I was listening to the cassette of this in my P.O.S. old minivan last week.

[thepowergoats.com]

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RipThisBone

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HMS
No matter how the sequencing is, it doesnt make a better album of GHS.

Star Star
Silver Train
100 Years Ago - BORING
Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
Dancing with Mr. D - BORING
Can You Hear the Music - BORNG
Hide Your Love
Coming Down Again - BORING
Angie - BORING
Winter - BORING

Anyway You Look At It (!) the album is a wreck.
A Stones-album should not be boring. GHS is.
That is the major problem.

You HMS bores the daylight out of me.
Go listen to Dirty Work while I have another listen to GOAT'S HEAD SOUP maybe.
I'd say I listened to Goat's Head Soup 600 times since 1978 and to Dirty Work 85 times since 1986.
How come? I am so BORING!

Agreed - HMS your review of GHS is Dirty work
"Gotta get into a fight - Can't get outa of it"

Overall love GHS but it probably has the most boring lead off cut of all their albums with DANCING WITH MR D. It has no pizazz

...as dem mon say .... Studio kinda cloudy .......



ROCKMAN

My 3rd Favorite overall behind SF and EOMS:

Here's my long indepth review of GHS:

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.

It has a louche vibe. It has wah wah guitar and other touches of that era. It sounds like it could have been a soundtrack to a '70s movie. I have to be in the mood to hear it, but it is entertaining in a dated way.

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HMS
Only four outstanding songs means a total failure by Stones-standards.

All in all it´s their most uninspired, most boring album ever.

You're talking about Dirty Work obviously. For once, I can agree with you.

But this thread is about Goats Head Soup. A masterpiece of an album.

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HMS
No matter how the sequencing is, it doesnt make a better album of GHS.

Star Star
Silver Train
100 Years Ago - BORING
Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
Dancing with Mr. D - BORING
Can You Hear the Music - BORNG
Hide Your Love
Coming Down Again - BORING
Angie - BORING
Winter - BORING

Anyway You Look At It (!) the album is a wreck.
A Stones-album should not be boring. GHS is.
That is the major problem.

If there is any major problem it's not with GHS but with the fact that you label anything that's not uptempo rocker as "boring". Don't you think yourself that your musical taste appears a bit one-dimensional?

ghs is a great album! anything after some girls is garbage!

At the time of the release of "Goat's Head Soup", it was a huge let down to me and everybody I knew. Everybody I knew and I, were in the age range of 14 to 28 at the time. Do not get me wrong, it was a great album but the problem was that it followed "Let It Bleed", "Sticky Fingers", and "Exile on Main Street", and that was why it was a let down.

The album remains absolutely superior to any Stones album of new material released after 1981 though, in my opinion.

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GasLightStreet
Star Star
Silver Train
100 Years Ago
Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
Dancing with Mr. D
Can You Hear the Music
Hide Your Love
Coming Down Again
Angie
Winter

Yeah, that definitely would’ve been an improvement but a few cosmetic changes here and there can’t save this dud.

Star Star – Great raunchy tune which Chuck Berry probably sings in the shower – not that he’d ever admit it – but it was released an album or two too early, if ya know what I mean. It was too early to start parodying themselves. It would’ve worked better on IORR.

Silver Train – Should’ve been replaced by Criss Cross Man. I’m not saying I know what a ‘criss cross man’ is but it’s bound to be more interesting than a ‘silver train.’

100 Years Ago – Promising beginning but then I guess the Hells Angels busted into the studio and Mick just started running in circles . I’d appreciate it if they’d go back and properly finish it someday.

Heartbreaker – Don’t need all that doo doo in the title but this is an underrated gem.
.
Dancing with Mr. D – Haven’t heard what Mickboy does to it that makes Palace Revolution gush so much but just like I’m not interested in watching a documentary on the Holocaust even if some previously grainy footage has been enhanced I don’t wanna dance with Mr. Death...ever if possible. Worst effort since Under The Boardwalk.

Can You Hear the Music – Sappy but A for effort I suppose. It used to work for me in high school when I was drunk and alone. Not so much these days.

Hide Your Love – One of those Stones songs you seldom seek out but when you do it’s (slightly) better than you remember. But ultimately it's still unmemorable.

Coming Down Again – I prefer Happy Keith.

Angie – Named my dog after this one. I was also considering Melody, Eileen, Claudine, Molly, Lassie & Bitch. I think I chose the best one.

Winter – As a Canadian this one has always been a favorite. Taylor’s plaintiff guitar is spine tingling. But this also sort of marks the beginning of Jagger’s solo career. It would take another twenty years for him to break free from his Rolling Stones shackles but if you listen very hard his songwriting from 1973 onwards is unmistakably, tragically, inexorably heading towards ‘Hard Woman.’



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-08-04 08:28 by Swayed1967.

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GasLightStreet
Star Star
Silver Train
100 Years Ago
Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
Dancing with Mr. D
Can You Hear the Music
Hide Your Love
Coming Down Again
Angie
Winter

Ending it with five slow ones?

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DandelionPowderman

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GasLightStreet
Star Star
Silver Train
100 Years Ago
Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
Dancing with Mr. D
Can You Hear the Music
Hide Your Love
Coming Down Again
Angie
Winter

Ending it with five slow ones?

Another Tattoo You, maybe?

Not sure GasLight's order is better, but anyway, I'll stick to it:

Star Star - Nice of course, but not very original (wouldn't start an album with it either)
Silver Train - Nothing special, filler really
100 Years Ago - Very interesting, has some great parts
Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) - Good
Dancing with Mr. D - Something went wrong here, don't know what
Can You Hear the Music - Potentially good song, but lacks the "Exile" sound/production/approach/grooviness. It sounds too "woolly"
Hide Your Love - Potentially good, same problem as Can You Hear The Music
Coming Down Again - Not Keith's best
Angie - Good
Winter - Very good

This album could have been better, but what with them living in different parts of the world, Keith probably a bit too high too often, both Micks losing touch with Keith, and a general lack-lusterness this album is not as good as it could have been. Although there is a certain charm to the sense of decay it brings across. And yes, adding Cris Cross (or whatever it's called) would have been a good idea (instead of Silver Train for instance).

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retired_dog
If there is any major problem it's not with GHS but with the fact that you label anything that's not uptempo rocker as "boring". Don't you think yourself that your musical taste appears a bit one-dimensional?

Not true, I love the slow ones on SF & EXILE, just as their slow R n B tracks in the 60s. I like Worried About You, will never stop praising Memory Motel and most Keith-ballads. Mick´s Evening Gown & Hang On To Me Tonight are great, too. Jigsaw Puzzle is one of my all-time-favorites.

But the ballads on GHS (and IORR) dont move me at all. All of them are tired, lame, uninspired, overlong, bloated and overproduced. Simply boring.

Well, they could have included tracks like Criss Cross, Through The Lonely Nights, Short And Curlies or Waiting On A Friend instead of some of the tracks that they chose.

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boogaloojef
Well, they could have included tracks like Criss Cross, Through The Lonely Nights, Short And Curlies or Waiting On A Friend instead of some of the tracks that they chose.

Tops....

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Maindefender

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boogaloojef
Well, they could have included tracks like Criss Cross, Through The Lonely Nights, Short And Curlies or Waiting On A Friend instead of some of the tracks that they chose.

Tops....

I believe the version of Tops from the Goats Head Soup sessions did not have vocals and was only a backing track. They would have had to finish the song.

The version of Waiting On A Friend from the Goats Head Soup sessions actually had vocals.

One of the early magazine articles about the tracks for Goats Head Soup included the tracks Criss Cross and Through The Lonely Nights and omitted Coming Down Again and Winter.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-08-04 14:03 by boogaloojef.

<The version of Waiting On A Friend from the Goats Head Soup sessions actually had vocals>

Very rough vocals, and not the final lyrics..

I also re-listened to the album recently. Definitely not a top 5'er, but it likely would make my top 15.

It has several great tracks for me ... Silver Train, Can You Hear The Music, and especially Winter and Coming Down Again.

Way back when I first listened to this album, my initial favorite was ... 100 Years Ago ... but for me that one has not stood the test of time. I used to play that over and over, maybe I burnt myself out in it, but I don't really like it that much now.

Wasnt Through The Lonely Nights released as a b-side? Rightfully so, it is the worst and most boring track of all GHS-songs. I remember the liner notes of "Rarities" saying that Charlie likes this song very much... very strange.

Re-sequencing albums is always fun to consider. I love the album a lot, but here's my suggestion for an alternate track listing.


1. Heartbreaker
2. Silver Train
3. Starf*cker
4. Hide Your Love
5. Dancing with Mr. D

6. Angie
7. Winter
8. A Hundred Years Ago
9. Can You Hear the Music?
10. Coming Down Again

Obviously, I'm sequencing for vinyl and thinking of TATTOO YOU for inspiration.
If Promotone's licensing contracts allowed CD bonus tracks instead of dictating a separate disc of "rarities" then I would add three more cuts after a minute of silence, the second of which is heretical but fits in nicely musically.

Bonus Tracks:

11. Save Me
12. Too Many Cooks (Spoil the Soup)
13. Through the Lonely Nights


And yes, I'm officially retitling Tracks 1, 3, 8, and 11. You can do that sort of thing when you're King.

My take on the alternate tracklist:

100 Years Ago
Heartbreaker
Angie
Silver Train
Can You Hear the Music

Star Star
Coming Down Again
Winter
Hide Your Love
Dancing With Mr D

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Elmo Lewis

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GasLightStreet
Star Star
Silver Train
100 Years Ago
Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
Dancing with Mr. D
Can You Hear the Music
Hide Your Love
Coming Down Again
Angie
Winter

Much better running order

Star Star is such a laugh. It's got a fantastic intro. It's slow, it's dumpy but then it kind of gets going. Of course live they do it faster...

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HMS
No matter how the sequencing is, it doesnt make a better album of GHS.

HMS - BORING
HMS - BORING
HMS - BORING
HMS - BORING
HMS - BORING
HMS - BORING
HMS - BORING
HMS - BORING
HMS - BORING
HMS - BORING

Anyway You Look At It (!) the album is a wreck.
A Stones-album should not be boring. GHS is.
That is the major problem.

Holy crap. You're RIGHT! But it's beyond obvious as to why.

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DandelionPowderman

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GasLightStreet
Star Star
Silver Train
100 Years Ago
Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
Dancing with Mr. D
Can You Hear the Music
Hide Your Love
Coming Down Again
Angie
Winter

Ending it with five slow ones?

Yeah... a bit of a nod to TATTOO YOU. Although Can You Hear The Music is a slow song it's just so heavily funkified with that Wurlitzer guitar riff going throughout.

I like Silver Train but Criss Cross Mind would've been better, especially since they're quite similar. And although I know Angie is a great song Through The Lonely Nights would've been better. Or perhaps in place of Hide Your Love, which I like, but it's one of those songs where you go "Yeah, OK, it's a piano blues slow romp but"...

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matxil
Not sure GasLight's order is better, but anyway, I'll stick to it:

Star Star - Nice of course, but not very original (wouldn't start an album with it either)
Silver Train - Nothing special, filler really
100 Years Ago - Very interesting, has some great parts
Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) - Good
Dancing with Mr. D - Something went wrong here, don't know what
Can You Hear the Music - Potentially good song, but lacks the "Exile" sound/production/approach/grooviness. It sounds too "woolly"
Hide Your Love - Potentially good, same problem as Can You Hear The Music
Coming Down Again - Not Keith's best
Angie - Good
Winter - Very good

This album could have been better, but what with them living in different parts of the world, Keith probably a bit too high too often, both Micks losing touch with Keith, and a general lack-lusterness this album is not as good as it could have been. Although there is a certain charm to the sense of decay it brings across. And yes, adding Cris Cross (or whatever it's called) would have been a good idea (instead of Silver Train for instance).

Ha ha! I look at Silver Train being second to get it done with... it's an ooze of a cooker but it doesn't really lift off ever. It sounds like perhaps it was an idea worked up during EOMS but they never finished it and by the time they decided to do it, well, the kick had been kicked already. But whatever, they've done much worse since, like Cherry Oh Baby (even though it is quite faithful, I think if Keith had sung it it may've been better), and especially in 1986 yet alone a few songs since then.

At least they only made that 1986 disaster once.

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Rocky Dijon
Re-sequencing albums is always fun to consider. I love the album a lot, but here's my suggestion for an alternate track listing.


1. Heartbreaker
2. Silver Train
3. Starf*cker
4. Hide Your Love
5. Dancing with Mr. D

6. Angie
7. Winter
8. A Hundred Years Ago
9. Can You Hear the Music?
10. Coming Down Again

Obviously, I'm sequencing for vinyl and thinking of TATTOO YOU for inspiration.
If Promotone's licensing contracts allowed CD bonus tracks instead of dictating a separate disc of "rarities" then I would add three more cuts after a minute of silence, the second of which is heretical but fits in nicely musically.

Bonus Tracks:

11. Save Me
12. Too Many Cooks (Spoil the Soup)
13. Through the Lonely Nights


And yes, I'm officially retitling Tracks 1, 3, 8, and 11. You can do that sort of thing when you're King.

Heh, opening with Heartbreaker is good!

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HonkeyTonkFlash
GHS was the first album I ever bought, being 13 back when it was released. Thus it will always have a good place in my heart. I've always loved it even though I've realized that there are certainly better Stones albums. I feel it still holds it's own in their discography.

Totally the same for me except I was 15...and I still love it and play it