Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

9. The Rolling Stones Frank ZappaExile On Main Street

Well I was always a Sticky Fingers and Goat’s Head Soup guy. But I never really understood Exile…. Well it was more that everyone was going on about it and I didn’t understand why. And I just thought there were too many songs on it, and too many unfinished ideas. And you kept seeing all these editions of it. I hate it when you’ve got a band like the Rolling Stones who have millions of brilliant songs and loads of great albums and someone goes: “But THIS is the definitive, mega album.” I just don’t like being told that, so I was always quite resistant. But then last year I just said: “Enough is enough, I’m going to stop fighting it.” I read something amazing about that period of their touring and how mental it was, and I thought, “Fuck it, I’ll listen to it again.” And I listened to it, and haven’t stopped listening to it! I love it now. It’s got loads of brilliant songs on it, but they aren’t like mega hit songs, if you look through the list you don’t see what you would consider to be one of the all-time golden classic Rolling Stones songs. But when you listen to the album it just makes sense.

Selected in other Baker’s Dozens: Robert Hampson
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