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| Jethrostone |
I heard that the 'pussy' and John Wayne lyrics were removed or censored on the record. But Wikipedia said some copies had this or something. Was it on all copies of Goats Head Soup? |
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| Some Guy |
Parental discretion is advised. |
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| fireontheplatter |
i will listen to this tonight and let you know my oionion tomorrow.
i have the cd.
great song |
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| pdog |
quote:
Some Guy wrote:
Parental discretion is advised.
Just called my dad, he said it's okay! |
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| Gazza |
I think there was a radio edit which mixed out the word 'pussy' (They obviously cant have listened to the chorus too closely if they figured that was the most offensive part of the lyrics)
I dont think the John Wayne part is correct. Cant imagine it would be a problem as there's nothing potentially libellous in it
However, the Stones DID send an advance tape of the song to Steve McQueen to check if he had any objections to the 'giving head' line - and he okayed it. |
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| Lord Homosex |
My very first copy of GHS was one of those vynil edited versions. It was only the "I bet they keep your pussy clean" line that was edited. It wasn't cut out. It just turned into some weird blur of white noise for a minute. I never knew WHAT they were saying there. Rememebr this was long before the Net and it was hard deciphering Jagger's lyrics back then. Coupled with those ridiculous songbooks that were riddled with mistakes, and that only lead you further into confusion. Needless to say, for a long time my concept of the lyrics to Starfucker were totally wrong |
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| Riffhard |
quote:
Gazza wrote:
However, the Stones DID send an advance tape of the song to Steve McQueen to check if he had any objections to the 'giving head' line - and he okayed it.
As I heard that story from ages ago Mick sent McQueen a copy and phoned him as well. Apparently he told Mick he'd only be upset if they "cut" the line about him! LOL! Just goes to show that McQueen really was as cool as the characters he so often played on screen.
Riffy |
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| Gazza |
quote:
Lord Homosex wrote:
My very first copy of GHS was one of those vynil edited versions. It was only the "I bet they keep your pussy clean" line that was edited. It wasn't cut out. It just turned into some weird blur of white noise for a minute. I never knew WHAT they were saying there. Rememebr this was long before the Net and it was hard deciphering Jagger's lyrics back then. Coupled with those ridiculous songbooks that were riddled with mistakes, and that only lead you further into confusion. Needless to say, for a long time my concept of the lyrics to Starfucker were totally wrong
According to the songbook, the chorus consists of the line "You're a starbucker, starbucker, starbucker, starbucker, star.."  |
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| Altamont |
I just checked my GHS vinyl and the line with "pussy" is obscured by an overlapping Jagger vocal edit, and the "John Wayne" line has some noise obscuring it as well. |
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| Soldatti |
Star Star from the US vinyl:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/fwc6j3 |
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| Nellcote |
I recall the controversy back in the day.
The song on LP was wicked muddled, 'specially near the infamous John Wayne part. In reading reviews of the late Ahmet Ertegun, he fought ferociously vs. the Stones over this. It would appear, in the end, there was give & take on both sides...
Here's a run at the lyrics...You will find the John Wayne reference....actually, one of those "you heard this, and it was actually that", I always thought the ending was
"hit your babe right square in the box...."
Could've been the Tango & 'pulco Red back in the day as well...But I recall at gigs, the song was universally dug quite nicely....
*****************
Baby, baby, I've been so sad since you've been gone
Way back to New York City
Where you do belong
Honey, I missed your two-tone kisses
Legs wrapped around me tight
If I ever get back to Fun City, girl
I'm gonna make you scream all night
Honey, honey, call me on the telephone
I know you're movin' out to Hollywood
With your can of tasty foam
All those beat up friends of mine
Got to get you in their books
Lead guitars and movie stars
Get their tongues beneath your hood
Yeah! You're a star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star
Yeah, a star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star
A star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star fucker star
Yeah, I heard about you Polaroid's
Now that's what I call obscene
Your tricks with fruit was kind a cute
I bet you keep your pussy clean
Honey, I miss your two tone kisses
Legs wrapped around me tight
If I ever get back to New York, girl
Gonna make you scream all night
Yeah! You're a star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star
Yeah, a star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star
A star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star fucker star
Yeah, Ali McGraw got mad with you
For givin' head to Steve McQueen
Yeah, you and me, we made a pretty pair
Fallin' through the Silver Screen
Honey, I'm open to anything
I don't know where to draw the line
Yeah, I'll make bets that you're gonna get
John Wayne before he dies
Yeah! You're a star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star
Yeah, a star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star
A star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star fucker star
Yes you are
A star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star fucker star
A star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star fucker star
A star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star fucker star
A star fucker, star fucker, star fucker, star fucker star
Starfucker starfucker, starfucker starfucker starfucker (yes you are)
Starfucker starfucker, starfucker starfucker starfucker, yes you are, yes you are
Oh-Yeah - Oh!
Oh!
Give us a kiss
With a twist
Ball me girl
*****************************
More "fuel for the fire"...
From Songfacts....
This is about groupies. The Stones had many.
Originally, this was called "Starf--ker." Atlantic Records made them change it, eliminating "f--k" from the title.
Feminist groups were outraged at the negative portrayal of women. Mick Jagger did not apologize, saying he was just describing what he saw.
This contains the lyric, "She'll get John Wayne before he dies," but John Wayne refused permission to use his name. Engineer Andy Johns put some echo over the lyric and convinced the record company that it was unrecognizable, which it wasn't. When Goats Head Soup came out on CD, the lyric was not distorted.
The Stones blew up a giant, inflatable penis when they performed this on their 1975 tour.
This was banned by the BBC.
In contrast to John Wayne, Steve McQueen was reportedly amused by the reference to him in the lyric. In addition to the John Wayne lyric,references to 'keeping her pussy clean' was also distorted at the original release,and subsequently restored in later issues (US only..in Europe they came through unscathed). (thanks, Louie - middletown, NY)
***************************************
Review from Rolling Stone @ the time....
History has proven it unwise to jump to conclusions about Rolling Stones albums. At first Sticky Fingers seemed merely a statement of doper hipness on which the Stones (in Greil Marcus' elegant phrase) "rattled drugs as if they were maracas." But drugs wound up serving a figurative as well as a literal purpose and the album became broader and more ambiguous with each repeated listening.
At first, Exile on Main Street seemed a terrible disappointment, with its murky, mindless mixes and concentration on the trivial. Over time, it emerged as a masterful study in poetic vulgarity. And if neither of the albums had eventually grown on me thematically, the music would have finally won me over anyway.
Now Goat's Head Soup stands as the antithesis of Exile—the Stones never worry about contradicting themselves—and it is a wise move, for it would have been suicidal to Exile's conceits any further. Compared to the piling on of one raunchy number on top of another, Soup is a romantic work, with an unmistakable thread of life-affirming pragmatisms running through it. It is set apart not only from Exile, but every past Stones' LP, by its emphasis on the ballad. Its three key songs—"Angie," "Comin' Down Again," and "Winter"—are suffused with melancholy. But of the five rockers, only "Star Star" ("Starfucker") rings out with classic Stones sass. The others exist either more as changes of pace or as commentary on the album's larger mood, rather than as autonomous works.
And yet for all its differences, Soup sustains some significant continuities with its immediate predecessors. With all its rocker energy, it was the personal, subjective songs on Sticky Fingers, like "Wild Horses" and "Moonlight Mile," that finally lingered in my mind. And for all its thunder, Exile contained in whatever lyrics were audible, a very personal sense of weariness and confusion. "Tumbling Dice," "Let It Loose" and "Torn And Frayed" were sung with such pent-up emotion that their powerful band tracks flew outward from the vocal, as if the direct result of inspiration drawn from it.
As usual, on Soup the Stones continue to work within existing frameworks, redefining and personalizing everything they touch. In this case, they make brilliant use of the styles of some proteges—Van Morrison on "Winter" and Gram Parsons on "Comin' Down Again"—while picking up a few things from groups as disparate as the Allman Brothers Band and War. The string arrangements are again close in texture to Elton John's. But they use all of their influences in a fashion superior to the current recordings of their originators. Other artists have built careers on modes the Stones have kicked away without a backward look.
The Stones succeed because they rarely forget their purpose—the creation of rock & roll drama. It is for that reason that they can move from the snow-white Americana of "Comin' Down Again" into the urban R&B of "Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)" without the batting of an eyelash—theirs or ours. When they are uncertain of their purpose—as on "Dancin' With Mr. D."—they can be hopelessly silly. That track is the weakest opener ever so positioned on one of their albums, and they've never performed with less conviction.
But it is strictly one of a kind, for after it Soup emerges as a consistent piece of work, even if its classic moments are confined to four songs. "100 Years Ago" is the album's real introduction and contains in equal portions the two basic strains of the album: the churning, repetitive R&B of the fast songs and the solemn melancholy of the ballads. In the song's linear structure, each element is consecutively isolated and focused on. The strains, like the album's songs, coexist without blending. The R&B eventually suggests violence and irrationality while the slow music suggests reason and vulnerability. In the process of juxtaposing opposites, the Stones make a partly practical and partly moral choice—one of survival over dissipation.
The first ballad, "Comin' Down Again," is closely related to "Wild Horses," from Keith's frayed but loving vocal to the Burritos-related broad metaphor at its center:
Comin' down again (sky fallin' down again)
Comin' down again (sky fallin' down again)
Where are all my friends?
Comin' down again,
On the ground again.
If there's a moment on the album in which sadness outweighs hope, it's in Keith's voice. This feeling, combined with the fact that his distinctive rhythm guitar—one of the seven wonders of rock & roll—is subdued, disguised or inaudible through much of the album, makes me uneasy.
Between "Comin' Down Again" and "Angie" sits "Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)," a broadly drawn third-person narrative in dramatic juxtaposition to the songs surrounding it. It relates an incident of big-city violence hardly uncommon in the real world, but jarring in this context. It works as both thematic and stylistic counterpoint. The agony resulting from a failed love relationship is still ultimately affirmative, and it's relatively easy to bear compared to the agony incurred by some random violent act emanating from a stranger.
There is a crucial substitution of vocal chorus for horn parts (although the latter are used in a different context) that is both an explicit rejection of Exile's mode and an attempt on the album's fiercest song to rehumanize the band through the substitution of voice for the mechanical force of instruments. As on several of the other fast songs, the lead is a Leslie-amplified wah-wah guitar (no track credits are offered—is it Mick Taylor?) that sounds both unearthly and more contemporary than classic Stones style and puts new stress on Mick T. He's not yet the master Richard is, but he can play in the traditional Stones manner ("Sway") and add a powerful new dimension to it (his solos on "Love In Vain" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" during the band's '72 concerts). On Soup, he relies more on discipline than imagination, except for his exquisite solo on "Winter." He is obviously coming into his own but I can't help missing Keith, even when I sense he must be around somewhere.
"Angie" will inevitably be the most durable and well-loved song on the album. There are several reasons for its significance: a vocal of practically unprecedented conviction by Jagger, the lovely interplay of strings and single electric guitar that dramatizes the romantic core of the song, and a consummate piano performance by Nicky Hopkins. But the key is in the tune itself, as emotionally complex as it is lyrically straightforward.
It contrasts the traditional view of romance (and its mystical principal of adoration), with the more recently conceived notion of pragmatism in relationships. The singer has a simultaneous and irreconcilable investment in both values, and they're at war within him. Haunted by Angie's image, he tells the mystic in him that the conditions for romance are still present. But reason patiently answers that despite their efforts, it won't work. It wins the struggle, but every so often the voice burns through the velvet lining.
The singer's lingering belief in mystery is manifested in brief moments of passion and in a sense of guilt that can't be rationalized. Thus, all his statements seem to come out questions and he asks them as much of himself as of Angie. The one stand he takes is shaky, indeed: "They can't say we never tried," is inevitably followed by the understood "Can they?"
The song's depth of feeling is enhanced by a barely audible second vocal that may have been a reference track they couldn't get rid of or purely intentional. It seems to come from a great void completely cut off from the rest of the song. The sense of separation it so subtly suggests is a perfectly apt comment on the theme. And every facet of the song is like that, making it one of the most completely satisfying of all Rolling Stones performances.
Side two begins modestly with "Silver Train," a rock & roll song with a pre-rock flavor. The Stones' approach is like their treatment of "Stop Breaking Down," one of Exile's sleepers: lots of whiny slide guitar and harp. They also emphasize, with their ragged ensemble shouts, the song's appealing chorus. "Train" is the best of the album's secondary songs.
"Hide Your Love," dominated by Jagger's crude piano and blackest vocal, continues the rustic blues flavor of "Train." It is the descendant of "Prodigal Son" and "You've Gotta Move," while "Winter" is the offspring of the incandescent "Moonlight Mile," although it seems also influenced by Van Morrison's "Listen to the Lion" and "Almost Independence Day." Morrison's ideas are in evidence in Jagger's vocal, which moves from a reading of patterned verses into improvisations. As he sings, the Oriental-styled guitar of "Moonlight" and an elegant string section swirl around him. And as Mick finds the crucial line to climax the piece with—"I'm gonna wrap my coat around you"—the surrounding track is blowing fierce, icy winds right across him.
After "Can You Hear the Music?," a philosophical song that expresses a belief in the mystical power of music from the Pipes of Pan right up to rock & roll, comes the fabulous "Star Star" as if to prove the point of its predecessor. "Starfucker"'s surface nastiness is belied by the sheer exultation with which it's played. The hallowed Chuck Berry riffs have never sounded fresher or more energetic. And those unswerving drums, ringing guitars and straining voices are all daring us to try and keep from moving to the music.
There are too many secondary songs on Goat's Head Soup to rate it an ultimate Rolling Stones album. The content-defying title expresses the group's uncertainty about its performance. But those three great ballads place the album among their most intimate and emotionally absorbing work. At the same time, "Starfucker" maintains the stature of the Stones as grand masters of the rock & roll song. If they've played it safe this time, their caution has nevertheless reaped some rewards. Soup stands right next to Mott, the thematically similar LP of the Stones' brightest students, as the best album of 1973. For me, its deepening and unfolding over the coming months will no doubt rate as one of the year's richest musical experiences. (RS 147)
BUD SCOPPA
(Posted: Nov 8, 1973)
[Edited by Nellcote] |
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| Zack |
No no no, the line is "bet it keeps your pussy clean," not "bet you." This refers to the fruit, the tricks with which must have had something to do with inserting, say, bananas into her vaginal region. Or possibly kumquats.
My old cassette had the word "pussy" obscured as well. |
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| chrisloc |
isn't it "balling" instead of "falling" through the Silver Screen" ? |
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| Saint Sway |
One of their all time best songs.
should be played more frequently |
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| Gazza |
"The Stones blew up a giant, inflatable penis when they performed this on their 1975 tour.
This was banned by the BBC. "
What was banned, exactly? The song or the penis?
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| Starbuck |
quote:
According to the songbook, the chorus consists of the line "You're a starbucker, starbucker, starbucker, starbucker, star.."
yes, indeed. excellent lyrics. |
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| Mel Belli |
When I was a kid, I never knew about the original title and heard the chorus as "Star from a star." Doesn't make much sense -- a celebrity from outer space perhaps? -- but I didn't give it much thought at the time. |
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| Jethrostone |
quote:
fireontheplatter wrote:
i will listen to this tonight and let you know my oionion tomorrow.
i have the cd.
great song
I own Goats Head Soup already everyone. I have heard the song. It's a great song. I just read on Wikipedia that some copies censored it when it was first release. I'm asking if it's rare at all. |
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| Jethrostone |
quote:
Jethrostone wrote:
I own Goats Head Soup already everyone. I have heard the song. It's a great song. I just read on Wikipedia that some copies censored it when it was first release. I'm asking if it's rare at all.
Nevermind. I didn't read the posts before I posted the post above me. Interesting that the song was cut. |
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| Jethrostone |
quote:
Soldatti wrote:
Star Star from the US vinyl:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/fwc6j3
Cool! Thanks. The sound is suprisingly good. The censor was cheap. The 'pussy' line :It just overlapped the second line from the third verse. The 'John Wayne' line soounds weird.
[Edited by Jethrostone] |
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| doo doo doo Dude |
quote:
Mel Belli wrote:
When I was a kid, I never knew about the original title and heard the chorus as "Star from a star." Doesn't make much sense -- a celebrity from outer space perhaps? -- but I didn't give it much thought at the time.
I had a similar experience with the song. Originally thought Mick was singing "Funky Star"
"Star, funky star, funky star, funky star, funky star-ar-ar"...
[Edited by doo doo doo Dude] |
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| corgi37 |
I had a jap import & a U.S. vinyl. The U.S was censored. Mick said the line, but it seemed to have either a backward vocal over it, or the line said again, but at different speed. Weird. |
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| fireontheplatter |
i listened to this song this morning on my cd...
my copy does contain the words pussy and head, but not in the same sentence |
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| playguitar |
I always thought the first line of the third verse was :
"Yeah I heard about you ballin' Leroy"
As in The Stones' afro haired bodyguard. |
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| fireontheplatter |
quote:
playguitar wrote:
I always thought the first line of the third verse was :
"Yeah I heard about you ballin' Leroy"
As in The Stones' afro haired bodyguard.
good one....
made me laugh |
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| monkeyman2 |
I believe the penis was banned not the song. In fact I remember a picture of the penis with a large band aid/tape on it apparently after the British police cut a hole in the inflatable penis underneath the stage. |
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| Zack |
On my LA 75 DVD, it appears the penis has a nail painted on the top, so they could claim it was a big finger than than a willy. |
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| Fadeout_Freedom |
quote:
Gazza wrote:
The Stones DID send an advance tape of the song to Steve McQueen to check if he had any objections to the 'giving head' line - and he okayed it.
Small world... each evening, in advance of bedtime, I check with the missus if she has any objections to giving head - and usually she falls asleep 
..but about once a year (WE INTERRUPT THIS FILTH AND DIRECT YOU TO "UNDERCOVER", TRACK NUMBER 9... NUMBER 9... NUMBER 9)
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