Customer Reviews

Goats Head Soup

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4 star:		(41)
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2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Goat's Head Soup was originally released Aug 31, 1973 and went to #1 in both the US and the UK. I have found it quite rewarding that over the years this one has gained respect and continues to appear in many rankings of greatest rock albums. Personally, I've always like this one a lot. It's got the usual megahits; Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker), Angie, and Star#$!@% (a hit as a single in Europe and Japan), an incredible jam in Can You Hear The Music, great intro in 100 Years Ago, part 2 of the voodoo chronicles in Dancing With Mr. D., solid rocker Silver Train, and oh yeah, Winter and Hide Your Love too. Most people know the music, so in my reviews I try to give you data on the sessions and interesting facts connected with the songs and the album. Here we go:

There were 23 songs recorded during the Goat's Head Soup sessions between Nov 25-30 and Dec 6-21, 1972 at Dynamic Sound Studios in Kingston, Jamaica. Only 8 of them made it onto Goat's Head Soup. Keith had made strong connections with the Jamaican reggae musicians and had recently bought a house in Jamaica, so he was the driving force behind the sessions. The band included Mick Taylor, Nicky Hopkins (piano), Billy Preston (organ), Bobby Keys (sax), Chuck Finley (trumpet), Jim Horn (horn), and of course Ian Stewart on piano. Sonny Rollins played sax on Waiting On A Friend. Final mixes were done at Island Recording in London May 28 - Jun 20, 1973. Hide Your Love was recorded in separate sessions on May 23 & 26 at Olympic Studios in London. Silver Train was recorded during the mixing at Island in London.

Interesting notes include:
.....The UK version of the album had one verse censored and deleted from Star#$!@% (which appears as Star Star in text on the album) while the US version had the line "I bet you keep your pussy clean" deleted. Both record distributors (US and UK) refused to allow the line "giving head to Steve McQueen" until the Stones got McQueen to sign a release (he said he appreciated the publicity). (The entire song with all the censored lyrics are on this release, or at least they are on my copy.)
.....Short And Curlies was not released until 1974 on the album It's Only Rock `n' Roll.
.....Tops and Waiting On A Friend were not released until 1981 on the album Tattoo You, after which Waiting On A Friend was also released as a single.
.....there are still 12 tracks from these sessions that have not been released (although some have been bootlegged) They are Criss Cross (Save Me), Separately, You Should Have Seen Her Ass, Four And In, Give Us A Break, First Thing, Miami, Man-Eating Woman, Brown Leaves, After Muddy & Charlie, Jamaica I, and Zabadoo.

This album has one of the strangest titles of a major band's releases I've ever heard. Where does the title come from? Perhaps the notion that it's something at first you wouldn't want and wouldn't like, but that after a while, you might decide, it's great. That's how this album is for me. Back in the 70s, I gave this album a few listens and dismissed it as so vastly inferior to the great streak of Stones albums that preceded it (Beggar's Banquet-Let it Bleed-Sticky Fingers-Exile on Main Street) that it wasn't worth my time.

Part of the problem is, the first song misleads listeners as to what the album is about. "Dancing with Mr. D" sounds like a parody of "Sympathy for the Devil" and to this day remains an annoying, clumsy song. But pretty much everything after that is, on repeated listenings, wonderful--soulful--reflective. "Coming Down Again" is exquisite, delicately depicting a waning high. "Winter" evokes loneliness and despair in a beautiful way. "Star Star" struts unabashedly. "Angie" has a vocal track that is surprisingly effective while totally eccentric, and a musical arrangement that's a tour de force. "Heartbreaker," "100 Years Ago" and "Silver Train" rock hard and convincingly. "Goat's Head Soup" is a subtle masterpiece that doesn't yield the kind of immediate pleasures of its classic predecessors, but it sticks with you just as long.

One key to the Stones success during this period, it's quite clear now, was producer Jimmy Miller. His association with the Stones began with the awesome single Jumpin' Jack Flash/Child of the Moon. He produced everything they did through this album. He created the space for Charlie Watts to earn recognition as the greatest drummer in rock. He allowed Mick Taylor to establish himself as the virtuoso soloist who could somehow fit into this rough-hewn band. He rescued Jagger's vocals from the murk of Andrew Loog Oldham's foggy production, and allowed him to try on the range of styles we now take for granted. He brought the best out of Mick and Keith as songwriters. He introduced the use of horns to underscore their gospel and urban blues roots. Jimmy Miller was an unsung hero, and to get everything he did, you have to get this album.

Goat's Head Soup was originally released Aug 31, 1973 and went to #1 in both the US and the UK. I have found it quite rewarding that over the years this one has gained respect and continues to appear in many rankings of greatest rock albums. Personally, I've always like this one a lot. It's got the usual megahits; Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker), Angie, and Star#$!@% (a hit as a single in Europe and Japan), an incredible jam in Hide Your Love, great intro in 100 Years Ago, part 2 of the voodoo chronicles in Dancing With Mr. D., solid rocker Silver Train, and oh yeah, Winter, Coming Down Again, and Can You Hear The Music too. Most people know the music, so in my reviews I try to give you data on the sessions and interesting facts connected with the songs and the album. Here we go:

There were 23 songs recorded during the Goat's Head Soup sessions between Nov 25-30 and Dec 6-21, 1972 at Dynamic Sound Studios in Kingston, Jamaica. Only 8 of them made it onto Goat's Head Soup. Keith had made strong connections with the Jamaican reggae musicians and had recently bought a house in Jamaica, so he was the driving force behind the sessions. The band included Mick Taylor, Nicky Hopkins (piano), Billy Preston (organ), Bobby Keys (sax), Chuck Finley (trumpet), Jim Horn (horn), and of course Ian Stewart on piano. Sonny Rollins played sax on Waiting On A Friend. Final mixes were done at Island Recording in London May 28 - Jun 20, 1973. Hide Your Love was recorded in separate sessions on May 23 & 26 at Olympic Studios in London. Silver Train was recorded during the mixing at Island in London.

Interesting notes include:
.....The UK version of the album had one verse censored and deleted from Star#$!@% (which appears as Star Star in text on the album) while the US version had the line "I bet you keep your pussy clean" deleted. Both record distributors (US and UK) refused to allow the line "giving head to Steve McQueen" until the Stones got McQueen to sign a release (he said he appreciated the publicity). (The entire song with all the censored lyrics are on this release, or at least they are on my copy.)
.....Short And Curlies was not released until 1974 on the album It's Only Rock `n' Roll.
.....Tops and Waiting On A Friend were not released until 1981 on the album Tattoo You, after which Waiting On A Friend was also released as a single.
.....there are still 12 tracks from these sessions that have not been released (although some have been bootlegged) They are Criss Cross (Save Me), Separately, You Should Have Seen Her Ass, Four And In, Give Us A Break, First Thing, Miami, Man-Eating Woman, Brown Leaves, After Muddy & Charlie, Jamaica I, and Zabadoo.

This information comes from "It's Only Rock And Roll: The Ultimate Guide To The Rolling Stones" by Karnbach and Bernson and from my own collection, with some of the notes from Davis' "Old Gods Almost Dead." Both books are available from amazon.com.

This is not the greatest "Stones" album, I don't think Keith was there for most of it, but it is an emotional masterpiece. Some of Mick's most passionate lyrics and vocals are here - Winter(My all time favourite Stones song) Angie (love it or hate it). Even the comic Dancing with Mr D has it's vocal moments. Mick Taylor lifted some of the ordinary tracks with his brilliant work - 100 Years Ago, Silver Train and Hide Your Love. It all came together in Winter, listen to Taylor's solo in this one! In fact this is more like a solo album from Mick Jagger with Mick Taylor doing most of the guitar work. The exception, Coming Down Again is Keith's best ever vocal performance and it too is packed full of emotion. This album won't appeal to die hard Stones Blues/Rock fans. It does take time to grow on you and is well worth the effort. It was a bold attempt at something new and is probably the last of the great Albums they produced. After this there were great tracks but not albums. This was my most played Stones album of the 70's and I still enjoy it today. Bryan

The Stones, before they found chardonnay, fitness trainers and capitalism and turned into the most amazing (and in some ways lovable) money machine in the history of music, had a feel of menace and danger around them. Their songs, like "Sympathy for the Devil," in the times they were recorded, scared people. Not like "Revolution No. 9" scared people, but in a way that was very tangible. Altamont only sealed the deal. Goats Head Soup represents the tail end of that sharply focused menace, as the depleted Stones reach the end of the line, dipped in coke and heroin and sleazy sex and strung out on the end of the 60's idealism they always seemed to reject and expose, finally drowned by their own dark brand of hedonism. It should have been a mess, but these are the Stones and you don't get tagged as the world's greatest rock n roll band without the talent to back it up. Jagger and Richards rank among the very best and prolific songwriters we have ever known in any genre, and here they chart their own demise in a way that some fans just can't relate to. Much of the music sounds fatigued, but in a way that the fatigue becomes their "sound." Goats Head Soup is an album about being very tired, very wasted, still dancing with Mr. D way past the time to stop. The party is way past over, but the Stones remain, snorting up every last line in the most unhealthy manner. This album is the final nail in the coffin of the 60s, a sobering artifact and cautionary tale, and, to these ears, decline has never sounded this sad, this alluring and inviting. There is a voodoo here, particularly at the end of "Can You Hear The Music," a slow descent into a druggy jungle and madhouse, where the music becomes an echoey, fading hollow shell, but where so many people and fans reject it as the Stones as band at rock bottom, I see it as the Stones inhabiting and almost luxuriating in their beautiful ruination. Jagger, as if from a hospital bed, moans "Can you feel the magic" and it is the magic of a man, who, with his band, has been blown out to the edge of death, derangement and depravity and brought you along in harrowing, blues-burnt, rock-gut song. All that and "Angie."

I am the Stones authority. And this is their most underrated outing during their peak years of 1968 through 1973. Its reputation suffers among Stones purists for two reasons - it was judge at the time in light of recent Stones history and the breath taking string of master albums that preceded it, beginning with Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed to end the Sixties, and then Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main Street to kick off the Seventies. So what album would look impressive in this company? The second reason this album's reputation suffered with Stones purists was the radio single that became the hit representing this album. As "Start Me Up" taints Tatoo You with the Stones aficionado, so too in the minds of many Stones fans does "Angie" taint this album - which is unfortunate really, because few songs have aged as well as that single. "Angie" was the song that was popular with people who were not Stones fans - and to any purist who feels that a band belongs to them, because they love the songs that nobody knows, especially those beautiful people phonies who never loved the band, but now dance to "Angie" - well, this was more than many Stones fans could stomach and so they dismissed it outright. I was one of them. But "Angie" is a great song. I'll stack "Heartbreaker" up against "Brown Sugar" "Rocks Off" and "Bitch" any day. "100 Years Ago" is every bit as unique and wonderful as "Sway", and "Winter" is nearly as haunting and just as wonderful as "Moonlight Mile". "Star, Star" is just flat out cool fun, and "Hide Your Love" and "Can You Hear The Music" are the rarely traveled netherworld of rythms not seen since Our Satanic Majesties Request and not revisited again until side two of Tatoo You. It is great stuff.

For many they count this album as the beginning of the Stones Seventies glam period that finished with Emotional Rescue in 1979 and reached its peak with Some Girls in 1978. And that is true. But it is also true that this is the final movement of a stretch of creative output unrivaled in Rock history - the coda on a brilliant five album run. For me it is both, and a necessary bridge of departure from one era onward to another. And when I am sitting around with my purist Stones friends drinking and telling lies, well, we'll be listening to Exile On Main Street, because that is the proper thing to do, but when I am alone and thinking about the days of youth gone by this is the album I'll pull off the shelf and drift away to a time and place far, far away, magical, fresh and alive.

This is definatly one of the Stones most underated albums. Sure it's a slight step down from the phenomenal peak of Beggar's Banquet to Exile On Main Street, but what group can keep up (much less reach) that level of excellence. Still, this album has everything; the bluesy groove of "Silver Train", the pyschedelia of "Can You Hear The Music", the funky "Heartbreaker", the raw and nasty rock of "Star Star" and gorgeous ballads such as "Angie" and "Winter" (the later sounds like a long lost Van Morrison classic). Keith Richards "Coming Down Again" is in my opinion the best song he ever sang, - even if it is just a junkie lament - the song actually sounds like a warm rush. Only "Dancing With Mr. D" comes off a little lame, but only a little. If you read reviews written about this album, the biggest complaint is that the Stones sound tired. Well, to some extent that's true, but it's what gives the album it's "ambience", not totally unlike the tired groove of Exile On Main Street or Sticky Fingers. So if your looking for peppy music, well, there's always Wham or something. Anyway, I thoroughly recommend getting this album if your into the Stones, infact, get all their albums up to and including Tattoo You, after that ... get some Beatles albums.

When the great Stones albums are discussed Goats Head Soup is generally passed over. The truth is, albums such as Exile on Main Street, Beggars Banquet, and Let it Bleed are all wonderful albums and deserving of the praise they receive. These albums contain some of the Stones' best known works, as well as a number of good album tracks that rarely get airtime even today, which is surprising given the glut of classic rock radio stations.

Comparitively, Goats Head Soup really shouldn't compare as its two 'name' songs are Angie and Doo^5 (Heartbreaker)-- two good songs, but not necessarily classics. On the strength of its money songs, GHS really does not compare at all with the best Stones albums. Two things though make this album, in my estimation, an essential Stones piece and a legitimate classic.

First, the album holds together quite well. Even on the best Stones albums there tends to be a mediocre song or two that is hard to sit through. This may seem like a backhanded compliment, but nothing on GHS is all that bad. I know a number of Stones fans dislike "Can You Hear the Music" but I don't find it to be anything I immediately skip over.

Second, GHS' strongest point is that it includes a number of excellent "surprise" songs. "Dancing with Mr. D" is far from the greatest Stones opener of all time, but it's menacing riff propels an average song to greater heights. "100 Years Ago" is a quieter, nostalgic song that also stands out. Finally there's "Winter," one of my personal Stones favorites and a song that I could not believe I had never heard until purchasing the album. I'm not sure what to say about it other than that I would wager the Counting Crows were quite familiar with it by the time they penned "A Long December."

This album has always suffered in comparison to it's predecessors, "Exile on Main Street" and "Sticky Fingers", and in reality abruptly ended a remarkable string of rock masterpieces that commenced with "Beggars Banquet" in 1968. This is not to say this album isn't rewarding in it's own unique way, and in fact is one of their stronger efforts. "Dancing With Mr. D" is no "Brown Sugar" or "Rocks Off" in terms of killer opening tracks, but is pretty funky nonetheless. "Silver Train" is one of the Stones' best 70's blues workouts and it's refreshing to hear the band stay true to it's roots. "Angie" and "Doo Doo Doo..." are here and the album is worthwhile owning for these tracks alone. "Can You Hear The Music" is a return to the mystic rhythms and psychedelic themes of the "Satanic Majesties" album. "Star Star" is a vulgar exercise in Chuck Berry riffing and ends the album on an uptempo note. For the novice Stones fan, this is the 70's album to buy after the aforementioned "Sticky Fingers", "Exile" and "Some Girls".

For some reason, this album became one of my top five favorites over the years. Maybe it's because Soup is the kind of album made for a rainy day or a blue mood. Maybe it's because the Stones tried to do something very different with this record- a direction they would abandon for the Stones-by-rote of It's Only Rock n' Roll the following year. Maybe it's because of the bad reviews the album got, including one mag calling it "a criminal waste of vinyl". Probably it's for all of these reasons that I love it.

Unfortunately, this album marks the break down of the rich collaboration with producer Jimmy Miller as well as the now-plainly obvious disintegration of the mighty Keith. However, the songs are still good and worth a listen. 100 Years Ago, though a song dating from 1969 (they played this at Hyde Park), is a great track as is the classic tag line "don't you think it's sometimes wise not to grow up". Heartbreaker is killer Stones. Angie deserves all the hype it got then and now. Silver Train is a reassuring reminder of the kind of music the Stones normally made. Winter is just a hearty dose of melancholy and typifies the sadness that pervades this record. I could live without Star Star and a couple of other tracks, but the album is well worth a listen for Stones fans, casual or fanatic. It's a dose of the Stones as glam band at their most befuddled and confused, but the results are memorable. Enjoy...