Behind the Album: 50 Years of The Rolling Stones’ ‘Goats Head Soup’

Several months after releasing one of their more disjointed albums, Exile on Main St., the Rolling Stones began moving in between Kingston, Jamaica, London, and Los Angeles to record what would become Goats Head Soup.

The album crisscrossed blues, funk, and rock, and though it received mixed reviews for being more of a hodge-podge of sounds and recordings, Goats Head Soup, released August 31, 1973, went to No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200, and in the U.K., and internationally.

“It wasn’t as vague as the last album which kind of went on so long that I didn’t like some of the things,” said Jagger comparing Goats Head Soup to Exile on Main St. “There’s more thought to this one. It was recorded all over the place over about two or three months. The tracks are much more varied than the last one. I didn’t want it to be just a bunch of rock songs.”

Despite its mixed reviews, what helped spark Goats Head Soup was its No.1 song “Angie” and some controversy around the closing track “Star Star.”

“Angie”

Originally penned by Keith Richards, “Angie” was the only track on the album to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Taking the lyrics at face value, Richards seems to have written a song about the end of a relationship with a woman named Angie.

Angie, Angie
When will those clouds all disappear?
Angie, Angie
Where will it lead us from here
With no loving in our souls
And no money in our coats
You can’t say we’re satisfied
But Angie, Angie 

Richards and Mick Jagger, who is also credited with writing the hit ballad, never revealed who the song was really about, but there have been numerous speculations over the years. Some say it was about the actress Angie Dickinson, David Bowie’s wife Angela —who revealed in her 2000 memoir, Backstage Passes: Life on the Wild Side with David Bowie, that she once walked in on Bowie and Jagger in bed together — or Richards’ then new daughter Dandelion Angela, who was born a year earlier.

Jagger denied Angela Bowie’s claims and said the song was never about her. “I’ve said about a hundred million times that it wasn’t [about Angela Bowie],” said Jagger. “I don’t think I had even met Angela Bowie when I wrote the rest of the lyrics.”

The song was never about one particular person but more of a feeling, according to Richards, who was recovering from heroin addiction in Switzerland when he wrote it. Perhaps, it was part goodbye to heroin and hello to his new daughter and his new beginning.

[RELATED: Meaning Behind “Angie” by the Rolling Stones]

“I wrote ‘Angie’ in an afternoon, sitting in bed,” said Richards. “Because I could finally move my fingers and get them in the right place again. It was not about any particular person, it was a name, like ‘Ohhh, Diana.’”

In the liner notes of the band’s 1993 compilation album Jump Back: The Best of The Rolling Stones, Richards added: “I’d recently had my daughter born, whose name was Angela, and the name was starting to ring around the house. But I’m into writing about my babies. Angie just fitted. I mean, you couldn’t sing ‘Maureen.’”

“Star Star”

The song “Star Star” was originally called “Starfucker,” an homage to groupies. Later renamed “Star Star,” the song didn’t hit the U.S. charts and was banned by the BBC. The song was also criticized by feminist groups for its portrayal of women, but Jagger said he was just writing about what he experienced.

Honey, I missed your two tongue kisses
Legs wrapped around me tight
If I ever get back to Fun City, girl
I’m gonna make you scream all night

All those beat-up friends of mine
Gotta get you in their books
Lead guitars and movie stars
Get their tongues beneath your hood

[RELATED: The Origins of The Rolling Stones]

Cover Controversy

At first, the band wanted to use an image of themselves as centaurs and an actual image of goat’s head soup, a Jamaican soup made from the animal’s varied parts, including the head, testicles, intestines, feet, and more. Eventually, the Stones landed on their iconic cover image, photographed by David Bailey, of Jagger’s face behind a mustard yellow veil.

In 2020, the band reissued the album with three previously unheard tracks — “Criss Cross,” “Scarlet,” and “All The Rage.” “I really feel close to this album, and I really put all I had into it,” said Jagger. “I guess it comes across that I’m more into the songs.”

Photo: Paul Natkin/WireImage