more than almost any album I own, but it doesn't sum them up.

Get Yer Ya Ya's out was my first Stones album and my love grew from there. I'd stay away from Beggars Banquet, because even though it's in the 'classic' period, there's some duffers on there and the good ones are better on 'Ya Yas'.

The best place to start, in my opinion, is 'Let It Bleed' - starts off with 'Gimme Shelter' and doesn't really dip

London singles collection (3 CDs)
Beggars Banquet
Let it Bleed
YA YA's
Sticky Fingers
Exile on Main Street

After that you can investigate other 60s or 70s albums.

what albums do you have? That might actually give you an answer as to whether you should dip your toe into Exile at all.

I can tell you this much. The first thing I bought by the Stones was Hot Rocks on cassette and I liked it. Then I went for Voodoo Lounge. Again, on cassette. I got a CD player in early 1995 and bought three of the Virgin re-issues with the miniature LP thingies. The three I got were Sticky Fingers, Some Girls and Exile.

The first two are spoken of as being remarkably 'accessable', kicking off with hit singles, both 10 tracks long and so on.

Yet it was Exile that grabbed me. I like the other two. I've bought plenty of other stuff by them since, but Exile is always the one that drags me back. There's a song there for every mood, and there is no day that cannot be made immeasurably better by just starting with the guitar-snarl/snare intro to Rocks Off and luxuriating in the gloopy strung out mess all the way to the end of Soul Survivor.

So in a word, yes. :)

because I love the thing that is the thing that it is. Imperfectly perfect and and an accidental gem. It's got clunkers, a bunch of duffness, but it's the stuff wot The Stones are made on. And I loves it the way it is.

Let it Bleed is probably "better". So is Sticky Fingers, Even Goat's Head Soup arguably. And Aftermath.

Perhaps the best thing to do is to get Rolled Gold which is a great compilation of everything up to Sticky Fingers era.

But for me - it's "Exile" that will always be the Stones. That and "Memo from Turner" (from Performance soundtrack) which managed to be really Stones without really being the Stones.

seem to recall they made some albums in the sixties as well.

It was the perfect introduction to the Stones for me... a treasure trove of a record. From there you can investigate further. A word of warning: avoid Dirty Work like the plague.

Black and Blue is great, by the way... it's never deserved its "runt of the litter" status in the Stones' catalogue.

singles collections and stuff, I don't know how Black and Blue worked it's way into my heart, but it did.
So pre or post 70's. Start it up is great, but there's not much later stuff worth chasing?

The classic records everyone bangs on about incessantly (and with good reason) are Beggars Banquet, Let it Bleed, Get Yer Ya Yas Out, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St. They're all great.

Then it gets harder. Goats Head Soup is a fine album. It's Only Rock N' Roll patchy, Some Girls is good, as is Tattoo You. After that I would approach with extreme caution.

I will leave it to others to discuss the merits of the early albums... I prefer listening to compilations from that period.

its much maligned but to me its the Stones at their louche best. Its like they don't have to make an effort its so casual in its brilliance. 'Winter' has to be one of the best things they ever recorded and 'Star Star' rocks as much as anything they ever did. 'Coming Down Again' is a Keith tour de force and 'Dancing With Mr D' a malevolent successor to 'Sympathy'. And then there's 'Silver Train', 'Hide Your Love'...blimey, thats nearly the whole album..

no one mentions the awesome brilliance that is Gimme Shelter, the half studio, half live album Decca London (SKL5101 is the Cat. No. fact fans) put out in 1971 and then everyone forgot about.

Roughly speaking, the live half is older stuff recorded at the Royal Albert Hall (allegedly), like 'Under My Thumb' and 'Satisfaction', and the studio stuff (the tracks used in the eponymous movie) is six slabs of perfectly formed rock'n'roll gristle that makes every other band of the time sound like choirboys misbehaving on their day off.

Fuck Yeah.

Try Stripped, a kind of Stones Unplugged from the mid-90s. Fantastic versions of a whole load of slightly less frequently played Stones tracks like Sweet Virginia and Dead Flowers, and a lovely version of Slipping Away by Keith.

It also features a track which divides opinion, the Stones cover of Like A Rolling Stone. I love it, many don't.

Jamming With Edward.

It's absolute rubbish, but I love it so. And it was only 99p when I bought my vinyl copy; so that was ok.

http://open.spotify.com/album/5XlrnLilY6wCCasnk855fl

Oh and if you need a Spotify invite just yell 'cos I got some.

I bought it. It's magnificent.