Maps of Music

Tattoo You (1981)

Where the lyrics of Tattoo You take you, and where it was really made.

Built from old outtakes, some nearly ten years old, the album reached number one on the US Billboard 200 and remains the Rolling Stones' last American number one to date.

Key places

Paris sessions for Start Me Up (1981)

Recording site Pathé Marconi studios — The balance of Start Me Up was recorded in Paris during the Some Girls sessions, at Pathé Marconi studios, where the more rock-infused version was taped. The point marks the city centre, not the building itself. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Tattoo You: sixteenth UK and eighteenth US studio album by the Rolling Stones
• Released 24 August 1981 by Rolling Stones Records
• Mostly studio outtakes recorded during the 1970s
• Contains 'Start Me Up', one of the band's best-known songs
• 'Start Me Up' reached number two on the US Billboard singles charts
• Mixed at Atlantic Studios, Electric Lady Studios, Hit Factory and Power Station in New York City

Background

• Touring commitments and personal feuding between band members made dedicated recording sessions hard to arrange
• The follow-up to Emotional Rescue (1980) was built from unused recordings of earlier sessions
• Some of these recordings dated back almost a decade
• Most were incomplete song fragments that needed much work
• Studio time was booked through 1980 and 1981, and members came in when available
• The album was assembled to give the band a new record to promote on its 1981 American tour and 1982 European tour

Recording

• Vocal parts were overdubbed in October–November 1980 and April–June 1981
• Jagger was the only member present at some of these sessions
• Sonny Rollins' saxophone parts were added on 'Slave' and 'Waiting on a Friend'
• Associate producer Chris Kimsey sifted through the band's old tapes

Cover

• Cover concept, art direction and design by Peter Corriston, with illustration by Christian Piper
• Close-up black and white photos of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards with tattoo illustrations on their faces

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in London in 1962 as an English rock band; their first stable line-up was Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts.
• Jones named the band after a Muddy Waters song; they were rooted in blues and rock and roll.
• Manager Andrew Loog Oldham encouraged them to write their own songs, and the Jagger–Richards partnership became their main creative force.

Members

• Current: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood (joined 1975).
• Former: Brian Jones (died 1969), Mick Taylor (1969–1974), Bill Wyman (1962–1993), Charlie Watts (1963–2021, died 2021).
• Steve Jordan became their drummer after Watts' death.

Career

• Hits included "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (1965), "Paint It Black" (1966) and "Start Me Up" (1981).
• Their 1969 Hyde Park show and Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St. are key points of their career.
• Formed Rolling Stones Records in 1970, whose tongue-and-lips logo became their band logo.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989; the band has sold more than 250 million albums.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Critical reaction was positive, with many critics feeling the album improved on Emotional Rescue
• Rolling Stone's Debra Rae Cohen wrote that the new record returned the band with matter-of-fact acceptance of its continued existence
• Robert Palmer of The New York Times found the album special, with rock-and-roll tracks rather than reggae, disco or Chuck Berry retreads
• Mark Moses of The Boston Phoenix said the Stones were less concerned with sounding merely tough than in a long while
• Robert Christgau gave the album a good review but criticised 'Start Me Up' in his 1981 Pazz and Jop essay
• Patty Rose of Musician described a rediscovered youth in the album
• Nick Tosches of Creem criticised the lyrics for sexism and general negativity

Reappraisal

• The Guardian's Alexis Petridis ranked it the band's thirteenth best album out of 23 in a 2018 retrospective

Records

• Reached number one on the US Billboard 200
• Last Rolling Stones album to reach the top of the US charts to date, ending a run of eight consecutive US number-one albums from Sticky Fingers
• 'Start Me Up' certified 4× platinum in the United States alone
• 'Waiting on a Friend' and 'Hang Fire' became Top 20 US hits
• Rolling Stone ranked it No. 34 of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s in 1989
• Rolling Stone ranked it No. 211 on its 500 greatest albums list in 2003, then No. 213 in 2012
• Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums voted it No. 759 in 2000
• Peter Corriston won a Grammy Award for Best Album Package for the cover

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album title was first planned as simply Tattoo, and Jagger has said he still does not know how 'You' got attached
• 'Start Me Up' was first rehearsed under the working title 'Never Stop' and as a reggae-influenced song in 1978 during the Some Girls sessions
• Mick Taylor was not credited on the album but later demanded and received a share of its royalties
• The 'Neighbours' video was an homage to Hitchcock's Rear Window and was heavily censored when shown on television
• Chris Kimsey spent three months going through tapes from the last four or five albums to find forgotten material
• 'Start Me Up' was released a week before the album, and its strong response helped carry the album to number one in the US

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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