Subject: Goat's head soup for the win
Hey Bob,
Great post, what a thrill to wake up and see myself name-checked in your blog... I have to say you gave me an instant street cred boost with about half my friends, all of whom read you religiously.
Couple of thoughts...
You gotta watch more TV Bob!!!!
And in the travel/food genre, with the human correspondent format in a docu-follow reality setting there are two people worth exploring. The first is the late Anthony Bourdain, my friend, and the most symphonic human being I ever knew. He was a walking encyclopedia of music history, especially the NYC scene in the 70's that he loved so much. His work is beyond distinctive, beyond excellent and he was the gold standard in our world....My stuff is a distant second but I would put up the last few seasons of Bizarre Foods against anything in the genre. It took us a decade of fighting a revolving door of network heads to finally put out the show I wanted. That being said, there are 12 years of shows, many of which are pretty darn good. Glad you enjoyed the Jamaica episode.
I saw the Sticky Fingers tour in NYC, taken to the Garden by my older cousins who were way into the Stones at the time. That album was, and still is one of my desert island discs... Goat's Head Soup with Angie, and DDDD (Heartbreaker) still get a lot of play in my house, but its not the 'complete' album that the Stones were capable of putting together at their best. I always thought that the title had a lot to do with exposure that everyone was getting in the late 60's and early 70's to rasta culture in Jamaica courtesy of Chris Blackwell who at the time was going back and forth to England from Jamaica. I always imagined the band spending some time in Jamaica, documented or not, truthful or not...at least for me that's the better story. At some point I would like to think they tried the stuff...maybe they even liked it?
The Jamaican version of the dish is my third favorite despite its overall excellence....the goats head soups 've had in the slums of Buenos Aries, and in the souks, markets and nomadic tented homes of the Levant are the versions I measure all others against. The former, for all the lime, chiles, onions, tomatoes you can mix in at the table, and the latter for the brilliant textural and flavor combinations that come with cooking the heads in yogurt and broth.
To quote you... "I don't know what inspired the Stones to name the album "Goats Head Soup," but now I finally know what it is!" Maybe I'm a hopeless romantic but I would like to think at some point that the band ate the stuff prior to naming the album. If they didn't, and they pulled that title out of thin air in some sort of naming exercise, I would imagine the pleasure of the shock value was the inspiration. Like Warhol's Zipper, like Mick riding that giant inflatable tongue when they toured in 72 and 74 if I remember correctly, the band delighted in their role as a cultural provocateur. As a huge Stones fan since the earliest days of my life perhaps that influenced me and my work as well.
ROCK ON!
AZ
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Greetings from Jamaica which I alternate with LA as home.
Love that you gave respect to Goats Head Soup as it is truly wicked. I was in Jamaica when the island was hit with the hurricane force of the Stones in 1973. Dynamic Sounds Studios in Kingston had never seen anything like this and were blown away by how brilliant Mick and Keith were with microphone placement and production techniques. The Glimmer Twins wrote the blueprint. They were staying at a house near mine in Ocho Rios and the behind the scenes was just as wild. Anita Pallenberg was arrested for ganga, went to jail and was deported. Still, Keith bought his house in Ocho Rios which he still has 45 years later making him an Honorary Jamaican!!
Mick and Keith are some of the godfathers of reggae music as they help to bring reggae to the world by signing Peter Tosh to Rolling Stones Records. They produced Tosh, sang with him and took him on tour opening for the Stones to stadiums of 80,000.
I later worked with Keith on his brilliant rasta chant album 'The Wingless Angels'
Maximum respect from Jamaica to the wicked Glimmer Twins!!
Native Wayne Jobson
Ocho Rios
Jamaica
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Bob:
Just a couple of "insider" notes after reading your piece on the Stones:
Yes, the Stones got major media coverage in '72- and probably more than they deserved, due to the preponderance of "celebs" hanging around them....or should I say "media darlings". Nobody in the world gave a crap about Truman Capote and Lee Radziwill except for the editorial staffs at Time and Newsweek. The print media took the bait and suddenly felt like they were part of the party.
I shot the Stone's '72 Hollywood Palladium show and it was, I gotta say, pretty amazing. The lighting that Chip Monck designed was pure genius, with all the follow spots set in back of the amps and aimed into a large mirror the length of the stage, hung at a 45 degree angle. The lighting had the effect of literally raising the temperature of the whole room, as if the band was playing on the surface of the sun. Now, IMHO Sticky Fingers is far and away the best Stones record, but for some reason I remember them playing a LOT of stuff from Exile that night. I could be wrong, and I'm purposely not gonna go google the set list for the Palladium show- but it just seemed to me like too much Exile and not enough Sticky Fingers.
Back to the media coverage:
As it turned out, the Stones got SO much press in '72 that it started to irk the only band in the world bigger than the Stones: Led Zeppelin. We all know that Zeppelin was a notoriously cloistered group and was distrustful (to say the least) of the press. But the more ink the Stones got, the more it bothered Zeppelin, so before the 1975 Zeppelin US tour the band and Peter Grant decided to open up somewhat to the press, inviting certain journalists to come on the road for various amounts of time. This was pure manna from heaven for the lucky ones that got the invites. And because the band would need new photos (that they could control) to service to the press, they hired a tour photographer for the first time ever. That's how the plum gig of all time landed in my lap, courtesy of Danny Goldberg, Jimmy Page and Peter Grant.
I also shot a number of Stones shows in 1975- and I don't care what anyone says, Led Zeppelin wiped their asses with the Rolling Stones every single night. No Blow-up cocks on stage, no faux S&M Midnight Rambler "whipping" garbage, no dunking water on anyone's head. Zeppelin would open with "Song Remains the Same" , then segue into "Sick Again", and it was ON.
Sorry Mick, that's the truth. Jimmy Page played rings around Keith AND Mick Taylor.
Neal Preston
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Keith was living in Jamaica at the time. His home above Ocho Rios was named "Point of View". Knowing Keith, that name is spot on!! This was the 70's and Keith was in his own world. The house became filled with Jamaican musicians for years long jams. Their communal food of choice....Goats Head Soup.
Ted Utz
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They were probably inspired because Keith Richards is an honorary Jamaican and spends LOTS of time there. Mannish water would be a reg.
And it is curry goat not goat curry … yes there is a difference. In the West indies, Caribbean , Jamaica its Curry goat .. east indies i.e. India Goat Curry.
Cheers
Viv Barclay
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Hey Bob. The Goats Head Soup title, I believe comes from the fact that it was recorded at Dynamic Studios in Kingston and that was a local dish. Also, the Keith, "Patience Please" photo is actually from the fantastic Ethan Russell. I think Annie was the 75 tour photographer.
Take care.......Shawn McKelvey
P.S. Also, did you ever hear this one? Fantastic! Leftovers better than most artists main meal!
youtu.be/ZOwYf8qtuVI
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Great article, thanks Bob, the the credit to the keith picture must go to Ethan Russell. His pictures are iconic and has a new book of them coming out. shop.ethanrussell.com/
Sean Rogers
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Correction on the Keith photo. I believe with good assurances from the photographer himself, that it was Ethan Russell.
You are correct thought that is THE rock n' roll photo of the 70's.
Best
Jimmy Wachtel
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I love Heartbreaker! I remember reading the lyrics in the back of Hit Parader and being terrified at 9 years old. People rarely talk about what you learn about the world through music. My university was The Beatles, The Clash, The Stones, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Neil Young, Joni et al.
Back to Goats Head Soup I think it's underrated. You're right about the middle of the 2nd side being wonderfully trance like but I also think that 100 Years Ago and Coming Down Again from side 1 going into Heartbreaker and Angie are sublime. Dancing With Mr D as an opener is lyrically a little too clever and Stones like predictable but you could do a lot worse!
Best wishes,
Merck
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A good post, but Exile entered the BB chart at No. 10 and shot to No. 1 in its second week. The first album to debut at No. 1 was Captain Fantastic in 1975.
Paul Grein
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Jamaica Mon! And we have a diverse food scene and celeb dry out in Minnesota. Zimmern and Zimmerman... what the fuck is with the Z's in MN? Cropper calls me Zimm cause he said he only knows two z's from Minnesota..." me and that other one".
Nemonics... Funny shit
Enjoy the soup and the vinyl.
Best,
Zannman
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I always loved that song as a kid, so much so that I was able to overlook what at the time I thought was the weirdest awkward lyric ever (I didn't realize the correct words until I was in my 30s!)… I forgave Jagger for singing, "Heartbreaker, with your bowling ball…"
Keep doin' whatcha do,
Ralph Covert
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Another good article. I agree with your observations regarding the stones and in particular "Goats Head Soup," the album and the soup. It was the Saturday before Easter in 1977 that I visited my then girlfriend's Greek relatives just north of Boston and had the unnerving experience of being shown the goat head simmering in the pot. It was their family tradition and eaten only once a year to break the fasting of the Great Lent. That visual is forever linked in my mind with the album.
As to cooking shows, they are usually a very low priority in my life. Then this guy came along that was deep into music, food and people and convinced a segment of society to burn hours watching him travel the world in a way no one else has. Anthony Bourdain looks a bit post-punk, his show's theme song is a collaboration with Josh Homme and Mark Lanegan from Queens of the Stone Age and he has rock star swagger but with the cred to back it up. Great songs tell a story and Anthony Bourdain is a great story teller. He tells it like it is, going beyond the superficial to what is truly interesting.
I totally encourage you to watch a couple of episodes of Anthony Bourdain's his most recent show on CNN, "Parts Unknown."
Watch this interview about the music used on his show. Did you know his dad worked at Columbia records?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUvM3YpnP-U
There is also an article on "The Nosher"
www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/anthony-bourdain-explored-israel-the-way-no-one-else-could/
Bourdain's Field Notes - Jerusalem
explorepartsunknown.com/destination/jerusalem/
Enjoy!
Don
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I worked for Alan Dunn and hung with Pharmaceutical Freddie (Freddie Sessler) during The Stones comeback recording, rehearsing, releasing and touring to promote the "Some Girls" album. Barry Imhoff helped get me that gig years after he coordinated Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue. I worked that too. My official title was Assistant Road Manager reporting to Barry. But nobody even knew my name except Barry and Joseph Henry "T-Bone" Burnett. By that tours end I thought my name was "Gofer" because all day and night every day all I heard was "hey kid, go for some smokes," or hey kid go for some Coca Cola" or maybe they used its nickname. However, the Some Girls tour with Peter Tosh opening five shows was amazing. Afterwards they recorded Emotional Rescue and toured to try and capture the momentum of "rats on the west side, bedbugs uptown, what a mess, my brains been splattered, shattered all over New Yawk." Or "I was driving home early Sunday morning through Bakersfield, listenin' to gospel music on the colored radio station and the preacher said, you know you always have the Lord by your side, and I was so pleased to be informed of this that I ran twenty red lights in his honor.......Thank you Jesus, thank you Lord I had an arrangement to meet a girl, and I was kind of late and I thought by the time I got there she'd be off with the nearest truck driver she could find. Much to my surprise, there she was sittin' in the corner A little bleary, worse for wear and tear was a girl with far away eyes.......So if you're down on your luck, And you can't harmonize, find a girl with far away eyes" I was just a kid in '78, 21 years old but I'll never forget Bill hitting on my soon to be wife right in front of my eyes. Patti actually slapped him. The point is those truly were the times of our lives. After the tour the music went country with Travolta and bars with mechanical bulls but I was with The Stones. Which meant for us it was Studio 54 with Freddie in "the basement" and those 55 gallon drums filled with Q's. Warhol, Capote, Bianca and Jerry at the same place at the same time. One night I met this guy named "trump" or was it "dump,"" anyway even back then with Capote, Warhol, Mick and Keith "The Glimmer Twins" all this dumptrump guy could talk about was "look at that ones tits or that ones ass. Yeah, the world has changed. I want Some Girls Back, thats the one I still know every word of every tune. That woman "Patti" did become my wife. For 35 years until Lymphoma decided to turn our lives upside down. Patti died on 12/13/2009 and my worlds never been the same. Hold on to Felice tight, it wouldn't have been the same without her and wouldn't be now. I don't read BLOGS, EVER. But the Lefsetz Letter, that's different. It's part of my daily go to for a smile or a remembrance or just how incredible life can be without an iPhone, MacBook, iPad or whatever Apple's dreamed up to get into my pocket this year. But I can't get down on it because it's where I get my daily dose of Lefsetz. Hold onto Felice tight, there's not another. She's the girl with the far away eyes.
Rob Halprin
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