As great as some of the early powerhouse British rock groups were in the history of popular music, many of them struggled to put out great albums beyond the 1960s and even the ’70s. The Beatles never even made it beyond 1970 and the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, among others, never matched their studio album greatness into the 1980s.
The Roger Waters-less Pink Floyd tried mightily with A Momentary Lapse of Reason and especially The Division Bell. The Who released the solid, if disappointing Face Dances and It’s Hard, and Give the People What They Want from the Kinks was a commercial success, but also their last really good studio album.
In some cases, these groups continued on as successful and acclaimed live acts, but only the Rolling Stones truly finished out the ’70s strong, particularly with Some Girls in 1978.
Their next album Emotional Rescue, although inferior to Some Girls, was underrated. Then came Tattoo You, their third project with Ron Wood. It was a smash hit and spawned one of their best tracks, “Start Me Up.” Undercover, their next LP and their last for Atlantic Records, was a huge disappointment. Except for the odd track, the rest of the Rolling Stones’ studio works until 2016’s Blue and Lonesome were tepid forays into various styles or attempts to re-light the studio flame of their late-’60s and early-’70s masterworks that never quite worked.
Tattoo You is a curious album in the group’s discography. A surprise hit, it was a hodgepodge of previously unfinished tracks like Metamorphosis in 1975, with some of the music dating back to when Mick Taylor was still in the group. In retrospect, Tattoo You could easily be called the group’s last really good album of mostly original material, given that Blue and Lonesome is a covers project.
Now, 40 years after its original release, the LP is receiving the big-box reissue treatment. Tattoo You: 40th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition includes the original album remastered and a second vinyl album entitled “Lost & Found: Rarities,” which consisted of nine previously released tracks, in a gatefold package. There is also a three-album vinyl set of the Rolling Stones’ 1982 Wembley concert.
The set is rounded out by a beautiful 124-page hardcover book and the box cover sports a lenticular replica of the original iconic cover artwork and ranks with such previous historic covers of albums by the Rolling Stones as Some Girls, Sticky Fingers and another album that used this effect, Their Satanic Majesties Request.
Three of the biggest tracks from this album – “Start Me Up,””Hang Fire” and “Little T&A” – are from the period as Some Girls and Emotional Rescue, the two studio albums that came before Tattoo You. The big ballad hit from the album is the glorious “Waiting on a Friend,” which was from the sessions for Goat’s Head Soup and actually features the soon-to-be departing Mick Taylor on guitar. If that’s not enough, a now-classic sax solo was later added from jazz giant Sonny Rollins. The song and accompanying video perfectly captured the time and place, with the Rolling Stones soaking up all the gritty punk/new wave vibe of downtown Manhattan in the mid-to late-’70s.
The rarities disc includes five originals, three covers and an early version of “Start Me Up.” It’s amazing to listen to a disc of outcasts, from essentially an album of outcasts, which sounds better than 99 percent of the music on the charts today.
Most of these tracks are ragged, bluesy rockers, but songs like “It’s a Lie” are vintage Rolling Stones and their cover of Jimmy Reed’s “Shame, Shame, Shame” is truly a lost gem. They even put their own twist on the Dobie Gray classic “Drift Away,” with admirable results. The early version of “Start Me Up” has a light, almost Caribbean feel.
The three-record live concert is quite good and captures the Stones on their second European tour with Ron Wood, who by then was fully acclimated in the group. While not as gritty as the June and July 1978 American shows that took place in many small concert halls, the live stadium show reflects the Rolling Stones at one of their peaks and boasts 26 performances over three vinyl albums.
As for this reissue’s sound quality, again, like on recent big reissues from the Rolling Stones, it is good to mediocre. Anyone who has the original albums from the Some Girls / Emotional Rescue / Tattoo You period will attest to how excellent those albums sounded. Tattoo You: 40th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition lacks much of the punch and a lot of the clean original mix. Nonetheless, with the three-album live set, the welcome album of outtakes and the beautiful packaging, hardcore Rolling Stones fans will no doubt put this box on their must-have list.
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