EXILE ON MAIN STREET: WHAT WILL BE ON THE REISSUE?

I've written about The Rolling Stones' upcoming Exile On Main Street reissue, and I know that lots of people are interested in it. We know it is going to be an "expanded" reissue (unlike the rest of the reissues in the post-'60s catalog, which didn't really feature any "extras"). What I want to know is, what else will it include other than the entire (double) album?

The Rolling Stones official website is rarely active when the band is about to release an album or on tour, and hasn't really mentioned the Exile On Main Street reissue since announcing the re-release of the post '60s catalog in April. It's Only Rock and Roll is a fan site that has been around forever, and that's the one I check in with more often to find out about Stones news.

Keith Richards wasn't specific in a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine, but did say that he and Mick Jagger have been going through tapes from the era. I find it hard to believe -- Mick has never shown much interest in that kind of thing, and often acts bored with the band's catalog (although he certainly monetizes it quite well!). I cannot find any other info on the reissue anywhere online, it's kind of annoying! Of course, for now you can dig into the Stones' other expanded reissue, the Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out box set that just came out.

Some stuff that I have heard rumored, though - and this is just rumors - is that other than outakes, the Exile On Main Street reissue will have a full live concert recorded during the era. I just feel like, if they were interested in putting out that kind of archival stuff, they would have done it by now. Mick pretty much doesn't work on projects like this unless (a) he thinks there is a good amount of money in it (in his case, the money he would make from an archival live set probably doesn't register much on his bank account) (b) he has to (as with his solo best of, which I think he owed to his label, he went and found some cool unreleased and rare solo stuff to fill out the set) or (c) he finds it artistically satisfying. The other thing could be that, Universal offered a lot of money for the right to distribute the Stones' catalog, so an expanded Exile On Main Street was included in the deal. Also, Mick may think that, due to the fact that it is the favorite album of many a Stones fan (Mick himself has always expressed disinterest with the album), it may make a good centerpiece to a new Stones tour - which would let him off the hook from having to record an entire album. (Or maybe allow the band to just record a few tracks with Jack White). Whatever the case may be, it looks like 2010 will be a good year for Stones fans - now there's rumors that they will be headlining Glastonbury.