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TonyMo


GHS. To my ears the first of many Stones albums wrecked by the Glimmer's. They made Mick Taylor small and would repeat that mistake on IORR.

Would've loved to have heard 'Silver Train' before Mick & Keith got their hands on it. IMO, the song's on GHS are better than the what the master left us with. The DWMD of Brussels really knocks the snot out of the album version is another example.

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withaheadfullofsnow

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kammpberg
For anybody interested in a long, in depth review - here's mine:

Goats Head Soup – 1973 (US #1; UK#1)
Dancing With Mr. D • 100 Years Ago • Coming Down Again • Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) • Angie •
Silver Train • Hide Your Love • Winter • Can You Hear The Music • Star Star (@#$%&)

Stones Fan – *****
Casual Listener - ****

Goats Head Soup is in many ways, the most interesting Stones album. Without a doubt, it is the most underrated album in their canon, even by The Stones themselves. Yet, it is a perfect distillation of Exile On Main Street. Take Exile’s sprawling landscapes and styles and make it more concise and you have Goats Head Soup. If Exile was a triple album, this would slide in perfectly without the slightest dip in quality. Plus this album has something that Exile didn’t, a blockbuster single that was also a tremendous piece of art. Goats Head Soup peaked at #1 on both sides of the pond topping the US chart for 4 weeks. It also included a very cool, yet creepy “Goats Head Soup” poster insert that characterized the music perfectly.

Unlike Sticky Fingers and Exile, which opened with blistering rock tracks, the mysterious vibe of this album starts off with the opening guitar notes. Jagger starts singing about being down at the graveyard and one can picture oneself with him in some Louisiana swamp. Dancing With Mr. D picks up a nice steady groove, with Charlie slightly behind the beat as only had can. The song absolutely oozes with a loose and muddy feel, slightly speeding up as it moves along – something fairly unique with the Stones. Jagger’s vocals are buried in the mix (like Exile), and it works perfectly along with the occasional background howls. One has to struggle to understand the lyrics, and that makes it even more effective. I wish the Stones mixed the vocals like this nowadays. I’ve heard people compare this song to Sympathy For The Devil, but that’s just plain silly. If you want to hear some true Stones’ Jamaican “Voodoo Lounge”, jump right in here. Dancing With Mr. D was only played live on their 1973 tour, but they did use it to promote the album on Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert on US TV.

100 Years Ago opens with a tasteful Billy Preston clavinet introduction and Mick takes us on a journey through the woods the other day. Again the vocals are down and the mix is muddy but it creates a warm encompassing mood. After the intro, the band kicks in with a buoyant upbeat feel. After two versus, Taylor comes in with a wah wah solo but again its buried in the background. Then the song comes to a stop and Jagger starts singing about “lazy bones ain’t got no time to waste away”. This is a downright strange interlude – almost tagged on from another song. It’s brief and the band kicks back in with a truly vicious jam led by keyboards and the wah wah guitar wailing in the background till it fades out.

Coming Down Again is a magnificent ballad led by Keith on vocals and supported by Nicky Hopkins’ beautiful piano and heavy wah wah guitar. Keith’s voice is clear and upfront and absolutely magnificent, with Jagger helping on background vocals perfectly. Keith confesses about slipping his tongue in someone else’s pie, but being hungry it ain’t no crime. After a couple of versus, the song reaches even higher when Hopkin’s piano leads into a phenomenal solo break shared by organ and saxophone. It’s relatively short and segues back into the Coming Down Again verse, but it’s so effective. The Stones have an amazing amount of these phenomenal tracks that should be played, but are long lost, just waiting to be re-discovered.
Another exciting keyboard intro, Charlie’s drums kick in and Jagger sings about a tale of police mistaken identity and the death of a lone junkie in an alleyway. Heady stuff but backed by intoxicating upbeat music highlighted with horn accents, wah wah guitar and an infectious “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo” chorus. This is hit material and a classic in my book. Heartbreaker is still performed in concert on occasion, it’s always a highlight for me. This was the 2nd US single (none for the UK) and it peaked at #15.

Angie comes next. It’s simply amongst the most well crafted ballads the bands ever done. It’s simply perfect. Jagger’s vocals have never been better (even when he tastefully whispers “Angie”), the lyrics are beautiful and the music is magnificent. The strings tastefully weave in and out along with the beautiful guitar fills and licks. Charlie’s high hat accents throughout are also a trademark of the song. The song is shorter and tighter than Wild Horses and consequently became a well deserved #1 US single (only #5 in the UK). Angie is a classic in every way.

Silver Train starts off side two. Compared to the rest of the album, it comes off a bit pedestrian and the muddy mix takes away from what could have been a truly powerful rocker. This time Jagger uses harmonica to highlight the verses to nice effect and slide guitar running throughout. When it’s time to solo, we get a nice slide guitar solo with Charlie fully riding the cymbal. Jagger raises his voice now, howling about the Silver Train and the song picks up considerable speed. But again the muddy mix distracts from its power. I still prefer the Stones version over the better-known Johnny Winter cover and surprisingly the Stones used this on Kirschner’s to promote the album as well.

Mick Jagger starts bopping on piano singing about sometimes being up and sometimes being down. Again the vocals are down in the mix and one gets the feeling of being in a room with The Stones doing a spontaneous jam on this song. A nice guitar solo starts to kick in and Hide Your Love builds in its power. What at first seems like a loose jam starts to coalesce into a fun loose song. Exile has a few of these type of jam songs, and Hide Your Love is just as good as them.

Next comes one of the all-time lost classic Stones tracks, Winter. I can listen to this song anytime, anywhere. It’s one of the all time great Stones ballads and it should be a regular on classic radio. The song starts with un-accompanied strummed electric guitar and Jagger this time sings clear and up in the mix about a cold hard Winter. At the end of the 2nd verse, one can quickly hear someone yell “yeah” deep in the background, and you feel it too. Jagger wishes he were out in California but instead he’ll wrap his coat around you. Nicky Hopkins piano comes in, as do the strings to bring you ever higher, but the electric guitar and slide licks really bring it home. As you think the songs ending, in comes a tasteful electric guitar solo, string highlights come in and you’re truly lifting higher and higher. At 5:30 it’s too long and not crafted enough for a single, but album ballads don’t come any better.

Suddenly we hear some odd middle-eastern sounds, joined by an infectious heavy wah wah guitar lick. Jagger sings over this tribal beat “Can You Hear The Music / Magic” and at the minute mark the song transforms with Jagger singing about “love is a mystery” with a beautiful melody. Throughout we have wonderful backdrops of sound: wah wahs, drums, eastern drones and strange horn sounds. It’s very effective and haunting. The song stops and in starts the great wah wah guitar lick that started it. By now we can feel the music and magic as Jagger goes back into the “love is a mystery” verse. The song does not feel forced at all, it’s very organic and natural – as if were in a great tribal jam with The Stones and some Arabian musicians. Open up and this music will really grab you.

Next up is Star Star (@#$%&), the only “classic sounding Chuck Berryish” Stones tune on the album. It’s a great way to end the album. We all know the controversy regarding the various lyrics (giving head to Steve McQueen etc), and because of that the vocal lyrics are seriously buried in the mix and in some points nearly impossible to decipher. When Virgin remastered the album, they cleaned it up in the mix and you were able to more clearly hear about “keeping pussy’s clean and getting John Wayne before he dies”. The new Universal mix seems to be closer to the original muddy mix. The song is a classic Stones rocker regardless and is still a highlight when they play it (especially with the blow-up penis on the ’75 / ’76 tour).

So there you have Goats Head Soup, the Stones all-time underrated album, even though it was a US #1 for 4 weeks and has Angie, a perfect #1 single. This album literally takes you on a musical journey, ala Exile On Main Street, but in a more concise way. This album has as many highs as Exile and no real lows and is just ripe for discovery for any Stones fan or casual listener who’s willing to let music envelop their senses. This album is in no way a let down from what came before. The Stones have only regularly played Angie, Heartbreaker and @#$%& live. Dancing With Mr. D, 100 Years Ago and Silver Train made in some cases rare live debuts only on the 1973 tour and the others have never been played live. But it’s not because of the quality, they just aren’t really live type songs.

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LuxuryStones
They only played it once that tour.. Strange & Thank you.

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HMS
Hummm... never cared too much for this. Most part of the album is boring, a few songs are quite good but offer nothing remarkable new, Stones-by-numbers & Chuck-Berry-routine, sometimes done in a quite enjoyable way, but nothing really exciting. Listening to this album I always have a "The Stones imitating the Stones"-feeling. A big yawn is always underway.

Dancing with Mr. D----------- very bad start for the album. Never liked this song.
100 Years Ago----starts nice but soon becomes very boring.
Coming Down Again----pretty much like 100 years, nice start but going nowhere....but less boring than 100 Years.
Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)----partly striking, partly very odd.
Angie---- horrible, honestly I never liked it.
Silver Train---funny, but...
Hide Your Love---- the number I like the best.
Winter---- boring, boring, boring, boring.
Can You Hear the Music----sounds like psychodelic leftover from TSMR-period, cant stand it. Not only weird-sounding but boring too.
Star Star---- quite all right, the Stones in Chuck-Berry-mood. But somehow it does not sparkle the way it should have.

Even the Stones cannot deliver masterpieces all the time. After a handful really great albums, this one almost totally fails, imo. Very few highlights on this one, I wouldnt say it sucks completely, but overall it´s damn boring to my ears. The only tracks I would pick for a compilation are Hide Your Love and Star Star.

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kleermaker

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LuxuryStones
They only played it once that tour.. Strange & Thank you.

Mmmm, at least twice!

To me this was the last of the series of great albums, starting with Beggars Banquet, including Ya Ya's of course: The Big Six.

GHS was released in August 1973, two month later I heard them them play songs from this album, still the one I like the most to listen to. What a wonderful period in the history of the Stones those months were for me!

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HMS
Hummm... never cared too much for this. Most part of the album is boring, a few songs are quite good but offer nothing remarkable new, Stones-by-numbers & Chuck-Berry-routine, sometimes done in a quite enjoyable way, but nothing really exciting. Listening to this album I always have a "The Stones imitating the Stones"-feeling. A big yawn is always underway.

Dancing with Mr. D----------- very bad start for the album. Never liked this song.
100 Years Ago----starts nice but soon becomes very boring.
Coming Down Again----pretty much like 100 years, nice start but going nowhere....but less boring than 100 Years.
Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)----partly striking, partly very odd.
Angie---- horrible, honestly I never liked it.
Silver Train---funny, but...
Hide Your Love---- the number I like the best.
Winter---- boring, boring, boring, boring.
Can You Hear the Music----sounds like psychodelic leftover from TSMR-period, cant stand it. Not only weird-sounding but boring too.
Star Star---- quite all right, the Stones in Chuck-Berry-mood. But somehow it does not sparkle the way it should have.

Even the Stones cannot deliver masterpieces all the time. After a handful really great albums, this one almost totally fails, imo. Very few highlights on this one, I wouldnt say it sucks completely, but overall it´s damn boring to my ears. The only tracks I would pick for a compilation are Hide Your Love and Star Star.