Track Listing

1. Start Me Up
2. Hang Fire
3. Slave
4. Little T And A
5. Black Limousine
6. No Use In Crying
7. Neighbours
8. Worried About You
9. Tops
10. Heaven
11. Waiting On A Friend

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #97500 in Music
• Released on: 1994-08-15
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered

CD Description
After bum-rushing the '80s with EMOTIONAL RESCUE, the Stones released TATTOO YOU, the second half of a potent one-two album punch that showed the band asserting themselves as theyentered their third decade of music-making. Essentially made up of songs dating as far back as 1972 sessions for GOATS HEAD SOUP, the Stones' 1981 release is still a potent slab of swagger and sass. "Hang Fire" is a tight two-minute and twenty second redefinition of surf music, and "Start Me Up" isclassic Stones, replete with Jagger's sexual braggadocio and Keith's patented "Honky Tonk Women"-style riffs. The bluesy shuffle that is "Black Limousine" is only surpassed by thecocky "Little T & A", sung by an endearingly raspy Keith Richards. Most impressive on TATTOO YOU is the wistful "Waiting On A Friend", featuring jazz giant Sonny Rollins wailing away on his saxophone as the song fades out.

Customer Reviews

VISCERAL ROCK & MOVING BALLADS
Tattoo You contains some raucous rock 'n roll and a couple of beautiful, soulful ballads. Although not considered to be amongst their very best albums, there is enough here to make it a worthwhile purchase.

The opener, Start Me Up, is the Stones at their high powered best with its killer riff and insistent rhythm, whilst the melodic Hang Fire with its impressive vocals comes a close second. These were big hits and can be found on many Stones compilations.

The bluesy Black Limousine and the reggae-influenced Slave aren't bad either, but ballads like Tops and Heaven fall somewhat beneath their high standards. This may be forgiven though, since the closing number, the poignant Waiting On A Friend sees them at their soulful best. It's a moving ballad on a par with earlier great moments such as Wild Horses and Dead Flowers from 1971s Sticky Fingers album.

Overall Tatto You is thus an uneven work but the aforementioned highlights more than make up for the few tepid and uninspired ballads. I give it four stars but that is judging it by the high standards of their own work.

The Last Spark Of The Old Stones Magic
'Tattoo You' along with 'Some Girls' is often considered by the critics to be arguably the last Stones album that really matters. Unfortunately i believe there's a fair bit of truth in that view.
The album doesn't have the most promising origins (most of the songs being cobbled together from outtakes stretching back almost a decade to the 'Goats Head Soup' sessions) but fortunately these songs do form a surprisingly effective album which certainly disguised for a while the fact that by the turn of the eighties the Stones creative juices were running dry.
The album is probably a little more patchy than 'Some Girls' although the best of the songs are much richer sounding and more sophisticated. This is largely due to the fact that guitarists (and former Rolling Stone) Mick Taylor and Wayne Perkins sat in on the original sessions. Their playing is a lot more technically proficient than the Stones more recent guitarist Ron Wood was able to achieve. This does mislead the listener, however, to believe this is how the Stones sounded at the time of the album's release.
The songs that form the real backbone of the album are from the earlier sessions - 'Goats Head Soup' - 'Black And Blue' and these include 'Start Me Up', 'Slave', 'Tops', 'Worried About You' and 'Waiting On A Friend'. Some of the other songs aren't bad either such as 'Hang Fire' and 'Little T And A' but they are a little less inspiring. Only 'Neighbours' sounds like a serious misstep mainly due to the song's booming eighties drum sound.
'Tattoo You' while not a classic is the last Stones album to contain songs of a high enough calibre to be able to sit alongside the Stones earlier classics without fear of intimidation.
The only disadvantage was with the fans expectations. They were blissfully unaware at the time they were listening to songs that had been written and (partly) recorded when Mick and Keith were still capable of greatness which means those succeeding albums eventually proved all the more disappointing. 'Tattoo You' didn't afterall represent the dawning of a new age as some fans may have thought - rather the closing of a chapter.

One of the Stones most indelible marks!
1981-and we all know what that brought about. Drum machines, disco ect. This Stones album absorbed disco's punchy bass lines and fused them with rock so effortlessly it still sounds fresh way after disco has gone past. This is a classic through and through. Start me Up, Hang Fire, and Waiting on a Friend are tracks we all have heard. The rest are slower tunes, except for the rowdy Neighbors. Mick's voice sounds a bit sleazier. When mentioning the golden era of the Stones, Tattoo You, along side Black & Blue are also included. There are no diversions into different styles here, as on Some Girls or Black & Blue. It's pretty much a coherent, but constant thing. When I listen to Waiting on a Friend, I'm always left asking; whom are they trying to fool? Boy, they are the loneliest band in the world!