Graded on a Curve: The Rolling Stones, Goats Head Soup

This contender for essentially the most disappointing follow-up album ever has caught mucho flak over time, and for good cause. It’s immensely troublesome to think about how The Rolling Stones might have topped its predecessor, 1972’s Exile on Main Street, simply some of the good rock LPs of all time. But then once more the band had been one-upping themselves each day trip since 1968’s Beggars Banquet, and if anybody stood an opportunity of besting Exile on Main Street it was the Stones.

Needless to say, 1973’s Goats Head Soup isn’t any Exile on Main Street. Again, hardly stunning. The Stones would have had to have the ability to stroll on water to up the ante as soon as once more. What is stunning are the precipitous drop-off in tune high quality and the often rote and desultory performances. Goats Head Soup isn’t a “not as nice as” proposition. Goats Head Soup is a merely good album from a band that would seemingly do no mistaken and was on the peak of its powers.

Worse, it was the start of a chronic decline, and certainly the band’s dying rattle if like me you’ve by no means warmed as much as their “comeback” album, 1978’s Some Girls, or something that got here afterwards for that matter. Mick Jagger mentioned on the time, “It wasn’t as obscure as [Exile on Main Street] which form of went on so lengthy that I didn’t like a few of the issues. There’s extra thought to this one.” “More thought”? No one ever referred to as Mick a deep thinker.

Critical reception was combined. Some deluded souls mentioned it stood up towards Exile on Main Street and 1971’s Sticky Fingers—victims, I believe, of both wishful pondering or outright denial. Others weren’t so variety. Lester Bangs referred to as it “unhappy.” Greg Shaw wrote that the album had “no redeeming qualities in any way” after which doubled down by writing there was “nothing good” about it.” The phrase “decadent” acquired bandied about quite a bit, and oddly sufficient—given the Stones’ fame for extra—it was not meant as a praise.

And even a few of the people who appreciated the album conceded that it lacked coherence, and was merely a set of songs. As for the blame, most pointed to Jagger’s transformation right into a jet-setting movie star whoremonger and Richards’ commencement to full-blown junkie. I additionally blame Bill Wyman, although he solely performs on three songs on the album. But then once more I blame Bill Wyman for just about every thing, together with international warming.

It goes with out saying that there are a number of excellent songs on Goats Head Soup. And most of its songs rise up, though I discover it disconcerting how a lot I like sure elements of some songs greater than I just like the songs themselves. That’s by no means good. And Goats Head Soup additionally consists of some shoddy items. Astounding that common from the band that gave us Exile is demoralizing sufficient. Bad is a stable blow to the photo voltaic plexus. And as I can’t stress sufficient, solely a yr had handed because the band launched their masterpiece. Goats Head Soup is extra than simply the most important letdown in rock historical past—it’s a physician-certified case of Rapid Onset Musical Dementia.

The hassle begins, nicely, at first. “Dancing with Mr. D.” is B-movie kitsch in the identical manner that “Midnight Rambler” from the Stones’ 1970 reside album Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! was dangerous psychodrama. On “Dancing with Mr. D.” Jagger’s flirtation with the darkish facet lastly degenerates into self-parody and ludicrous farce. Keith Richards could have been dancing with Mr. D. on the time, however Mick was far too busy hobnobbing with the likes of Princess Margaret. The tune jogs my memory a little bit of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” however Jackson was consciously celebrating kitsch, and moreover you’ll be able to dance to it—one thing you’ll be able to’t do (sarcastically sufficient) with “Dancing with Mr. D.” Its “spooky” vibe (isn’t that opening guitar determine creepy?) is a joke, Jagger’s vocals are hit and miss, and whereas the tune grinds away properly, it additionally has a congealed really feel to it.

Jagger’s vocal efficiency on “100 Years Ago” sounds lazy—he’s not his imply self till about midway by means of, and even then he comes throughout as a man who’s strangling on his $1200 Hermès scarf. The tune itself goes by means of as many adjustments as your common prog-rocker. Billy Preston’s vibrant clavinet and Jagger’s vocals within the tune’s early phases are downright pastoral. Then issues decide up, Mick Taylor performs miracles (as at all times) on guitar, and Mick lastly wakes up.

Then comes this incongruously lackadaisical interlude through which Mick sings “Call me lazybones” (Hi Lazybones!), which is adopted by some complete rock out, on which Taylor actually shines, Charlie Watts outdoes even Charlie Watts, and it’s fairly thrilling however could be much more thrilling if the start and center of the tune made it inevitable. As it’s, it has an extraneous, tacked-on really feel. It’s not there as a result of what got here earlier than made it inevitable—it was there as a result of the band determined to place it there.

“Coming Down Again” options Richards on lead vocals, some nice piano by the legendary Nicky Hopkins, and a beautiful baritone saxophone solo by Bobby “I’m a Legend too!” Keys. It’s a gradual crawl and drugged-out bummer of a tune for certain—what did you count on with a title like that?—however the melody’s beautiful and the sentiment is ideal for Keef—it captures the wasted and weary aftermath of some spectacular debauch. And when Richards sings “Where are all my associates?” you get to the center of habit—loneliness.

The Stones lastly kick issues into rock ’n’ roll gear (what took them so lengthy?) with “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker).” You get two, rely them, two storylines, each of them involving youngsters who die tragically, however the tune’s no threnody—it’s a riot at a wake. What the Stones have on provide is adrenaline and rage. Billy Preston performs the angriest clavinet you’ll ever hear, the horn part is most R&B, and Taylor’s wah-wah guitar is Cool City. As for Mick he sounds absolutely engaged, and never like he’s preoccupied with hooking up with, I don’t know, Elizabeth Taylor.

Everybody is aware of “Angie” to dying, it’s a young love tune to Angela Bowie or Angela Davis or (so some say) Police Woman’s Angie Dickinson, and whereas it’s a basic after all it’s additionally a tune I grew sick of a long time in the past. Mick pours every thing he has into it, slurs his phrases like he’s drunk with grief and regret. Keef wrote Hopkins’ half and it’s a winner, and the string association politely declines to be a distraction.

“Silver Train” is a glossy machine, a straight-ahead, no nonsense rocker and a stable one at that, but it surely sounds to me like a tune that wasn’t fairly ok to make it onto Sticky Fingers, which come to think about it’s once they first started engaged on it. Jagger’s on the prime of his recreation, performs nice harp too, and as typical Taylor rips it up and tears it up on the six-string. Still it’s hardly gold normal Stones. Far from it—reality is I’ll take the Johnny Winter model any day, and the way typically are you able to say you like a canopy of a Rolling Stones tune?

On the lifeless easy and bluesy “Hide Your Love,” Mick accompanies himself on piano. Plays some funky boogie-woogie, he does, because the tune slides throughout the ground to the accompaniment of Charlie Watts’ dumb easy bass drum thump. He’s additionally joined by Taylor (who’s all over) and Bobby Keys, whose baritone sax blurt provides coloration. Dirty it up a bit and it might be an outtake from Exile on Main Street, however that “outtake” says all of it—it’s a stable quantity, however something however indispensable, partly as a result of the rattling factor solely heats up on the finish.

I’ve at all times considered the ballad “Winter” as The Rolling Stones’ retort to Rod Stewart’s “Mandolin Wind,” and a rattling high quality retort it’s. The melody’s beautiful, the tune builds splendidly because the strings are available in, and Mick, who could also be freezing however is at all times the gentleman, says he desires to wrap his coat round you. And mild a candle for you as if that’s going to heat you up. I like the traces “And I want I been out in California/When the lights on all of the Christmas timber went out” partly as a result of I don’t know what they imply; I don’t know what the traces “But I been burnin’ my bell, e book and candle/And the restoration performs have all gone ’spherical” imply both, and I like them too.

“Can You Hear the Music” is a catastrophe. It’s unique mystical hoodoo hokum and 5 years (simple) previous its sell-by date. The bell, unique percussion and flute that open the tune are psychedelic Brian Jones period balderdash, and that chanted “Can you hear the music?/Can you are feeling the magic?” is ridiculous and rendered much more ridiculous by Mick’s “Love is a thriller,” yeah proper. The actual thriller is how this atavistic throwback ended up on an album recorded in 1973, particularly given the truth that its sentiment is so hackneyed it makes the Doobie Brothers’ “Listen to the Music” sound good.

Fortunately the Stones shut issues down with the most effective Chuck Berry throwaways ever recorded, “Star Star.” From its opening “Johnny B. Goode” guitar riff the boys go at it with optimistic glee, and by no means earlier than (or after) would Mick truck so blatantly in pure raunch:

“Yeah, I heard about you Polaroids
Now that’s what I name obscene
Your methods with fruit was variety a cute
I guess you retain your pussy clear.”

Some say the tune’s about Carly Simon however I don’t purchase it—if Mick ain’t singing a couple of groupie I’ll eat the banana he’s virtually actually referring to. Believe it or not the tune all people calls “Starfucker” (the title the band needed) was truly launched as a single in a quartet of European nations, and it potty-mouthed its manner into Switzerland’s prime ten. But then once more the Swiss are well-known for holding a clear cat.

We’ll by no means actually know if with Goats Head Soup The Rolling Stones acquired lazy or complacent or just let their extracurricular actions outweigh their dedication to producing completely important music. Because that’s the issue with Goats Head Soup—there isn’t a fully important tune on it until you rely “Angie” or “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)” or “Star Star,” which I don’t. It’s a great album, however as everyone knows the nice is the enemy of the very best, and anyone (which was mainly all people) who thought The Rolling Stones might do no mistaken got here in for a impolite awakening.

And the saddest factor, after all, is that the album wasn’t a one-off blunder. It marked the tip, Some Girls however, of the band’s triumphant tenure because the world’s biggest rock and roll band. Call it the Decline and Fall of The Rolling Stones Empire—the Glimmer Twins would produce some nice songs afterwards, however they’d by no means once more actually matter, precise as celebrities and cultural signifiers. They grew to become well-known for being well-known, went into the studio once they had been speculated to and went by means of the motions, and basically fiddled round till the Sex Pistols burst by means of the gates to burn them down for good.

GRADED ON A CURVE:
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