How Tattoo You Stitched Together a Decade of Outtakes — and Turned a Reggae Jam Into ‘Start Me Up’

By 1981, the Stones hadn’t finished a proper album since Some Girls (1978). Emotional Rescue (1980) had its moments, but Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were barely on speaking terms. Instead of trying to write new material together, they raided the vaults: Tattoo You is a Frankenstein of outtakes, rough mixes, and abandoned sessions from 1972 through 1979.

The most famous rescue job is “Start Me Up.” It began in 1977 during the Some Girls sessions as a reggae jam — Richards playing a skanking rhythm, the band flirting with a Sly & Robbie groove. Jagger never finished the lyrics; it sat on the shelf. Four years later, producer Chris Kimsey found the multitrack, removed the reggae drum pattern, and looped the guitar riff. The band overdubbed a straight-4/4 rock backbeat, and suddenly the skank became a stadium anthem. They also pitch-corrected some of Jagger’s vocal takes from different eras using analog varispeed — no digital trickery, just tape manipulation.

To make the whole thing sound cohesive, Kimsey and engineer Bob Clearmountain used a consistent reverb plate (an EMT 140) across all tracks, regardless of original session year. They also re-amplified old drum tracks through a live room to match the air of newer recordings. The result: an album that feels like a single statement, even though “Slave” was cut in 1970 with a different bassist and “Heaven” dates to 1978. It’s a patchwork held together by craft and desperation.