How 'Start Me Up' Began as a Reggae Outtake and Became a Rock Anthem

The riff that launched a thousand sports stadiums first appeared in 1978 as a loose reggae groove called “Never Stop.” The Stones were cutting Some Girls at Pathé Marconi in Paris, and Keith Richards had been toying with a chugging, offbeat rhythm that felt more like a dub track than a rocker. Mick Jagger wrote lyrics about a dancer named “Pam” over it, but the band never finished the take — it sat on the shelf for three years.

When the group needed one more song for the patchwork album Tattoo You in 1981, producer Chris Kimsey pulled the tape. Richards sped up the tempo, Jagger rewrote the words as a loose metaphor for sexual energy and ambition, and the reggae pulse became a straight-ahead rock stomp. The final version’s power comes from its friction: the guitars lock into a syncopated push-pull that sounds like it’s about to fall apart, while Jagger’s snarl turns the “make a dead man come” line into something both absurd and unstoppable. The song never mentions starting a car, but the riff acts as the ignition.