Tattoo You
click the image to get it in cd-cover size
| Release Date: |
November 30, 1980 |
| Label: |
Virgin Records |
| Rating: |
4.0 |
Description: 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
Tracklist of Tattoo You
Reviews:
Listen to it at night
If you want to find a thematic throughline to this collection of around-the-world outtakes, I would say that this is the Stones coming to grips with their status as aging rock icons, opening with poppy bounce but then drifting in and out of nervous rumination in the ballads. The album grabs your attention with Mick's frantic promise in his third star decade that "if you start me up,I'll never stop," but then wrestles with romantic doubts on such cuts as "Worried About You" and "Black Limousine" ('Look at your face, now, baby/look at me'),before finally reaching a cathartic crescendo on "Waiting on a Friend," which drifts off at the end like the last song ever, warriors finally ascending to their well-earned Valhalla. A shame they didn't have the wherewithal to stop here, but let's pretend they did, and listen to the sound of a band at the pinnacle of maturity
One of the Stone's Best
Like Emotional Rescue before it, Tattoo You was comprised primarily of leftovers, but unlike its predecessor, it never sounds that way. Instead, Tattoo You captures the Stones at their best as a professional stadium-rock band. Divided into a rock & roll side and a ballad side, the album delivers its share of thrills on the tight, dynamic first side. "Start Me Up" became the record's definitive Stonesy rocker, but the frenzied doo wop of "Hang Fire," the reggae jam of "Slave," the sleazy Chuck Berry rockers "Little T&A" and "Neighbours," and the hard blues of "Black Limousine" are all terrific. The ballad side suffers in comparison, especially since "Heaven" and "No Use in Crying" are faceless. But "Worried About You" and "Tops" are effortless, excellent ballads, and "Waiting on a Friend," with its Sonny Rollins sax solo, is an absolute masterpiece, with a moving lyric that captures Jagger in a shockingly reflective and affecting state of mind. "Waiting on a Friend" and the vigorous rock & roll of the first side make Tattoo You an essential latter-day Stones album, ranking just a few notches below Some Girls.
The last of the best
Probably the last great Rolling Stones release. Although "Start Me Up" has become a concert regular, "Waiting On A Friend", "Little T and A", and "Hang Fire" are all great songs and carry this release. Compared with everything else that has come out from the Stones since 1980, this is still one of my favorite Stones cd's.
