Someone please help, I think I am going crazy: I've realized over the years that I like Goats Head Soup Much more than Some Girls. I didn;t intend to, but invariably, given the choice I would always much rather listen to GHS.

And this is a real turn around, because when GHS came out on the heels of Exile, I HATED it. I thought the Stones wussed out and turned their backs on the rock n roll that made them great. Silver Train was an anemic All Down The Line, and that was pretty much my take on the album. I was bummed!!!!!!!!

But over the years, not blinded by my post-Exile expectations, I;ve come to see GHS on it's own terms and it is just a beautiful melodic album with some of the Stones best, most enduring songs: Hide Your Love, 100 years Ago, Angie, Winter...to name just a few. There are songs that have a feel on this album you won't find on any other Stones album.

Maybe the Stones PURPOSELY set out to not redo Exile. This album is cleaner, tighter, better recorded, and better produced. Everything I couldn't stand when it appeared. But that was 35 years ago.

Now I am totally seduced by it's charms.

That's not to say Some Girls Isn't great too. But so many middling rockers (Lies, Respectable, Whip) that the Stones could write on Autopilot really drag it down. Granted, Shattered, Miss You and Far Away Eyes are just stunning, but it still doesn't grab me the way Goats Head Soup does.

Any other GHS fans out there?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-02-13 14:42 by russr.

>>>>Maybe the Stones PURPOSELY set out to not redo Exile.<<<<

I guess it is never the purpose of an artist to redo a previous work of art. Starting at least from Aftermath, but maybe before, the Stones never redid a preceding album, with the only exception of Emotional Rescue maybe.

(edit: I forgot the word never in my original post, which is a stupid thing to do of course, cause it turned my point around)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-02-13 15:39 by marcovandereijk.

I certainly don't agree to GHS beeing better produced than Exile! GHS is maybe the worst produced Stones album, but the songs are pretty good IMO.

[www.reverbnation.com]

A while ago we had the comparison between Emotional Rescue and Tattoo You. Two albums released two years after each other. I can take that.
But compare two albums from two different eras…You just can’t do that. Please...
Two terrific albums. But different guitar players, different productions and, I think, two different ways of song writing.
And I like them both. In different ways.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-02-13 15:19 by Thommie.

Yeah russr,

With you on that one. A lot of those songs like Winter, Coming Down Again, Dancing With Mr D and Can You Hear The Music have a dreamy, narcotic like quality that they only ever hit a few times again.

I think the fact that it sounds so much better now is that they hardly play anything off it but the Some Girls rockers such as Respectable and When The Whip Comes Down have been played a lot in relation.

I've long been wanting them to do Hide Your Love live. You can imagine Jagger doing a great call and response on the next tour with that one.

goats head soup has a very special place in my stones heart.
i dont listen to it that often. but sometimes its just the best piece of music i can think of. it just puts me in a unique mood - melancholic somehow.

Agree with you I have come to love Goats Head Soup over the years it is much better than you realise when you first listen to it. I prefer it to Some Girls.


John Nicholls

Well. all these years later(and with the album finally remixed to show its glory) I have to agree Goats is better than Girls. Even though I still bought EVERYTHING I could find of the Stones After Some Girls the more radical "punk" style made alot of songs sound just alike to me from 78-82.

Not a chance in hell.

Some girls is in the top 3!

The stones were stuck in a rut and Some Girls brought a breath of fresh air.

Tight, rocking and swings like hell. Meant the stones were able to take on the eighties and not flounder like The Who.....

I think Tattoo You helped them take on the 80's more than Some Girls.

SG was really a salvo fired in response to punk, partly. Some might say a weak one as far as the rockers go, and a great one as far as the Stones just being Stones regardless of trends...

And don't forget: Emotional Rescue came in between SG and TY.

Listening to GSH brings me back to my freshman year in college...A great time in my life. Actually, I'm at work right now and I have the GSH drink coaster right next to my PC. Cheers !!!

I do agree that it lacks production quality but the songs are fanastic.

You have a point russr. The thing is, even though SOME GIRLS is one of their "great albums" it's also the one Stones album that I'm truly burnt out on - just have listened to it way too much over the years. Lotta good points about GHS here (only wish they had included "CRISS CROSS MIND" as one more rocker) especially Silver Dagger's description as having "a Dream, Narcotic like quality" - that's a VERY GOOD way of putting it because many songs do have that feel to them... time to give it another spin I think......

Well, I love Some Girls, this album rocks (never liked Miss You, sorry. I don't understand why they play it live so often and leave so many great songs behind). GHS - there are some really nice songs there, but I never fancied that album. After reading most of the reactions here, I will have to listen to it again tonight...

Anything's better than Some Girls. Sorry. Never liked it. Beast Of Burden is great. That whole era of the late 70's into the 80's was just terrible.

Quote
My Stones
Anything's better than Some Girls. Sorry. Never liked it. Beast Of Burden is great. That whole era of the late 70's into the 80's was just terrible.

You are dissing their second most creative output in their entire
career? Come on...

While both are great in their own right, I've always loved GHS. This much malinged lp really has many great songs as has been already mentioned. I think if the songs were arranged a little differant it would have been better received. Put Star Star or Heartbreaker first & I think it would have given the lp a quicker start. Dancing with Mr D, Coming Down Again & Angie give the LP somewhat of a laid back start.

Interesting because for my money, in terms of creative output:

71-72 is #1
68-70 is #2
65-67 is #3
73-74 is #4
81-86 is #5
75-78 is #6

Not sure after that but ABB is really great. :-)

I think so, When I listen to "Goats" I keep thinking it's sad they couldn't/wouldn't use Jimmy Miller as a producer any more, this is his swan song, and it is really great, of course it stands in the shadow of the albums before, put it still has it's moments. Keith are great on vocals, Mick Taylor is graet on guitar and "Charlie is good tonight".
Many people says the golden years stops with Exile but I would say you can add both "Goat" and "It's only Rock'n Roll". After that it's not so funny listning to Stones albums . Until Steel Wheels.

"Some Girls" are grat but I miss some ballads, but to answer the question:

"Goats Head Soup" are better than "Some Girls" !!

when people say that Some Girls 'got the Stones back on track', what do they mean precisely?

the Stones were 'tight rocking and swinging' with LIB, SF and Exile so I would argue that the change of direction with GHS does not mean they were stuck in a rut of lacking creativity - far from it, I actually like the fact that the band experiment with their sound, indeed Satanic majesties and GHS are two exciting albums for me - the Stones exploring different avenues.

why should i listen to SG being 'tight rocking and swinging' when i can listen to exile, which is not a cold, calculated, commercial product?

I think personal tastes change with time. My attitude has changed for instance( not looking for debates) but I now like TATTOO YOU much more than SOME GIRLS.
Even though lots of the songs are old, it holds together well, and the ballads are outstanding. HINT HINT- dont record anymore and just go into the vaults and put out albums like TY. There are some great great songs like CRISS CROSS MIND etc etc etc that sound better today than when they were first recorded aging like fine wine.

I've never really cared for Some Girls and when I found out what they left off of it the album really sits low with me. One of the best tunes is Everything Is Turning To Gold and it didn't even make the record. Shattered is the best tune on Some Girls, along with the title track. For me anyway. I agree with Miss You being overplayed - they could drop that (and Angie) for eternity and it would still be heard too much.

Goats Head Soup - scottkeef you mean REMASTERED - is Miller's last stand and I like that it's got such a relaxed feel overall. I like the riding on a cloud feel of the album as well as the murkiness. It had better not be like Exile - a garage album if there ever was one - good production my ass! That's what everyone loves about it - it sounds like shit and it's great. Exile stand out among all the albums because it sounds terrible but sounds great. Hell, the best sounding production wise tunes on Exile are the leftovers from Sticky Fingers! With possible exception to Rocks Off.

GHS is far better than Some Girls for me. It's the Stones not having to prove anything, they can just make music, do something different (Dancing With Mr D, Coming Down Again, Can You Hear The Music), do something really schmaltzy (Angie), do something somewhat typical (@#$%&), do something that is right down the middle of the rock'n'roll river (100 Years Ago, Heartbreaker, Silver Train, Criss Cross). Do something a bit dumpy (Hide Your Love).

And do something beautiful - Winter, Through The Lonely Nights and Tops.

they're so different... hard to compare. Some Girls certainly has a better sound and captures a band playing together as they hadn't been doing for some time. GHS is like the other early 70s albums in that many of the songs have only a few of the band members playing and are patched together in the overdub stage. So in that way SG sounds fresher, but GHS has a wonderful, relaxed mood.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-02-13 19:00 by cc.

Goats Head Soup is a great album, true, but Some Girls is a masterpiece.

Quote
russr
Someone please help, I think I am going crazy: I've realized over the years that I like Goats Head Soup Much more than Some Girls. I didn;t intend to, but invariably, given the choice I would always much rather listen to GHS.

LOL,
Don't worry about it. So long as you dont prefer it on purpose , that's fine ;^)

Some Girls was much much better then GHS, it did reignite the group and brought in another generation of fans, I even think Black and Blue, Tatoo you and even Undercover are much better. GHS soup sounds like the band was bored and the songs seem forced. There are a few exceptions and it was better then the shit iorr that followed but I don't understand how anybody could say GHS has more energy then some girls.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-02-13 19:09 by Ket.

both goats head soup and some girls are very good albums, not at the top of the stones tree but not every album is.

the best songs from these albums in my opinion are

silver train
shattered
star star
far away eyes
heartbreaker
respectable
angie
hide your love
before they make me run
miss you

not sure which one i prefer, pretty much the same standard i would guess.

Ok, next question then. Which one do you prefer:
Goat's Head Soup or Dancing So Free?

"And it's sure, been a cold, cold Winter...."

Not sure if it's better than "Some Girls", but, I do think GHS is easily the most underrated Stones opus.

I've always loved GHS, with "100 Years Ago" & "Winter" being two sterling examples of the stones' at thier very best. "Winter", imo, even tops the sacrosanct "MoonLihgt Mile" as perhaps one of the bands' greatest ever ballads.

Just love the atmopshere of the album..dark, lazy, druggy, decadent, it has an aura all it's own.

Some Girls is a very instant yet ultimately a very shallow album in my opinion. I can listen to it but there's really nothing on it that holds my attention longterm, by contast Goats Head Soup does sound a little unfocused and and indulgent on first impressions but i could listen to it forever and never get bored - it has a lot more depth and beauty than Some Girls. Some Girls is a sort of composite of a perfect album as the songs seem very sharp and very consistent and very immediate, but maybe that's the problem there's really very little to get your teeth into. Goats Heads Soup by contrast is the complete opposite.

I prefer Goats Head Soup any day over Some Girls.

Quote
Ket
Some Girls was much much better then GHS, it did reignite the group and brought in another generation of fans,

One of them was me - Some Girls was my first Stones record and will always hold a special place for me.