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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