Goats Head Soup

[VHscraps]

Goats Head Soup, 1973 - one of the best Stones albums, or what?

I've heard people say that songs like 'Silver Train' and 'Star Star' (aka 'Starfucker') are just filler, but it kicks my ass, and it has some of their greatest mellow tunes - like 'Winter', 'Coming Down Again' and 'Can You Hear the Music'.

And Keith on vocals, 'Coming Down Again':

[FORD]

As I said in another thread recently, Goats Head Soup was only considered a "bad" record because it was the follow up to Exile on Main Street, and that is a hard act for anyone to follow, even the Rolling Stones. Funny thing about the Stones in the Mick Taylor/Jimmy Miller era, is that they pretty much wrote the bulk of the material between 1968-1970 and it just took them 4 or 5 albums to get it all released. Actually 6 albums, considering that two songs from that period didn't surface until Tattoo You in 1981.

"Winter" originated from a mess of a song called "Blood Red Wine" in 1968. Not sure exactly what substance Mick was on when they recorded this one, but it sounds like he was having a great time.......

[FORD]

As for Silver Train, great song, but I like the version from 1970 a little better. Apparently so did Johnny Winter, since his cover was much closer to this than the GHS version....

[FORD]

The Stones recorded a song called "Tops" for Goats Head Soup. Eventually it was released on Tattoo You with a completely new vocal track.

Why didn't the original make the album? Well, let's just say Mick should never drink before attempting a falsetto

[ThrillsNSpills]

I have no problems with Goats Head Soup or its successor.
Taylor does great leads on Heartbreaker.

[FORD]

Here's an interesting spin on "Winter"... It's just the studio version up until 5:15 or so, but then it's edited into an extended Mick Taylor solo which absolutely kicks ass.....

.... I have no idea where this comes from, though I suspect it's a solo live performance from Taylor, since the Stones never played it live, to my knowledge. It does help illustrate the point that Mick Taylor was tragically under-used by the Stones though, especially on the records.