GHS.....such an odd record. It doesn't seem to fit in the correct time frame for some reason. Angie is such a sappy song. Silver Train and Starfucker are great rockers but nowhere near the quality of Gimme Shelter or IORR.

this is another difficult ttm question and again i am going to say it is impossible to answer.  this much i know...i got iorr the other week and listened to it for the 1st time in YEARS, so my answer to this is iorr.  but don't write this in stone people.  it was a pleasure to hear luxury and if you really want to be my friend and one or two others.

I went with IORR but it's a pretty minor question, really.

I know it is not their best. I know it doesn't have a string of hits. I know it isn't very commercial (if that matters any....).

But Goats Head Soup is my very favorite Stones album ...to me. It is my personal favorite.

This album is so different. It is a cold, winter time album and to me has a place special in that.

The songs are so meaningful and I love the thicker, murky, almost hissy sound of the production.

There is so much going on in the songs. It is a special album to me.

As far as IORR ...I always thought that while they had a sure rock classic on it (IORR) and a few other good tunes it was a weaker Stones album and I rarely if ever play it anymore.


Ian

I don't understand why people hate Angie so much. I think it's a wonderful ballad and a Stones classic. As for GHS overall. It wasn't until a few years ago when I finally bought the CD that I realized how good it is. Yes a little different by Stones standards and by accounts Keith wasn't much of a participant at the time. But Jagger and Taylor and some good production pulled through to make this one just a notch below the classics.

I remember a positive reception for Goats Head Soup when it first came out  .... Angie was HUGE, the album sold really well. I thought at the time it sounded like they had progressed musically. 100 years ago, Can you hear the music, Winter, Hide your love, Heartbreaker.... all are great Taylor moments. Taylor was shining and it seemed taking the band forward.

It was also released at the height of the glitter rock era, so Jagger and to a lesser extent the rest of band subtley shifted their image to accomodate this. Check the clips on you tube for Angie, Silver train and Dancing with Mr D.

I remember one review... even after all these years.... where it suggested GHS may be their best ever album and a step forward from Exile, which unbelievably at the time did not have the classic Stones album status it has now. I remember the article and the critic said "Exile was an attempt to return to their R and B roots". So at the time of it's release GHS was also seen as more accessible than Exile.

Exile had no huge Brown Sugar type of single..... at the time the great Tumbling Dice was a bit of a sleeper. When GHS came out it had Angie, which was the big radio friendly single that the market demanded to promote the album proper.

I love GHS still, and still think it quality music by any measure. Starfucker is one of their great rockers, Coming down again one of their great balads.... I personally love Dancing with Mr D......and far as commercial singles go I think Angie is among the best.

I don't know what the complaints are about. Compare it to the albums other bands where releasing at the time and I think it stands up great.

IORR weaker than, say Dirty Work, or Steel Wheels?  Surely you jest.  Any album with Time Wait For No One beats them hands down.  IYCRM, Dance Little Sister and then title track are also great.  Hate the Nazi cover though.

Glenny, I've got to back Ian and say any album that has a song that goes "You're a star fucker star fucker star fucker" and "I bet it keeps your pussy clean" is not particularly commercial.  Also the other songs about death and junkie kids on street corners weren't exactly huge with the teenybopper set.  

I also contradict Ian and vote for IORR.

(Hey Motels, look how close the vote is.  Maybe this is a good thread.) 

GHS

Going by album cover art, IORR icover is a tasteful~masterpiece!

GHS covers are ugly~wierd. MICK looks like a woman =peverted sexuality. and pot with a floating goat's head floating = bloody morbid!
STARFVCKER =xxx sexual  , COMIN' DOWN AGAIN =drugs, DANCIN WITH MR D = drug ref. for heroin. HEARTBREAKER = violence and the darker side of life.




IORR's RS celebrating fame & talent with the signature rock anthum tune IORR! It's about as mainstream as the Stones have ever been. Celebrating the good life, IF YOU CANT ROCK ME somebody surely will! LUXURY, livin' the good life. TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE was an instant classic, DANCE LITTLE SISTER commanding the audience!

Different flavors. I think the covers reflect the music  its a what you are in the mood for.
IORR=rocking with the Stones!
GHS =rolling with The Stones!
.