The 1981 Listening Post - The Rolling Stones - Tattoo You

 The Rolling Stones - Tattoo You

#365

By Jon Rosenberg

The Rolling Stones

Tattoo You

Genre: Rock

Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5

Jon’s Rating: 4 out of 5

Highlights:

Waiting on a Friend

Slave

Little T&A

Start Me Up

Hang Fire

My rating: 4

Only “The World’s Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Band” could cobble together a bunch of outtakes and unfinished songs and emerge with one of their best albums.  And that is exactly what The Stones did with Tattoo You.  It’s a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that some of these tunes were nearly a decade old by the time they saw the light of day.  Besides the current Stones lineup at the time, many additional musicians play on the tracks, including Mick Taylor on guitar, Nicky Hopkins on piano, Billy Preston on keyboards, and jazz great Sonny Rollins on sax.

Tattoo You gave the Stones three of their most enduring latter-day hits.  You know the ones I’m talking about: “Start Me Up,” “Hang Fire,” and “Waiting on a Friend.” Not much more I can say about these tunes that hasn’t already been said.

But in addition to these great hits, there are several fabulous “deep cuts” (as they used to call them back in the days when rock radio was still a thing.)  The best is “Slave,” one of the Stones’ raunchiest, funkiest grooves with a killer Sonny Rollins solo.  Lyrically there’s not much going on besides “Don’t wanna be your slave” repeated endlessly, but somehow you know exactly what Mick’s singing about.   Apparently, the working title was “Vagina.”  Another highlight is Keith’s ode to groupies, “Little T&A.” It’s everything you expect from a rifftastic Stones song: sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.  Maybe a little casual misogyny.  And for those who like their Stones bluesy, you can’t beat “Black Limousine,” which features Sugar Blue (of “Miss You” fame) wailing on harmonica.

While it is quite amazing how cohesive this album feels, despite the “odds and sods” nature of the recordings, it falls just short of classic status.  But even a “contractual obligation” from The Rolling Stones is a damn good time!

https://open.spotify.com/album/15XNBzVWARPMlu0sEbfBjJ?si=ZqyAKMyrQr6TFJB10nUPiQ