When this came out in 81, did hard core Stones fans already know the 'reggae' version from a few years earlier? was it already somewhat recognizable to them? 'Hey, man! the've worked up that outtake we always liked!' ?

And i understand that the TY album wasn't exactly upfront in it's past-pillaging concept, but did fans already know (several of) these were old tracks?

i'd be interested in hearing from Stones fans who were fans back then

There was always talk of the SMU reggae version since it came out.
But it was always unconfirmed. The first time I heard it was
on the Rattlesnake Tattoo Too release in 2001.

I doubt that there was a large contingent of hard core Stones fans communicating in 1981. How would they have done it?

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24FPS
I doubt that there was a large contingent of hard core Stones fans communicating in 1981. How would they have done it?

A lot of us were already using smoke signals back then, with Marlboro's of course.

I had no idea in 1981 that Tattoo You was a raiding of the divine archives.

But I was young and uninformed back then.

All I know is that all my mates liked Start Me Up which made me (the only Stones fan amongst them) cool for two weeks.

I recall hearing the first time "Start Me Up" was played on LA radio.

It was a summer evening and I was driving on the way to pick up my girl. We were going to see Teddy Pendergrass with the Pointer Sisters at the Greek.

I'm listening to KMET, and the DJ excitedly says, "We just got the new Stones single!"


Boom! He puts it on... Hearing those riffs for the first time was UNBELIEVABLE! I think my jaw dropped... It was such a great song...my eyes were tearing up! After so many years, the Stones had hit the high marks that they themselves had set...and they did it on their own terms, not by trying disco or pretending to be punks...once again, they sounded like THE STONES!!

The record ended. Then, without a word, the DJ plays it again! And again! Three plays in a row! Unprecedented!

I was on the freeway, and the colors of the sun setting were just beautiful...for a fan it was a perfect moment.

The Stones were back.

First time I heard it I remember thinking that it wasn't that great. But by then I'd been through enough new Stones singles that I knew it would grow on me. And sure enough, their genius of all the elements of a hit single coming together after repeated listenings happened. The last time they came anywhere near that was the cover of 'Harlem Shuffle'. There's not as many little nuances to discover anymore.

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loog droog
I recall hearing the first time "Start Me Up" was played on LA radio.

It was a summer evening and I was driving on the way to pick up my girl. We were going to see Teddy Pendergrass with the Pointer Sisters at the Greek.

I'm listening to KMET, and the DJ excitedly says, "We just got the new Stones single!"


Boom! He puts it on... Hearing those riffs for the first time was UNBELIEVABLE! I think my jaw dropped... It was such a great song...my eyes were tearing up! After so many years, the Stones had hit the high marks that they themselves had set...and they did it on their own terms, not by trying disco or pretending to be punks...once again, they sounded like THE STONES!!

The record ended. Then, without a word, the DJ plays it again! And again! Three plays in a row! Unprecedented!

I was on the freeway, and the colors of the sun setting were just beautiful...for a fan it was a perfect moment.

The Stones were back.

this is the coolest thing i've ever read

that's awesome loogdroog!

I was just becoming a Stones fan in '81 when this came out. True, TY was promoted as a new album at the time, and because production values hadn't changed all that much since the early 70s, you really couldn't tell that all but one of the songs were outtakes spread over years. The album just had a more classic feel to it. There was quite a lot of hoopla about their tour that year--one wonders if that had something to do with Lennon's death the year before putting the final nail in the coffin of the Beatles and the Stones being greeted as ceremonial figures from an era on the wane as a result--and Start Me Up was regarded as something of a return to more rocking form after the lightweight disco of the song Emotional Rescue from the previous year. There was talk of the reggae version of SMU and of it being a Some Girls outtake--thinking of TY as a "new" album though, I tended to think that the reggae version was recorded during Some Girls and was surprised to find that it actually dates from the Black and Blue [HaHa! I first typed "Bland and Blue"] sessions. Bootlegs were harder to come by in those days, what with their being only on vinyl and less likely to be obtained on mail order.

But no, it doesn't bother me in retrospect if TY was just cobbled together. The order of songs is perfect, with one rocking side and one mellow side and with a couple of [uncredited] Mick Taylor tracks, and is still one of the best, smooth-flowing albums to listen to from start to finish.

In fact, they should cobble together another TY-type album these days. How about maybe even a TY 2-disc deluxe treatment?

Amazing recollection of SMU, brought back memories of my own summer and soon thereafter the fall university experience with this tune. Great post....

In Keith's book, he tells that START ME UP - the masterpiece version - was recorded at the same day of MISS YOU (masterpiece too).

I was 16, (and sick of school, didn't know what I wanted to dooooah), ok, start over. I was 16 and my first thought was, "this is a hit". I didn't really like it though, The repeated "Staht meeyup" and the chorus and handclaps were kind of a turnoff. I even thought the guitars were too echo-ey. But damn if I didn't listen to it over the years and appreciate this simple song more and more. Took about five years. When I first heard it, I didn't play guitar, but by '86 I did, so maybe that had something to do with it. I'll often turn the dial when I hear 'Satisfaction'. Not so with SMU. It's no JJF, but it's one that Keith can dig into live. Mick's lame stage moves on this don't move me, but don't ruin it either.

SMU/Tattoo You was the second time that I experienced new Rolling Stones music as a full fledged fan Emotional Rescue being the first and I was somewhat disappointed with Emotional Rescue. SMU was like man the Stones are back and Keith came up with one of thos instantaneous classic riffs that had been missing for a while and have been missing ever since. Then the album came out and the 81 tour was launched and i saw my first show and I've never had that level of excitement surrounding the band again except 1989 was close. SMU was the last "great" single who knew in 1981 that these songs were mined from the vaults?? After discovering Some Girls, I really got into the Stones in late 1979 just after SG and then having it followed up by Emotional Rescue was a real let down even though I now think of ER as a solid and very listenable album it still does not have the punch of Some Girls and Tattoo You and it certainly does not have the singles. So when SMU came out I was like wow this is what it was like for some of the 60's fans upon hearing new Stones songs and I have often sat and wondered what Satisfaction and Jumping jack Flash were like when they came out, I really wish that I could have experienced that. I have been waiting for the 1981 feeling ever since with the new music and it has not come in the last 31 years! last hurrah I doubt the boys are up for it as their lives, views, perspective and physical conditions have changed much since 1981. So when I put Tattoo You on or hear any of the songs my mind harkens back to my high school days when life was simple and the Stones and baseball seemed to be the only thing that mattered.

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slew
I have often sat and wondered what Satisfaction and Jumping jack Flash were like when they came out

If there's a downside to being a Stone, it's that they don't get that "first listen" to Jumping Jack Flash and others that we all got. I'm sure they realized they had something special there, but they spent countless hours creating it and possibly can't appreciate the final product. I'm sure they got a good rush making it, but not like the one the listeners got. Maybe SMU was an exception when they heard the final TY version, since it sat on the shelf a while and they might not have known what Mick had done to it.

I'd like to hear Sweetcharmedlife weigh in on this as SMU is his all time favorite

I was young (17) at the time but started collecting Stones records early. Before TY was released we had several bootlegs from the Black and Blue sessions. So when TY was released we knew SLAVE as an early instrumental version and Worried Bout You (perhaps some more). SMU was knew to me. The reggae-version was confirmed the following years.
It was funny and happened the first time that I already knew stuff from a brand new record. But these were old songs! What kind of record is this?
Another thing was that there were no musician-credits, but you could easily hear that there is Mick Taylor or other musicians playing. Later we all knew why there were no musicians mentioned. Veery strange , but it was a hell of an album and was big fun to listen to and finding out that some notes here and there..ah, does we know that one??

Tom



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-09-02 11:05 by electricmud.

If you don´t feel a n y t h i n g at least during the first 15 seconds
of this song - then you are dead!

Tattoo You was my first fresh take on The Rolling Stones, the first Stones LP I bought. I had, of course, no idea it was a rehash; it didn't sound that way (mixed by Bob Clearmountain). I didn't know what a bootleg was either! I had only heard songs like SF and HTW with the Stones. I was born in the mid 60s and in 1981 Rolling Stones and Beatles were bands mostly for those born in the 40s or early 50s. I think the success of Tattoo You was instrumental in bringing a younger generation (those born in the 60s) of fans to the band.

Excellents posts and recollections here!

"Start Me Up" is so easily over-looked song, because it is played to death, used so much in in sport events, advertisements, etc. but still it is without any doubt one of the biggest songs in their history. Their last real hit and classic that belongs to the hit parade section of their shows next to "Brown Sugar", "Jumpin Jack Flash" and "Satisfaction" without any hesitation. There is no any song of that caliber ever since. Not even close.

I tend to call myself belonging to 'Start Me Up-generation' since it was that very song that took my attention - it was huge at the time - and made me buy TATTOO YOU album. And the rest is history...

People, the Stones included, like to view the Stones not as a "hits band" any longer but that of making albums, but that is not an excuse to not make excellent songs. And the reputation of the Stones is based on excellent songs. Not okay, good, or even great, but excellent songs. Songs that hit or tease the listener like a magnet and never leave them rest after that. Most of their great albums are like that: they have some classical, excellents songs that are surrounded by strong enough material - BEGGARS, BLLEED; STICKY, GOATS, SOME GIRLS... only EXILE ON MAIN STREET is an expection to this rule where the over-all quality is so high that they don't need some 'key songs', a'la "Gimme Shelter" or "Sympathy For The Devil" or "Street Fighting Man" or "Start Me Up" or "Angie" or "It's Only Rock'n'Roll" - songs that justify themselves by their pure existence - without any explanations or excuses.

But it that ability make excellent songs that pretty painfully left the band since TATTOO YOU. "Undercover of The Night" is (at most) "We Love You" of the 80's, "Harlem Shuffle" is an easy shot cover, etc. The defence argument nowadays is that no matter what 'classic bands' like the Stones release it will not make the charts anymore or have a radio impact/space. Yeah, that might be true now but it doesn't explain why not any song of theirs didn't leave almost any impact during the 80's and 90's. Starting with UNDRCOVER their albums simply lacked that kind of Big Profile and Caliber songs (that is also, why BLACK& BLUE and EMOTIONAL RESCUE never will be ranked to the level of SOME GIRLS or TATTOO YOU). "One Hit"? "Love Is Strong"? "Mixed Emotions"? "You Got me Rocking?", "Rock & A Hard Place"? "Anybody Seen My Love?", "Rough Justice"?, "Don't Stop"?.. all of those are 'okay' at best but damn far from the standard this band is known for. Don't blame the media or the listeners, the problem is not there. All of their albums since UNDERCOVER are like 'poor man's exiles': without key songs and hits (highlights) but rather same quality stuff, only the difference is that whaeras in EXILE the quality goes mostly between 'great' and 'excellent', with poor man's versions a'la DIRTY WORK, VOODOO LOUNGE and A BIGGER BANG it goes between 'mediocre' and 'okay´'. The real highlihgts are terribly missing in order to save these albums!

I think since "Start Me Up" only "Plundered My Soul" had that kind of effect in me I have missed so much: to hear the real excellence. No compromise, no bullshitting, no insecurity, but, let me quote loog droog's wonderful mail:

Boom! He puts it on... Hearing those riffs for the first time was UNBELIEVABLE! I think my jaw dropped... It was such a great song...my eyes were tearing up! After so many years, the Stones had hit the high marks that they themselves had set...and they did it on their own terms, not by trying disco or pretending to be punks...once again, they sounded like THE STONES!!

- Doxa



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2012-09-02 12:10 by Doxa.

Somewhere I think I heard Jagger say, when asked what constitutes a great Stones (or rock) album. He said something like: A hit and 2-3 songs that you can play live. Those albums have been really scarce since Tattoo You.

What I can remember :

I first heard Start me Up for the first time in 1981, with the official single release.

A few years later, I received a cassette tape including an early version. This tape was later released as "Genius Is Pain" LP, minus an alternate mix of Faraway Eyes similar to the official mix, but the acoustic guitar was low mixed.
The original edition have 2 inserts printed in high quality and large size on yellow paper, with an additional 3rd insert printed on blue paper. The most common edition do not have the blue insert, the front & back insert are printed in smaller size and poor quality.

Probably the track was circulating into collector's circles, but I never heard the "Never Stop" version until I bought the Rattlesnake "Tattoo Too".

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loog droog
I recall hearing the first time "Start Me Up" was played on LA radio.

It was a summer evening and I was driving on the way to pick up my girl. We were going to see Teddy Pendergrass with the Pointer Sisters at the Greek.

I'm listening to KMET, and the DJ excitedly says, "We just got the new Stones single!"


Boom! He puts it on... Hearing those riffs for the first time was UNBELIEVABLE! I think my jaw dropped... It was such a great song...my eyes were tearing up! After so many years, the Stones had hit the high marks that they themselves had set...and they did it on their own terms, not by trying disco or pretending to be punks...once again, they sounded like THE STONES!!

The record ended. Then, without a word, the DJ plays it again! And again! Three plays in a row! Unprecedented!

I was on the freeway, and the colors of the sun setting were just beautiful...for a fan it was a perfect moment.

The Stones were back.

Awesome story....

Start Me Up was my intro to the Stones... after hearing it, I was totally hooked... and played it over and over and over.

And then I had the immense joy of discovering the hundreds of goodies in their back catalogue. Talk about spoilt!

What is also remarkable with "Start Me Up" is that it is one of the first times they openly played with 'retro' card (to an extent "It's Only Rock'n'Roll" was probably an earlier instance), and it really succeeded marveously. Yeah, I can uderstand that for some 'old ears' who had been spoiled by their classical stuff for years, it might not have had at the time the effect of novelty it had for fresh ears who were absolutely stunned by it. "Undercover of The Night" was probably their last effort really update their sound and try something different, trendy-like, convincingly (that is an open question, though), but after that they have tried every once in a while use that retro-card - to sound like classic Stones - but efforts have not turned out to be that effective. I think, for example, "Love Is Strong", "Don't Stop" or "Rough Justice" are kind of 'poor man's startmeups'. It is true also of the songs like "One Hit", "Rock And A Hard Place" or "Mixed Emotions", which are slight variations of the same theme with some little current make-up. There is so much familiarity to 'trained ears' but, in the end, I think the songs and riffs are not strong enough to really to cause such a following or interest, or lasting impact, as "Start Me Up" did. And when they try to go outside the box - to conquer new fields (not that there is so much of that) - the results are mostly even weaker.

Even during the 80's when new Stones singles still made the top ten, those songs - as the albums - turned out to be events of the season, which didn't have lasting impact but forgotten quite quickly (any post-"Start Me Up" 80's single hit would be a kind of obscurity now in their set lists, as, say, "We Love You" would be). During the 90's even making the top forty turned out to be a tough challenge to their singles in their traditional big markets. So it is no wonder that the band (Jagger) has lost its interest in making new music (and they don't need to any longer make new hits or outstanding music in order to survive); their output since the 90's had been more like formal one to go along with their huge tours in order to release something as 'living and breathing' bands supposed to do. Most likely the two new cuts we will soon hear will go according to this formula (damn I loved to be proven wrong!).

Let me note that I just tried to remind us (and myself) of how the things have changed, and how far we are now from the times when the Stones released new oustanding music that really mattered and even gathered new audiences. And it is that music which will consitute their living legacy. That would be wittnessed in London and Brooklyn soon.

"You make a grown man cry..."

- Doxa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-09-02 14:53 by Doxa.

i think the Stones missed out on their past mega-tours in not allocating a few 1000 'freebie' tickets to students from that town.... a good way to introduce new younger fans who can't afford the sky-high ticket prices but who could spread the word... they wouldn't really have noticed the difference cash-wise.

loog droog got it about right.

Couldn't wait to hear this song again and again.
When I bought the 45, I couldn't believe the Stones would actually let me own the song...

It was just classic. I remember reading the article about Wyman in Rolling Stone and they mentioned Waiting On A Friend so I assumed that was going to be the first single. A couple of weeks later, WBCN in Boston announced " we will have the new Stones single tomorrow". Kept my ears pealed and around 10:30am the next day, they played it. This song took off incredibly quick. It was everywhere, and even though MISS YOU charted higher, I believe SMU peaked at number 2, and was in the top ten for about 10 weeks.

Slave, Worried, Tops, an early version of T&A (Bulldog), several versions of Hang Fire and an early version of Black Limo circulated on tape and I believe vinyl before TY came out. Then in '83 or so, several versions of SMU circulated (some of which have never been released on CD), together with a raw version of Neighbours.

I do not remember the reggea version of SMU circulating before somebody made it available on the internet in 2000 or 2000.

Mathijs

Heard Start Me Up out of the blue on a car radio the other day. I just zeroed in on Wyman's work. Just the right note played, or not played, or a slight variation, just genius. I can't think of too many songs where the bass is as important as the main guitar riff. (Although another example is Satisfaction).

Just started playing guitar when I heard this song.... so I learned how to tune to open-g and taught myself that riff... talk about heaven!!!!