The Rolling Stones - Tattoo You

Often viewed as the band's last great album, Tattoo You contributed one true classic, "Start Me Up," to the Stones' canon. The song, still used as a concert finale, begins with a fat Keith Richards guitar riff and ends with a leering Mick Jagger murmuring about a woman who could "make a dead man come." The rest isn't as consistent as, say, "Sticky Fingers," but the fast-paced "Hang Fire," the surprisingly non-sexy "Waiting on a Friend," and Richards's "bitch"-filled "Little T&A" make this the Stones' best '80s release by far. Released in 1981, it was the right album at the right time, with strong singles just after MTV began. With typical savvy, the Stones maneuvered gently into the video age. --Steve Knopper Amazon.com

Good Stones Release From The 80's

Apparently this album was made out of outtakes from previous albums but it's very good indeed. In fact it's one of their best albums from the 80's. It was released in 1981 and features both lead guitarists Ron Wood and Mick Taylor plus Wayne Perkins who played during the "Black And Blue" sessions. For the rhythm section there's rhythm guitarist Keith Richards, bass player Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts as always.

The first track "Star Me Up" is one of their most popular songs by far! It's still played on radio frequently. "Hang Fire" and "Neighbours" are memorable up tempo rockers.
There's also a jam called "Slave" that includes a catchy riff plus keyboard and saxophone solos.
"Little T&A" is sung by rhythm guitarist Keith Richards and it's pure hard rock at it's finest. One of the best songs on the album!
Another highlight is the R&B number "Black Limousine" which wouldn't sound out of place in one of their early albums while "Tops" features great vocals by Mick Jagger, catchy verses and chorus, and at the end there's a great outro solo by Mick Taylor.
The last number "Waiting On A Frined" is the other popular song that's still played on radio and again features saxophone playing. Also note the ballad "Worried About You" where Mick Jagger sings in his falsetto voice and about half way into the song, a guitar solo by Wayne Perkins shows up.
But the most unusal song here got be "Heaven". One of the most experimental songs the Stones ever did! It sounds like psychedelic rock.

This is a an excellent choice if you want to get into 80's Rolling Stones as this is one of their best!
Thanks for taking the time to read!
Later... August 21, 2008

Raunch

Nope, way wrong, babe. Er -

Back in '81, I was so appallingly hip. Nothing but Gang of 4, PiL and Devo for me. "Hang Fire" on the dashboard, though; what a crunch - probably the last unconditionally great rocking pop Stones tune. Timeless adolescence, a perfect mate for "Get Off Of My Cloud." The silly vocal hook, Chuck Berry solo, trailer trash narrator, bar 'n grill drum rolls, brittle slapback - the genius is in the brevity. Gang of 4, PiL and Devo probably thought they were revolutionaries back then, the rubes. Who NEEDS, like, progress? "Black Limousine," throwaway changes but, DUDE, the FEEL of that solo. "Neighbors," both obnoxious and charming; so unabashedly the Stones. And "Start Me Up," reactionary as hell, the Stones doing the Stones. Live long enough and you can get away with ANYTHING.

[Insert belch here.] August 18, 2008

One of the best post-Exile Stones' albums

The Rolling Stones had a string of stunning albums, up to "Exile on Main Street." Then, after a number of albums that had some strengths and some weaknesses, "Some Girls," one of their best came out. Then a disappointing "Emotional Rescue." But the Stones bounced back with a pretty good work, "Tattoo You." Many of the albums after "Exile" would have a few great songs--but also a number that did not measure up (and some were little more than filler). There is very little filler on "Tattoo You."

The CD starts out, fittingly enough, with "Start Me Up," an absolutely classic Stones' rocker. The guitar riff is top notch, reminiscent of the best of the group's songs.

"You start me up
. . .
You make a grown man cry."

A real rocker. The band is in fine form here; this song has even been used (ugh) to signal the start of sporting events over the past decade or so.

"Hang Fire." Just 2 minutes and 20 seconds, but what is packed into that brief time frame! The guitars growl nicely and the steady drumming of Charlie Watts provides a firm foundation for this song.

"Black Limousine": Starts with some nice harmonica. This is one of the Stones'' home grown blues songs, a genre at which they have done well (recall the wonderful little classic, "Down in the Hole").

"We used to ride baby,
Ride around in a limousine.
You looked so fine, baby,
You in white and me in red."

Sinuous guitar work is displayed and the Stones' rhythm section lives up to its reputation.

"Waiting on a Friend": A softer sound, and effectively done! This is more intimate and contemplative than other pieces on this album. Nice piano work at the outset.

"I'm just standing in a doorway,
I'm just trying to make some sense.
. . .
I'm not waiting on a lady,
I'm waiting on a friend."

This represents an interesting change of pace.

And these aren't the only songs of interest. As earlier noted, there is not much filler here. Other strong works: "Slave," "Neighbours," "No Use in Cryin'," and so on. Keith's obligatory song on this album is one of his better efforts.

Rolling Stones' fans will appreciate this CD greatly. One of their best between "Exile on Main Street" and the present, along with "Some Girls" and "Bigger Bang."
April 20, 2008

This Tattoo has left a lasting impression!

Although never less than the most visible of rock bands, the Stones were in the midst of a commercial resurgence that began with Some Girls in 1978. Tattoo You (1981) remains the last album of the Stones' classic period and for good reason. Not only does it contain their last true classic song in "Start Me Up" but it also has the tender "Waiting on a Friend", the melodic pop rock of "Hang Fire" and Keith's ode to his newfound love in the catchy "Little T&A". "Start Me Up" was unavoidable on the radio but it's highest charting position was number 2 for several weeks never quite hitting number 1. There was only one song during this time that received more airplay than "Start Me Up" and this song prevented it from topping the charts. Anyone know what it is? I'll tell you at the end.

Upon release the album was divided into a rock side and a ballad side and the first half contains some of the punchiest rockers the Stones have done but the ballad side contains a lot of material that we wouldn't normally get all in one place on a Stones record...and the ballads are gorgeous ("Worried About You", "Tops" and the ghostly "Heaven"). I remember not liking "Heaven" very much and one day in the summer, after a long day at the beach with my then girlfriend, we began our ride home. The sun was going down and we were driving in my convertible over the bridge that takes you over the water and back to 'civilization'. "Heaven" began to play and the whole atmosphere of the song just reflected the whole moment. The evening sun beating down upon the ocean as we crossed over it with the top down on a warm summer evening. That image is forever tattooed in my brain when I hear that song. It captured the moment as perfectly as any song could.

Critics of this release often cite that the material was a patchwork of leftovers and new songs that they put together for an album. This may be true but the Stones are not the first band to do this. Elo's "Do Ya" was written before ELO was even formed, Van Halen did "House of Pain" on 1984 when that song predated their first album in 1978. The list goes on...Hey, if you wrote the song, you deserve to use it. Sometimes the timing just isn't right.

That being said, if you're new to the Stones this is a good place to start. It's got more of an MOR feel to it than any of their other records and the main reason why casual fans seem to prefer it to their other recordings, even the classics. The Stones always had hits, but they were never as commercial on one recording as they were here. Commercial doesn't always mean 'better' but in this instance, it's timeless rock that they haven't been able to top since.

ANSWER: "Private Eyes" by Hall and Oates

Yeah, I know..but nobody ever said life was fair... April 20, 2008

Un-Tattooed.

In the run-up to Scorsese's concert film Shine A Light I dusted off Exile on Main Street, the only Stones album that I owned until recently, and which I'd tried in vain to appreciate for probably 10 years. The timing must have been right because I found myself mentally comparing it to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon or the Great Pyramid of Cheops instead of to other rock albums.

Since then I've been frantically collecting the Stones' recorded legacy and so far have heard everything except Black and Blue, Bridges to Babylon, and Steel Wheels. Though Exile is still tops, what surprised me is how consistent the Stones have been, and how they retained their kingship right until the end. Since I wasn't overly anticipating each album the way fans who grew up with the Stones had to, and bought the albums haphazardly, going from Undercover back to Beggar's Banquet and onto Between the Buttons, there was no disappointment. Yeah, I can hear that Beggar's Banquet or Sticky Fingers have a more "classic" feel than Emotional Rescue, but this is mostly because the singles from those earlier albums have been driven into our heads. Otherwise these guys have never really fallen off track. There is no growth apparent in their albums, but there is a constant, almost heroic reinvigoration of formula. No two Stones albums sound quite alike, yet they all have that raw, chaotic, "Where'd that bongo come from, and where'd it disappear to so quickly?" sense of surprise.

The Stones are not only underrated as players and orchestrators ( though that word brings to mind tubas and mellotrons and George Martin, while the Stones try to conceal their art behind an organized messiness ), but Jagger's lyrics deserve much more respect. Jagger seems to embody a reluctant fallen angel, and his perspective on life has a fascinating ambivalence -- it's almost like he went against his nature to live up to the image of a rock star. There's a sense he's too smart to go to hell, but he's chosen to anyway. Most debauchees don't have this kind of self-awareness, or the ability to stare so coldly at their own downfall. Compared to this spectacle of ugly, monkey-man burnout, stretched out slowly and painfully over 40 years, Dylan seems like a boring mystifier cobbling Old Testament phrases together with hippie sentiment, and Lennon like a self-loathing would-be guru. Jagger is not admirable, but he's also not a hypocrite. He IS rock music, and always will be. In fact, I think the entire concept of rock will die with him. The irony of Jagger, like the irony of Lucifer, is the insane hard work that went into his hedonism, and that all those lines on his face are a result of the effort it took to make others believe that he's having fun.

All this is a bit heady for a review of Tattoo You, maybe the most M.O.R. of the Stones' albums. I'm not even sure why I'm reviewing this one. Maybe because glimmers of a once-heavenly nature are evident on "Heaven" or "Waiting on a Friend," giving this album a slightly tragic feel that left me unexpectedly shaken. I thought this album would be radio-ready pop, and it is, but some of the songs here are the closest Jagger came to abandoning his act, the edifice of the shtick that became his selfhood. On the ballad-heavy second half of the album, the "real" Mick Jagger seems tantalizingly close to showing his face. That's why the cover shows someone covered in tattoos, because Jagger was obviously nervous about what he reveals here and had to pretend the mask was still on.

I don't say this because the songs are slow and therefore signifiers of emotion. I mean, this observation is coming from a guy who is immune to many classic Stones weepers like "Wild Horses" or "Moonlight Mile," that I consider hollow pastiche.
But on the second half of Tattoo You it doesn't just sound like Jagger is tired of the Stones, like on Dirty Work, it sounds like he's tired of being Mick Jagger. "No Use in Crying," his six millionth kiss-off song to a former girlfriend ( roughly ) even seems deliberately attenuated, half-baked, Jagger barely able to muster up the enthusiasm for the usual ignorant, heartless bile aimed at some poor bimbo that he'd been delivering at least since "Stupid Girl" from Aftermath. The song comes off, because of this, as somewhat beautiful, sounding like Jagger is trying to sing himself through all the useless hatred and aggression.
Between 1981-1983 there might even have been temporary hope of escape from the eternal burden placed on this beast -- but as soon as the sleazy ( and great ) Undercover hit the shelves, that "Waiting on a Friend" Jagger was dead forever. You don't even have to listen to the album. The peerlessly trashy cover, where the girl's eyes are cut off, making her all torso, all crotch, and nothing human, in itself seems like a riposte to Tattoo You, to the vulnerability shown here, as if to say, "Tricked you, didn't I?"

I don't know if it's sad or encouraging that my final thought upon the Stones catalogue and Jagger himself is "Thanks for the great music -- now see ya, wouldn't want to be ya." I think I'll hang fire. March 29, 2008

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