The Night Before the World Ends...

...everyone's in this bar, dancing and drinking like there was no tomorrow, which there isn't. It's smoky and dim and loud; there are lines outside the bathroom and lines inside, too. There's a band playing hard enough to stay well on top of the noise even though the sound's a little muddy. They've got an ambisexual frontman with a mouth that stretches beyond the possible and an angular body in constant motion; he's spewing out the songs like a human volcano – you can hear about every third word clearly. There are two guys playing guitar; the lead guy looks like he died about two years ago and the second guy looks about to follow him down, but they play blues-rock like they invented it; probably because the lead guy did. On the hard numbers, the drummer edges the beat ahead by a millisecond a measure; on the slow ones he sits on the beat like a king on a throne. You can't see the bassist's face, only his back – but he rocks steady and never loses sight of the bottom. Some singers wander on and off, and some hornmen add backs and breaks when the feeling's right. There's a piano, too, with a couple of guys alternating spots on the bench. The music is blues, rock, country, r&b, gospel. It pumps you up, cools you off, and speaks to the better angels of your nature and the worse; then it sends you off into the final night with a benediction and a prophecy.

It's rock at its best, the Rolling Stones' masterpiece Exile On Main St. I've been listening to it at work for 2 days now, and I just might keep it here for one more. This time around, I find myself focusing on the licks Keith and Mick Taylor toss into the mix on "Ventilator Blues", the cover of Slim Harpo's boogie, "Shake Your Hips", Jagger's vocals and blues harp on "Turd On The Run" and the Chuck-Berry-in-a-blender-with-sax-breaks drive of "Rip This Joint"; then I play it again and something else - some other moment - reaches out and grabs me. I got hooked on this album when it was first released, and I go back to it whenever my Stones jones acts up. On my desert island short list, it makes the top 5.