Morning Spin: Tattoo You by The Rolling Stones
A collection of left over, uncompleted songs is turned into a major hit
Tattoo You
The Rolling Stones
Rolling Stones Records
Released 1981
In 1981, the Rolling Stones were in a quandary. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were not getting along. Ronnie Wood was drinking heavily. Charlie Watts wanted to quit the band. Bill Wyman was riding the wave of an international hit single. The band had not toured since 1978 behind the Some Girls album and the follow-up, Emotional Rescue, received mixed reviews. They were planning a worldwide tour but didn’t have a new album.
Chris Kimsey, who had engineered the previous two albums, offered to dig into the vaults and find songs for a new album from those sessions. “I knew what was there,’ Kimsey said. He searched deeper, finding two tracks from 1973 that were cut during the Goat Heads Soup sessions – “Tops” and “Waiting on a Friend.”
He also found a dusty jewel from the Some Girls sessions. The Stones worked on a reggae song with the working title “Never Stop.” Kimsey remembered, “It was attempted like that quite a few times. Then, one evening, suddenly Keith started to play it as a full-on rock song. It was great, but they did only two takes like that.” Richards didn’t like the rock version and told Kimsey to wipe the tape. Thankfully he didn’t. The song retitled “Start Me Up” became a no. 2 hit single in the US.
Using backing tracks from the vaults meant that musicians from past sessions appear here and there. “Slave” was originally recorded during the Black and Blue album sessions with Billy Preston on keyboards. “Worried About You” from the same sessions features a lead guitar solo by Wayne Perkins. “Tops” includes a guitar from Mick Taylor recorded in 1973 when he was a member of the band.
Many of the songs existed as instrumental backing tracks with little to no lyrics. Jagger wrote melodies and lyrics for the tracks and overdubbed his vocals. Other overdubs were also made to finish off the songs. Jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins was brought in at the suggestion of Watts.
This rag-tag collection of leftovers is considered one of the greatest Stones albums, if not one of the greatest albums of all time. Tattoo You hit number one in the US, Canada, and several other countries.
Kimsey attempted to explain the band’s chemistry” When they’re playing a song, trying to get through it and hoping to get a take, all of a sudden you’ll go ‘What was that? What was that?’ That’s the thing that no one else does.”