Disc One: 1. Silver Train 1, 2. All The Rage, 3. Separately, 4. Angie #1, 5. Tops#1, 6. Waiting On A Friend #1, 7. English Rose, 8. Man Eating Woman, 9. Criss Cross #1, 10. Criss Cross #2, 11. Criss Cross #3, 12. Criss Cross #4, 13. Criss Cross #5, 14. Criss Cross #6, 15. Come To The Ball a.k.a. Windmill #1, 16. Come To The Ball a.k.a. Windmill #2.

Disc Two: 1. Dancing With Mr.D #2, 2. 100 Years Ago #2, 3. 100 Years Ago #3, 4. Angie #2, 5. Winter #2, 6. Can You Hear The Music #2, 7. Star Star South Africa Censored Mix, 8. Hide Your Love #3, 9. Silver Train#2, 10. Silver Train #3, 11. Dancing With Mr.D, 12. Silver Train, 13. Angie, 14. Angie.

Disc Three: 1. DJ Introduction, 2. Gimme Shelter, 3. Tumbling Dice, 4. Brown Sugar, 5. Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker), 6. Angie, 7. DJ Introduction- Honky Tonk Women, 8, Midnight Rambler, 9. All Down The Line, 10. Street Fighting Man, 11. Happy, 12. Star Star, 13. Dancing With Mr.D, 14. You Can’t Always Get What You Want, 15. Rip This Joint, 16. Jumpin’ Jack Flash.

Here we have again some Goat’s Head Soup outtakes from Mayflower, this label already put out a 2 disc set with the same name (MF 115-6) some years ago but some new outtakes have seen the light recently, others having been released officially.

The sound output is quite good, packaging too except for the usual mess on sources. Disc One opens with a version of Silver Train having no harmonica, but with brass followed by All the Rage that formerly was known as You Should Have Seen Her Ass. Angie #1 appeared first on Crossfire Hurricane, unfortunately marred by talking over the track (where’s AI when you need it?).

These sessions produced songs that were used also on following albums like It’s Only Rock n Roll, but also Tattoo You where we can find Tops, here is the instrumental take and Waiting On A Friend, here in its first version with Jagger singing Waiting On My Friend. Separately is an instrumental take with Hopkins and Taylor painting great landscapes, unfortunately these ideas have never been used, the track only been issued officially by Mick Taylor in 1999 only in Japan (credited to him and Keith Richards) as bonus track to the Japan version of Stone Alone, his version recorded in 1997. English Rose and Man Eating Woman are in good shape too, followed by 6 versions of Criss Cross (a.k.a. Save Me). Come To The Ball #1 (Windmill, but also known as Wind Call) is an instrumental track featuring Nicky Hopkins on piano, while the second take has an additional slide guitar. Disc Two opens with an early version of Dancing With Mr D; one of the best tracks are certainly the versions of 100 Year Ago, the first was a bonus on GHS Japan De Luxe version like Can You Hear The Music #2, but here it starts with Jagger saying “It probably ended up somewhere….” while the second is longer with a different mix. Angie sounds like the official take but has a slightly different mix for the acoustic guitar; Winter too has a slightly different mix, while Star Star is the censored version for the South African market which includes more percussions instead of vocals overdubs which were used for the US version. Hide Your Love has more guitar and less piano and sax; the 2 versions of Silver Train that follow have no harmonica but brass the first, while the second has a different mix with Taylor’s solo more upfront. The next four songs are the soundtracks of the tv promos, which have live vocals over backing tracks, in mono but however in great quality.

In short, this collection presents Goat’s Head Soup outtakes in excellent quality, some are different alternate mixes or different mixes, others are versions coming from acetates often showing longer versions; it must also be said that the unofficial tracks are well known to collectors. It should be remarked that the audio quality is superb and maybe a casual fan would wonder what has been wrong with said album: Goat’s Head Soup went three times platinum but it still isn’t considered of the same kind of Sticky Fingers or Exile on Main Street as a seminal Stones release, these tracks prove the basic ingredients were there and we can recognize them in many songs that show their power and charm although subjected to different production treatment. These outtakes are the real ones in the best possible quality, even those lately officially released have not been used and this makes this set more interesting. Disc Three has the boot Bedspring Symphony supplemented by other live track from the same sources.