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skipstone

I've always loved Can You Hear The Music. Hell, I've always loved Goats Head Soup. It really is a fantastic album. Hazy - yes indeed - I like it. What were they gonna do, make another Exile? It got even hazier with IORR, which is hilarious. As technology improved their albums, overall, started sounding worse! Compare IORR to Sticky Fingers - HUGE difference. But I like it. Coming Down Again and Can You Hear The Music are fantastic examples of that sonic quality that is so far away from Bleed/Fingers.

You raise a good point.

Do you think that the drop in audio quality on GHS had anything to do with Jimmy Miller's drug habit getting worse?

And IORR was the first album that the Glimmer Twins produced themselves...I wonder if that had anything to do with the further decline in audio quality on IORR?

On the other hand studio whiz Andy Johns was an engineer on both albums, and he is among the best there is. So 'go figure', as they say...

FWIW I think GHS' is an underrated album, and CYHTM is a great track...doesn't have the punch that the Stones' are known for, but its got a great vibe just the same...sort of a harbinger of the slightly funky, melodic, less heavy sound that they would explore more in the seventies.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2009-04-16 03:40 by Keefan.

Great tune. I just heard it today on my ipod.

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"

Comparing the sound of a/the album to another is different from the production. The production of GHS is no better or worse than the previous 4 albums as far as the sound goes - it's the studio, the equipment and then the mixdown and all that goes with it as well as the differences in THAT equipment based on recording and editing, mixing and editing and then mastering and editing. Listen to Black And Blue and then Some Girls - it's astounding how different they sound. I think it's the studios. In Jamaica, from what all I've read, it didn't sound like it had a lot technically compared to even the RS Mobile yet alone Olympic Studios.

It's not the producers - it can't be Jimmy Miller - BAB has a better sound to it in terms of being more clear than GHS or IORR. You put a mic to an instrument and get the level - it never sounds the "same" day to day because of humidity, air temp, hell - just WHERE the mic is placed can change a lot. But not like the difference between Fingers/Exile and Soup/Roll. That's just two different planets, those groups of albums, in sound. It's amazing.

Listen to all the Pathe Marconi albums - the all have a very high end crispiness to them - very clean - almost sterile sound to them - for some reason Some Girls being the worst for me. I know not all of those albums were completely done there but they were worked on there (Some Girls through Dirty Work) more so than any of their other albums.

Great song! From a great album! Very different from most of their stuff. A hazy atmosphere, smoke filled. Trance like chorus, and some great singing from Mick. Love the flute intro, sounds like a pagan sacrifice, I always think of the Goat's head poster when that song starts up. Some voodoo going on there. I have GHS and IORR on japanese import and love how they both sound. There are a few songs on IORR that have a dense somewhat flat mix. Ain't Too Proud To Beg is one. But love the mix and feel of GHS. Great cover too!

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skipstone
Doxa - how does one "re-listen" again and again? It's simply - and only - listening! You listen every time you're listening. Regardless, I listen to GHS a lot!

Simply, by having fixed idea of the record, and then leaving the record in dust for a while, and then going back to it, and trying to figure if the idea one has of the record remains the same, and many times the impression (maybe of varied kind) is re-produced from a different angle. And doing this again and again. There aren't many records I find worth of serious re-listening, so GHS in quite a big and important record in my book. In other end of the spectrum there is an album like SHINE A LIGHT I think I will never going to re-listen again. Of the Stones catalog I would say GHS, BLACK&BLUE and EMOTIONAL RESCUE are the ones I most "re-listen" and have quite radically changed my original idea of them. I tried sometimes listen to late-day albums, from STEEL WHEELS on, but they don't excite me enough to really find some hidden greatness in them. They are too plain and obvious to invoke one to really re-listen them. Always sound the same and expected.

I'm not sure if the semantics of my expression are correct ones, but this is what I tried to say.

Anyway, I find these Rene's song threads nice way to listen - or even re-listen, if you like - again some obscure Stones from the past, like "Can You Hear The Music" now. And I really like reading other people's impressions - it is like borrowing other people's ears for a moment.

- Doxa

Strange tune, strange mood, one of the experimental songs the Stones wrote. Anyway it is too long and thus a little bit boring at the end. In the beginning and the middle of the song the melody is quite interesting though. In general GHS is one of my favorite Stones albums, Winter, @#$%&, Coming Down Again, Hide Your Love, Hundred Years ago, great Stones tunes ...RJ.

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Harlem Shuffler
It's great as are nearly all of the tracks on this underrated album.
Imagine if GHS had never been released but did come out this year.
It would sound even better after the mainly-crap ABB.

I've often thought this..despite how bad some of the Stones' earlier stuff is often thought to be, were it realeased today then it would be seen to be really good, way better than anything released from 1986 onwards.

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skipstone
... As technology improved their albums, overall, started sounding worse! ...

I agree...... my view is that technology had a great impact on the sound of music and bands' creativity. The futher you go back the better music seems to get, yet the technology in use was more basic.

"what's the point of your last paragraph? I like both of those songs, but what does that have to do with this one?"

How about I lead you to the water and drink it for you then?

My point is is that we all have different tastes and opinions ie I don't like this song that some seem to but like two others that regularly cop a bagging around here.

Hope this clarification allays your intense curiosity.

I also like can you hear the music
I also like all of goats head soup I used to listen to this album alot when i was 18 years old and it was good to get stoned to

Feel The Fear
And Do It Anyway

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squando
"what's the point of your last paragraph? I like both of those songs, but what does that have to do with this one?"

How about I lead you to the water and drink it for you then?

My point is is that we all have different tastes and opinions ie I don't like this song that some seem to but like two others that regularly cop a bagging around here.

Hope this clarification allays your intense curiosity.

if that's your attitude, why even post? Especially such non-statements as "everyone has their own opinion." gee, thanks... but hardly useful on a thread for discussing a particular song. But it's good to know you're keeping track of the songs that "cop baggings" on IORR. That's important. How about a thread about that?

"everyone has their own opinion" is a statement princess - not a non statement.

And if you are so keen to have a discussion on songs that cop baggings - start the thread yourself. Or do you need that explained to you as well?

Good to see you're a member of the "useful points police unit" on IORR also. Even more important than tracking songs that cop baggings.

And don't confuse a what is known as a memory that works with "keeping track". If your dress wasn't so twisted into your date you'd probably have a decent memory yourself.

"Can You Hear The Music" sucks. There. How was that?

There is a different aspect to this discussion. I guess I couldn't make much of the song and GHS (in comparison) when listening the first time. But: CJHTM and GHS are records (like Satanic Majesties, Between the Buttons UK, 19thNB, HaveYouSeen) rarely played in the radio (or live!) and compiled (I skip Angie) and therefore fresh to the ear. So, you might not "like" it in a genuine sense but prefer to like it compared to the usual singles and live favourites.

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skipstone
If one wants to line this one up against Continental Drift, it's easy - CYHTM blows CD away.

They have CYHTM and then on IORR If You Really Want To Be My Friend, another long slow song. I like that they did two in a row like that. The next one could have come out on Black And Blue but it was kept until Tattoo You - Worried About You. They haven't done one since.

Ever heard of "Memory Motel"?

"No Anchovies, Please"

I'm not sure I'd say Memory Motel fits in that kind of odd category of Music and Friend. It's just not odd enough. Ah ha ha ha.

Doxa - you do get my absurd humour about 're-listen' right? Semantics are hilarious. You go get something that is 'pre-packaged'...it IS packaged. It's just funny.

I think the sound quality of IORR is an improvement over GHS. Its not as good as the sound quality of Black N Blue but its much more clear and less murky than GHS to my hears. That being said, I still would rather listen to GHS than IORR. The murky sound is part of what makes it cool.

ROCKMAN

I still can't place this song. It's still fascinating though. Everytime I hear this song, it reminds me of an eerie looking tropical jungle in Jamaica or something. Like that James Bond movie "Live and Let Die". Don't know. LOL

It's not a bad song, but not really a Stones song.

Just a small note to the Wyman quote in Rockman's post above
It's stated in various books on reggae like David Katz' Scratch bio that Byron Lee upgraded to sixteen tracks just weeks before The Stones started recording there
An upgrade made at Mick's request

<< The intro sucks? No way! It's fantastic! The Leslie guitar swirling around like that, all screwed up - excellent. >>

Do you think this was a Leslie? It sounds like some other kind of effect. This is almost two separate songs to me: The intro/chorus which is somewhat irritating and repetitive, and the melody, which I think is quite lovely "Love is a mystery I can't demystify, oh no." Melancholy lyrics that permeate GHS. But to me it sounds like a second-rate Keith riff married to a Jagger tune.

One of my least favorite Stones songs from an album that was a huge dropoff from Exile.

great song.

Great song? then I missed something........I don't know what

__________________________

<<But to me it sounds like a second-rate Keith riff married to a Jagger tune.>>

There's a spring '75 Keith interview, in which he states he came up with the riff
If I recall, he also vaguely suggests that he didn't have much else to do with the further development of that track

It's not a song that do much for me when evaluated out of the Goats context
But in the hazy feel of the lp; following the majestic Winter, Can You Hear The Music works amazingly well



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-11-24 04:31 by Sohoe.

A potential gem, but sadly half-baked only. Still, being part of a half-baked album, it's definitely a grower.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2009-11-24 11:23 by Greenblues.

This album was made to listen it as a whole thing; many songs are not so good out of this context. But together they work greatly:
1.- The darkness of Dancing....... and that dirty guitar riff
2.- 100 years....... a wonderful song "flower power" after the darkness
3.- Coming.......... sad and perfect, very very nice
4.- DO do........ and now, ...........violence, riff..........
5.- Angie........again melancolics
6.- Silver train....... Classic R&R, nice slide...........
7.- Hide your love.........piano and mellancolic
8.- winter.............wonderful more mellancolic
9.- CYHTM............ more and more mellancolic, almost crying....love is a mistery..........
10. Star ........ And now, after sucha sad and mellancolic album, here is this Berrian happy and positive song

This is the only RS album that i like to hear as a whole work, i cannot imagine every song appart from the others

It was a very important change of soun with respecto to exile
This was really innovative and progresive
Maybe, it has the best music they have ever had, and maybe is the album with less r&r feeling
Super underrated album
The most BEAUTIFUL RS work

ALL MUSIC'S REVIEW OF THE SONG
"Can You Hear the Music" perfectly captures the Rolling Stones' growing lack of focus by this point in 1973. The track seems to try to fuse a number of influences and sounds into a trance-like rock song, which makes for interesting listening but ultimately never quite jells into a cohesive whole. The recording includes Eastern flutes and bells that open the track, some Latin percussion, and a droning guitar line that is heavily treated through a swirling Lesley organ speaker. The arrangement then tries to transition into a sweetened chorus with some soft harmonies, with buzzy bee guitars busily trying to imitate early synthesizer sounds just coming into vogue before returning to a belaboring two-chord drone. Against this odd mishmash, Mick Jagger attempts to sing in soulful blues style, vainly trying to find a purpose, ironically asking, "Can you hear the music?/Can you feel the magic hangin' in the air?" Overall, the song is certainly listenable and has to be given some marks for being adventurous, but coming so late in the track running order and clocking in at a meandering five and a half minutes, one can't help but feel that we are venturing into album-filler territory. But to put the song in proper perspective this frivolous track comes on the heels of an amazing string of five albums, from Beggars Banquet to Exile on Main St. without any such filler and the exceedingly high standards that that period of creativity had set.

Oh man, I love this song, so hazy-dazy dreamy gentle soft and hypnotic. Listening to it (especially after smoking a fattie) is like floating on a white fluffy cloud of ether. Like someone said, it takes you inside Keith's doped-out brain. A gorgeous, soft-focus, psychedelic masterpiece.

Drew

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ryanpow
I think the sound quality of IORR is an improvement over GHS. Its not as good as the sound quality of Black N Blue but its much more clear and less murky than GHS to my hears. That being said, I still would rather listen to GHS than IORR. The murky sound is part of what makes it cool.

Everyone talks about how great the sound is on Black & Blue, but the songs kind of stink compared to GHS. Give me better songs any day. Murky is not always bad. See "Exile On Main Street".