddard reinvents the Rolling Stones’ tale of fame and infamy with the bawdy wit of an 18th century picaresque.

Richards' first release in 23 years sounds neither like an old man's record nor a placeholder for the next Stones album.

Deconstructing the impact of the Rolling Stones' “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and remembering how the song has fired our imaginations for the last 50 years.

Keith Richards is the subject of a new documentary, Keith Richards: Under the Influence, coming to Netflix in September.

During their peak years, the Rolling Stones were the world's preeminent band and here they re-release one of their greatest albums in multiple versions.

Brian Jones, founder of the Rolling Stones, had the vision and musical intuition which helped make the band a vital force in the '60s.

Brian Jones was the golden boy of the Rolling Stones—the visionary who gave the band its name and its sound. Yet he was a haunted man, and much of his brief time with the band was volatile and tragic.

Veteran Stones scribe Robert Greenfield captures a band, and its key relationship, in turmoil and on the cusp of change.

As it turns out, America's infatuation with sometimes kooky summer tunes is an old one.

An invaluable look into the lives of our most adored musicians, written with wit, humility, and vibrancy by one of our most revered music journalists.

Martin Scorsese is a master filmmaker and often just as brilliant at incorporating music into his work. Nowhere have those skills shone brighter than in Goodfellas.

John Lennon brooded: "Everything we do, the Stones do four months later."

Songwriter Bill Janovitz follows up his examination of Exile on Mainstreet with an expansive analysis of the legendary bad boys band.

There's much to cherish in the Stones' '80s oeuvre, maligned though it may be

Tom Waits joins the Rolling Stones on a recent tour stop and the world rejoices (as it should).

"Albums just aren't the same today", I hear every mother say. Mother needs something today to calm her down. The 125th most acclaimed album of all time ought to do it. What a drag it is getting old.

In an era when the Stones relentlessly seek to extend, exploit and parlay their accrued fame (as do legions of lesser legacy acts), David Bowie, ever the brave contrarian, is doing his level best to open the shutters on a fresh new day.

For Stones obsessives, this series yields few surprises but plenty of intelligent discourse on this beloved band.

The Rolling Stones have just released a lyric video for their new song "Doom and Gloom". It's a tune from their upcoming greatest hits compenium 'GRRR!' releasing on 12/13 November.

Circulating in bootleg for decades, this digital restoration is a must buy for rock and blue fans, as well as anyone in need of a surfeit of cool.

The Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Metallica and other rock groups have been around for decades. What are the keys to their longevity?