The Rolling Stones - Tattoo You

Back in the day I did not own any Rolling Stones records. The first album I actually bought was Dirty Work in 1986, and I only bought it because I loved "One Hit (To the Body)" which is an awesome song. Later I'd succumb and get the Hot Rocks and More Hot Rocks double albums, and those were all I needed ... and this lamp.

Tattoo You is a weird one for me. As there are two impressions of this album for me. The first one comes from the me of yesteryear. "This sucks, if I have to hear Mick Jagger's nut squeezed falsetto while watching him prance around in leopard skin tights I'll puke." Of course, even eighteen year old me had to admit that "Start Me Up" was something special. I had no idea how he played it - I didn't know anything about alternate tuning back then other than drop D, and that really didn't count.

The second one, actually doesn't stray all that far from my first impression, although I'm a lot more forgiving than I once was, I can even listen to "Hang Fire" and not throw up a little in my mouth. I can put the album on and play it through an appreciate it for what it was. I'm still perplexed as to how these guys got to be labelled "The World's Greatest Rock Band" - their out put is so uneven. When they're good, they're really good - this was why I loved the Hot Rocks albums - all killer, no filler.

There's really nothing in the liner notes that hints at the drama behind the album. It just seemed to be a given that Mick and Keith were nattering at each other over something or other. When you listen to the songs, everything seems to be there for a reason. Now, I know I just went on about uneven they are, but you can still have a jigsaw where everything is fitted together but not like the picture. This is sort of like that. Whether I like all the songs or not it doesn't matter.

From what I've read, the album was mostly cobbled together by associate producer Chris Kimsey who went back as far as a decade, through old tapes for ideas and snippets and outtakes and then got the band in to do their bits and pieces and complete the songs. Heck they were even able to break the album into a rock side and a ballad side. Even the once incredibly annoying "Waiting on a Friend" has a certain appeal now.

The album was mixed by the ever reliable Bob Clearmountain of the gold and platinum ears, and mastered by the legendary Bob Ludwig.

Tattoo You was their eighth album in a row to go to number one, which is pretty awesome. The fact I found this in the dollar bin with all the pieces was quite a find. It was a bit roughed up, but nothing too bad and it cleaned up to where it played without a lot of pops and clicks. Score.

While I may never be a huge fan of the band, you have to respect a body of work that over a half century is far greater than the sum of their parts. It really isn't a stretch to call them "The World's Greatest Rock Band."

Oh, and "Start Me Up" still has the power and swagger it held over forty years ago - and for this song alone it was worth my dollar. The rest was just extra.

Like I said.

Score.

Garfield - Strange Streets

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure. I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTOs Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) who knows maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust - it seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight ahead pop, or rock. It was leaning to the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough the vocals reminded me of Mi...

Hoodoo Gurus - Mars Needs Guitars!

The first time I got this album it was a gift from my old roommate Otto. For a goofy little nebbish he would occasionally surprise me with some left of field musical treasures. Although, I still think he was reaching a little when he brought home the new "Led Zeppelin" album by Kingdom Come and forced me to listen to "Get it On" over and over again. I'd not listened to Mars Needs Guitars in a long, long, long time. The first thing that I jumped out at me was how David Faulkner's vocals reminded me of his fellow countryman Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil. I think the reason this never occurred to me was at the time I didn't have any Midnight Oil until Diesel and Dust in 1987. I'm not saying it was all the time, but there were a couple of songs where it stood out. Not a bad thing, just a thing. Even at the time this felt slightly out of step with what was going on in 1985. It seemed like everyone was using drum machines and synthesizers and having t...

Saturday Night Fever - The Original Movie Soundtrack

It was going to happen sooner or later. Nostalgia is a cruel Mistress...she can dull the sharpest edges and over time can even soften the hardest of opinions. I found this in the dollar bin, and frankly at a dollar I was worried about what this would cost me. Not only from a monetary perspective, but my time, and more important my credibility. Fourteen year old me was screaming "Don't you dare. DON'T DO IT! Put it down. Walk away!" Then there was grey bearded me holding it and looking at it, thinking, "How bad could it be? I actually kind of like "Staying Alive" and me buying this record won't bring disco back, and no one will have to know I bought this." I pulled the album out of the bin, and carefully took out the records. They'd seen better days, and there were a couple of decent scratches that would no doubt make their presence known later. The jacket was in decent condition, and both of the albums had the original sleeves. I dusted the...

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