Pussy Galore – Exile on Main St. (CASSETTE, US)

This is the official release on cassette, limited to 550 individually numbered (in red ink) copies with white cassette and inlay printed on both sides.

There is a second cassette version of this album with a white shell and clear shell with white labels which is most likely a bootleg release.

nb. On the official release Shine a Light is barely audible as it is buried under distortion and feedback. A much more clear version of the song is included on the Exile of Main St. (Unmixed Version) which was circulated as a bootleg.

This sold out within two months and apparently was released at the same time as the ‘1 Yr Live’ cassette (SHOV 6).

The sleeve actually gives the catalogue number as ‘SHOV 000-3’ but the printing on the actual cassette casing states ‘SHOV 3’ which is the same format as other Shove Records releases.

“Someone asked Keith Richards if he’d heard about it, and Keith’s response was, ‘Oh, are they still together? The interviewer said, ‘No.” And Keith said, ‘Well, there’s the trick. To make Exile On Main Street, and stay together.” – Rock N Roll Was Dead article (2022)

“The Exile thing, to come right out and say it, is kind of a joke, for the past five years Sonic Youth has said in interviews that they’re planning to cover the White Album, We thought it would be fun to do the Stones, because there was that Beatles / Stones rivalry. We finally did it in September during practice. It’s not really a joke, and it’s not the greatest thing – Parts of it kind of suck – but it’s okay. The cover’s real cool. Rick Hall, Julie’s boyfriend did that.”

– Jon Spencer (from Greed Volume 1 / Issue 2, 1987)

“As soon as I joined Pussy Galore, Sonic Youth were kinda mouthing off, saying they wanted to record a version of the Beatles’ White Album, we got through Back in the U.S.S.R. in rehearsal, but it never amounted to anything except them mouthing off about it. So in response to that, Pussy Galore said to me, “We’re thinking of doing a cover of Exile on Main Street,” and I said, “Yeah, it’s a much better record, sounds great.” The band was just kind of getting together — Neil Hagerty was just showing up from Virginia. We went into this rehearsal space and we had this really beat up 8-track cassette recorder and we did all of Exile on Main Street, and then they made it even crazier with all these people screaming at each other overdubbed. It came out on cassette. I have a copy of it with just the songs played straightforward and it’s still fucked up, just not as crazy as all the shit they added on to it. I gave a copy of it to Larry Hardy of In The Red Records and he’s been begging for years to do a limited edition vinyl with elaborate packaging and everything, but for some reason Jon [Spencer] just doesn’t want to do it … Yeah, for some weird reason we were popular right off the bat — when Jon was delivering the cassette to Caroline [Records] for distribution, someone called there and signed us right off the bat. Before that, we had done an EP, Pussy Gold 5000, which allowed us to be on “The Uncle Floyd Show” — which, being from Jersey, was a big deal for me … The silliest lip-synched versions ever. Then we recorded the Right Now! album for Caroline.”

– Bob Bert (The View From The Drum Kit / PleaseKillMe.com, 14 March 2018)

“‘Turd on the Run is nasty. People didn’t write songs like that’
Jon Spencer, Jon Spencer & the HITmakers

In Pussy Galore, we covered Exile in its entirety because Sonic Youth had joked in interviews about doing the Beatles’ White Album. I hadn’t actually heard the Stones’ original then. Neil Hagerty would play us the songs on his guitar – then as soon as we could play it, it was a take. The original has the same shagginess. Turd on the Run is raw rockabilly-blues, a pretty nasty song about a love affair gone wrong, and seems almost omnisexual or pansexual. In 1972 people just didn’t write songs like that. It’s punk rock.”

– Jon Spencer (from Guardian feature on Exile on Main St., 9 May 2022)

Over the years this release has been bootlegged many times and released in many different forms.

There’s a well-made black vinyl LP which uses most the original artwork and features 11 tracks from the cassette and has a similar catalogue number (‘SHOVE 003’ rather than ‘SHOV 3’). Although it is unknown exactly when this was made but it must be recent or at least have been repressed as there seems to be too many of this cropping-up on ebay and other online retailers which all still seem to be shrink-wrapped and “as new”.

There was also a 10″ bootleg featuring eight tracks and alternate artwork/design was issued much earlier than the release mentioned above. There were two different bootleg 7″ singles: The Stoned To Death 7″ single included the tracks: Happy, Sweet Black Angel and Just Wanna See His Face whereas the Love You Live 7″ only featured Turd On The Run along with three other non-Exile songs.

Corpse Love, released in 1992, featured Turd on the Run, Ventilator Blues, Just Wanna See His Face and Let It Loose and was the only other official Pussy Galore release to include any tracks taken from the original Exile on Main St. recordings.

UPDATE: In October 2015 an a bootleg CD version was sold via the online Shove store.

Hip Shake was also recorded by Gibson Bros. for The Man Who Loved Couch Dancing, although that album featured Jon Spencer and Cristina Martinez they did not appear on that particular song.

Recorded with the “Pussy Galore Mobile Unit”, a borrowed cassette 4-Track, in the PG Practice Space, NYC. Aug 24-26, ’86.
Mixed: Jon Spencer/Neil Hagerty/Rick Hall
(c) 1986 Pussy Galore

01. Rocks Off
Writers: Jagger/Richards
Published: Colgems-EMI Music, Inc. ASCAP
(p) 1972 Virgin Benelux B.V.

02. Rip This Joint
Writers: Jagger/Richards
Published: Colgems-EMI Music, Inc. ASCAP
(p) 1972 Virgin Benelux B.V.

03. Hip Shake/Shake Your Hips
Writer: James Moore a.k.a. Slim Harpo
Published: Campbell Connelly Co. Ltd.
(p) 1972 Virgin Benelux B.V.

04. Casino Boogie
Writers: Jagger/Richards
Published: Colgems-EMI Music, Inc. ASCAP
(p) 1972 Virgin Benelux B.V.

05. Tumbling Dice
Writers: Jagger/Richards
Published: Colgems-EMI Music, Inc. ASCAP
(p) 1972 Virgin Benelux B.V.

06. Sweet Virginia
Writers: Jagger/Richards
Published by Westminster Music Ltd
(p) 1972 Virgin Benelux B.V.

07. Torn And Frayed
Writers: Jagger/Richards
Published: Colgems-EMI Music, Inc. ASCAP
(p) 1972 Virgin Benelux B.V.

08. Sweet Black Angel
Writers: Jagger/Richards
Published: Colgems-EMI Music, Inc. ASCAP

09. Loving Cup
Writers: Jagger/Richards
Published by Westminster Music Ltd
(p) 1972 Virgin Benelux B.V.

10. Happy
Writers: Jagger/Richards
Published: Colgems-EMI Music, Inc. ASCAP
(p) 1972 Virgin Benelux B.V.

11. Turd On The Run
Writers: Jagger/Richards
Published: Colgems-EMI Music, Inc. ASCAP
(p) 1972 Virgin Benelux B.V.

12. Ventilator Blues
Writers: Jagger/Richards/Taylor
Published: Abkco Music/EMI Music Publishing Ltd./Belfern Music Ltd.
(p) 1972 Virgin Benelux B.V.

13. Just Wanna See His Face
Writers: Jagger/Richards
Published: Colgems-EMI Music, Inc. ASCAP
(p) 1972 Virgin Benelux B.V.

14. Let It Loose
Writers: Jagger/Richards
Published: Colgems-EMI Music, Inc. ASCAP
(p) 1972 Virgin Benelux B.V.

15. All Down The Line
Writers: Jagger/Richards
Published by Westminster Music Ltd
(p) 1972 Virgin Benelux B.V.

16. Stop Breaking Down
Writers: Jagger/Richards
Published by Westminster Music Ltd
(p) 1972 Virgin Benelux B.V.

17. Shine A Light
Writers: Jagger/Richards
Published by Westminster Music Ltd
(p) 1972 Virgin Benelux B.V.

18. Soul Survivor
Writers: Jagger/Richards
Published: Colgems-EMI Music, Inc. ASCAP
(p) 1972 Virgin Benelux B.V.

BARCODE: n/a

RUN-OUT GROOVE ENGRAVING/MATRIX: n/a