Goats Head Soup (1973)
1.Dancing with Mr.D
2.100 Years From Now
3.Coming Down Again
4.Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
5.Angie
6.Silver Train
7.Hide Your Love
8.Winter
9.Can You Hear the Music
10.Star, Star
 
The period from 1968-1972 is regarded
by most fans and critics as the band's best, so you have to wonder, what
happened after 1972? Well, as this album shows, they seemed to lose a
little something. If anything, it sounds like this is a lot less
spontaneous, and therefore, a little too polished to rival the last few
releases. It's still a very good record, it just almost sounded like
they're trying a bit too hard.
You could make an argument that this is the first "authentic" seventies
album. This is where they begin to embrace "funk" more, and by
incorporating some great outside musicians such as Saxophone player
Bobby Keys and Keyboard extraordinairre Billy
Preston. Of course, they
were also becoming "legends" at this point, not many of their
counterparts from the early sixties were still making records at the
same pace, and this might have hurt them to some degree as well. I'm
sure all the drugs and high profile arrests didn't help either.
For some reason, they choose the two worst songs on the album to open
and close the album, so it seems to drag the overall quality down a
notch. Why they even bothered releasing (yet alone opening the album up
with) Dancing with Mr. D is beyond comprehension. It's a
somewhat slowed up rock song that manages to go nowhere. Again, why
open the album up with this? The last song, called Star, Star
(it's really called "Starf*cker", but, oh those censors…) is not that
bad musically, a bit of a Chuck Berry ripoff, but the lyrics are
juvenile and tacky, even for the Rolling Stones' standards. They even
used a giant phallus on stage for this song with Mick climbing up and
down on it whilst singing. Pretty gross.
Fortunately everything else holds up nicely. Everyone knows and loves
Angie, probably the best slow song this band did in terms of
popularity. The second single, however, Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo
(Heartbreaker) is where the band's knack for a great catchy hook is
really unleashed. I really wish they would pull this one out more at
their shows.
Other great songs are the slowed down Winter and the melancholy
Coming Down Again that really shows off the softer side of the
band well. Can You Hear the Music seems a bit long at five and a
half minutes, but probably resonated better in the early seventies than
it does now. Silver Train is a fun ride as well, as is 100
Years From Now.
So it's safe to say that this has some pretty obvious drawbacks, but
overall it gets a worse rap than it deserves, and still highlights that
this band had what it takes a decade after their debut.
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