I have always loved GHS and NEVER liked Some Girls, not one bit! The punk influence irritated me, still does. I associate the album with Mick's red vinyl outfits ( ok, maybe they WERE leather!), the ultra short hair cut, the songs produced at a pace that was way too quick, the forgettable song list. I agree with Skipstone's first post totally! ( not your second one though...I never liked Emotional Rescue" (---INDIAN GIRL"!! YIKES!), or Dirty Work! Exile will always be their masterpiece, for me, followed by Sticky Fingers, Let It Bleed, Beggar's Banquet, Aftermath, and actually ALL of their 60's albums. The later albums that I love are Steel Wheels, No Security, and ABB.

'Some Girls' is, lyrically, the high point of Mick's career as a writer.

I think the 'punk influence' is overstated somewhat. Its not like the Sex Pistols invented fast songs with about three chords. Two or three such songs doesnt make it a 'punk' album. Theres nods to disco, country, funk and a wonderful Motown cover on there too, all mixed up and served in their own sauce.

Up there with Exile and Sticky Fingers as the greatest record they ever made for me. And they never LOOKED cooler, either.

And the way the album is recorded is wonderful, whereas GHS is sonically one of the muddiest sounding records they ever made, which detracts from some fine songs that are on it, even though theres a few that are a bit lightweight.

That said, theres nothing on Some Girls thats quite as majestic as 'Winter'



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-02-15 14:47 by Gazza.

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

Dancing So Free. I got a new appreciation for GHS after listening to it than hadnt been there for about 20 years.

Gazza wrote:

"Theres nods to disco, country, funk and a wonderful Motown cover on there too, all mixed up and served in their own sauce."

Gazza, you put it right IMO, the great thing with Some Girls is that there's many influences but only one fantastic whole in the end.

Gazza wrote:

"That said, theres nothing on Some Girls thats quite as majestic as 'Winter'"

Yep, that's right too!

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mickschix
I have always loved GHS and NEVER liked Some Girls, not one bit! The punk influence irritated me, still does. I associate the album with Mick's red vinyl outfits ( ok, maybe they WERE leather!), the ultra short hair cut, the songs produced at a pace that was way too quick, the forgettable song list. I agree with Skipstone's first post totally! ( not your second one though...I never liked Emotional Rescue" (---INDIAN GIRL"!! YIKES!), or Dirty Work! Exile will always be their masterpiece, for me, followed by Sticky Fingers, Let It Bleed, Beggar's Banquet, Aftermath, and actually ALL of their 60's albums. The later albums that I love are Steel Wheels, No Security, and ABB.

Mickschix. I've been saying this all along. Everytime I put down Some Girls I get ripped apart. I don't get it. Shattered? Lies? come on please. Punk sucks. ABB is 100 times better.

Respectable better than 100 Years ago?

Totally disagree: Respectable is third-rate Stone's rocker. Yawn.

100 Years ago is a first rate bluesy pop tune.

And the playing is spectacular...listen to the delicious bass line...the driving piano parts....and the terrific lead.

It's a real gem in the Stones catelogue.

Mystones

How about the Clash, Buzzcocks, Jam, Pistols, Elvis Costello, Squeeze, XTC?

I think it was mentioned before....GHS has more musical depth...meaning there is alot more going on musically than Some Girls...Love the drugged out whatever attitude on GHS, it just fits the 1973 malaise of the times....but I also love the frenetic pace of Some Girls and the "no matter what these young punks say, we're still the Stones and we can still kick you ass"....even by borrowing your own style...we're better!....snarl

the shoot 'em dead, brainbell jangler!

Never the less, I have both and I listen to both but...GHS gets way more playing time than SG. I think partially because of the two songs that I tend to skip on SG (the awful Miss You and Beast Of Burden) really shorten that album which, if you go to the B-sides etc...would or could be that much better with Turning To Gold... and I only skip Angie on GHS...

What gets me about SG is that they had over 40 songs for it and they put a cover on it? C'mon!

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My Stones
Mickschix. I've been saying this all along. Everytime I put down Some Girls I get ripped apart. I don't get it. Shattered? Lies? come on please. Punk sucks. ABB is 100 times better.

Yeah, 'Lies' is really representative of the whole album.

And 'Shattered' a punk song? Sure, the Sex Pistols records are just drenched in distorted guitar effectss, pedal steels, percussion and a vocal style which if anything is closer to an early form of rap than anything else.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-02-15 18:33 by Gazza.

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rattler2004
I think it was mentioned before....GHS has more musical depth...meaning there is alot more going on musically than Some Girls...Love the drugged out whatever attitude on GHS, it just fits the 1973 malaise of the times....but I also love the frenetic pace of Some Girls and the "no matter what these young punks say, we're still the Stones and we can still kick you ass"....even by borrowing your own style...we're better!....snarl

GHS has more musical styles for sure but that doesnt necessarily translate into more good songs.

Some Girls is just awful.

SG marked a new and fresh approach. I appreciate it but I never felt comfortable with the album(Miss you I found horrible as a rock'n roll fan, lies is nothing, respectable and when the whip comes down just average numbers played more aggressive)for me GHS gives much more.

The strange thing is i thought i was the only one who didn't particuarly like Some Girls, and found Goats Head Soup a far more enduring listening experience. I can understand Gazza's point about Some Girls good songs but they are certainly in the most part pretty shallow and insubstantial with for me only very fleeting appeal. Respectable, When The Whip Comes Down, Shattered, Lies etc. sound great perhaps on a first, second or third listen but i find them strictly one dimensional thereafter especially when compared with Goats Head Soup and much of their output at least from Aftermath leading up to it. Maybe Some Girls is a little too clean and precise and could have done with a little more decadence, impenetrability, and a slightly more rough and unfocused feel which makes the Stones music in the main a far more deeply emotionally felt experience than many of their contempories,especially the Beatles.

The problem for me is Some Girls is a little too upfront, a little too obvious which leads me to finding it rather shallow and boring over the longterm, which could never be said for Goats Head Soup, and the previous four albums. Maybe the album did fit in with punks back to basics raw energy, but that's not necessarily the only path the Stones could have taken at that point. Albums like Lou Reed's Street Hassle released around the same time has proved a much more substantial listening experience.

As always, it's a time and place thing for us all.

When GHS came out, I got it for my 13th birthday - my parents had heard "Angie", not "Star, Star"! I really liked "100 YA".

SG came out the week that I graduated from high school and spent a week of partying to it in Panama City Beach. The soundtrackof the summer of 78. Love 'em both, but my vote is to SG.

"No Anchovies, Please"

Of course, Miss you is really one of their highpoints and nothing on GHS is better, but Some Girls is a great EP not LP. The toungue in cheek feel is ok but GHS is for real. Winter is a "real" song. Coming down again too.

Now had they included a finished version of Separetly (their best outtake) and a few other gems fro the GHS era....

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My Stones
Some Girls is just awful.

WNY Stones I presume...what a wimp

why because I stated my opinion?.......what a republican.

Miss You better than anything on GHS?

C'mon...Angie alone is better song for song.

And I really like Miss You....

.....peeps are just trying to be provacative. SG is one of their greatest achievements as a band. They were left for dead and they pulled it out of their collective asses.
They knew it was as good as anything they had ever done and they went out and played the record almost entirely on that 78 tour. That, even today speaks volumes.
You wanna argue individual songs, go ahead, but Some Girls, the album, stands the test of time.

Just exactly what does WNY Stones mean anyway?

I find GHS easier on the ears - and hips - overall. Sound wise, tone wise, vibe wise. SG is still a fantastic album overall, given the many different styles on the record. It's just a bit too short.

But it still kicks.

I guess it all boils down to what you like.
To my ears Some Girls is the sound of The Stones trying desperately to latch onto what was hot at the time and is not the sound of The Stones being The Stones. Granted it does have some damned fine tracks on it (I've already listed Miss You as being the best Stones song of the 70s in another thread after all!) but it just sounds far too derivative to my ears.
The Stones trying to be The New York Dolls is so not my cup of tea! Whereas The Stones trying to take their sound further as they tried to do on Goats Head Soup appeals to me infinitely more. It's not their best produced album by a long shot but they were trying to do stuff on that album that seems to me be a natural flow in their career - Angie for one, Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) for another - sounds that they didn't really touch on previously (not in that way at any rate) but so much more in tune with what The Stones were about than anything that appeared on Some Girls.
Thus I rate Goats Head Soup just outside my top five Stones albums whereas Some Girls is in the bottom quarter.

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My Stones

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Erik_Snow

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My Stones
Some Girls is just awful.

WNY Stones I presume...what a wimp

why because I stated my opinion?.......what a republican.

Yeah, theres plenty of republicans in Norway....

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Gazza

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My Stones

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Erik_Snow

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My Stones
Some Girls is just awful.

WNY Stones I presume...what a wimp

why because I stated my opinion?.......what a republican.

Yeah, theres plenty of republicans in Norway....

Sorry to hear that. You have my sympathy. Take care.

Some Girls saved the Stones carrer at the time, their current fanbase (about 90%) are from that era (1978-1981)

MYSTONES, I really don't care if the majority of posters LOVE Some Girls! The songs you named are SUB-PAR, end of story! " LIES", well how can I say it nicely....common, comes to mind and very elementary at best. Gazza knows how I adore Mick so he is being tricky by saying it's Mick's finest hour! ( I know, not a direct quote but HE KNOWS he has me in a weird place by calling it MIck's album....I am THE DEFENDER of Mick. ) And I do not like the way he LOOKED during that phase...really short hair, odd caps etc. The dress is not important! It is about the music! I cannot warm up to Some Girls, never could! The " country" song is tongue-in-cheek, as far as I'm concerned, especially the way Mick drawls out " BAKERSFIELD". " Far Away Eyes" really knocks some fans out of their seats...not me! Maybe because I associate it with almost being killed in Philly during that tune!! That's a tale for another day. Let's just say, the 90,000 at JFK Stadium that June day in 1978 was a bit out of control. Goat's Head Soup simply swirls, thanks to Mick Taylor's fluid playing. It is almost trance-like in parts. " !00 Years Ago" is a very under-played, ignored track, not sure why and even Gazza admits to the beauty of " Winter". " Doo Doo Heartbreaker" is simply stunning, and I can't think of a bomb on the entire cd. The murkiness adds to the sureal feeling of this collection. Nice to see that you also agree, Judas. Ah well, Gazza, it's nice to disagree once in awhile. I attribute the difference to the few years I have on you!

Beast of Burden is a pretty good song.
I think Goat Head Soup is better than Emotional Rescue but not in the ball park of SG. 4 fast songs does not make it a punk album although definitely a kick in the ass to punk with those few numbers especially Respectable. Just My Imagination was one of the fast ones and it was a great cover. The other songs include disco, rap, country and a couple middle paced rockers including a great Keith song. That anyone got tired of this after a few listens is hard for me to comprehend.

Hey mickschix, my second post was a joke (that Dirty Work and Emotional Rescue are way better than GHS and SG).

It's odd maybe but I've always liked Lies. I guess because it's a thousand miles and hour and Mick is just slur-screaming the words...it's just hilarious. The guitars snarl.

So Summer Romance and Where The Boys go are supposedly SG leftovers - does anyone think SG would have been a bit better if Summer Romance was on it? As well as Turning To Gold? I never thought of Shattered as some answer to punk, I've always thought it was a cool lick/riff/groove deal. Of course, I prefer the 1994 live version over ANY other version of it.

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Judas72
To my ears Some Girls is the sound of The Stones trying desperately to latch onto what was hot at the time and is not the sound of The Stones being The Stones. Granted it does have some damned fine tracks on it (I've already listed Miss You as being the best Stones song of the 70s in another thread after all!) but it just sounds far too derivative to my ears.
The Stones trying to be The New York Dolls is so not my cup of tea! Whereas The Stones trying to take their sound further as they tried to do on Goats Head Soup appeals to me infinitely more. It's not their best produced album by a long shot but they were trying to do stuff on that album that seems to me be a natural flow in their career - Angie for one, Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) for another - sounds that they didn't really touch on previously (not in that way at any rate) but so much more in tune with what The Stones were about than anything that appeared on Some Girls.
Thus I rate Goats Head Soup just outside my top five Stones albums whereas Some Girls is in the bottom quarter.

Amen. The Stones being Stones on GHS, Stones acting Stones on SG.

I think Tattoo You is also much better than Some Girls - it's certainly more substantial.