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After repeated listenings of the 10 new bonus tracks from the re-released "Exile on Main St," I can understand why these tunes were left off of the original 1972 release while acknowledging that they more than stand on their own.

"Pass the Wine (Sophia Loren)" with its insinuating groove, perfectly illustrates the 8-piece dynamic of the band at the time, when Nicky Hopkins’ piano, Bobby Keys’ reeds and Jim Price’s trumpet were as integral to the Stones’ sound as Mick Jagger’s saucy vocals. The group’s chemistry might be summed up as ramshackle yet meticulously layered.

"Plundered My Soul" (click here to watch the video), somewhere between ballad and rueful rumination on unrequited love, showcases the trademark interlocking riffs of Keith Richards and Mick Taylor, a guitar tandem that coincided the group’s artistic high point. Both songs feature newly laid down vocals by Jagger, and some sweetening by Taylor on "Wine."

"I’m Not Signifying" is driven by Hopkins’ trilling keyboard vamp, and "So Divine" starts out with a note-for-note echo of the "Paint It Black" intro, then morphs into something comparatively sinister. Also imparting a sense of deja vu is "Good Time Women," an alternate take of "Tumbling Dice" with temp-track lyrics that's been circulating among Stones bootleg heads for years.

Interestingly, the alternate version of "Loving Cup" allows for a more concentrated focus on the songwriting, which was largely obscured in the often murky mix of the original "Exile" release -- underscoring the fact that Jagger/Richards glimmered in more ways than one.

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Speaking of "Exile," Stephen Kijak’s compelling 60-minute doc on the making of the double album, "Stones in Exile," is noteworthy for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the actor Jake Weber, who was an 8 1/2-year-old blonde tyke at the time his family were guests at Keith Richards’ rented mansion in the South of France where much of "Exile" was conceived.

Weber, whose father, as he describes it in the film, was a "race car driver, drug smuggler and an adventurer," managed to spend much quality time in the basement where much of the "Exile" sessions were being recorded ("It was loud, and a little bit scary," he says).

Weber, who can now be seen in the series "Medium" opposite Patricia Arquette, served as the resident joint roller for Richards, girlfriend Anita Pallenberg and their retinue of 24-hour party people. He also provides the doc with some of its most clear-eyed commentary.

"You’d be surprised what an 8 1/2-year-old kid sees," he says in Kijak’s doc. "They’re like little owls." Thoughtful and articulate, Weber pulls no punches about those three months with Keith, Anita and the boys. "If you’re living a decadent life, there’s darkness there, and this was decadent," he recalls in the movie. "Nothing was hidden. Everything was out in the open. But at this point, this was the moment of grace; this was the moment before the darkness; this was, if anything, the sunrise before the sunset."

See my "Exile" piece in the Weekly dated May 17-23.

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