Rocks Off

The lyrics contain lots of sexual content, but they are very hard to understand. The song is about the impending loss of sexual ability - there was no Viagra back then.

Andy Johns, who engineered the Exile on Main St. sessions, told Goldmine magazine in 2010: "It went on for ages. When Mick came back from Paris for the first time he seemed happy with the sound. And Keith would sit down stairs and at one point he sat there for 12 hours without getting out of his chair just playing the riff over and over and over. And then one night, it was very late, four or five in the morning, Keith says, 'Let me listen to that take again.' And he nods off while the tape is playing. I thought, 'Great. That's it. End of the night and I'm out of here.' So I go back to my place where I was staying. (Horn player/arranger) Jim Price and I had this villa. It was pretty spanky. I'm tellin' you. A half an hour drive. I walk in the front door and the phone is ringing. I pick it up and it's Keith. 'Where are you?' 'Well, I'm obviously here 'cause I answered the phone.' 'Well you better get back here, man, 'cause I have this guitar part. Come back!'"

This was the first of 18 songs on Exile on Main St. Most of the album was recorded at the Villa Nellcote, a place Keith Richards rented in the South of France. The Stones went there to have some fun and get away from England, where they were taxed heavily on their earnings.