well, time for a look (or listen, look you see) to some vibes. one of those instances where it's all kind of new stuff from north of forty years ago. so yes, then, the most recent of Stones reissues is on the stereo, which happens to be the two (2) disc "deluxe" edition of Tattoo You off of 1981. well, ostensibly that year.
the history of this particular album is reasonably well known. and yet it is so that not everyone out there, or all reading what i put here, proclaim to be precisely versed in the history of Stones records. for this one, it was so that they, the band, had committed to an extensive tour, but had no new album to play on the back of said tour. which, for many years, was problematic. believe it or not once there was a time when a tour was considered a success if it broke even, with the overwhelming majority of vibes revenue being off of physical, actual record sales. tours were seen as a means to an end, a way to promote further records sales. now, of course, that's all reversed, with artists generally only being able to secure decent coins off of doing gigs. strange the way the world goes.
it was felt, believed or assumed that the Stones simply did not have the time, or liking for each other, to conjure up a whole new album in the time between committing to the tour and the tour itself starting. so a trusted sound engineer was tasked with raiding the vaults for material which could be taped together and presented as a new album. from this came one of the band's most successful albums. oh.
one consistent theme running through the reactions and reviews of Tattoo You was that it absolutely had no business being as good an album as it is. in the early 80s it was so that even then there was a sense or idea that "surely the Stones should stop, they are too old", and foisting a collection of outtakes out gave every suggestion they might by now be a spent force. and yet here we are.
very much, yes, is the answer to how good an album this one was, and is. at no stage in their illustrious, and in the personification of this word unique, history did the band ever really "go away", but here they were back on familiar straight, solid rock and roll sounds. gone, then, was the disco dance of, say, Emotional Rescue, banished was the idea of them seeming to try and sound like what was popular at the time, here they were, as they are.
for an album that doesn't dip in quality - and again it's something to remember that what you've got is a collection of songs discarded over a decade - there are three outstanding moments. that opening to this, the eventually released version of Start Me Up, is as iconic a moment as any Stones classic which came before it. which gives way to Hang Fire, underlining they are rock and roll. skip to the end of the album and there's Waiting On A Friend, a brilliant reminder that yeah, they can do them ballad things, too.
sure, a few minor problems hit because of the nature of how Tattoo You was created. for a start they kind of assumed that they could use all of the songs in the vault as they saw fit, no matter who played on them. not so, said Mick Taylor, who (successfully) sued for royalties from his guitar being very much at the core of some of these songs. despite being giving a writing credit for three (3) of the tunes, there's actually quite little of the still new(ish) member Ronnie Wood on the record. and the name caused all sorts of fuss. originally it was called Tattoo, it is claimed that "no one" knows how You ended up being added, but Richards for some reason blamed Jagger for it. probably because he left all of that sort of stuff to Mick, and he was just busy being Keith.
highlights on the album beyond the three mentioned? well, it would be amiss, and many may wish to remonstrate, for me not to nod to Little T&A, a Keith Richards sung ode on one night stands and so forth. sure, yes, remarkably misogynistic, maybe even sexist, by any standard of any day, but it's the Stones, man, they can sort of do this kind of thing. and then there's Black Limousine, and then there's the joys of living next to Keith in Neighbours, and then there's....well, the whole record.
remarkably, disc two (2) of this special edition shows that Tattoo You wasn't simply the best of what was left around on tape. leaving aside how other now known to be known greats weren't given a release on this - say Criss Cross and to a lesser extent Scarlet, both of which surface on a Goat's Head Soup special edition (here) - one is left baffled how the first two songs on the bonus track were left unreleased. despite having a corny, cliche sounding title, Living In The Heart Of Love is actually really, really f****g good, man. it's the kind of classic AM / FM radio rock tune that would dominate play on stations for a hefty chunk of the 80s, and there were the Stones sat on a prime example of that sound. considering that much of the tour that saw Tattoo You get taped together was in the USA, it's amazing that Fiji Jim wasn't included. probably the most "American" sounding song what they ever done, this would have had all them sports franchises over there chomping at the bit to throw money at them to licence.
letting the Stones themselves decide what's best isn't always wise, as it turns out. here, at the end of disc two (2), is the mythical, long rumoured original "reggae" fused version of Start Me Up. well, it's nowhere near as bad as it sounded on paper, and not immediately all bad, but also it is very, very far away from the released, much loved version of the tune. certainly it's a curiosity to hear, but no, what ended up being on the record - the version Richards wanted destroyed - is substantially better.
and that's about that, then. in this expanded form, Tattoo You stands as a record, or album, that is even further more better than it ever should have been. quite remarkable that the Stones have been sat on such a vast amount of quality tunes destined, presumably, never to have come out in or on an officially released record. should they have even more tucked away, bring it on.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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