LieB Wrote:
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> Funny how people say GHS sounds so clean and
> slick. Kinda slick in its style, yes, (especially
> compared to Exile) but it's still murky and
> swampy, IMHO. Of the Miller-produced albums, I
> think Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers have the
> cleanest production.

Yes. I think that's the Olympic Studio sound. I guess overdubs were done for GHS there, but the crappy nature of the Jamaica recordings was maintained. "Angie" might be the exception.

Although the actual songs themselves are slick and clean, the production on GHS is very muddy and not very well-produced, IMO. And I think Jimmy Miller was too strung out to really do anything to produce, although he was credited as producer.

The Sicilian Wrote:
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> Considering the dope that was available back then,
> I consider those lyrics to be a valiant effort.

Hah! It's a wonder they released the album at all in that case! All that ganja! Whoooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JaggerFan Wrote:
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> GHS has distinct ambieance and character. It's
> funny how it almost sounds like the colours of its
> packaging, too.

That's such a bizarre observation...and so completely true. What is it about those strange, slightly blurry golden images that seems so in keeping with the music?

Rev. Robert W. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> JaggerFan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > GHS has distinct ambieance and character. It's
> > funny how it almost sounds like the colours of
> its
> > packaging, too.
>
> That's such a bizarre observation...and so
> completely true. What is it about those strange,
> slightly blurry golden images that seems so in
> keeping with the music?


I actually think like that about every Rolling Stones album...

I was just listening to "Angie" through earphones....and was reminded of something I've heard for years (& you probably have also)....the ghost of Mick's voice in the background. It's most obvious 3:05 into the track.

I'm not sure if it's intended vocal layering....or if he needed to re-do vocals over the top of another track that had his vocals bleeding..or what. It's very faint. Give it a listen...with earphones/headphones...and let me know what you think.

If you're listening for it, you can hear it throughout....but it's most obvious during an instrumental part at approximately the 3:05 mark. (i'm not referring to an echo effect)


IORR............but I like it!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2007-02-01 23:47 by sweet neo con.

That ghost vocal was noted in the original Rolling Stone review of GHS.

got anymore info? do you mean the original reviews back in the '70s or other IORR posts or what? are these "original reviews" online somewhere? thanks in advance.


IORR............but I like it!

>do you mean the original reviews back in the '70s or other IORR posts or what?

I mean the review of GHS that appeared in "Rolling Stone" magazine in '73. I don't know if it's online; if I find it I'll post it.

@Koh Hasebe
This is a photo from Terra Nova Hotel, Jamaica in 1972.
There's Paul Rodgers between Taylor and Charlie.
Does he have any involvement in Jamaican recording?

Fantastic stuff Toru! Wonderful, and thanks for sharing.

reading these old posts made me put on my headphones and play the virgin cd.the band seems to be shedding the snakeskin that was the 60's and embracing a new era.the main faults with the albums i find are the track order and the muddy sound. it's still a great album but lacks the classic keith richards sound. seems to me this is mostly the 2 micks and charlie.

I was 11 when GHS came out and distinctly remember my hockey coach having the cassette in his car. He was a young guy, with a 2 door sports car. Still, five of us players would cram into the car rather than go with another parent, wearing our equipment in those days and playing outdoor games, and we'd all begin by listening and then end up singing, Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo. And it really was a long cold winter. I'll never forget that. Can you hear the muuuusic.

Looking back, GHS is the first album since Beggars without an epic opening song: Sympathy For The Devil, Gimme Shelter, Brown Sugar, and Rocks Off are all songs of the first order for the Stones and for any band. GHS breaks the pattern, with Angie. And as good as Angie may be, it's a pop song, not a rock n'roll song like the others. That's not to say it's bad, but it's not fantastically great. it's not nearly the same calibre as the other songs, but they couldn't leave it off the record because . . . it's a hit. Maybe a single would have been better?
Which takes me to a different point: I think GHS is, somewhat strangely, evidence of an embarrassment of riches: it's the first time that the Stones had to choose from an overwhelming number of options and directions that they could have chosen to go forward with, both from their own increasing backlog of songs and from the musical directions and influences that they were swimming in from the external world.
As a result we've got an album that's fractured, going in off in different directions and lacks they gumbo richness and artistic integrity or consistency of Exile. At the same time, this plurality and variety is what gives the Soup its own unique flavor.

Dancing with Mr. D - Awesome. All I can say about GHS is Star Star -- One of the top 2 Stones songs in my humble opinion.

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rooster
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!!!

Don't know why, but I just love this track - the way mick sings to the music - um ... is like music to my ears!

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Svartmer
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 love Goat! I was 13 when it came out and was the first album I ever bought, having earned some money doing odd jobs at home. I'd been hooked on the Stones since I heard my brother's copy of Ya Yas when I was ten. Goat was a definite departure from the Stones that Ya Yas introduced me to, but I still thought it was great and I still have many favorite songs from that album.

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Toru A

@Koh Hasebe
This is a photo from Terra Nova Hotel, Jamaica in 1972.
There's Paul Rodgers between Taylor and Charlie.
Does he have any involvement in Jamaican recording?

Toru, are there more unseen pics in that sequence?

GHS is one of the murkiest sounding Stones albums. It is Mick and Keith producing alone in the drug-days, w/o Jimmy Miller. It is IMO a tricky album to check out on headphones. Matter of fact I always think Stones are not made for headphones.
Sticky is the tightest produced album. Very very good. Glyn Johns.

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Palace Revolution 2000

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Toru A

@Koh Hasebe
This is a photo from Terra Nova Hotel, Jamaica in 1972.
There's Paul Rodgers between Taylor and Charlie.
Does he have any involvement in Jamaican recording?

Toru, are there more unseen pics in that sequence?

See the thread below about Music Life Magazine Plus.
Get free app for your iPad/ iPhon.
[www.iorr.org]
There exists a lot of fantastic photos on this app.

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SomeGirlsXXX
Dancing with Mr. D - Awesome. All I can say about GHS is Star Star -- One of the top 2 Stones songs in my humble opinion.

i hear you ,great song and it nearly steals the show in the "new" brussels

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LeonidP

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rooster
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!!!

Don't know why, but I just love this track - the way mick sings to the music - um ... is like music to my ears!

Is it considered odd to love Can You Hear The Music? I'm astonished; I love that track as I love seven of the other nine tracks on GHS. (Angie and Silver Train don't reach the same heights for me but they're OK too.) It's a top three Stones album for me - Exile and Sticky Fingers being the other two.

Curious how much Jimmy Miller was involved in this record. Some say not at all, but he had time to carve a swastika into the console ....Just when did he get fired? And Andy Johns got the boot during this record too. I guess Keith and Mick Taylor were the only ones Mick was going to allow to maintain a herion habit in the Stones camp. Makes perfect sense to me.

I love this record and am amazed to hear stories from around the world on this thread that parallel my experience with the record. Wierd that some guy in Germany and some punk kid in Montana were influenced and such in the same way. Music really is the universal language...right up there with Love. peace

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camper88
Looking back, GHS is the first album since Beggars without an epic opening song: Sympathy For The Devil, Gimme Shelter, Brown Sugar, and Rocks Off are all songs of the first order for the Stones and for any band. GHS breaks the pattern, with Angie.

What? That makes zero sense. What sense is that?

Love this album even if I prefer the dirty iorr. If these two are compared I mean. Could it be that when we criticize this album it's for the lack of a full listening experience of a brand new LP, the way LPs were supposed to be in the LP era.

Let it bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile all work from beginning to end. Put it on, change side. These are LPs from the LP era and GHS doesnt have that.

Matter of fact I always think Stones are not made for headphones. - qoute - Palace Revolution 2000

It depends on the recording. Let It Bleed is incredible for headphones. I still remember the first time I heard Nicky opening up 'Monkey Man' on 'cans'. And I nearly blew my 15-year-old ears out on Ya Yas. But something like GHS can be sketchy. In retrospect GHS sort of represents Keith's junk use. He got a little bump from LIB through Exile, and then there was decline. JAGGER FAN mentioned the covers being relevant to the album. If this is true then nothing represents the state of the band better than Guy Peellaert's decadent, decaying cover for It's Only Rock and Roll.

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WeLoveToPlayTheBlues

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camper88
Looking back, GHS is the first album since Beggars without an epic opening song: Sympathy For The Devil, Gimme Shelter, Brown Sugar, and Rocks Off are all songs of the first order for the Stones and for any band. GHS breaks the pattern, with Angie.

What? That makes zero sense. What sense is that?

What I mean to say (and attempted to go on to say) is that on the previous four albums The Stones open with what are amongst the greatest rock songs ever written and recorded: Sympathy For The Devil, Gimme Shelter, Brown Sugar, and Rocks Off. For the Stones and for any band, these four songs are are songs of staggering scale.
Arguably, they're as good as the Stones or anybody gets at opening an album.
Angie isn't that. That's not to say (as I said) that Angie's a bad song--it's not a bad song, but it doesn't bear up to these others. Clearly that's only my opinion, but that's the sense that I was trying to make.

As a related point, I'd say that an important strength of the previous four albums comes from the order of the songs. For example, closing LiB with anything other than YCAGWYW seems impossible. Similarly, closing Sticky Fingers with Moonlight Mile just seems right. I'd say similar things about song order within BB and Exile, Part of this view comes from repeated listening and forming expectations, but part of it comes from what appears to be a really clear sense of the album's arc or narrative. My point is that I don't get the same sense of a narrative arc on GHS. For example, Winter (son of Moonlight Mile) could have closed the album (or side) just as well or better than Can You Hear the Music. Overall, I find GHS to have less urgency or drive, and part of that comes from song order as much as it does the actual songs themselves. Again, only my opinion.


On the internet nobody knows
you're Mick Jagger

I love this album, it is my favorite Stones album. I feel there's a certain melancholia to this record. I play it and it lifts me up, it's my go-to album in tough times. I mean don't cha think it's sometimes wise not to grow up?

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camper88

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WeLoveToPlayTheBlues

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camper88
Looking back, GHS is the first album since Beggars without an epic opening song: Sympathy For The Devil, Gimme Shelter, Brown Sugar, and Rocks Off are all songs of the first order for the Stones and for any band. GHS breaks the pattern, with Angie.

What? That makes zero sense. What sense is that?

What I mean to say (and attempted to go on to say) is that on the previous four albums The Stones open with what are amongst the greatest rock songs ever written and recorded: Sympathy For The Devil, Gimme Shelter, Brown Sugar, and Rocks Off. For the Stones and for any band, these four songs are are songs of staggering scale.
Arguably, they're as good as the Stones or anybody gets at opening an album.
Angie isn't that. That's not to say (as I said) that Angie's a bad song--it's not a bad song, but it doesn't bear up to these others. Clearly that's only my opinion, but that's the sense that I was trying to make.

As a related point, I'd say that an important strength of the previous four albums comes from the order of the songs. For example, closing LiB with anything other than YCAGWYW seems impossible. Similarly, closing Sticky Fingers with Moonlight Mile just seems right. I'd say similar things about song order within BB and Exile, Part of this view comes from repeated listening and forming expectations, but part of it comes from what appears to be a really clear sense of the album's arc or narrative. My point is that I don't get the same sense of a narrative arc on GHS. For example, Winter (son of Moonlight Mile) could have closed the album (or side) just as well or better than Can You Hear the Music. Overall, I find GHS to have less urgency or drive, and part of that comes from song order as much as it does the actual songs themselves. Again, only my opinion.

But your missing what makes the album so charming. It doesn't have urgency maybe because the Stones were chilling out - they was no real angst, and that's not a bad thing.. It was a time after the 'Big Four', after Altamont, the 60s, and immediately after recording a masterpiece. Jagger said at the time that the album was more 'evocative, ethereal'. He explained the vibe as
'When you can't go into a coffee shop and fall in love with every cup of coffee...'
Which I take to mean, he was at a certain time in his life and those songs reflected that: more low-key, laid-back, even romantic. I don't think they were trying to make a masterpiece.

Opinion, mine: Essential Tracks from "GHS":

"Winter"
"Hide Your Love"
"Heartbreaker"
"@#$%&"
"Silver Train"
"Angie"
"100 Years Ago"

Count me in in the minority who really appreciate Can You Hear The Music

Erik, I've come to enjoy that one too whether or not there's
Joujoukah / Jones influences ( if not the LP title ). And,
is it me, or does the music bury a goat bleeting that becomes
more audible by song's end, or is my monitor melting again?