Pussy Galore "exile on main street"

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Anyone know anything about this history of this? Especially why certain songs (Casino Boogie especially) have been recorded over with blasts of noise, sounds of guitars being plugged in, the "fuck you fuck this fucking machine" etc. at the beginning?

― Lee is Free (Lee is Free), Monday, 1 May 2006 02:30 (twenty years ago)

I think they recorded most of it almost live, i.e. 1 or 2 takes at most, and were learning the songs as they went along.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Monday, 1 May 2006 02:32 (twenty years ago)

I think they recorded most of it almost live, i.e. 1 or 2 takes at most, and were learning the songs as they went along.

Maybe for "Exile on Main Street" -- incidentally I LOVE the spoken intro and "Rocks Off" -- but this blog Vinyl Mine has some interesting points about the making of "Groovy Hate Fuck":

"Spencer was never happy with the takes. "He'd say, 'That sounds too good -- make it sound worse,'" Jones remembers.

Apparently Sonic Youth had announced their intent to cover the Beatles' White Album in its entirety and "Exile" was PG's preemptive strike.

― xero (xero), Monday, 1 May 2006 03:51 (twenty years ago)

I love it but the point was that it was just a non-effort / piss-take etc.. did it in a day and only released it as a limited cassette

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Monday, 1 May 2006 04:26 (twenty years ago)

it's much better than the stones.

― Christopher Costello (CGC), Monday, 1 May 2006 04:34 (twenty years ago)

uh, no

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Monday, 1 May 2006 04:34 (twenty years ago)

yep.

― Christopher Costello (CGC), Monday, 1 May 2006 05:18 (twenty years ago)

if you've swallowed yr balls maybe

― j blount (papa la bas), Monday, 1 May 2006 05:43 (twenty years ago)

I love most of Pussy Galore's stuff, and Exile is kinda cool, but it's nowhere near as thrilling as it could've been, cos it falls so far short of the Stones. But good luck with that iconoclasm schtick.

― There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvish (noodle vague), Monday, 1 May 2006 08:14 (twenty years ago)

where can i find a copy?
and also noodle, that is perhaps the best sig yet

― anthony easton (anthony), Monday, 1 May 2006 08:54 (twenty years ago)

Yes, where have you been able to find this? I've been looking for years.

― nicky lo-fi (nicky lo-fi), Monday, 1 May 2006 08:54 (twenty years ago)

I like the bits where the real exile comes bleeding up from the chaos, like at the end of 'sweet virginia'.

― lil' merzbow wow (haitch), Monday, 1 May 2006 10:45 (twenty years ago)

I have the tape around here somewhere. I would YSI it if I could.

― don weiner (don weiner), Monday, 1 May 2006 10:57 (twenty years ago)

>> Yes, where have you been able to find this? I've been looking for years.

Slsk, duh.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Monday, 1 May 2006 10:59 (twenty years ago)

Someone sent me a CD-R of it a few years ago. Early on, it's pretty good, but it kinda gets worse/noisier as it goes along, and the immediate thrill of hearing these songs so thoroughly defiled wears thin over the long haul, too. It's a joke that's better secondhand than actually experienced - like hearing someone tell you about how they got humiliated by Don Rickles or Andy Kaufman would be better than having it happen to you.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Monday, 1 May 2006 11:12 (twenty years ago)

The T-shirt was better than the music, a reproduction of a Cease and Desist warning from the Stones business manager, the fabulously named Prince Rupert zu Lowenstein. But 'Rocks Off' was good. I learned to play it from the PG version.

― snotty moore, Monday, 1 May 2006 11:36 (twenty years ago)

You have to remember at the time that if you were into that post-hardcore scene, arguably the standard-bearers of rock at that time, you categorically dismissed all that came before the Necros and Black Flag as bloated "classic cock". Spencer who had as good a bullshit detecter as anyone one thought that was a crock and single-handedly made the Stones (and by fiat the "good stuff" of the 60's and 70's) relevant and "okay" to reference. That's my take on Exile at least.

― Jim H (vinyl mine guy), Monday, 1 May 2006 14:00 (twenty years ago)

pdf otm

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 1 May 2006 14:09 (twenty years ago)

I like the bits where the real exile comes bleeding up from the chaos, like at the end of 'sweet virginia'.
I believe that's why they couldn't release it 'for real'. There is a letter from Mick Jagger's management or someone reprinted in the original cd (maybe elsewhere, too) of "Dial M" that says something like "We're sorry, but Mr. Jagger can not approve your request". I've heard that the request was to release the PG Exile with the Stones versions semi-audible in the background.

and yeah, it's the most common Pussy Galore album on slsk.

― Mike Dixn (Mike Dixon), Monday, 1 May 2006 14:35 (twenty years ago)

it's no Sugarshit Sharp (my favourite PG)

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 1 May 2006 14:38 (twenty years ago)

it's all about Historia de la Musica Rock, dood.

― electro-acoustic lycanthrope (orion), Monday, 1 May 2006 15:17 (twenty years ago)

that's the hagertyest one, isn't it? I've never heard it. I remember seeing it as an import for at a record store when I was in high school, but the price was just out of my range.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 1 May 2006 15:22 (twenty years ago)

(weird though, since I'm a big Hagerty-booster, that I like PG's Hagerty-Free stuff best)

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 1 May 2006 15:23 (twenty years ago)

I hated that Historia album so much when it came out that I immediately sold it back and have not heard it since. Clearly I need to give it at least one more chance. It just seemed like the inverse of everything I liked about Dial M - slow, meandering, stoned, too bluesy as opposed to fast, hard, loud, and noisy.

I love the mangled "Exile" (although it's maybe my 4th favorite PG album), my only other observation is that it seems like they deliberately fucked with the more well-known songs and left the obscure cuts mostly intact.

― sleeve (sleeve), Monday, 1 May 2006 15:30 (twenty years ago)

I had the same exact experience w/Historia, right down to the selling it back. Downloaded it not that long ago, and still don't *really* like it...maybe it just appeals to a different set of ears than the ones (mine) that love Dial M. (Dial M still sound *great* whenever I check up on it...and I'm kinda surprised by that).

― dlp9001 (dlp9001), Monday, 1 May 2006 15:34 (twenty years ago)

Isn't Historia the only one that hasn't been reissued?
I like it plenty, but it sounds alot more like the beginning of the Blues Explosion than the end of Pussy Galore.

― Mike Dixn (Mike Dixon), Monday, 1 May 2006 15:37 (twenty years ago)

(BTW: List of other 'Historia' volumes on the back of the original lp = CLASSIC!)

― Mike Dixn (Mike Dixon), Monday, 1 May 2006 15:39 (twenty years ago)

As a whole PG's Exile isn't that great, but there are some fine moments... ironically the quiet ones like Sweet Black Angel + Sweet Virginia are two that spring immediately to mind. Plus the band argument buried in the middle is classic stuff.

Am I the only one who finds all post-Right Now! PG to be dire and naff?

― Edward III (edward iii), Monday, 1 May 2006 16:02 (twenty years ago)

Ventilator Blues and Sweet Virginia are superior versions

― Maxwell von Bismarck (maxwell von bismarck), Monday, 1 May 2006 16:06 (twenty years ago)

Historia's great but I haven't heard it in years. Otherwise, Dial M is the ONE. 2 Live Crew sample = rofflez

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 1 May 2006 16:07 (twenty years ago)

man u guys are nuts. historia rulez.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 1 May 2006 16:10 (twenty years ago)

It is great. And it's not all slow and drudgey at all. There's "Revolution Summer" and stuff.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 1 May 2006 16:27 (twenty years ago)

how much is an original cassette worth?

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 1 May 2006 16:30 (twenty years ago)

I'm another one who bought Historia (on cassette!) and almost immediately shoved it to the very back of the plastic crate I kept all my tapes in. Especially since I'd bought it after seeing them live only a few months earlier (all-male lineup; Julie had already quit, or anyway didn't make the L.A. show), I was very disappointed. It was trudgey, boring, not nearly noisy enough. I tried to like the few fast songs ("Revolution Summer," "Do The Clam") but just couldn't get into it. Dial M still holds up, though.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Monday, 1 May 2006 16:31 (twenty years ago)

for me, dial m gets better and better. historia got sold a long time ago.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 1 May 2006 16:33 (twenty years ago)

Yes, where have you been able to find this? I've been looking for years.

It can't possibly be that hard to get. I downloaded the whole thing off Napster in 2000, and there was a bootleg CD that was pretty available in the mid-to-late-90s.

I like it plenty, but it sounds alot more like the beginning of the Blues Explosion than the end of Pussy Galore.

I agree, it sounds pretty similar to the first JSBX record on Caroline, right down to the Haggerty songs/Bauer songs. "Eliza Jane" and "Don't Jones Me" could be swapped.

(BTW: List of other 'Historia' volumes on the back of the original lp = CLASSIC!)

What are the other albums? I don't have anything listed on the back of mine, other than the song titles, and the fake catalogue number (007!).

― Vic Funk, Monday, 1 May 2006 22:24 (twenty years ago)

The Blues Explosion were such schtick, though. I found that 1st B.E. album disappointing after Historia de la Music Rock, which was one of my favorite albums around that time.

Historia is where Spencer and Hagerty really clicked together the best.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 1 May 2006 22:37 (twenty years ago)

historia is the only pg record i own

― tulio, Thursday, 4 May 2006 14:23 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

Is that Hagerty singing on Torn and Frayed?? Does he sing on any of this?

― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Saturday, 9 February 2008 08:31 (eighteen years ago)

eighteen years pass...

Recorded 40 years ago this month. I wrote about it for Burning Ambulance. I like it better now than I did before.

― wipes chooser (unperson), Tuesday, 18 August 2026 15:40 (three weeks ago)

Nice write-up, biggest revelation was that this is streaming now! Had no idea. Other than hearing a nth generation tape dub way back when and the handful of tracks on the Corpse Love comp, I haven't heard this in forever.

― better than ezra collective soul asylum (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 18 August 2026 15:53 (three weeks ago)

Timely! I just pulled out my copy and listened to the other day.

― imperial frfr (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 18 August 2026 15:56 (three weeks ago)

haha same! somethings in the air

― waste of compute (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 18 August 2026 17:13 (three weeks ago)

It's a summer record. You can picture them in a small, hot room, dripping sweat and shouting at each other as they hammer the songs together, little knowing how much Spencer is going to erase, distort, and generally fuck with after the fact, obscuring their hard work.

― wipes chooser (unperson), Tuesday, 18 August 2026 17:22 (three weeks ago)

This was an unavailable holy grail for me in 1989 and I love it in 2026 but it's cute how PG and every other 80s sonic dangers have become contextualised. And if there's a point to me reminiscing I think it's that their Exile is built on understanding that drift of time. Bunch of critics at the time wanted it to be some kind of critique but it absolutely isn't and doesn't feel like it was ever recorded in that spirit

― 99 gram lychee (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 18 August 2026 17:35 (three weeks ago)

iirc it was at least partly intended to one-up Sonic Youth, who kept teasing a White Album all-covers record in interviews at the time

(n.b. I have not read the new piece yet, sorry if it mentions this)

― Serfin' USA (sleeve), Tuesday, 18 August 2026 18:00 (three weeks ago)

still my 4th fave PG record, just ahead of Right Now which I have just never quite clicked with

― Serfin' USA (sleeve), Tuesday, 18 August 2026 18:01 (three weeks ago)

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