Tattoo you is a wonderful album. The Stones best of the 80's even though the tracks are mostly from the 70's. A really good album non the less.

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stanlove

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Tops

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stanlove
The only thing that hurts the album for me is Jagger's falsetto voice. I think Worried About You is a good song but I can't listen to it much because of that. Really don't understand why he uses that voice live.

The Jaggerfalsetto is my favourite falsetto. Worried About You is so great.
And when he uses it live ...that's the only time that he still sounds like he is in his 30's...

Sounds like an old guy singing like a girl to me.

The irony of course is that these days Mick actually sings, while in concert in the 70s and 81/2 it is a stretch to call what he was doing singing. I would say he sings now far better than he did in say 75

Brilliant album plus Mick Taylor along for the ride too.....

Break Through Album of my life.
1st album I was old enough to see the tour (Europe 1982).
Played as a DJ Start Me Up 1981 and through all the 80ies as a floor filler.
Had sex several times with side 2 playing in the back.

Tattoo you.put stones back on top as worlds greatest rock n roll band .Never forget listening to this album at keg party's in high school when it came out a classic stones album!

Ten short ones about Tattoo You:

1) Great overall sound and production.
2) Their last album with a real hit: Start Me Up.
3) Why the title?
4) Sums up the seventies.
5) Except for SMU under-used live.
6) Falsettos!
7) Unpretentious videos with a great vibe to match the album.
8) Waiting on a Friend!
9) Striking, visual cover.
10) Perfect album to back up the Still Life Tour!

I've said it here before, but the first week of Start Me Up's release I heard an L.A. DJ say during its fade out, "Sounds like the old Stones." I don't think he knew its history at all. That same month, I was playing the new album, and a buddy—who didn't even like the Stones! (although his mom did)—said, "This sounds like their old stuff." (I think Waiting on a Friend was playing, but I'm not sure.) I kind of shrugged. He said, "Well, I guess they know that's what people want to hear." When I later learned the grab-bag nature of the album's assembly I was impressed what my friend and this DJ heard in the music that I hadn't. And I think they both thought it was new music, but the Stones had contrived to recreate an old sound. Funny.

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Title5Take1
I've said it here before, but the first week of Start Me Up's release I heard an L.A. DJ say during its fade out, "Sounds like the old Stones." I don't think he knew its history at all. That same month, I was playing the new album, and a buddy—who didn't even like the Stones! (although his mom did)—said, "This sounds like their old stuff." (I think Waiting on a Friend was playing, but I'm not sure.) I kind of shrugged. He said, "Well, I guess they know that's what people want to hear." When I later learned the grab-bag nature of the album's assembly I was impressed what my friend and this DJ heard in the music that I hadn't. And I think they both thought it was new music, but the Stones had contrived to recreate an old sound. Funny.

hmm i'm not as surprised. their last 2 biggest hits were disco - miss you and emotional rescue. perhaps all they meant was that the stones were playing rock again, not disco. of course, a stones fan wouldn't see it like that, because they would be familiar with the rock n roll on some girls and ER.

In a less positive approach than before the weekend:

Start Me Up ----- to me Stones-by-numbers. Not bad, but cheap and therefore slightly irritating, where e.g Highwire is only good
Hang Fire ----- the good punkish song from studio outtakes ruined in this arrangement and with those doo-doo's.
Slave ------ following the two opening songs, not working on me, might have been a good song on BLACK AND BLUE, e.g instead of "Melody"
Little T&A ----I am not so keen on that one either
Black Limousine ---- one rather redeeming song, without being in any way great
Neighbours ---- I found that quite banal, too
Worried About You ---- it is OK, but to me nothing more in the studio version
Tops ---- only "Melody" I like less of Stones music
Heaven ---- it's probably OK, but for me would have needed another setting
No Use in Crying ----- in spite of all preceding tracks, I quite like this one, which tells about some quality
Waiting on a Friend ----a gem good enough to be part of any Stones album, on condition of fitting stylistically, best and possibly only suited on GOATS HEAD SOUP.

An album that clearly is better than DIRTY WORK, but all the same gets on my nerve in a way that DIRTY WORK does not, after I only come through the first two songs, when that album is only relatively weak in the context of Stones music.

That was a rough one, Witness!

- Doxa

Witness haven't you heard that Start Me Up is a warhorse?

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Turner68
Witness haven't you heard that Start Me Up is a warhorse?

A rather depressing fact that does not make it any better.

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Witness
In a less positive approach than before the weekend:

Start Me Up ----- to me Stones-by-numbers. Not bad, but cheap and therefore slightly irritating, where e.g Highwire is only good
Hang Fire ----- the good punkish song from studio outtakes ruined in this arrangement and with those doo-doo's.
Slave ------ following the two opening songs, not working on me, might have been a good song on BLACK AND BLUE, e.g instead of "Melody"
Little T&A ----I am not so keen on that one either
Black Limousine ---- one rather redeeming song, without being in any way great
Neighbours ---- I found that quite banal, too
Worried About You ---- it is OK, but to me nothing more in the studio version
Tops ---- only "Melody" I like less of Stones music
Heaven ---- it's probably OK, but for me would have needed another setting
No Use in Crying ----- in spite of all preceding tracks, I quite like this one, which tells about some quality
Waiting on a Friend ----a gem good enough to be part of any Stones album, on condition of fitting stylistically, best and possibly only suited on GOATS HEAD SOUP.

An album that clearly is better than DIRTY WORK, but all the same gets on my nerve in a way that DIRTY WORK does not, after I only come through the first two songs, when that album is only relatively weak in the context of Stones music.

Funny how opposite views two people can have. I find both Tops and Melody brillant. Twenty years ago I used to skip Neighbours but now I actually like it again. And even Little T&A has a innocent bad boy in love charm (and is an improvement to the too Tom Waits-influenced All about you) - it doesn't top Happy, but does very well. Slave is mesmerizing. And the production is very good. Tattoo You is a true classic.

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Stoneage
Ten short ones about Tattoo You:

1) Great overall sound and production.
2) Their last album with a real hit: Start Me Up.
3) Why the title?
4) Sums up the seventies.
5) Except for SMU under-used live.
6) Falsettos!
7) Unpretentious videos with a great vibe to match the album.
8) Waiting on a Friend!
9) Striking, visual cover.
10) Perfect album to back up the Still Life Tour!

Uhhhh... that last one, it's a bit... wrong. They never did a STILL LIFE tour, just a TATTOO YOU (officially the US 1981 and 1982 European) tour. They've only ever toured a tour named after a live album once and it wasn't in the 1980s.

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Stoneage
5) Except for SMU under-used live.

Yes!

Only posting relevant text:

Repicking the last 38 years of the Grammys

Before we all lose our minds over who wins big at the 60th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, it might be helpful to remember that the Grammys have always been lousy at celebrating the present and even worse at predicting the future.

Just look at who’s won the most-coveted Grammy, album of the year, over the past three-plus decades. Or really, look at who hasn’t: Beyoncé, the Rolling Stones, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Mariah Carey, Kanye West, Radiohead, Jay-Z.

What if the Grammy for album of the year — a prize whose responsibility to bottle the zeitgeist is right there in its name — regularly went to recordings that balanced innovation and timeliness in a way that made them widely resonant?

By that measure, I’d argue that album of the year has been handed to the most-deserving artist only three times since 1980. For the other 35 years, I’ve chosen which albums should have won instead, as well as which recordings should have been nominated. There’s some crossover here and there.

I tried to be realistic. For instance, Wu-Tang Clan’s 1993 debut is considered a classic by today’s rap audiences, but there’s no way industry types who make up the Grammy electorate could have predicted how influential the group was destined to become. Same for certain albums that gained momentum between eligibility windows — Nirvana’s “Nevermind,” for example, which was released in September 1991 but didn’t reach No. 1 until January 1992. (In most years, the Grammy eligibility window runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 — so on Sunday night, the 2018 Grammys will go to recordings released in the final quarter of 2016 or the first three quarters of 2017.)

This is a list of who should have won. It’s also a list of who could have won.


1982

Who Won: John Lennon & Yoko Ono, “Double Fantasy”

Other nominees: Kim Carnes, “Mistaken Identity”Al Jarreau, “Breakin’ Away”Quincy Jones, “The Dude”Steely Dan, “Gaucho”

Should Have Won: The Rolling Stones, “Tattoo You”

Should have been nominated: The Go-Gos, “Beauty and the Beat”Dolly Parton, “9 to 5 and Odd Jobs”Talking Heads, “Remain in Light”Luther Vandross, “Never Too Much”

Still reeling from the horrific death of John Lennon, many Grammy voters seemed to cast their ballots — for his terrific 1980 album with Yoko Ono — in honor of his memory. Still, none of the recordings nominated for album of the year in 1982 felt completely deserving. And in overlooking “Tattoo You,” the last great effort from the Rolling Stones, Grammy voters missed their final chance to make good on one of their most biggest whiffs: the fact that the Stones had never won album of the year.


[www.washingtonpost.com]

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IrisC
Tattoo you is a wonderful album. The Stones best of the 80's even though the tracks are mostly from the 70's. A really good album non the less.

All of the tracks are from the 1970s. There never were any TATTOO YOU recording sessions with the band, just overdubs, in the 1980 and 81.

Rolling Stones Blue and Lonesome GRAMMY Best Traditional Blues Nominee



[m.youtube.com]

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HMS
The album is slightly better then Some Girls and quite as good as Emotional Rescue, but not as good as Undercover. And it certainly cannot match their last all-the-way masterpiece, the fantastic Dirty Work.

Chemtrailers always find a way to skew reality. Although in one aspect HMS is right, it's not as good as UNDERCOVER - it's greater than U. I love U but even Stevie Wonder can see it's not anywhere near as good as TY.

HMS is right about comparing TY to DW - it could never match their "all-the-way masterpiece" of garbage, of scraping under the barrel, the shit soup that is DW.

Great album. They had a lot of us fooled that it was brand new stuff. I remember my friend saying, "Wow! The fire is back!"

"Gonna find my way to heaven ..."

I once crossed a crowded San Francisco crosswalk wearing a Stones-tongue No Security T-shirt. Crossing toward me approached a guy showing mileage, probably more from substances than senescence, who could’ve been a Hell's Angel from Altamont days, from his appearance. He stared at my shirt as he neared, then pointed at it and in a loud enthusiastic voice yelled, “TATTOO YOU!” and kept walking. Close...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018-01-28 00:40 by Title5Take1.

Tattoo you was my 1st Stones album and its also my fav Stones album and Worried about you is my fav Stones song.

This album got me started

Feel The Fear
And Do It Anyway

If I had to choose a Stones song to play in front of my
later life born-again Christian parents, it’d be
‘Waiting On A Friend’
almost makes it into the elavator
Spice it up live,
Rolling Stones,
and give us the Glimmer vocals together
bring a tear right to yer eye



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2018-01-28 01:32 by 35love.

Look! Found a 1981 live ‘Waiting On A Friend’
[m.youtube.com]

Before I view it, I have to say it. Mick Jagger was absolutely beautiful in 1981.
WHO ELSE could have worn those ridiculous athletic clothes and be like the statue of David at the same time? A beautiful man. I haven't watched the clip yet, LOL

It's possibly their most recognizable album cover. I know STICKY FINGERS is beyond a classic but you wouldn't see that from far away like you can TATTOO YOU. Not one of their album overs jumps out like TY does. A brilliant LP cover and great title.

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GasLightStreet
It's possibly their most recognizable album cover. I know STICKY FINGERS is beyond a classic but you wouldn't see that from far away like you can TATTOO YOU. Not one of their album overs jumps out like TY does. A brilliant LP cover and great title.

Agreed. And in my mind I go through all covers since TY, and it was also the LAST iconic album cover by them.

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Palace Revolution 2000

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GasLightStreet
It's possibly their most recognizable album cover. I know STICKY FINGERS is beyond a classic but you wouldn't see that from far away like you can TATTOO YOU. Not one of their album overs jumps out like TY does. A brilliant LP cover and great title.

Agreed. And in my mind I go through all covers since TY, and it was also the LAST iconic album cover by them.

The only LP cover I've liked since TY is UNDERCOVER's. It certainly fits the music. The rest of them stink, and one of them is fitting for the worst music they ever recorded - it also has the worst LP cover they ever did! It's a 'make sure that one is hidden' when showing people the Stones collection.

Think of this for a minute - 7 LP releases since 1981.

Funny how opinions can change over time. When Tattoo You came out it seemed, at least to me, that everyone around was overjoyed at the Stones' rediscovered 'inspiration' (few people knew the history of the songs), after a number of so-so albums. At the time, albums like Some Girls, Emotional Rescue, and Undercover afterwards, were considered 'one-track-platters', meaning: one excellent single and the rest of the album was supposedly crap.
For me, Tattoo You is the only album that can easily match the Mick Taylor era albums, and also the last album that just about everyone seemed to like. After that (and Still Life), one felt as if one had to explain yourself being a Stones fan, when before, it was self evident so to speak. When I was at university, in '83 I overheard a few guys in class who used to like the Stones talking about the then new Undercover album, which went like: "Have you heard the new Stones record?" "Um, yeah..." (followed by a telling silence).
When A Bigger Bang came out, I was shocked to find that, unbelievably, no one at work liked the Stones, and they didnt mean that album per se, but simply, the Stones PERIOD.
But then, if I check each album that came out over the years, what one critic wrote when Dirty Work came out still goes: even a bad Stones album is better than anyone else's album (well ok, perhaps not EVERY Stones record, but hey).

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Witness
In a less positive approach than before the weekend:

Start Me Up ----- to me Stones-by-numbers. Not bad, but cheap and therefore slightly irritating, where e.g Highwire is only good
Hang Fire ----- the good punkish song from studio outtakes ruined in this arrangement and with those doo-doo's.
Slave ------ following the two opening songs, not working on me, might have been a good song on BLACK AND BLUE, e.g instead of "Melody"
Little T&A ----I am not so keen on that one either
Black Limousine ---- one rather redeeming song, without being in any way great
Neighbours ---- I found that quite banal, too
Worried About You ---- it is OK, but to me nothing more in the studio version
Tops ---- only "Melody" I like less of Stones music
Heaven ---- it's probably OK, but for me would have needed another setting
No Use in Crying ----- in spite of all preceding tracks, I quite like this one, which tells about some quality
Waiting on a Friend ----a gem good enough to be part of any Stones album, on condition of fitting stylistically, best and possibly only suited on GOATS HEAD SOUP.

An album that clearly is better than DIRTY WORK, but all the same gets on my nerve in a way that DIRTY WORK does not, after I only come through the first two songs, when that album is only relatively weak in the context of Stones music.

I always knew that TY is one of the weakest albums, har har.