Winter

Goats Head Soup
Side Two, Track Three
"Winter" – 5:31



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On first listen, an utterly conventional rock ballad.

And it's sure been a cold, cold winter
And the wind ain't been blowin' from the south
It's sure been a cold, cold winter
And the light of love is all burned out

It works for me, however, as a pure mood piece, something the Stones didn't really engage in often. The banal lyrics are emotionally evocative in a way I can't really describe, helped along by the strings and Mick Taylor's kickass solo. This may be the most humble peice the Stones recorded in the 70s.

UPDATE: I listened to it again just now, and Mick Taylor's solo kicks seven kinds of ass.

Hide Your Love

Goats Head Soup
Side Two, Track Two
"Hide Your Love" – 4:12



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This is what it would sound like if Mick ever wanted to turn the Stones into a Fleetwood Mac tribute band. At least, that's what the opening sounded like to me.

"Hide Your Love" is a undercomposed studio jam. Wikipedia says it was recorded during rehearsals at The Doelen in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in the summer of 1973. I guess there's some kind of visceral thrill to listening Jagger scream "oh yeah!" over and over again, but they already did that (and did it so much better) on "Stop Breaking Down" from Exile. Besides the fluid lead guitar by Mick Taylor, the song is an unremarkable piece of effluvia from an album specialising in effluvia.

All Down the Line

Exile on Main St.
Side Four, Track One
"All Down the Line" – 3:49



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Side four now, coming down the stretch. "All Down the Line" has a little pinch of everything that made the Stones great during this era: one of Keith's great open-G intros, a terrific Jagger performance, a tight rhythm section. There's some great slide work from Mick Taylor, neat horn charts, a singalong chorus. The Stones did all of these things better in other songs, but never brought them all together like they did here.

I'd forgotten how much I loved this song. It rivals "Brown Sugar" in dance floor potential, it rocks harder than "Bitch". "All Down the Line" is a party in a can.


Ahh, the seventies. That Mick Taylor could really play, couldn't he?

Ventilator Blues

Exile on Main St.
Side Three, Track Three
"Ventilator Blues" (Jagger, Richards, Mick Taylor) – 3:24




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Hey, Mick Taylor gets a writing credit! Bet he was happy about that, eh?

Wikipedia:

"Ventilator Blues" marks the first and only time guitarist Mick Taylor would be given credit alongside regular Stones scribes Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. While his exact amount of input is unknown, Taylor's contribution of the song's opening slide riff is considered the main reason he was given the credit, as it drives the song.

"Lumbering" is I guess the word you'd use to describe the song. The jerky rhythm always sounded like one of Tom Waits's existential blues recordings from Bone Machine.

There really isn't anything notable about the song apart from Jagger, who is in full Mick Jagger mode, double-tracked for even more Jaggery goodness.