Album Review: "Goat's Head Soup" by the Rolling Stones

Get this out of the way: anybody claiming that the Stones "lost it" after Exile is a liar who has probably not heard a single Stones album after Exile anyway. Goat's Head Soup is a terrible name for an album, with a fat-butt-ugly cover. There is almost no dignity in having to tell people that the lost gem in the Stones' catalog is called Goat's Head Soup, with a picture of creeper Mick Jagger bathing in mustard on the sleeve. Nobody would want to even look at this fucking thing, let alone pull the insides out of the sleeve and put in on a turntable!! But almost every song is gorgeous and it's a disservice, it is, to not give it a shot.

This is my post-college Stones album. This isn't a review anymore! It's me getting personal again because I don't want to write a review so you will have to accept this. If Exile was the rockin' frat party, Goat's is the hangover. "But the hangover was the second half of Exile!" you say. You're right! Good on you. OK. Goat's is the hangover of the hangover. Second half of Exile is the hangover at 9 A.M., Goat's is the hangover at 4 P.M., still lingering. The dull headache. It's time to stop writing like I'm 20 years old.

"Winter" is the most gorgeous song anybody could write! "Sliding out of perhaps the greatest winning streak in rock history, the Stones slipped into decadence and rock star excess with Goats Head Soup" what a load. Any record with "Winter" on it gets 4 and a half stars from me on principle alone. The rest of the tracks could be Cage The Elephant for all I fucking care. But somehow they aren't!!

" yet the extra layer of gloss brings out the enunciated lyrics, added strings, wah-wah guitars, explicit sex, and violence, making it all seem trippily decadent." Trippily decadent. "they cap off this utterly excessive album with "Star Star" how one man can generalize to such an incredible degree over and over again is astounding to me. There is nothing decadent about "Coming Down Again," or "Can You Hear The Music." "Silver Train" is just goofy, "Star Star" is funny! " And, it never feels more at home than it does at the end of this excessive record." You were on a deadline weren't you.

Mick Taylor was still in the band! Come on! The guy was THERE.

And on that note I have done absolutely the best possible job anybody could do of convincing the world of Goat's Head Soup's greatness. What's the secret to my success?? I've been listening to Rod Stewart's 1974 LP classic Smiler this whole time, the finest rock LP ever to grace this earth. Nothing gets me in "the mood" to "rock" some "roll" better than "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Man" and "Dixie Toot." Just those two tracks - over and over again!!