‘Goats Head Soup’ to Receive the Deluxe Reissue Treatment

The Rolling Stones will dig into their back catalog for the Sept. 4 multi-format release of 1973’s Goats Head Soup. The album will be available in multiple configurations, including four-disc CD and vinyl box set editions, with a treasure trove of unreleased studio and live material. 

 The reissue follows acclaim for the Stones’ “Living In A Ghost Town” single and their lockdown performance of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” in Global Citizen’s April special One World: Together at Home. The box set and deluxe CD and vinyl editions of Goats Head Soup will all feature ten bonus tracks, which include alternate versions, outtakes and no fewer than three previously unheard tracks.

The first of these to be unveiled, “Criss Cross,” is available as an instant track with pre-orders of the album, and on all streaming and download services. The official “Criss Cross” video is available here. 

The boxset includes the previously unheard “Scarlet,” featuring guitar by Jimmy Page, and a third newly unveiled song, “All The Rage.”

The bonus disc of unreleased material also sheds new light on tracks such as “100 Years Ago” and “Hide Your Love,” with further unissued mixes by Stones insider and producer Glyn Johns.  

The box set editions of Goats Head Soup will also include Brussels Affair, a 15-track live album recorded in a memorable show in Belgium, on the autumn 1973 tour that followed the album’s late August release. This much-sought-after disc, mixed by Bob Clearmountain, was previously available only in the Rolling Stones’ “official bootleg” series of live recordings in 2012.

 The Brussels show features “Tumbling Dice,” “Midnight Rambler,” “Jumping Jack Flash” and many others, and it includes a sequence of tracks from the then-new album. “Star Star” is followed by “Dancing With Mr. D,” “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)” and “Angie.”

Additionally, the CD and vinyl box sets offer the original ten-track album in 5.1 Surround Sound, Dolby Atmos and Hi-Res mixes, along with the videos for “Dancing With Mr. D,”“Silver Train” and “Angie.” An exclusive 100-page book will feature a remarkable array of photographs, essays by writers Ian McCann, Nick Kent and Daryl Easlea and faithful reproductions of three tour posters from 1973.

 “Goats Head Soup was released with plenty of fanfare. Despite what you may read today, the kids weren’t entirely absorbed by glam rock, metal, prog and Philly soul back in 1973, and they bought the album in their thousands, sending it to No. 1 in the USA and in the UK, their fifth consecutive British chart-topper,” says McCann in the liner notes. 

Recorded in Jamaica, Los Angeles and London, the album was their last collaboration with producer Jimmy Miller, and it came in the wake of the Stones’ landmark 1972 double album Exile On Main St. The new set was introduced by “Angie,” a ballad completed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards during a songwriting sojourn in Switzerland. 

The song topped the charts in the US, where it was certified platinum, and went to No. 1 across Europe, Australia and beyond.

“We decided to do something different, and it worked,” Richards told Rolling Stone of “Angie.”“Maybe a lot of people bought it that would never buy a Stones LP.” In a recent interview with The New York Times, Bob Dylan chose “Angie” as one of three Rolling Stones songs he wished he had written.

The many other highlights of the album included “Dancing With Mr. D,” “100 Years Ago” and “Star Star” and “Winter.” “Coming Down Again” features another Stones stalwart, saxophonist Bobby Keys. “Silver Train,” the b-side of “Angie,” would be revived after a gap of some 40 years, during the Stones’ 14 On Fire tour of 2014, when Mick Taylor reprised his original guitar part at shows in Tokyo and Brisbane.

Reviews at the time of its release were overwhelmingly positive.

“This is music which could only come from good musicians who know each other really well,” said writer-broadcaster Charlie Gillett in Let It Rock.

“The Stones succeed because they rarely forget their purpose — the creation of rock ‘n’ roll drama,” said Bud Scoppa in Rolling Stone. “It’s deepening and unfolding over the coming months will no doubt rate as one of the year’s richest musical experiences.”

Stephen Demorest in Circus said that the album “rushes and rambles with all the power and finesse that have become the signature of the hardworking band in performance.”