So Ultimate Classic Rock calls Goat's Head Soup the Stones biggest letdown....I don't think so....I would nominate Satanic Majesties.
[ultimateclassicrock.com]

"Gonna find my way to heaven ..."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-02-11 19:09 by bv.

No, The biggest let down is the albums, music and videos not released available (to me)... yet

Goats Head Soup is a great album letdownschmetdown



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2017-02-04 03:47 by HankM.

btw- I didn't even click the link, they do not get my view with that title.

I thought so at the time, and get what they are saying. They're not saying it was the worst album.

Of course, Dirty Work was the worst album.

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HonkeyTonkFlash
So Ultimate Classic Rock calls Goat's Head Soup the Stones biggest letdown....I don't think so....I would nominate Satanic Majesties.
[ultimateclassicrock.com]

I give Satanic Majesties a pass because it was a post-Sgt. Pepper psychedelic product of it's time, put together without a producer when the Stones were in drug-bust turmoil.

In hindsight, Goat's Head Soup isn't the worst Stones album, but coming right after Exile and ending a run that began with "Jumpin' Jack Flash" to Beggar's Banquet to "Honky Tonk Women" to Let It Bleed to Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out to Sticky Fingers and then Exile on Main St, GHS WAS a disappointment.

If you can't tell the difference between the excitement of Sympathy For The Devil/Gimme Shelter/Brown Sugar/Rocks Off as studio album openers compared with the go-nowhere, dead-in-the-water Dancing With Mr. D, you need to get the wax out of your ears.

There are some good things about Goat's Head Soup. But the drop in quality from what they had just done was a shock at the time. While they would end up making worse records, they would never fall so far at once ever again.

GHS Stones Most Biggest Letdown?..........


GHS was the album that got me into the Stones....Fantastic...every song was and still is something to make me move or move me......sumptious beauty and hard rock.........then I heard Exile ....the rest as they say.........

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bam
I thought so at the time, and get what they are saying. They're not saying it was the worst album.

Of course, Dirty Work was the worst album.

Yes, and to clarify, this is what they say:

"They've made worse albums, to be sure. But none could match this one for sheer drop-off in quality.
It's still stunning how quickly the Stones slipped into lazy decadence, definitively ending a period of sustained brilliance dating back to 1968's 'Beggars Banquet' that's among the most impressive in rock history".

Perhaps it was a letdown after the 'Big Four', but I would say anything and everything after Tattoo You is a much bigger letdown.
While Undercover may have had a couple good moments, it's not a very memorable record and I rarely play it. And then Dirty Work which is a true stinker.
Then Steel Wheels - with the hype leading up to it, might be the biggest letdown, but the same could be said for Voodoo, Bridges, and A Bigger Bang also.

I've always loved Goats Head Soup, and while it may not match any of the Big Four, I'd consider it a masterpiece when compared to anything after Tattoo You.

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

"They've made worse albums, to be sure. But none could match this one for sheer drop-off in quality."



Except that in 1973 this was not the prevailing opinion. In fact, EOMS was, at the time of its release, considered to be a letdown, and big drop-off in quality from Sticky Fingers. It would take several years, and comparisons to later albums, like IORR and B&B, before everyone realized how great EOMS really was.

For me, Emotional Rescue was the big letdown. Released just prior to my 21st birthday, at a time when my Stones fanaticism was at its all-time peak, and coming a full 2 years after Some Girls (the longest gap between albums up to that point), it fell far short of being the Some Girls Part II that many of us had been hoping for and expecting.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2017-02-04 03:48 by tatters.

I can relate with that Tatters, but mainly based solely on the albums first single - the tune Emotional Rescue itself .
I was 17 at the time still in High school, and couldn't understand or relate to that tune in any way...still can't!
And the album itself is filled with other clunkers (Send it to Me, Indian Girl), but there are a few that make up for them (Let Me Go, Down in the Hole, et al).

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

My first Stones album at age 11. Still think it's got some greT stuff on it but I rate DANCING their worst album opener ever. Just boring.

The only real great songs are Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo, Silver Train and Coming Down Again.

Well it seems a little harsh to admit to it but it might be mostly true if i'm really honest about what i'd put on and listen all the way through.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2017-02-04 18:21 by hopkins.

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HonkeyTonkFlash
So Ultimate Classic Rock calls Goat's Head Soup the Stones biggest letdown....I don't think so....I would nominate Satanic Majesties.
[ultimateclassicrock.com]

...and what about the horrible 'A Bigger Bang' aka 'Goddess in the Doorway part.2' ?!!

I was only 14 when GHS came out and I loved it. It took awhile for me to realize it was not of the same brilliance as the big four but I still enjoy it. For me the biggest letdown - at the time - was Black and Blue. Hot Stuff and Fool To Cry and Cherry Oh Baby were not what I wanted from the Stones. But as with some of their other works, these tunes crept up on me and now I have to say I love B&B very much. I've said this before but the Stones best work sets the bar so very, very high that even stuff below that bar can still be pretty damn good.

"Gonna find my way to heaven ..."

GHS. is good LP. And it is not 'A LET DOWN'
I was 23 when it came out.
Every club where young people came together in the weekend they played the album.
You have to see it AT THAT TIME.
And what's wrong with " HOT STUFF"? Diana Ross called it a very good song.
Remember the disco at that time.
What's wrong with a slow song" FOOL TO CRY"? I can't even give an anwer!
CHERRY O BABY? a kind of reggae song.
This is just what them made so great, They can play every style in music.
You can expect from The Stones "ALL SORTS OF MUSIC and ALL SORTS OF LYRICS"
Was every LP from "THE FAB FOUR" a highlight? NO.

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HankM
btw- I didn't even click the link, they do not get my view with that title.

+ 1

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Monsoon Ragoon
The only real great songs are Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo, Silver Train and Coming Down Again.

Angie and Coming Down Again are the only great songs, and those songs are also setting the mood of the album, imo.

The "letdown" surely has something to do with that mood, after the energetic Exile?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-02-04 12:27 by DandelionPowderman.

GHS was my first Stones album so subjectively I loved it at the time and still do. All roads led from there. Having said that of course with the benefit of hindsight I can see what they mean. But then again it does have Star Star Coming Down Again Winter Heartbreaker 100 Years Ago what's not to like?

Love it! Their most romantic album too...

X



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018-07-11 11:23 by UrbanSteel.

If there is a letdown, I 'd give it to 'Voodoo Lounge".
With Voodoo everything was in place. They had all the time. They were solid as a unit; new bassist. Off a hugely successful world tour. I think Don Was is an empty vessel as far as producer goes. He obviously was trying to concoct a classic Stones album in the Jimmy Miller vein. It seems he focused on the wrong parts though. He went for quantity over quality, and variety just for the sake of it.
It is telling that they toured behind the album, but the songs from the album didn't flourish on stage. They did not take on a new life; grow and develop, the way all the great Stones cuts do. They were either dropped eventually, or just kind of sat there.

Well, as the article itself states:
A band’s most disappointing album, as the above list shows, isn’t always a band’s worst record. More often, they arrive at the end of a period of creative momentum or rebirth.

I think that certainly applies to GHS. It's better than anything that came after Tattoo You, certainly better than anything that came after Undercover, but much worse than the albums that came before it. Expectations were simply much lower in the 80s and thereafter than in the 70's when they still were great and just made 4 of the best rock n roll albums in a row. So compared to expectations, GHS is a huge drop.

I don't think there was a huge quality-drop, merely a mood-drop.

After the gigantic Exile-experience, GHS must have been the 3 AM after party.

A good album, but not what was expected.

Keith said it himself: Junkie music.

Imagine August '73, you liked the stones from the early singles but then, from JJF, you loved them. You read about the far out tour the year before and are now counting the days to the new album. Forgetting the strikes, power cuts and rubbish on the streets you catch a routmaster to the local record shop. Gatefold sleeve, Mick looking strange on the front, Keith wasted on the back. Home, trembling now, lifting the needle onto the first groove. And then.......zzzzzzzz.

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tioms
GHS. is good LP. And it is not 'A LET DOWN'
I was 23 when it came out.
Every club where young people came together in the weekend they played the album.
You have to see it AT THAT TIME.
And what's wrong with " HOT STUFF"? Diana Ross called it a very good song.
Remember the disco at that time.
What's wrong with a slow song" FOOL TO CRY"? I can't even give an anwer!
CHERRY O BABY? a kind of reggae song.
This is just what them made so great, They can play every style in music.
You can expect from The Stones "ALL SORTS OF MUSIC and ALL SORTS OF LYRICS"
Was every LP from "THE FAB FOUR" a highlight? NO.

Certainly over time I grew to like Hot Stuff, Fool To Cry and to a lesser extent Cherry Oh Baby. But at the time they came out they were a shock to my system. To me, the Stones were all about Street Fighting Man, Sympathy For The Devil and such aggressive rockers. To put on a new Stones album and hear an into (HS) that sounded like The Ohio Players caused a bit of cognitive dissonance to say the least. Fool To Cry sounded like a syrupy cop-out to a sixteen year old rock fanatic. As I said, they grew on me...

"Gonna find my way to heaven ..."

IORR was the first new album I had to TRY to like. Some nice tracks, some silly and poor. Not uniform. GHS it's fantastic.

Rod

Sometimes it is just the mastering, and even the studio that really does a number on the album. On GHS, you got an opener that doesn't really jump off the turntable ( another one like that was "Dance Pt1"); but mainly there's just not crackling electricity. No intensity.
Take "Hip Shake"; a one chord medium tempo groove. Yet it just bristles; it vibrates. Maybe the GHS equivalent would be "Hide Your Love" - the parts are all there: Taylor plays a great slide, there's hand claps, a live feel, with Jagger's 'oh yeah', but it has nothing that every track on Exile or Banquet have.
The songs are great on GHS; it just needed that pixie dust.

Dancing With Mr. D***1/2 If You Can’t Rock Me***** Hot Stuff***
100 Years Ago***** Ain’t Too Proud To Beg*** Hand Of Fate***1/2
Coming Down Again**** It’s Only Rock’N' Roll***1/2 Cherry Oh Baby (zero)
Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo***** Till The Next Goodbye*** Memory Motel****
Angie**** Time Waits For No One****1/2 Hey Negrita*****
Silver Train*** Luxury** Fool To Cry****
Hide Your Love*** Dance Little Sister***** Crazy Mama*****
Winter***** If You Really Want To Be My Friend*****
Can You Hear The Music**** Short And Curlies***
Star Star**** Fingerprint File*****

It was a huge let down at the time, after 5 years of kick ass records, GHS was a boring record, poorly recorded, many slow songs, half of the songs just sound like outtakes, uninspired music just like said Stu at the time, it was saved by the worldwide success of Angie, actually it sold better than Exile or Beggars Banquet thanks to Angie, but the album will always be remembered as the one that ended the golden era.

Started buying Stones albums in 1977 -- Hot Rocks, the Big Four, Aftermath, B&B, IORR, even SMR. But after hearing Dancin' with Mr. D (sort of embarrassing, really) and Heartbreaker (first sign of formulaic Stones) I passed on buying the album.
Later heard the album in full and was disappointed. Just didn't jump out of the speakers.
Later, ER failed to match the excitement of SG.
I liked UC enough to give it heavy listening, but DW was so bad I never again had any expectations for a new Stones album.