Rolling Stones mid 70s Poll (post-Exile, pre-Some Girls)

I really need to hear these albums someday.

yeah no rush

Snrub, listen to Goats Heads Soup first

i'm hearing "hand of fate" right now.. it's a great riff and mick sounds fabulous but the production sounds really off to me. too light and airy or something, not violent enough.

mandel's minimal harmonic laden solo is pretty sweet

yeah no rush

― calstars, Thursday, September 28, 2017

description of Stones recording these songs

These albums do all kinda suck.....I really like the way Charlie Watts gets them from verse to chorus on "Heartbreaker," and the completely generic unfelt social consciousness of the lyric charms me, so GHS gets my vote

Yeah, Charlie is all over the map on that one. It's almost like some free jazz shit. Also wonder if '78 Mick walking Central Park singing after dark could have been the same boy the police chased back in '74

Also no one has mentioned the causal enjoyment of "luxury!" make a million for the texan. 20 dollar me. My woman need a new dress. My daughter got to go to school.

TS: luxury vs Haitian divorce

'Luxury' is utterly terrible.

Goats Head Soup doesn't suck either.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

What the fuck? You guys don't like Mick Taylor or something?

Sorry, I hallucinated that BAB won

What the fuck? You guys don't like Mick Taylor or something?

― calstars, Friday, September 29, 2017

I do! A lot! But his last two albums suck.

Good to see that the correct choice topped the poll!

oh thank god.

Goats Head Soup is a fantastic album. There are some hints at a slide toward banality -- some of the forced vulgarity and detachment of "Doo Doo Doo Doo" and "Star Star," which to me for some reason prefigure one of their lowest moments, "Too Much Blood" -- but still. Winter. Angie.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51KTfqMf2DL._SY355_.jpg

nah, this picture alone is better than anything on Goats Head Soup

No it isn't and stop lying.

xpost:

'Heartbreaker' and 'Star Star' are two of the best things on the album.

I really love the album art as well, although I know that I'm in the minority there.

You a stawfucka stawfucka stawfucka stawfucka staw

I thought "Star Star" (and "Short and Curlies," for that matter) were puerile when I was 15.

I think that these three albums are distinguished by solid performances but a lack of actual songs. The Stones weren't yet at the don't-give-a-shit point of their career--they were still a band coming off of Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St.--but they were clearly exhausted with the process of songwriting, and needed to produce content in order to keep the brand going (and having a reason to tour). So, at best, we get half-baked things like "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll" (the song), which actually has a provocative lyrical conceit, and is tightly performed, but which they were obviously in such a hurry to complete that they just slapped the most generically anthemic chorus possible on and called it a song.

haha i love the chorus of that song but tbh 90% of that is probably the tape-bleeding delivery on the opening IIII KNOW!!!

I think that these three albums are distinguished by solid performances but a lack of actual songs.

This applies to about half of Black and Blue and It's Only Rock'n'Roll, but there's plenty of "actual songs" on all of these albums.

Before Goats Head Soup's release, Mick Jagger advertised it as a RETURN to "songs" following the freewheeling Exile.

Goats Head Soup, which is also actually one of their best albums of the '70s, even if it is a minor step down from the preceding two.

If so then I've been right in my decision to not bother listening to any 70s Stones albums released after it.

The thing about Exile on Main St. is while it definitely has some stunning all-time moments, about a quarter of the LP isn't all that great.

xpost:

Some Girls is worth a listen.

1/4 of 2 sides is still 1 1/2 albums of juice

I can't think of a song on EOMS that wouldn't have improved GHS, though admittedly they would probably have sounded shit if actually recorded at the GHS sessions.

Aerosmith snagged the vocal delivery of "Casino" and threw it on "uncle salty"

I can think of several. Like, 'Hide Your Love' and 'Silver Train' are, to me, the two "lesser" tracks on Goats Head Soup, and stuff like 'Casino Boogie', 'Shake Your Hips', 'I Just Wanna See His Face', 'Sweet Black Angel', 'Turd On The Run' are of the same quality.

Goats Head Soup doesn't sound shit either, if anything it's far more produced than Exile On Main St. and there's a thickness to the sound that Exile doesn't have.

Exile is perfect

Goats and Only sound like shit. Too much...mid range? But on Black they get some of that treble back, and then Some, which has the crispiest snare ever

xpost:

I disagree. It's a great snapshot of where the Stones were at at the time, but it definitely has its flaws.

Well it's perfect to me, I can listen to the whole thing through and never once get bored

and have a big boner the whole time too

Nah, Goats Head Soup sounds just fine... but while we're on the subject of GHS vs. EOMS, then it's always been a source of amusement that GHS gets slagged for one of the reasons EOMS gets praised. GHS actually has the druggy vibe that people say that EOMS has.

... yes, the wrong drugs.

I can think of several. Like, 'Hide Your Love' and 'Silver Train' are, to me, the two "lesser" tracks on Goats Head Soup, and stuff like 'Casino Boogie', 'Shake Your Hips', 'I Just Wanna See His Face', 'Sweet Black Angel', 'Turd On The Run' are of the same quality.

You're right that 'Hide Your Love' and 'Silver Train' are lesser but wrong about everything else. Actually I don't even mind "Silver Train" that much! Honestly though, "Winter" is a great track, "Angie" is a good song that I have no need to ever hear again, and that's about it. I'm not really much of a Stones fan though tbh.

... GHS makes me less of one.

I like the sound of GHS. I just don't think that, "Winter" aside, its in support of much.

So, at best, we get half-baked things like "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll" (the song), which actually has a provocative lyrical conceit, and is tightly performed, but which they were obviously in such a hurry to complete that they just slapped the most generically anthemic chorus possible on and called it a song.

Jim Lea from Slade was told by Mick Taylor that IORAR was an attempt to emulate Slade and their big stomping choruses, which makes sense. T.Rex groove + Slade chorus= Stones Glam

"i just wanna see his face" and "sweet black angel" are both understated masterpieces. None of the minor tracks on GHs compare xp

So, at best, we get half-baked things like "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll" (the song), which actually has a provocative lyrical conceit, and is tightly performed, but which they were obviously in such a hurry to complete...

So much so that they replaced Taylor, Wyman, and Watts with Ron Wood, Willie Weeks, and Kenney Jones.

(iirc, Jones told Watts he'd felt weird playing on a Stones song, but Charlie said, "I don't mind. Sounds like me, anyway.")

Winter is unimaginative and boring af

“I Love Ladies”

coulda fooled me

^^Wasn't that a Rod Stewart album?

Steven Wilson is also doing a new mix of the original album.

i looked up whitehallunity and they haven't posted for eight months, but just wanted to express here that i'd be interested in a re-up of their alternate Goads Head mix

― budo jeru, Saturday, February 22, 2025 3:12 PM (eight months ago)

https://we.tl/t-tKGW4DWz9M

wow, thank you!

Also, if you haven't seen it, here's a rough sketch of the originally proposed cover by Hipgnosis:

also want to re-up this because it seems to have disappeared

https://photos.smugmug.com/GLIMMERBOY-2/i-TQ92DLm/0/c5fa5e3c/O/GOATS%20HEAD%20DELUXE%20JAPANESE%2009%20.jpg

I'm surprised they didn't include any genitalia the way Guy Peellaert would for Bowie's Diamond Dogs. (Then again, I guess I shouldn't be surprised given that the latter was censored.)

astounded at my age that i'd never known/seen that Hipgnosis cover concept

knowing they'd recorded some of the Tattoo You tracks for Black and Blue has me wishing they'd finished those. remove "Cherry Oh Baby" and "Hand of Fate" into "Slave" would have been killer.

Thank you so much for reuppping that alternate Goat's Head it is great

yeah we really enjoyed listening yesterday while we were cooking