The Rolling Stones- Goat's Head Soup song-by-song discussion!

Yes I agree probably one of the two or three tracks worth keeping from this substandard album.

Very difficult to do live as can be heard on their shaky stage version from the current tour.

So all in all a good studio number that gets the album off to a fun start. And as can be seen in the original clip, the whole thing is an androgynous burlesque pastiche.

Jagger supposedly afraid but in fact totally liberated by this imagined horror show in the graveyard.

Good song for Halloween!

 

Fair enough.

 

Love this record.

I had a lot to say about it in our epic Stones album by album thread.

Just lurking a bit here. Thanks to the OP (one of 100s of my favorite contributors on the forum) for starting this thread.

Also nice to read posts from the likes of John Fell, Roger B, Musicman, Duggan & others.

What’s so cool about these forums if you stick around long enough, & with regard to this record....is that you get to know EXACTLY what guys & some gals like/dislike...& even what they’re likely to post.

@John Fell is an encyclopedia on this period.

@RogerB has as hard a time as I do being critical of this band.

FWIW, I never thought of “Dancing W Mr D” as an opener out of place. But, I see the other side.

After 1000’s of GHS spins over 40 of my 53 yrs on earth, I anticipate the opener....singing the opening riff before track 1 starts....”der der der der....deeeeeehr...”

 

Early extended version:

 

Brussels version:

 

I thought Dancing With Mr. D had sort of a voodoo groove to it.

 

Mr D sets the mood, colors the whole album for me . . in a good way. I loved when Jagger sang like this.

 

Great post as usual. I just turned 65 so I have a few years on you. That means I have been lucky enough to have been a Stones fan a little longer than you. I remember being a little disappointed in the album when I got it home from the record store and gave it the first listen. After all, look at the output from the previous years. Especially considering that the last four albums released were four of the greatest albums that have ever been recorded. I do enjoy the record now though. Almost world series time or I'd put it on now.

 

..so that means DWMD would follow Coming Down Again? The fast moving keyboard part which opens Heartbraker is a much more effective "follow-up" to the very mellow, soft CDA.

 

I agree.

 

I would probably end the side with Coming Down Again.

 

Actually that's a great side-closer. So where would Angie go..? That's the problem with making one change; it automatically becomes at least two.

 

You could have Angie and Coming Down Again swap spots.

 

The extra percussion by Rebop and Pascal adds to the voodoo groove vibe of Dancing With Mr. D.

 

I just want to open by saying how much I respect and appreciate the work you put into your threads. Great background info! I think GHS is the most underrated Stones album and my 2nd favorite after Let it Bleed. How do you like them apples?

 

Great version. I saw them play it live last Sunday in Paris.

 

Dancing With Mr. D is my favorite song on Goats Head. I like it as a slow grind to get a groove and build as an opener. Never thought until this thread of it as anything else but the opener. Great groove on D. Such a cool song and idea. Great lyrics. Mick is a great lyricist to me. This song is one of the great ones. Love D. Heads above most of the record which to me is a 50 50 good to bad. Not their strongest album to me.

 

I was working in a record store when the album came out. I remember it selling well and we played it in the store a lot which helped sales. Personally though, because I knew their previous albums so well, particularly Beggars Banquet, Let it Bleed, Ya Ya's, Exile, Sticky Fingers and Satanic, I absolutely cringed every time Angie came on and it just felt like the spirit of the times had moved on. I had a brief flirtation with It's Only Rock N' Roll and then I was done with the Stones, and on to the Sex Pistols.

 

Maybe the fact that I came in after the fact has something to do with why I can accept this album, but I'd still love to experience the release of those albums in real time.

 

I know I'll be unpopular or in the minority here, but I've never felt the true merits that most hear in Goats Head Soup. It has variety just like Exile before it, it's loose when it wants to be and there's a few classics to be had for sure, but it's also uneven and lacking focus, imo. Dancing with Mr. D does have a catchy riff that has a gloomy, druggy vibe about it, but the lyrics seem kinda cheesy; and the repeated chant of "Dancin'" grates after a while. There's times when it's cool to listen to, but it's not a top tier number.

 

It was nice tonight to live like a family man for a change...chops and stuffed red peppers for dinner (mac and cheese for my youngest kid), a bit of Cuervo Gold to go with the Oilers game (they lost)...now it's time to play a bit of catch up:

"Lethargic" is a great description of the album in general...

Ian Stewart told the Stones that when they were recording Some Girls- "You lot sound like bloody Status Quo to me!" In a lot ways Stu was the band's conscience

Like I say, when it comes to listening to GHS I mainly focus on the bass parts and for the life of me after all the years I still cannot adequately determine if it's really Taylor or Bill Wyman on bass here. Ultimately the credits say Taylor, it's a song I don't believe Bill has ever disputed (unlike, say, "All Down The Line") so we'll go with Taylor. We'll get there but though Bill gets the bass credit for "Can You Hear The Music" I'm convinced that one's Mick Taylor as well.

Yes! It's funny that we're just wrapping up the Black And Blue thread, with many posts complimenting the sound of that album and here we are now discussing what is arguably the worst sounding Stones album. The murky, dull sound of the record has always been the biggest turnoff for me though I appreciate it a lot more than I used to. The album was recorded at Dynamic Sound in Jamaica on eight track (according to Keith in Life) with post production done at Island studios in London (I think a couple of tracks were wholly recorded there as well). The production surely reflects Jimmy Miller's condition at the time, that's for sure.

Like I've said before, for years I thought it was a chick on the cover (ditto for Tattoo You) before I realized or found out it was really Jagger. Boy did I feel silly!

The OP pretty much seems to have abdicated the B & B discussion, besides we were almost finished anyway. My Steely Dan thread is winding down as well, so why not fire up this one after I'd been saying I was gonna do it for months...

Yer welcome!

Which is precisely why I think he should be the one to do Sticky Fingers.

I like 'em fine- if all of us had the same tastes it's make these discussions pretty g-ddamn boring, wouldn't you say?
Although I do agree that if any Stones album does deserve the title of 'underrated' it is probably Goats Head Soup. IMO the production is its biggest downfall, the quality of most of the songs themselves is decent.

Good to know they haven't abandoned playing it

Being born in '76 I of course would have loved to have experienced the whole era in real time, but whaddya gonna do. I was born twenty years too late.

I don't think that's a minority opinion. "Uneven" and "Lacking focus" have been fairly common adjectives to describe Goats Head Soup for 43 years now. One, the band was kind of in turmoil when they made it- Keith was fairly out of it (as was Jimmy Miller), Wyman attended few of the sessions- probably not the easiest circumstances in which to make a Stones album. Which explains why most of the record is essentially a Jagger/Taylor collaboration, with generous help from Nicky Hopkins and Billy Preston. IMO Goats Head Soup is the Stones album that for the most part manages to sound the least like "The Stones"...for some fans I can see why that aspect can be a bit of a turnoff (as it was for me at first). But once you've reconciled the fact that it's kind of an anomaly in their catalog, the album does have it's rewards. Such as the next song, which I'll probably bring up on Sunday night.

 

Yes, it is trance-like.

 

It's interesting that some people complain the Stones were out if ideas at this point but there are a lot of outtakes from the Goats Head Soup sessions. Some were used later and some were not.

 

I hear ya!

Goats Head Soup does, IMO, show where The Stones were at in 73. They seem a bit too drugged out and tired, but there’s still some inspiration going on. I get the impression the axis was shifting on this album...more Mick and less Keith, due to the drugs, even more so on the next album.

This is an album that could use a deluxe edition, with outtakes/rough mixes/alternates and an unreleased live set...Sep 9, 1973 Empire Pool; London.

 

...it lacks a true guitar solo in the middle...it is In live versions.....!!