“I Just Want to See His Face” by The Rolling Stones

Down in the murk of Exile on Main St., the Rolling Stones' 1972 album, sits "I Just Want to See His Face", a Jagger–Richards credit that was hardly a song at all until Mick Jagger conjured it on the spot. In 1992 he recalled it growing out of a jam with Charlie Watts and Mick Taylor, with him making the song up over the riff the two of them were playing.

Jimmy Miller produced, Bobby Whitlock sits in on Wurlitzer electric piano, and Venetta Fields, Clydie King and Jerry Kirkland add backing vocals that drag the thing toward the church. Critic Bill Janovitz heard the band rummaging through the country, blues, folk and soul of the American South, and likened the result to a gospel field recording from some ancient church-basement revival. Its swampy, bluesy haze has won admirers among other musicians.

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