Pussy Galore - Exile on Main St. (1986)

Lo and behold, Pussy Galore's mythic and sloppily perfected interpretation of Exile. Recorded in some junk barn on a 4- track cassette that sounds even junkier, you'll either hate it or dig it. The songs are out of sync and out of tune. They're disfigured and muddied up, then reconstructed in an arousal of that terrific entropy that was seeping through NYC rock & roll during the 80's. (case in point, "Tumbling Dice"). And by the time you listen to the damn thing all the way through, it's obvious Jon Spencer has listened to Exile religiously like any other young disciple of rock & roll. Knows it so well in fact that he justifies distorting it song by song and essentially destroying one of the unanimous masterpieces of the 70's.

Of course, Exile is the only album that could even work that way, which is why it remains the best testament to an ageless type of rock 'n roll. Don't get me wrong, I love Steely Dan, but the minty freshness of each fucking track or chord change or solo arrangement leaves it stuck forever in that age of mid tempo, cleansing 70's rock. Fourteen years after Exile was originally recorded, Pussy Galore recorded their version, a raucous and trashy interpretation that is, despite any misgivings you have, distinctly 80's slack.

there's only something like 500 or so cassettes tapes of this in circulation, so find the digital convenience in the comments.