The Rolling Stones – Tattoo You Review

Bits and pieces is putting it nicely for Tattoo You. Infighting for The Rolling Stones made it impossible for the band to work together, but an album was still needed. Tattoo You is the result of that, a band on the brink yet sounding like anything but on their 1981 release. It was a time of worrying change for the group. A period which would see Keith Richards insist on the blues rock roots of the band returning to their music, while Mick Jagger pursued the pop sound of the times. Originality will always win out over a chase of the chart-topping tones. Tattoo You is an awkward mix of both, though the results are satisfactory for the most part. Opener Start Me Up has that catchy bop sound Jagger was insisting on, but preserves a solid guitar riff from Richards. At its best, Tattoo You can offer blurs like that. It may slip into foot-tapping misery afterwards, but there’s enough to enjoy.

Smatterings of what the band are best at can be heard across Tattoo You. It’s never in the spotlight as Jagger relies on repetitive lyrical lines instead of moving, deeper instrumentals. Slave is an underrated gem of an album, a simple but strong rallying cry with some brilliant brass. Ambition is in short supply for The Rolling Stones at this stage of their career, but Slave is an intelligent song where the repetition from Jagger builds up what feels like an inspired, improvised jam session. Little T & A and Black Limousine are not as exciting but are solid stock for an album made mainly of spare parts. The instrumental breaks, the reliance on brass features and saxophone solos, become agonisingly clear on Neighbours. Jagger and the rest of the band sound at odds, with the frontman spending most of his time rattling off repetitive lyrics which just bring in the title again, no end in sight.  

What the rest of the band does with this is create an instrumental vibrancy which salvages much of Tattoo You. They keep on, and the B-side of Tattoo You has Jagger finally relent and release some magnificent work. Worried About You is a fine love song with a coolness to it, which The Rolling Stones would soon lose. This B-side is where interesting, ambitious work goes to die. Heaven is a magnificent piece which, really, should have opened the album. It’s a curious powerhouse, a swaying and softer touch which shows The Rolling Stones has much more to them than blues rock. These experimental flourishes, the echo on Jagger’s voice, for instance, are part of a charm which extends across the rest of the album. Too late, but not too little. Heaven and No Use in Crying are brilliant moments from the band at a time when they were struggling to find a new sound.  

Had they followed through on the drifting, blues-adjacent sound of those two songs, they may not have had to stomp through pop-rock horrors. Those two songs and album closer Waiting on a Friend turn a good album into a great one. A three-track run like that is enough to salvage Tattoo You, but on a repeat listen it’s the likes of Start Me Up and Slave which stand out too. Moments which hear The Rolling Stones step to the side of their usual genre strokes, not sprint away from them. It’s what made Jagger a useless solo artist, his desire to be a reflection of the charts. He can’t get away with it when working with The Rolling Stones. Tattoo You is a borderline compilation, but what it hears is the fractured nature of their working relationship. This would improve in the years to follow, but things would get much worse for the band before then.