Rolling Stones' Goats Head Soup - is it underrated because it came after Exile?

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or are there other reasons?

cause it's a great record you know.

nostormo, Friday, 27 June 2014 14:12 (ten years ago) link

It's underrated because most of the songs are retreads or suck.

guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 27 June 2014 14:15 (ten years ago) link

It's one of only two TPL entries that I've done so far where I've very nearly fallen asleep while listening to it. The other was 40 Greatest by Perry Como.

I just heard "Angie" in a Parisian supermarket, seemed about right.

Euler, Friday, 27 June 2014 14:21 (ten years ago) link

at least you agree it's underrated...

yeah most songs are retreads but so what?

it's not as good as the Beggars->Exile records but how many records are?

Winter, Star Star, Heartbreaker, 100 Years, Silver Train are all very good.

BTW, isn't Some Girls (which i agree is better) a retread too?

nostormo, Friday, 27 June 2014 14:24 (ten years ago) link

Angie suck

nostormo, Friday, 27 June 2014 14:25 (ten years ago) link

I can't stand "Heartbreaker" or "Silver Train" or "Angie," in which Jagger makes Bowie sound like a model of emotional transparency. I have no problem calling GHS their worst album of the period.

guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 27 June 2014 14:27 (ten years ago) link

Better than It's Only Rock and Roll, that's for sure

Iago Galdston, Friday, 27 June 2014 14:29 (ten years ago) link

Better than everything until Some Girls.
(and after for that matter)

nostormo, Friday, 27 June 2014 14:30 (ten years ago) link

it's the start of the decline, but the landslide is still to come imo

nostormo, Friday, 27 June 2014 14:31 (ten years ago) link

Black and Blue, Emotional Rescue, Dirty World – all better than GHS>

guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 27 June 2014 14:33 (ten years ago) link

*Dirty Work

guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 27 June 2014 14:33 (ten years ago) link

post-'exile' rolling stones POLL (studio albums)

i'm with the ilx consensus...

nostormo, Friday, 27 June 2014 14:33 (ten years ago) link

Love "Heartbreaker" -- or rather, "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)" -- and "Angie." The rest makes me shout at them to wake the fuck up.

The tour was apparently ok, though; that Brussels show the released is nuts, and Taylor's completely raging.

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 27 June 2014 14:37 (ten years ago) link

*they released

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 27 June 2014 14:38 (ten years ago) link

Worth it for "Star Star" alone. As great a throwaway smutty Stones punk joke as "Summer Romance" or "Claudine" with a great ridiculous Jagger vocal in an "southern" accent so eccentric and invented it's practically its own dialect. You-ah-stah-fuckah-stah-fuckah-stah.

Brio2, Friday, 27 June 2014 14:46 (ten years ago) link

i'm on the record with my unabashed love for winter. star star's a hoot too. i'd put it on par with emotional rescue and a step up from black and blue and dirty work.

def would be A Return To Form if it came after "only rock'n'roll" and "black and blue" [ignoring for a moment the obvious personnel changes]

resulting post (rogermexico.), Friday, 27 June 2014 14:48 (ten years ago) link

relistening to Star Star now: if they picked up the tempo gave it some Some Girls sharpness (like Respectable maybe) and shaved a minute off it, it would be blistering. As is, it's a fun deep cut to sing along to in the car.

Brio2, Friday, 27 June 2014 14:51 (ten years ago) link

I enjoy this album a lot: 'Dancing With Mr. D', '100 Years Ago' (love the way it switches through multiple sections), 'Heartbreaker' (those horns!), 'Angie' (of course), and 'Star Star' all being my personal highlights. Love the general vibe of 'Can You Hear The Music Too'. Some of the slower-paced ballads on this could do with a bit of editing, but otherwise no complaints.

this was one of the last stones records i got around to and, having heard so many "underrated" claims over the years, was expecting something decent. but aside from a couple of songs i find most of the album tuneless and boring. it sounds like a collection of half-assed and underwritten b-sides.

sleepingsignal, Friday, 27 June 2014 15:18 (ten years ago) link

'Coming Down Again' sounds like it would fit snugly on George Harrison's Extra Texture. It kinda has the same "so laid back it sounds like the artist couldn't give a fuck" vibe to it. Thing is, though, I think it's better than anything off that Harrison LP, apart from 1 or 2 tracks.

It does need at least about a minute and a half to two minutes shaved off it, though.

Love it. Maybe it was the junkie excess at the time it was made but sonically it hits some - I dunno - nice sleazy, funky marks along the way.

Acid Hose (Capitaine Jay Vee), Friday, 27 June 2014 15:23 (ten years ago) link

That's one of the reasons I like the record so much: the vibe. Stones albums have always been an honest reflection of the general mood of the band at the time, and it's something that can't help but show through in the playing.

'Hide Your Love' is definitely my least favourite thing here, though.

I love 100 Years Ago.

voodoo chili, Friday, 27 June 2014 15:46 (ten years ago) link

yeah "100 years ago" is my favorite track.

sleepingsignal, Friday, 27 June 2014 23:02 (ten years ago) link

i always figured people didn't like this because it feels like it set the template for subsequent shitty stones records, even though it itself is not shitty

schlump, Friday, 27 June 2014 23:05 (ten years ago) link

angie rules btw

schlump, Friday, 27 June 2014 23:05 (ten years ago) link

horrible album cover, only to be surpassed in short order by it's only rock n roll.

fact checking cuz, Saturday, 28 June 2014 00:44 (ten years ago) link

awww i like guy peellaert. i think bowie heard they were using peellaert and got him to do diamond dogs and get it out first(?)

Iago Galdston, Saturday, 28 June 2014 00:47 (ten years ago) link

diamond dogs is a good cover.

fact checking cuz, Saturday, 28 June 2014 00:54 (ten years ago) link

true, much better than IOR&R

Iago Galdston, Saturday, 28 June 2014 00:59 (ten years ago) link

Great album

brimstead, Saturday, 28 June 2014 01:54 (ten years ago) link

if they picked up the tempo gave it some Some Girls sharpness (like Respectable maybe) and shaved a minute off it, it would be blistering.

How about shaving off 30 seconds and having Joan Jett sing it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ll6oCWiH7g

Every lyric website has this for the 2nd verse:

Honey, honey, call me on the telephone
I know you're movin' out to Hollywood
With your can of tasty foam

"With your can of tasty foam"?! That can't possibly be right, is it? I always thought it was "Where you can taste the bone."

Hideous Lump, Saturday, 28 June 2014 04:18 (ten years ago) link

Side 2 is essentially perfect, and how often can you say that about a record?
I'll go with underrated-shocking to see Xgau prefer It's Only Rock N Roll.

Nostormo, if you haven't heard the Brussels Affair yet, it's tremendous.

campreverb, Saturday, 28 June 2014 18:25 (ten years ago) link

Bought it as a kid around the time it came out, lost or destroyed that copy, bought it again a few years ago at a record show. "Coming Down Again" is the only song I have on my hard drive.

clemenza, Saturday, 28 June 2014 18:31 (ten years ago) link

there's a lack of arresting instrumental interplay on a bunch of songs on this record. a lot of it just seems flat-footed, which is weird since sticky fingers and exile are such great groove records.

it's still probably better than it's only rock and roll.

I dunno. (amateurist), Sunday, 29 June 2014 04:30 (ten years ago) link

That's about right. Although the other one does have "Time Waits For No One," "Fingerprint File" and the cod but catchy reggae of "Luxury."

Riot In #9 Dream (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 29 June 2014 04:35 (ten years ago) link

they kind of sound like (again) flat-footed rolling stones imitators on parts of both LPs. like, oh yeah that def sounds like mick & keith but some essential part of the genetic code is missing.

I dunno. (amateurist), Sunday, 29 June 2014 04:45 (ten years ago) link

of course, it's been mostly missing for nearly 30 years by now, too, but in the context of the 1970s...

I dunno. (amateurist), Sunday, 29 June 2014 04:46 (ten years ago) link

one year passes...

relistening to Star Star now: if they picked up the tempo gave it some Some Girls sharpness (like Respectable maybe) and shaved a minute off it,

Every single song on this album needs (at least) a minute shaved of it, the thing is 47 minutes minutes long ferchrissakes. Could do with losing the strings too. Nice gtr solo on 'Winter'. There isn't really anything (musically) surprising on this apart from 'Can You Hear the Music' and I'm no great fan of that track.

holger sharkey (Tom D.), Thursday, 9 July 2015 16:48 (nine years ago) link

seven months pass...

I'm giving this a spin again tonight, and yes, I do truly believe that this record is underrated as a consequence of coming off the back of three of their most astounding records. While it's not a flawless record ('Hide Your Love' is the weak link here, for me) it's not an out-and-out stinker either, and the band would go on to make far, far, far worse records than this IMO. It's easily one of my favourite records they made post-Exile, some beautiful songs on this.

The Dave Grohl of ILX (Turrican), Tuesday, 16 February 2016 19:30 (eight years ago) link

It's underrated because it's called Goat's Head Soup.

Mr. Snrub, Tuesday, 16 February 2016 19:57 (eight years ago) link

one year passes...

oh man, Angie always brings the chills. i don't think it's even one of the Stones' best 50 songs. but still. maybe the tension it generates is due to Jagger's diction being sort of uncomfortable to listen to.

charlie h, Wednesday, 29 November 2017 08:35 (seven years ago) link

two years pass...

GHS is the next box set. 4 discs, 3 'unheard songs', out in September, further deets to come

Single: "Criss Cross" Funky!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSpGnZmGWBk

"...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 9 July 2020 15:51 (four years ago) link

:D

budo jeru, Thursday, 9 July 2020 16:17 (four years ago) link

there’s an old ilm post about black and blue that’s like “its a 70s stones album, we’re good here”, like.. a given 70s stones album may not be on the level of Sticky Fingers, but it’s the 70s stones and just hearing those guys play, recorded in that good ole 70s style, is a fuckin treat.

brimstead, Thursday, 9 July 2020 18:15 (four years ago) link

unlike, say, this album.

TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 9 July 2020 18:18 (four years ago) link

Brussels Affair fucking rules

Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 9 July 2020 18:58 (four years ago) link

Yes!

calstars, Friday, 8 April 2022 19:09 (two years ago) link

There's Glitter In Me Cocaine!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOUetwr3h04

Love Charlie's "This Fuckin' Guy Over Here..." reaction cutaways.

Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 8 April 2022 19:55 (two years ago) link

^^Which is basically Charlie in all their '70s promos.

Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 8 April 2022 19:56 (two years ago) link

End of Prince's magical run (relatively) would be Lovesexy, right?
Also Grateful Dead Wake of the Flood

J. Sam, Friday, 8 April 2022 20:13 (two years ago) link

Love that video. (Love most of the Stones' proto-music videos from the '70s.) Mick Jagger looks like someone's aunt in a lip-sync contest. Mick Taylor looks 14. Bill Wyman looks like he's in Black Sabbath. Charlie Watts looks like he wants to throat-punch everyone else. Keith is...present.

but also fuck you (unperson), Friday, 8 April 2022 20:18 (two years ago) link

"Hand of Fate" is a banger as well.

immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Friday, 8 April 2022 20:58 (two years ago) link

I'm a afraid Keith is going to spray teeth everywhere every time he steps up to the microphone.

Is Wake of the Flood considered a disappointment?

reassessing life after bookmarking a Will Smith thread (PBKR), Friday, 8 April 2022 21:01 (two years ago) link

I’m listening to this for the first time because of this thread.

Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 8 April 2022 21:33 (two years ago) link

What do you think?

reassessing life after bookmarking a Will Smith thread (PBKR), Friday, 8 April 2022 22:18 (two years ago) link

He's probably still asleep.

Phil McCracken (Tom D.), Friday, 8 April 2022 22:22 (two years ago) link

xp With Prince it depends how you think about it. His sales basically declined, album to album, from Purple Rain through Lovesexy, with the cover nude basically cementing the "Prince is Weird" mainstream narrative. His commercial fortunes then actually improved with Batman and Diamonds & Pearls, before another tumble. Artistically it's arguable but I'd venture that many Prince fans think his godlike run definitely includes Lovesexy; if it had a different cover I think fewer people would consider it a falloff.

Freeze Instr., Saturday, 9 April 2022 00:17 (two years ago) link

In Europe he did better during the late '80s than in America, and look at his album hits in England after that.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 9 April 2022 00:25 (two years ago) link

I like Elton John, but he's mostly a singles artist to me - beyond a handful of deep cuts, the only albums I really enjoy as albums are Honky Chateau, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Rock of the Westies. I want to say "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" may be the last memorable single of his "classic" run, even though I don't get the impression many fans like the album it came from. (I don't.)

Prince is a little more complicated because he kind of rebounded a few times, but as a massive Prince fan, I collected "everything" from his self-titled second album all the way to The Truth. (I do have "Soft and Wet" and the title track from For You on a homemade compilation.) But except for The Gold Experience, things were kind of uneven from Lovesexy to the end of that period. He was so prolific that with some pruning those years could've had some rock solid consistency, but you had stuff like Tony M being the weak link in the NPG, soundtracks like Batman and Graffiti Bridge that weren't going to be major works given how they came together, a three-hour album that had at best 90 minutes of great music, etc...

birdistheword, Saturday, 9 April 2022 01:39 (two years ago) link

That's a lot of Elton John to love, actually.

So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 9 April 2022 01:48 (two years ago) link

It’s pretty good, particular Side B.

Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Saturday, 9 April 2022 02:24 (two years ago) link

xp Except for a few big omissions, I thought To Be Continued was an excellent box set and somewhat underrated - it's almost a perfect Elton John collection, and that's four CD's packed to the brim. Sounds modest compared to the gargantuan sets released now, but for a consistently top shelf career retrospective, four CD's is a lot.

birdistheword, Saturday, 9 April 2022 02:39 (two years ago) link

I just realized I misread "That's" as "There's" hah...yes, guilty as charged!

birdistheword, Saturday, 9 April 2022 02:40 (two years ago) link

Is Wake of the Flood considered a disappointment?

The release fared better on the pop charts than their previous studio album (1970's American Beauty), reaching No. 18.[7]

ass time permits (morrisp), Saturday, 9 April 2022 02:56 (two years ago) link

it's worth it for "winter" & "coming down again" & most of the rest is ok.
lots of people (critics, anyway) say "listen to the music" & "dancing with mr d" are rotten, right? i like both those. "angie" is very bad tho, turn off the radio time.

the coming of prince kajagoogoo (doo rag), Saturday, 9 April 2022 20:26 (two years ago) link

When the guitar riff first appears by itself in the opening of "Dancing with Mr. D," it's pretty awesome. The lyrics get a lot flak, but they were kind of hard to make out - I didn't even know what Jagger was singing until I read a lyric sheet.

"Winter" is pretty nice - I think Glyn Johns loves that track more than anything else on the album - and Billy Preston is especially good on "Coming Down Again."

birdistheword, Saturday, 9 April 2022 21:49 (two years ago) link

Been digging on this cover. It's such a stomper. Sorry back to the soup...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYvYrN6sxaA

Heartbreaker is some legit 70s funk. Maybe it's the lyrics but you know that Jagger was trying to get Superfly as f on that tune. It sounds like it should be in some lost NY exploitation crime movie with Robert Blake and Roy Schieder. It would be the theme to the 70s @ Satriale's

earlnash, Sunday, 10 April 2022 03:21 (two years ago) link

Roy Schieder as a young uncle Junior. That would kick ass.

earlnash, Sunday, 10 April 2022 03:21 (two years ago) link

Billy Preston is especially good on "Coming Down Again."

...so good he steals the credit from Nicky Hopkins!

Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 10 April 2022 04:24 (two years ago) link

Jesus, I mixed it up with "100 Years Ago" (which ALSO has Hopkins, but I'm thinking specifically of Preston on the clavinet).

birdistheword, Sunday, 10 April 2022 04:38 (two years ago) link

one year passes...

HIDIN IN A CORNER IN NU YORK SITTY
LOOKIN DOWN A 44 IN WEST VIRGINNY

ꙮ (map), Sunday, 17 March 2024 21:07 (ten months ago) link

"Winter" is a jam.

poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 17 March 2024 21:55 (ten months ago) link

Sometimes I wanna wrap my coat around ya

brimstead, Monday, 18 March 2024 00:58 (ten months ago) link

other times I worry you'll stain it

poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 18 March 2024 00:59 (ten months ago) link

"Winter" is a jam.


like “sway” and “moonlight mile,” a Jagger/Taylor joint. what might have been…

poster of sparks (rogermexico.), Sunday, 31 March 2024 23:47 (ten months ago) link

I don’t hear the half magic in “winter” that I do in the other two

calstars, Monday, 1 April 2024 00:05 (ten months ago) link

nine months pass...

Love Keith’s vocal on “coming down”

calstars, Saturday, 11 January 2025 16:34 (four weeks ago) link

Me, too!

completely suited to the horny decadence (Capitaine Jay Vee), Saturday, 11 January 2025 16:56 (four weeks ago) link

“And I did not know her name
But I sure love the way that she laughed and took my money
And I did not know her name
And I did not know her name
But I sure loved the way that she laughed and called me Honey”

I had this experience last year

calstars, Saturday, 11 January 2025 17:33 (four weeks ago) link

Finally came around to “winter”

calstars, Saturday, 11 January 2025 18:47 (four weeks ago) link

There are other good songs on this album but "Dancing With Mr. D" is trying so hard to so little effect it's like the band trips first thing out of the starting gate.

Halfway there but for you, Monday, 13 January 2025 02:35 (four weeks ago) link

just sounds like chooglin to me

budo jeru, Monday, 13 January 2025 03:16 (four weeks ago) link

This album is fine to me, I don’t get the hate. It’s not top tier but I like it more than black and blue , it only Rick and roll, and, tbh, there are songs on it I prefer to many things on exile.

I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Monday, 13 January 2025 03:22 (four weeks ago) link

love this record front to back. i love the simplicity and the room to breathe

budo jeru, Monday, 13 January 2025 03:22 (four weeks ago) link

and then "angie" at the center like a jewel sitting on a snow cone

budo jeru, Monday, 13 January 2025 03:32 (four weeks ago) link

yeah i love that song ("dancing with mr. d"). i get a real kick out of the lyrics. not really sure why it's so divisive, kind of a no brainer jam afaict.

"one hundred years ago" sounds like a band song? "coming down" is sublime.

"heartbreaker" hits harder than it should. i love "silver train". i came around on "angie" - sounded dopey to me at first but now it affects me. "can you hear the music" and "star star" are silly psych and glam hangovers respectively but i like em. it's a grab bag as an album i guess but it's charming imo.

hexham head (map), Monday, 13 January 2025 03:33 (four weeks ago) link

"silver train" is basically their "train round the bend"

budo jeru, Monday, 13 January 2025 03:37 (four weeks ago) link

yes and it's glorious for it

hexham head (map), Monday, 13 January 2025 03:38 (four weeks ago) link

I would say, yes, it's because it was the follow-up to Exile

Grape Fired At Czar From Crack Battery (President Keyes), Monday, 13 January 2025 16:43 (four weeks ago) link

it was the follow-up to Exile

This is the part I always forget. I can never remember what order the albums between Exile and Tattoo You came out, and there always seems to be one more than I remember. (Emotional Rescue is the one I usually forget, but as I was mentally listing them in my head just now I realized I had forgotten about the existence of Some Girls.)

Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Monday, 13 January 2025 17:17 (four weeks ago) link

is "Silver Train" the one with Jagger yowling while pounding on a piano?

the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 January 2025 17:59 (four weeks ago) link

it's a blues rock song, a rarity in the rolling stones catalog. it's all about getting buried in that pile-up of guitars, the slide guitar lead, the harmonica etc.

hexham head (map), Monday, 13 January 2025 18:06 (four weeks ago) link

Jagger yowling while pounding on a piano?

That's "Hide Your Love"

Halfway there but for you, Monday, 13 January 2025 18:12 (four weeks ago) link

Johnny Winter's "Silver Train", released a few months before this album, is not bad, especially if you're comparing guitars and not singing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VojeFLos3Uc

Halfway there but for you, Monday, 13 January 2025 18:24 (four weeks ago) link

"Silver Train" was an Exile leftover, mix & all. The "She laughed and took my money" song.

Okay, heteros are cutting edge this year, too. (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 13 January 2025 19:08 (four weeks ago) link

That's "Hide Your Love"

― Halfway there but for you,

yes, that's it!

the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 January 2025 20:30 (four weeks ago) link


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