Yesteray night I enjoyed a good wine and "Goats head soup".
When it came out in 1973 I was 11 years old.
I knew the Rolling Stones, but only their "Hits", the songs
that were played on the radio, mostly Brian Jones era stuff.
In our small town was a little record shop and everyday after
school I watched the record-covers in the window.
I listened to Sweet, T. Rex, Gary Glitter and Slade then.
One day there was the "Goats head soup" cover in the window,
and it caught my interest because of the "strange" photo.
"Star star" had a lot of airplay in germany, but it remained
the only song I knew from this album until ca. 1980.
I borrowed the record together with "Exile" from a classmate
and copied it on tape.
Now I had the "Rolled gold" sampler as a good introduction to
the Stones-oeuvre, and I really didn't like these two LP's then.
"Exile" was too raw, without "hits"(well,maybe "Tumbling dice"),
and "Goats" seemed to commercial, a disco-record, to me.
I only liked "Star star".
Later, becoming a Stones-afficionado, I began to like mostly every
record and "Exile" is one of my favouites now.
With "Goats" it took a long time, but finally I made my peace
with it.
Some songs really mean a lot to me now.
"Coming down again" reminds me of the burial of a friend of mine.
She committed suicide in 88, and back home after the burial I played
that song for hours.
Not because of the words, just for that sad feel.
"Winter" I once dedicated to a lovely lady.
I had to think about her yesterday, she really meant a lot to me.
"100 years ago" is a good one too, I think.
Comparing the raw sound of "Exile" with the nearly "funky" sound of
"Goats", they changed a lot in such a short time.
Maybe they wanted to be more "modern".
Billy Preston is very high in the mix, and the piano-parts very low.
I wondered, how this record with a different production would have
sounded - the lovely Nicky Hopkins piano more present in the mix
for example.
Less funk, more Stones...
By the way - this was the first post Jimmy Miller record, the first
one produced by the Glimmer Twins.
All in all I must say this record grew over the years and I really
enjoyed listening to it yesterday.
Give it a try!

I think more than a few people will raise a smile of recognition whilst reading your post twanghound ;^).

the thing with the Stones is that their albums are certainly distinguishable...

Not a huge fan of Goats - certainly a Mick J & MT album IMO...

100 Years Ago & Winter are 2 great under-rated songs to come out of these sessions.

Exile: raw Keith "solo" album. Mick doesnt live there, he's with Bianca and the jet setters.
Goats: Keith is so low on H it's almost a solo album of Jagger and Taylor. Keith is in court, burns his house and feeds the baby. He "changes" blood in Switzerland.

Conclusion: they made their best solo albums during the last years of their golden peak.

Not really true, just a thought.

I think it´s a great album. I was tvelve when it was released and my sister bought it because it had Angie on it, but it was me who played the whole album until it was completely worn out. It´s both groovy and sad at the same time and has great songs. I´ve always wondered why it´s regarded one of their weakest albums. To me it´s up there with the best of them.

I listened to the cassette extensively over that past two summers. My work vehicle only had a cassette player. I would switch between GHS and Its Only Rock N Roll. I love GHS. "Dancing With Mr. D" is a real pick me up first thing in the morning song. Great songs from front to back.

Who plays the lead on "Dancing With Mr. D" and what give the guitar that surly sound? Anyone know?

Got this for my 13th birthday in 1973 and been a fan ever since. My favorite then was "100 Years Ago" and I still dig it.

Well since we are all a bit of family here I will share this one with you all:

I listened to this LP back in High School nearly every day and my Dad who was very animated would always come in my room and hang with me and during "Hide Your Love" after Mick asks "How Do you Hide Your Love" he would always belt out "You Bury It About 6 Inches"....and then we would both laugh like crazy. Neither of us ever tired of this!! Hell we laughed the 500th time just like it was the first time he sang it.

Well hope thats not too offensive for the female population but my Dad was really a character but certainly not a chauvenist by any means. He didnt particularly care for the Stones but he had a healthy respect for them because of my passion for them. When he passed away in 93 I continued to play the CD (now) and always think of him. I cant hear the song or think of GHS without thinking of him. So there again the Stones have brought so many of us together!!!

Thanks again Twanghound for this great recollection!!!

Actually, IORR is the first Glimmer Twins production.

Jimmy produced this one, although it sounds like he was asleep at the wheel.

If this album was as good as it's fans say, Jimmy would have probably kept on producing Stones albums until the day he died.

Macman15,

No problems here thats called a cool father. Male bonding. Cherish those memories.

I think Jimmy fell to the usual stuff the Stones bring - drugs.

Nice to see some good, positive, informative posts about The Rolling Stones -almost a lost art on here. Good work, y'all.

Great story, Mac.

That album turned me on let go not from the start. I loved them before;
but this put the trip on another gear... Back in 88. A friend has left
it after some far-out party.

Tell us more about the far-out party. I like those! Also, I like saying "far-out".

Sorry about the Jimmy Miller mistake.
Yes, he was highly strung out on heroin -
like Keith.
I think both didn't contribute much to this album.
They recorded parts in Jamaica, which wasn't all
fun neither.
The production tecniques in the studio were not very good
and they had some trouble there if memory serves me well.
One of the women - Bill's then partner I think - was raped
by a burglar.
Was it at that time, when Anita was busted and had some
horrible experiences in a jamaican jail?
Macman, nice story of your father!
My father never had an ear for rock-music.
It's a shame, in the 60's he was in his twenties - and didn't
care about music...

I was listening to "Silver Train" this morning on my iPod while I walked the dogs. I cannot hear ANY evidence of Keith anywhere on that track. No wonder they never play it live.

My 'overdrive' Stones fandom sprung out of my Beatles one (when I was 12-14). I already liked them and had Hot Rocks on cassette.

I read a MUSICIAN magazine around which had interviews of all 4 Bealtes, Mick, Keith and Bill over the years. (came out in 87-88).

It had stats for both bands, incl. dicsographies. I saw the number of Stones lps and thought 'whoa'.

During the interviews, they always slagged GHS, and marked it as the beginning of their 'decadent' or 'meaningless' phase. Same with mags like Rolling Stone, always knocking this LP, calling it 'sub par', like TSMR.

While I agreed (and still do) about TSMR, I remember finally getting GHS early '89. I had Rewind on video and cassette. I thought Angie was moving, and Heartbreaker was cool and funky 70's. I knew @#$%& already because I had Love You Live. SO I thought - I like those 3 songs a lot, and it came out the year I was born.

After hearing it for the first time, I thought - what the HELL are the people knocking it TALKING ABOUT??? I loved it. And so began my mistrust of critics, and even bandmember themselves about material. I mean, how could GHS take such a beating, while Steel Wheels was supposedly the second coming???

It still remains one of my favourites, and I rank it just below the Big Four. Most friends my age agree. In fact, some I know prefer it over Exile.

Us Gen-Xer's view the musical advice of the Boomers with many grains of salt! We love our 'Jimmy Miller' period. We weren't even born then, but it's undeniably their greatest era - including Goats Heap Soup!

[thepowergoats.com]

I also listened to GHS last week, to me very spotty,I love winter and @#$%&, Heartbreaker and Angie arew both good, but the rest is mediocre at best, as far as the mid 70's LPs go it is better then IORR but not as good Black and Blue in my opinion.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-01-19 17:07 by Ket.

I have a weak heart foo Goat....In love with that album I even love''Can you Hear the music'' damm right I love that to!!!

I put it above Black and Blue for sure. There's no filler at all on GHS IMO. Its great songwriting edges out the undeniably funky B'n'B.

Where B'n'B loses me is Fool To Cry and Cherry Oh Baby. The first puts me to sleep, and the second is sparse and pointless posturing. Everything ELSE, though, I loooove.

Since we're talking if the mid 70s, IORR - I like the first two tracks, but I've heard the title track so many times that it feels like I'm not listening to anything. Till the Next Goodbye, Time Waits & Fingerprint are all excellent. The rest sounds like so-so filler to me, I've never really dug the LP as a whole the way I love the Golden Era.

It's still leagues above anything post Undercover though.

[thepowergoats.com]

R Wrote:
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> I was listening to "Silver Train" this morning on
> my iPod while I walked the dogs. I cannot hear ANY
> evidence of Keith anywhere on that track. No
> wonder they never play it live.

UTube has a clip of the Stones doing Silver Train in what looks like a live video.

From Don Kirshner. (Mick is live, the rest is not). Angie and Dancing w/ Mr. D. were done like this too.

[thepowergoats.com]

[www.keno.org]

So Keith wrote the riff for CYHTM but doesnt play on it?

Elmo Lewis Wrote:
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> Tell us more about the far-out party. I like
> those! Also, I like saying "far-out".

Next day the people had moved from the first party house to another.
I believe there was a house-warmin party.
A zonked out dude was landin from his heavy kaya trip
with earphones on, listenin to ol' Dutch band Ekseption
while in ma hand there was this GHS.
Thats all I can recall; tell ya when more pieces come back.
All the summer of 88 was a looong party.
I call it my summer of love. Nudge nudge.

...And I also like sayin far-out...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-01-19 20:15 by Baboon Bro.

I do like the post on GHS ending with "Give it a try" ) really, you will not have to twist anyone's arm here.

"...no longer shall you trudge 'cross my peaceful mind."

Silver Train might be their worst song ever.

it's the first stones album i listened to all the way through and it made me realize i was missing out on some fantastic music.

Bärs Wrote:
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> Silver Train might be their worst song ever.

Thank God we have different taste & thank God for me not sharing yours.

Silver Train is a killer,
and...quite honestly, I love Goats Head Soup, it was the album that really got me into Rolling Stones

Bärs Wrote:
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> Silver Train might be their worst song ever.




[thepowergoats.com]