Start Me Up

"Start Me Up"
Single by Rolling Stones
from the album Tattoo You
B-side	"No Use In Crying"
Released	14 August 1981
Format	7"
Recorded	1979 (basic track), 1980-1981 (vocals and overdubs)
Genre	Rock
Length	3:33
Label	Rolling Stones
Writer(s)	Jagger/Richards
Producer	The Glimmer Twins
Rolling Stones singles chronology
"She's So Cold" (1981) "Start Me Up" (1981) "Waiting on a Friend" (1981)

"Start Me Up" is a song by The Rolling Stones featured on the 1981 album Tattoo You. Released as the album's lead single, it reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 7 on the UK Singles Chart.

Writing and recording

"Start Me Up" was first recorded during the 1975 sessions for the Stones' 1976 album Black and Blue.^[1] The song was at first cut as a reggae-rock track, but after dozens of takes the band stopped recording it and it was shelved. The Stones would again try to re-record "Start Me Up" during the 1977 Some Girls and the 1979 Emotional Rescue sessions under the working titles "Never Stop" and "Start It Up" respectively. These recordings would feature a more apparent rock sound, stripped of the earlier reggae influences. Producer Chris Kimsey said of these re-recordings:

"After they cut it, I said, 'That's bloody great! Come and listen... However, when I played it back, Keith [Richards] said, 'Nah, it sounds like something I've heard on the radio. Wipe it.' Of course, I didn't..."^[1]

But "Start Me Up" failed to make the cut for either album, returning again to the vault. Of the song's history, Richards has commented:

"It was one of those things we cut a lot of times; one of those cuts that you can play forever and ever in the studio. Twenty minutes go by and you're still locked into those two chords... Sometimes you become conscious of the fact that, 'Oh, it's "Brown Sugar" again,' so you begin to explore other rhythmic possibilities. It's basically trial and error. As I said, that one was pretty locked into a reggae rhythm for quite a few weeks. We were cutting it for Emotional Rescue, but it was nowhere near coming through, and we put it aside and almost forgot about it."^[2]

In 1981, with the band looking to tour, Kimsey proposed to lead singer Mick Jagger that archived songs could comprise the set. While searching through the vaults, Kimsey found the two takes of the song with a more rock vibe among some fifty reggae versions. Overdubs were completed on the track in early 1981 in New York at the recording studios Electric Ladyland and the Hit Factory.^[1] On the band's recording style for this track in particular, Kimsey commented in 2004;

"Including run-throughs, 'Start Me Up' took about six hours to record. You see, if they all played the right chords in the right time, went to the chorus at the right time and got to the middle eight together, that was a master. It was like, 'Oh, wow!' Don't forget, they would never sit down and work out a song. They would jam it and the song would evolve out of that. That's their magic...."^[1]

The infectious "thump" to the song was achieved using mixer Bob Clearmountain's famed "bathroom reverb," a process involving the recording of some of the song's vocal and drum tracks with a miked speaker in the bathroom of the Power Station recording studio in New York City.^[3][1] It was there where final touches were added to the song, including Jagger's switch of the main lyrics from "start it up" to "start me up."

The song opens with what has since become a trademark riff for Keith Richards. It is this, coupled with Charlie Watts' steady backbeat and Bill Wyman's echoing bass, that comprises most of the song. Lead guitarist Ronnie Wood can clearly be heard playing a layered variation of Richards' main riff. Throughout the song Jagger breaks in with a repeated bridge of "You make a grown man cry," followed by various pronouncements of his and his partner's sexual nature. Although the lyrics to the song might be read as double-entendres referring to motorcycle racing, they are clearly sexual in nature.

The final line of the song — "you make a dead man come" — is an homage to pioneering blues singer Lucille Bogan's bawdy "Shave 'Em Dry," which opens with the lines: "I got nipples on my titties / Big as the end of my thumb / I got something 'tween my legs / That'll make a dead man come." The song was among many in Richards's personal collection of classic blues.^[2]

Often live versions of the song are lengthened by giving Wood a solo near the middle of the song, pieces of which can be heard throughout the original recording.

Release

"Start Me Up" peaked at No. 7 on the UK Singles Charts in August 1981, where it remains a significant single as the Stones have not been back into the UK Top 10 since. In Australia, the song reached No. 1 in November 1981. In the United States, "Start Me Up" spent three weeks at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in October and November 1981, kept from the summit by "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" by Christopher Cross and "Private Eyes" by Hall & Oates.^[4] It also spent 13 weeks atop the Billboard Top Tracks chart.^[5]

The B-Side was a slow blues number called "No Use In Crying" which also featured on the Tattoo You album. A popular music video was produced for the single, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg.

"Start Me Up" is often used to open the Stones' live shows and has been featured on the live albums Still Life, Flashpoint, Live Licks, and Shine a Light. It has been included on every major compilation since its release, including Rewind (1971-1984), Jump Back, and Forty Licks.

Pop culture

• A former MuchMusic program used this title in the 1990s.
• The song was one of three played by the Rolling Stones at halftime during the Super Bowl XL in 2006. It was speculated that some of the more objectionable lyrics along with those in "Rough Justice" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" had been censored without the singer's consent. It was later discovered that Mick Jagger had agreed prior to leave out the lyrics.^[6]
• Microsoft Corporation used this song in the Windows 95 marketing campaign, although paying significantly less than the $14 million rumored. This was the first time that the Rolling Stones allowed another company to use their songs in an advertising campaign.^[7] The song was subsequently parodied by Bob Rivers, as "Windows 95 Sucks," a song often attributed to "Weird Al" Yankovic, in response to Microsoft's use of the song in their marketing campaign.
• In 2003, "Start Me Up" became the first Rolling Stones song used in a car commercial when it was used in a campaign for Ford.^[8]
• The song was covered by The Folksmen and is heard on the soundtrack for the film A Mighty Wind, although it is not included in the film itself.
• Rolling Stone magazine ranked it the 8th Best Sports Anthem.^[9]
• Liam Kyle Sullivan's Myspace alter ego "Kelly" paid tribute to this song in the song "No Booty Calls," a song between Kelly and her horny ex-boyfriend. He states, "Start me up, you make a dead man come" to which she responds, "Then you can just drop dead, cause you ain't gettin' some."
• Tay Zonday recently made a cover of the song using the karaoke version (the only instrumental version available) while wearing a wig to represent himself as a stereotypical rock star. However, he has covered other songs but removed them due to focusing on original material.
• The Blue Angels use this song when starting up their engines before a performance.
• The song appears in the game Karaoke Revolution Party.
• The song was voted #94 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 80s.
• The Kansas City Chiefs, Chicago Bulls, Montreal Canadiens and Iowa Hawkeyes football team are among those known to use the song during sporting events.
• Denver First Church of the Nazarene has, occasionally, used the instrumental portion of the song as part of the church's "Call to Worship" prior to Sunday services. When playing the song, the title is changed to "Raise Him Up".
• The portion of the song was used on the album Il cielo ha una porta sola by Italian singer Biagio Antonacci.
• Ruff Ruffman parodied the song for Season 3 of FETCH!, as "FETCH! is startin' up".

Notes

External links

• Complete Official Lyrics