The Rolling Stones ( B17 )

Using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, they held recording sessions in the basement. They completed the new tracks, along with material dating as far back as 1969, at Sunset Studios in Los Angeles. The resulting double album, Exile on Main St., was released in May 1972, and reached number one in both the US and the UK. Given an A+ grade by critic Robert Christgau and disparaged by Lester Bangs—who reversed his opinion within months—Exile is now accepted as one of the Stones' best albums. The films Cocksucker Blues (never officially released) and Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones (released in 1974) document the subsequent highly publicised 1972 North American Tour.

The band's double compilation, Hot Rocks 1964–1971, was released in 1972; it reached No. 3 in the UK and No. 4 in the US. It is certified Diamond in the US having sold over 12 million copies, and spent over 264 weeks on the Billboard album chart. In 1974 Bill Wyman was the first band member to release solo material, his album Monkey Grip. As of 2018 Wyman has released five solo albums, with the most recent, Back to Basics, released in 2015.

1972–1977: Critical fluctuations and Ronnie Wood

Members of the band set up a complex financial structure in 1972 to reduce the amount of their taxes. Their holding company, Promogroup, has offices in both The Netherlands and the Caribbean. The Netherlands was chosen because it does not directly tax royalty payments. The band have been tax exiles ever since, meaning they can no longer use Britain as their main residence. Due to the arrangements with the holding company, the band has reportedly paid a tax of just 1.6% on their total earnings of £242 million over the past 20 years.

In November 1972 the band began recording sessions in Kingston, Jamaica, for the album Goats Head Soup; it was released in 1973 and reached No. 1 in both the UK and US. The album, which contained the worldwide hit "Angie", was the first in a string of commercially successful but tepidly received studio albums. The sessions for Goats Head Soup also produced unused material, most notably an early version of the popular ballad "Waiting on a Friend", which was not released until the Tattoo You LP eight years later.

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