THE STONES’ NEXT album, Goats Head Soup, was principally recorded in Jamaica and while it represents a step back artistically, it was a huge commercial success. An amusing quote from Mick at the time of the album’s release suggests the Stones were maybe just a little complacent and bored.
MICK JAGGER: It was recorded all over the place, over about two or three months. I think you’ll like the album. The tracks are much more varied than the last one, and all that crap.
ANDY JOHNS: Because of drug habits, those sessions weren’t quite as much fun. And there are a couple of examples on there where just the basic tracks we kept weren’t really up to standard. People were accepting things perhaps that weren’t up to standard because they were a little higher than normal. But there still are some fantastic things on there.
Another issue was the continuing deterioration of Jimmy Miller.
ANDY JOHNS: He was somewhat of a frail individual and they got to him like they got to everybody. Sooner or later you lose your mind. Jimmy was mad keen and sort of halfway in control of Sticky Fingers but his grip was slipping a bit. On Exile they sort of stopped listening to him and by the time we got to Goats Head Soup it was like he wasn’t there. That was a very tough record to make.
You know, Mick and Keith back then could be pretty fuckin’ ruthless. It’s a defense mechanism because people forget how big a deal they were. So everybody and their uncle is trying to grab the hem of their coat. They always want something, you know. “Listen to this song. You should really do this song. I’ve got this great idea for a hotel. Give me the money.” Constantly. And the dope dealers and the groupies. So I guess that hardens you to a certain extent. I know it has to me a little bit.
KEITH RICHARDS: Jimmy Miller went in a lion and came out a lamb. We wore him out completely . . . Jimmy was great, but the more successful he became the more he got like Brian . . . He ended up carving swastikas into the wooden console at Island Studios. It took him three months to carve a swastika. Meanwhile, Mick and I finished up Goats Head Soup.
Miller was not invited for the recording sessions in Germany for It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll (subsequently Mick and Keith assumed production credit under the name the Glimmer Twins).
ROBERT GREENFIELD: Although Jimmy Miller certainly deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest rock producers who ever lived, virtually no one who listens to his music now on various greatest hits compilations has any idea who he was. Nameless and faceless, he has become just another name on the back of a repackaged CD case. Perhaps that is the way he would have wanted it. To be remembered for the music and nothing else.