Ash Naylor first encountered The Rolling Stones in his teenage years through the omnipresent Stones compilation. By his early 20s, Naylor was delving into the Stones’ catalogue in greater detail. “I came to Exile late, in my 20s,” Naylor recalls. “In the early ‘90s I started buying Stones records. Like Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti – which I got into around the same time – it took a while for me to really appreciate Exile On Main St.”
In comparison to the more commercial flavouring of Sticky Fingers, Exile On Main St is almost defiantly the band’s own artistic creation, shaped principally by Keith Richards’ burgeoning interest in country rock – a style introduced to him by his then partner in excess, Gram Parsons – as well as the influence of guitarist Mick Taylor (and, according to many, the unacknowledged input of Ry Cooder). “I think Exile is a darker production, sonically,” muses Naylor. “It doesn’t seem to be driven by the commercial aspects, so it’s a lot different to Sticky Fingers.”
In some ways it’s difficult to separate the music featured on Exile from the titillating stories of its recording. Last year’s documentary shed some light on the events at Villa Nellcôte in Villefranche-sur-Mer in southern France where Exile was recorded; Naylor suggests that retaining the mystery may have been better. “Part of the magic of a record is not knowing the background,” he says. “There’s so much information these days about the recording of Exile that it’s hard to imagine how it was actually recorded. So you end up attaching all this information to your listening. But even then, the album stands up for itself – even though at the time it wasn’t revered as a great record.”
Few people – possibly with the exception of the current members of the Stones – would dispute the significance of Mick Taylor’s input to the record. Drafted into the band a few years before Exile to replace the erratic Brian Jones, Taylor was a gifted blues musician whose involvement with the Stones was central to the band’s so-called golden era between 1969 and 1973. Taylor’s decision to leave the Stones in the mid ‘70s – by which time he devolved from talented and clean to addicted and disillusioned – saw him quietly erased from the authorised history of the band.
But to many musicians Taylor was a pivotal figure in the Exile-era Stones. “Mick Taylor was an absolute supreme figure,” Naylor says. “His biggest crime was probably leaving the band. Like Eric Clapton and Dave Gilmour, he was precise, heartfelt but also technically very proficient. He injected surgical precision into rambling mayhem.” James Young, whose Cherry Rock company is behind the new venue being launched at this event, has a different perspective. “His guitar work is incendiary, but he is not the hero,” Young muses. “Instead Taylor, like Keef, Mick, Charlie and Bill is an equally vital cog in a freakish 1972 engine room.”
Naylor’s affection for Exile On Main St is shared by a number of local musicians. Earlier this a cadre of Melbourne musicians, including Naylor, Dave Larkin, Spencer P Jones and Matt Sonic came together to celebrate the album in its entirety, initially at Cherry Bar in the city, and subsequently at the Caravan Club in Oakleigh. “Those shows were great,” Naylor says. “They were really celebratory. I think tribute shows are the new classical recitals. The crowd is really excitable, and they’re there to celebrate the music. And because it’s not really a commercial venture, it’s necessarily a music lover’s gig.”
This week the Exile tribute show moves out to the western suburbs to the Yarraville Club in Yarraville, for the launch of that hotel’s reinvention as a live music venue. Young is understandably excited at the prospect of having Exile On Main St as the focus of the new venue’s opening night. “The heroin-soaked shambolic way it was recorded in Nellcôte France means that the record is a cluster of amazing ‘jams’ not classic structured songs, but somehow they work, like nothing else,” Young says.
Naylor will open the Exile on Yarraville show with a solo set, before featuring in a rich lineup of musicians, including Spencer P. Jones, Jack Howard, the Wolfgramm Sisters and Matt Sonic, playing tribute to the album. “I’ve been drafted in to lay the carpet for the evening, though I have no idea what I’m going to play yet, but I’ll probably treat myself to a few covers.” Naylor says. “Even has played Tumbling Dice in the past, but this week I’ve gravitated to the more acoustic, laid back tracks like Sweet Virginia,” Naylor says.
Finally, I ask Naylor what, if he had the chance, he’d ask the legendary Keith Richards. Naylor pauses to contemplate the possibility. “I guess I’d ask what inspires him to write songs today,” Naylor says. “It seems it’d be hard to get the band up and running today – that said, it’s hard to get Even up and running these days as well,” he laughs.
BY PATRICK EMERY
