Buying a gift for a Rolling Stones 'Goats Head Soup' fan is awkward, because anybody who loves the 1973 album already owns it in three formats. So I mapped the record itself instead: all ten tracks sit as stations in running order, and every credited musician runs as a line through the tracks they actually played on.
The thing I did not expect when I worked through the credits: the four keyboard players on this album never once share a track between them.
The short version. My Goats Head Soup map plots all ten tracks of the 1973 Rolling Stones album, from "Dancing with Mr. D" to "Star Star", as stations in running order. Charlie Watts and Mick Jagger are credited on all ten. Keith Richards is on nine. Bill Wyman plays bass on three. Four different keyboard players cover the album between them and never overlap. Giclée art print in A2 and A1, unframed or framed, from £42.00.
Why a Gift for Goats Head Soup Fans Reads Better Track by Track
Every other music map I make plots a whole career, one station per studio album. This is the only one in my range that goes inside a single record.
That decision changes what you can see. On a discography map, you learn that Billy Preston played on a Stones album. On this one, you learn he played clavinet on exactly two tracks, and which two.
It is a gift for the fan who knows the running order without checking, and who will stand in front of i,t working out why one line stops where it does.
The Goats Head Soup Album Map
Ten tracks, every credited musician, one 1973 record drawn as a transit network.
Explore This Art PrintCharlie Watts Is on All Ten Tracks. Keith Richards Is Not.
Watts is credited on drums for every track on the record, which makes his name the one line that runs the full width of the print without a break. Mick Jagger reaches all ten as well, though he gets there by a stranger route: lead vocals on nine, and backing vocals on "Coming Down Again", the one Keith Richards sings.
Richards stops at nine. He is not credited as a performer on "Winter", and the electric rhythm guitar on that track is played by Jagger instead.
One missing station out of ten does not sound like much. On a map, it is the first thing your eye finds, because everything around it carries on and that one line does not.
Bill Wyman Plays Bass on Three of the Ten
This is the finding that surprises people most. The band's bass player is credited on bass on three tracks: "Angie", "Winter" and "Star Star".
The other seven are covered by the two guitarists. Richards plays bass on "100 Years Ago", "Heartbreaker", "Silver Train" and "Hide Your Love". Mick Taylor plays it on "Dancing with Mr. D", "Coming Down Again" and "Can You Hear the Music".
Drawn out as lines, the bass duty on this album looks nothing like a five-piece band. It looks like three people passing an instrument around, which is exactly what happened.
Four Keyboard Players Divide the Album and Never Meet
Ten tracks, four players, and no two of them appear on the same station. I have mapped seventy artists now and I have not seen a cleaner split than this one.
| Player | Tracks | Credited on |
|---|---|---|
| Nicky Hopkins | 5 | Piano on "Dancing with Mr. D", "Coming Down Again", "Angie", "Winter" and "Can You Hear the Music" |
| Billy Preston | 2 | Clavinet on "100 Years Ago" and "Heartbreaker", plus piano on "Heartbreaker" |
| Ian Stewart | 2 | Piano on "Silver Train" and "Star Star" |
| Mick Jagger | 1 | Piano on "Hide Your Love" |
Ian Stewart is the one worth pausing on. He was dropped from the official line-up in 1963 and was still playing on Stones records a decade later, and here he takes two of the ten stations while the band's own singer takes one.
Heartbreaker Is the Busiest Station, and the Horn Arranger Gets No Line
"Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)" pulls in more credited players than anything else on the record. All five Stones are on it in some form, Billy Preston brings clavinet and piano, Bobby Keys plays tenor saxophone, Jim Horn plays alto and Chuck Findley plays trumpet.
Jim Price arranged those horns. He does not get a line, because my rule across every map is the same: you are drawn as a line if you are credited playing something, not for arranging or producing it. Nicky Harrison, who arranged the strings on "Angie" and "Winter", is out for the same reason.
It is a strict rule and it costs me some famous names, but it is the only way the map means one consistent thing from end to end.
Jimmy Miller Produced It, Played Percussion on One Track, and Earned His Line
Goats Head Soup was the last Rolling Stones album Jimmy Miller produced, closing a run that started with Beggars Banquet in 1968. Under my rule, that would leave him off the map entirely.
He is on it, and only just, because he is credited on percussion on "Can You Hear the Music". One track, one line, one station.
That track is the densest percussion point on the record: Watts on drums, Miller, and both Rebop Kwaku Baah and Nicholas Pascal Raicevic, who also appear together on the opener. Jim Horn's flute is there too, which is his only appearance away from the horn section.
Choosing Between A2 and A1 for a Track-by-Track Map
A track-level map carries more information per centimetre than a discography map does, so size matters more here than usual. The A2 reads well from a few feet back and holds the shape of the album clearly. The A1 is what I would send to somebody who wants to follow a single player across the record without hunting.
| Size | UK | US equivalent | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| A2 | 594 x 420 mm, landscape | 24 x 18 in | £42.00 |
| A1 | 841 x 594 mm, landscape | 36 x 24 in | £58.00 |
Both sizes come unframed or in a black wooden frame, ready to hang. Every print is a Giclée on 230gsm premium fine art paper with a textured matte finish, archival and acid-free.
"Brilliant idea... really like what you've done, Mike."
Billy Bragg, on my maps
Questions I Get About the Goats Head Soup Map
How is this different from your Rolling Stones discography map?
The discography map plots the whole career, one station per studio album. This one plots one album, one station per track, which is why it can show who played what on each individual song.
Was this Mick Taylor's last album with the band?
His penultimate one. He left in 1974, and on this record he is credited on all ten tracks across electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass and backing vocals.
Which track has the fewest lines running through it?
"Angie" is among the sparsest, which is part of why it works. The biggest single off the album is one of the quietest stations on the map.
Do the session musicians get the same treatment as the band?
Yes. Bobby Keys, Jim Horn, Chuck Findley, Rebop Kwaku Baah and the rest are drawn exactly the way the five Stones are. A line is a line.
Is it suitable as a birthday or Christmas present?
It is what I designed it for. It arrives ready to frame or already framed, and it is the sort of thing that goes on a wall rather than into a drawer.
Maps That Sit Alongside This One
For the full career rather than one record, the Rolling Stones Discography Map runs from 1964 onwards and puts Goats Head Soup back in its place in the sequence. The two hang well as a pair, one wide and one deep.
Nicky Hopkins also turns up on the The Who map, and Billy Preston played across George Harrison's solo records, which makes the George Harrison map the other natural companion. The wider range is in the music art print collection.
Ten tracks, every credited musician, one 1973 record. A2 or A1, unframed or framed, from £42.00.
See the Goats Head Soup MapNot sure which map they would want? An art print gift card lets them choose.
