The Rolling Stones: Goats Head Soup - 1973
"We didn't know where to go to record. because Keith was in so much trouble. Jamaica sounded like a fun option" - Mick Jagger
This somewhat enigmatic, beguiling album has always suffered as the follow-up to the towering Exile On Main Street. Goat’s Head Soup has never been given too much credit. It has been criticised for being lazy and for having a muffled, muddy sound (even more so than Exile). The latter is undoubtedly true, and no amount of remastering will make any difference to that. (A 2019 remastering of the album has bestowed upon us all a seriously improved quality of sound, giving new life to The Goat. I urge everyone to listen to it).
However, it is not really a ”lazy” product, as it has often been perceived - extremely unfairly, in my opinion. “Louche” (definition: disreputable or sordid in a rakish and appealing way) is maybe a far better description - looking at that definition it would seem perfectly apt. Time, however, has seen many attitudes softening towards the goat, amongst fans and music writers alike, which is pleasing, because I have always liked it.
Anyway, to get back to the background to the album - decadence and excess, drug abuse and jet-setting rock star celebrity glamour was what The Stones were all about now. This album was a huge bridging point in the public’s perception of them, and indeed of the dynamics between themselves, particularly Jagger and Richards, as they now moved in clearly defined different directions. Richards despised Jagger’s swanning around and Jagger had no time for Richards’ voluminous drug consumption. That said, the dirtiest, most decadent songs on the album are obviously Jagger’s and the tenderest ones surprisingly Richards’. This dichotomy is no better exemplified than on Jagger's malevolent Dancing With Mr. D and Richards' beautiful Angie.
Recorded initially in Jamaica, largely because it was one of the only places that would take the group (particularly Richards) and their drug-fuelled potential for narcotic criminality. After several busts, he felt he couldn't return to the UK at the time and the USA was out of the question for a while. The sessions were fraught with tensions - the general dangerous nature of the area, continued drug use from many of the musicians involved, too many hangers-on and intra-band rows and discontent. With all that was going on it was amazing that an album was created at all. Despite that, there is some great, often overlooked stuff on here though - menacing, mysterious and moody.
Mistress D's waiting....
Dancing With Mr. D - often considered to be the Mephistophelean cousin to Sympathy For The Devil, this menacing, sleazy opener certainly ticked many of the Stygian boxes, although it is more of a grinding vibe of a track than its rhythmic and intense predecessor. It is certainly chock-full of after-dark Stonesy atmosphere. At the end, Jagger changes the words to sing "Mistress D.", cleverly outing the devil as a woman.
100 Years Ago is a doleful, melancholic bluesy grind of a song but one that was lifted up considerably by its impressive funky organ-guitar and extended instrumental ending, coming as it did after the slightly incongruous and bluesy "lazy bones" bridge. It is a song that grows on you, initially seeming somewhat dense before revealing many hidden pleasures, much like the album itself. The new remaster exacerbates that feeling too.
The comparatively gentle, sleepy ballad Coming Down Again, sung by Keith, featured some delightful Cat Stevens-esque piano, a gritty saxophone solo from Bobby Keys and a saucy, typically Stones lyric in "stuck my tongue in someone else's pie". Despite its apparent tenderness, poor old Keith is not happy that his lady (Anita Pallenberg, at the time) won't let him sleep with someone else after he's taken some drugs. You have to laugh, don't you?
One of the album's finest cuts, Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) should have been a UK single as well as a US one. Over a strong, funky-ish horn-enhanced backing, Jagger tells a grimy, urban tale of murder, mistaken identity police shooting and drug abuse. Based on true events, it was perfect subject matter for The Stones at this time and encapsulated the turmoil on New York's streets at the time. It is sort of a musical prelude to the Death Wish movies in the scene it sets. It is probably the album's best track, acknowledged as so even by non-Goat fans.
The energetic blues rocker Silver Train is a bit under-cooked, sound-wise, (improved vastly on the latest remaster) but there is no argument concerning its ebullience and vigour. It is as lively and hooky as anything else from the Stones in the period with some wonderful guitar breaks from Mick Taylor. I like it a lot. It was originally written, back in 1970, for Johnny Winter, whose own version is excellent as well, full of his trademark searing guitar. Winter's vocal actually sounds very Jagger-esque. It sounds so damn good now in its 2019 remixed glory, proving just what a great song it always was.
Hide Your Love has been condemned by some as being little more than an extended jam, I have to disagree, finding it an energising slab of Exile-style murky rock, despite its comparative lyrical paucity. That doesn't matter - it has a great, insistent bluesy vibe. Jagger is on piano on it, by the way, and it features another fine contribution from Taylor.
Winter (the track not Johnny Winter) again suffers from a few sound problems - or did, until its 2019 resurrection - with a slight crackliness during the opening guitar - but it is a beautiful slow rock ballad nevertheless, with Jagger touchingly wanting to wrap his coat around his lady. The old romantic. If it didn't sound at times (on the original recording) as if it had been recorded in someone's garage, it would be a Stones classic. The layered strings at the end are an interesting embellishment too.
Can You Hear The Music is a partner to Sticky Fingers' Can't You Hear Me Knocking in that it has an extended jam-style groove from half-way through, although the vocals continue throughout the song here, whereas they stopped after a couple of minutes on the Sticky Fingers number. It is the album's tour de force. Oh for a better sound on it, though, again. (Once more, this has been recently remedied!). Check out some of the jazzy instrumental improvisations in the song's second half.
Star Fucker was the one archetypal Stonesy rocker on the album, I'm giving it its shameless original title here and it is still available in its original, uncensored, tasteless self. All the better, because the latest “doctored” version sounds as if something is going wrong with your sound reproduction for a few seconds. They made a right mess of trying to override the offending lines, to be honest, totally ruining the song. The risqué original is far superior. Don't you just love lyrics like "your tricks with fruit were kinda cute, I bet you keep your pussy clean..." ? Only The Stones could get away with it.
The muddy sound sort of adds to the appeal of the goat. It is very much a product of its time, put it on and it's October 1973 again. Worth a bit of attention. I remember in 1973 as a fourteen year-old just properly getting into The Stones (album-wise) thinking this was a great album. I had no reason not to like it. I still like it too, always enjoying its annual listen. There is still some excellent down ‘n’ dirty Stones material on here, though, and, if it wasn’t for the appalling, muddy sound, it would have been one of their best albums. Hell, it was still The Stones and it was the first Stones album to be released after I became "album-conscious" so it was always going to be one that I liked.
There are several tracks that were initially recorded during the sessions for this album but did not appear until later on other albums. These were Short And Curlies, Through The Lonely Nights, Tops and Waiting On A Friend. The latter two surfaced on Tattoo You, the first one on the next album and the second one was the 'b' side to It's Only Rock 'n' Roll.
Released to the public in 2020 and also dating from the sessions for this album is the grinding, vaguely funky Criss Cross, which features some wah-wah guitars, funky organ and that sort of loose, sleazy Stones funk/rock that would dominate their music for years to come. It could easily be from Black And Blue or Emotional Rescue, despite dating from 1973. See the review below for comments on All The Rage.
The 2020 Remaster/Remix
Giles Martin was the remasterer on this long-awaited re-release of The Stones’ notoriously muddy album. Could he do it? You bet your ass he could! It is a triumph, in my non-audiophile opinion.
Dancing With Mr D has some much-enhanced vocal bits in it, particularly at the beginning and end, a new, massive bass sound which I absolutely adore, along with crystal clear cymbals. Jagger’s vocals improvisations at the beginning and end are now much more audible. As soon as I listen to this I am thinking that it is like a new song, the new version just leaps out of your speakers like Mephistopheles himself during a bad dream. A lot of the song’s original murk has gone, but not to the detriment of the song’s nefarious atmosphere. There is also an infectious instrumental version of the song included. The bit where the drums kick up a notch half way through 100 Years Ago is spectacular, as is the big, rumbling newly-defined bass sound. The demo version of the song with Jagger at the piano is plaintively appealing.
Listen the glorious beauty of the piano/bass/cymbal intro to Coming Down Again, and the clarity of the cheese-grater percussion when it arrives. The lead guitar sounds awesome too, as is the improved clarity of the backing vocals and Bobby Keys’ saxophone. Wonderful stuff, truly.
As for the intro to Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) - oh Lord have mercy! Power, muscle and thump. Nothing more needs to be said, really - one of the album’s best tracks now sounds even better. The bass/guitar/percussion interplay coming up to two minutes in is simply glorious. The song’s instrumental version is funkily fantastic too, just listen to those horns. The drums on Angie are sublime and the acoustic guitar crystal clear - you’re beautiful indeed. Angie, I still love you, but now even more.
Silver Train is as bluesily raucous as it ever was, but, as with the other tracks, featuring added dynamism. Check out the intro to Hide Your Love too. Both these tracks retain their attractive sleaziness but have been bestowed with extra oomph. The alternative mix of the latter is warmer, less murky and even better than the original, for me.
The underrated beauty of Winter is enhanced by some lovely, warm bass and razor sharp guitar. The strings/guitar/cymbal bit is captivating as Jagger wraps his cost around us and takes us to Califawwwnia, sounding even more like Van Morrison. You would expect the album’s instrumental tour de force, Can You Hear The Music, to be excellent, and it duly is, coming in to its own, unsurprisingly, on the flute snd percussion parts. Then, guess what? They have given us Star Fucker with the John Wayne bit left intact! The 2009 remaster was ruined by clumsy editing.
All The Rage, the other reject from the album’s sessions is a robust, upbeat rocker that no doubt we would have got used to had it been on the album but it doesn’t stand out as anything notable on its first few listens. The previously rejected Glyn Johns 1973 mixes of Mr. D, Doo Doo and Silver Train have been well remastered but, for me, only the latter really can be seen as bettering the new remaster of the original release of the tracks.
The first, dancey, contemporary remix of Scarlet is catchy and debatably improves on the original, while the second one renders the track much more grungy and edgy. Both are listenable, the former much more so, though. The original is discussed in more detail on the review for the It's Only Rock 'n' Roll album.
The live gig previously known as The Brussels Affair that is included in the box set was always one of the best Stones live shows around. It still is. The remaster is even better than the previously available on, though - louder and chunkier.
I never expected my old caprine friend to ever sound this good, but, blow me down, he does.
