Rolling Stones Share Unreleased Tracks From ‘Tattoo You,’ Including Reggae-Tinged ‘Start Me Up’

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The Rolling Stones circa 1981 (Photo: Helmut Newton; used with permission)

The Rolling Stones’ 1981 album, Tattoo You, has received expanded deluxe editions for its 40th anniversary. The newly remastered set, out on October 22, 2021, via Polydor/Interscope/UMe, in a variety of formats, contains nine previously unreleased tracks and live recordings. The set also offers some interesting cover choices, including “Drift Away,” an international hit for Dobie Gray in 1973. There’s also an early, reggae-tinged version of the album’s big single, “Start Me Up.” Listen to them below.

The deluxe formats also include Lost & Found: Rarities and Still Life: Wembley Stadium 1982. The Lost & Found disc contains nine previously unreleased tracks from the period of the album’s original release, newly completed and enhanced with additional vocals and guitar by the band.

The deluxe collection’s Still Life: Wembley Stadium 1982 is a memento of the band’s London show in June of that year on the Tattoo You tour. The 26-track set is packed with Stones mega-hits, including an opening “Under My Thumb” and classic rock greats such as “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” “Honky Tonk Women” and “Brown Sugar.”

Listen to “Brown Sugar” from the Wembley concert

The Aug. 19 announcement for the expanded edition came 40 years to the week since the chart-topping, multi-platinum album was first released on August 24, 1981, and as the Stones prepared to return to the road with 14 new dates on the No Filter tour in the U.S.

Related: Our recap of opening night of the Stones’ 2021 tour

Charlie Watts, as seen in the video for “Living in the Heart of Love” (Photo: Charles Mehling)

The 40th anniversary remaster of the original 11-track album includes such enduring favorites as “Hang Fire,” “Waiting On a Friend” (showcasing jazz saxophone giant Sonny Rollins) and of course “Start Me Up,” the opening track that’s been a band signature ever since.

The video for “Living in the Heart of “Love,” shot in glorious black-and-white in Paris, was directed by Charles Mehling and stars Marguerite Thiam and Nailia Harzoune.

Watch the official video for “Living in the Heart of Love”

Other highlights of Lost & Found include a killer version of “Shame, Shame, Shame,” first recorded in 1963 by one of the band’s blues heroes, Jimmy Reed; their reading of Dobie Gray’s soul gem “Drift Away;” and a reggae-tinged version of “Start Me Up.”

Listen to their cover of “Drift Away”

Listen to the reggae-tinged version of “Start Me Up”

“Troubles A’ Comin” was originally recorded by the Stones in Paris in 1979. The guitar-driven track is an infectious cover of the Chi-Lites original and is one of the nine newly completed songs and rarities featured on Tattoo You’s Lost & Found disc.

Watch the lyric video for “Troubles A’ Comin”

The Wembley show has covers of the Temptations’ “Just My Imagination,” Eddie Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock,” the Miracles’ “Going To A Go Go” and early rock ‘n’ roller the Big Bopper’s “Chantilly Lace.”

It also features early live workouts for tracks from the then-new Tattoo You such as “Start Me Up,” “Neighbours,” “Little T&A” and “Hang Fire.”

Watch the official trailer for the new collection

Polydor/Interscope/UMe’s Tattoo You (40th Anniversary Edition) follows the 2020 reissue of the Stones’ 1973 LP, Goats Head Soup, which took the album back to #1 in the U.K.

Related: Our review of Goats Head Soup

When first released, Tattoo You, produced by the Glimmer Twins with associate producer Chris Kimsey, topped the charts in the U.S. (where it went quadruple platinum), Canada, Australia and across much of Europe, with gold and platinum awards around the world.

See the complete track listing below the links.

4-CD Super Deluxe Box Set

Includes 4 x CDs (CD1 – Remastered Album, CD2 – Bonus 9 Tracks + CD 3 & 4 – “Still Life” (Wembley Stadium Concert 1982)
+ Keith Richards Picture Disc + 124 Page Book featuring over 200 rare photos from recording sessions & world tour + interviews with producer Chris Kimsey & photographer Hubert Kretzschmar + Lenticular Art

CD 1 – Tattoo You (2021 Remaster)
1. Start Me Up – Remastered 2021
2. Hang Fire – Remastered 2021
3. Slave – Remastered 2021
4. Little T&A – Remastered 2021
5. Black Limousine – Remastered 2021
6. Neighbours – Remastered 2021
7. Worried About You – Remastered 2021
8. Tops – Remastered 2021
9. Heaven – Remastered 2021
10. No Use In Crying – Remastered 2021
11. Waiting On A Friend – Remastered 2021

CD 2 – Lost & Found: Rarities
1. Living in the Heart Of Love
2. Fiji Jim
3. Troubles A’ Comin
4. Shame Shame Shame
5. Drift Away
6. It’s A Lie
7. Come To the Ball
8. Fast Talking Slow Walking
9. Start Me Up (Early Version)

Listen to the previously unreleased “Come To the Ball”

CD 3 & CD 4 – “Still Life” (Wembley Stadium Concert 1982)
1. Under My Thumb
2. When The Whip Comes Down
3. Let’s Spend The Night Together
4. Shattered
5. Neighbours
6. Black Limousine
7. Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)
8. Twenty Flight Rock
9. Going To A Go Go
10. Chantilly Lace
11. Let Me Go
12. Time Is On My Side
13. Beast Of Burden
14. Let It Bleed

1. You Can’t Always Get What You Want
2. Band Introductions
3. Little T&A
4. Tumbling Dice
5. She’s So Cold
6. Hang Fire
7. Miss You
8. Honky Tonk Women
9. Brown Sugar
10. Start Me Up
11. Jumpin’ Jack Flash
12. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

Listen to extended, live versions of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”

Best Classic Bands Staff

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