The Stones arrival in Jamaica
The Rolling Stones flew into Jamaica on Thursday, 23 November 1972, to begin work on a new record that would become their 11th British (and 13th American) studio album: Goats Head Soup.
They checked in to the Spanish-style Terra Nova Hotel, a real Jamaican hang-out. The hotel is situated near Hope Road, where, a few years later, Bob Marley would build Tuff Gong Studio, and not far from the site of the famed Channel One recording studio.
The Stones were rolling in on the back of a high-energy tour of America for the album Exile on Main St., and the Jamaican trip did feel a little like an exile – from Europe and the States, a moment to reset and regroup. ‘For Goats Head Soup, Jamaica was one of the few places that would let us all in,’ said Keith Richards.
Music in Jamaica was about to explode and Terra Nova, which would be the band’s base during most of the recording, was near the epicentre. While in London in the ’60s, the Stones had discovered reggae, ska and bluebeat in the multi-cultural musical mix of the clubs of the capital. A year before their Jamaican odyssey, they had been listening to these sounds while recording Exile on Main St. in the South of France.
Charlie Watts had brought ska and reggae singles with him, while boxes of more recordings on specialist reggae labels such as Trojan were sent to the band by Chris Blackwell, the Jamaican-British founder of Island Records. The 1972 reggae soundtrack to The Harder They Come, the musical crime film starring Jamaican musician Jimmy Cliff, had become a favourite of Richards.
It’s not known what the band drank while they were at their hotel, but we know what was behind the bar – rum. And lots of it. The Terra Nova was actually the former home of the band’s friend Chris Blackwell of Island Records, and since 1916 his mother’s family had owned the Jamaican bottler, blender and distiller J Wray & Nephew, famous for its overproof spirit since the 19th century.
Richards quickly embraced the island life: ‘I became more and more Jamaican, to the point where I didn’t leave.’ In fact, after his time at the Terra Nova, he rented a house in Ocho Rios, not far from James Bond creator Ian Fleming’s Goldeneye residence at Oracabessa, once, very briefly, the home of Bob Marley. Keith went on to make Jamaica his second home.
The Goats Head Soup sessions kicked off in late November at Dynamic Sounds Studios on Bell Road, Kingston, with recording lasting long into the early hours. At the time, Mick Jagger talked of his concerns – but they weren’t musical: ‘Finding something to eat has been a problem. We usually get up too late for lunch and too early for dinner. When we return from the studio it’s too early for breakfast.’
By the end of December, in only four weeks, eight of the 10 tracks for the album had been recorded. And Jamaica’s energy had exerted its influence on the band’s sound – not literally, but emotionally. ‘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.’
