The Rolling Stones - Tattoo You Too (1982)

The Rolling Stones released Emotional Rescue, their 15th UK studio album, on 23 June 1980. A very inconsistent album, it nevertheless featured two major hits: "She's So Cold" and the title track. Coming on the heels of their comeback album Some Girls, it was considered a disappointment, but not enough to ground the momentum the band had gotten from that return to form. It came on a period of relative sobriety from guitarist Keith Richards, who sought to regain the control over the band he'd lost during his years of substance abuse. This led to a lot of conflict with singer Mick Jagger, with the two generally not getting along and butting heads over musical direction. As a result, the band didn't tour to promote Emotional Rescue, their first record since It's Only Rock and Roll not to have a tour in its support. However, despite their differences, Mick and Keith still wanted to tour and enjoy the critical and commercial renaissance the band was experiencing from '78 onwards, so a major tour was booked for 1981 in the US and for 1982 in the UK and Europe. With that, it became obvious that a new album was needed, as by the time the European tour rolled around, Emotional Rescue would be a whole two years old. However, the creative rift between Mick and Keith was still very much alive, and they didn't have enough time or patience to record a new LP from scratch. What to do now? Thankfully for us, band engineer Chris Kinsey suggested taking a look at the vaults, saying there were enough good outtakes for a new record. Mick agreed, and so they set out to look for possible release candidates.

Kinsey and Jagger spent the Winter of 1980 in Paris, listening to outtakes, bookmarking the ones they found release-worthy, and recording overdubs on them. The material was mostly culled from that year's Emotional Rescue sessions, but spanning all the way back to Goat's Head Soup, with the two selecting eleven songs out of the nearly a hundred outtakes. The overdubbing process got even more interesting when Mick spotted jazz great Sonny Rollins performing in a Parisian nightclub, and invited him to play on the record, where he appears on three songs and greatly defines the sound of the album. Upon release, the album became an unexpected commercial success, with Some Girls outtake "Start Me Up" turning into a massive hit in mid-1981. The album is also a critical success, hailed as a return to form and as the great follow-up to Some Girls, all while being a measly collection of outtakes, which goes to show the sheer quality of the Stones' vault. They go on an American tour that year and a European tour the next, riding high on the album's success. Tattoo You has since gone on to become the gold standard, the measure used to evaluate new Stones music to this day. But those eleven songs were only the tip of the iceberg, the cream of the crop of the hundreds of songs the Rolling Stones recorded through the 1970s, as the deluxe editions filled with repurposed outtakes of recent times go to show. It even leaves us wondering if they couldn't have done even more with what they had at their disposal back in 1981.

So what if Tattoo You was a double album? In this reconstruction, we will be trying to find a home for the many more worthwhile outtakes the Stones had in the vault by 1981, on the heels of a twenty-year-long recording career. For starters, we know that other songs were considered for Tattoo You way back in 1980, but we have no idea which ones, so we'll be left to speculate and use the most finished-sounding songs they would've had then. We will only consider material recorded during the 1973 to 1980 period, as that's when all of Tattoo You was recorded. As good as some of the Exile leftovers are, they wouldn't be contemporary enough for this album, which means they won't be considered. Songs begun during this period, but completely redone later will also not be considered, which means songs such as "Too Tough" and "Lonely at the Top" won't make the album. Similarly, no modern Jagger vocals will be included, as you can always tell they were done after the fact by a nearly eighty-year-old. He also mostly wrote new lyrics for songs he re-recorded vocals, making them essentially new songs with old backing tracks instead of actual outtakes. Also, no songs that still remain in the vaults will be included, as that means they didn't even consider them good enough for their deluxe editions. However, in two instances we will have to use unreleased versions of two officially released songs, an issue which will be explained later. Finally, this album will be eleven songs long, and have a rock side and a ballad side, just like the original. With that out of the way, here's what the album looks like:

Living in the Heart of Love (Tattoo You)

Claudine (Some Girls)

Everything's Turning to Gold (Sucking in the Seventies)

Fiji Jim (Fully Finished Studio Outtakes)

So Young (Some Girls)

Criss Cross Man (Goat's Head Soup)

-

Through the Lonely Nights (Singles Box Set)

We Had It All (Some Girls)

I Think I'm Goin' Mad (Singles Box Set)

Drift Away (Tattoo You)

Fast Talking, Slow Walking (Fully Finished Studio Outtakes)

Download link:

The Rolling Stones - Tattoo You Too (1982)

Jagger, Wood, Richards, Wyman, and Watts, as photographed in August 1981.

All we have to do now is scour the deluxe editions of Goat's Head Soup, Some Girls and Tattoo You for any vintage lead vocals we could use here. "Criss Cross Man" is the only song from the Goat's Head Soup deluxe edition to feature vintage vocals, while also featuring assorted modern backing vocals and instrumental overdubs. "Through the Lonely Nights", a Goat's Head Soup outtake, found limited release as the b-side of the "It's Only Rock and Roll" single. It's the only song in this reconstruction that was previously released, but since it wasn't on any album and we are pretty short on ballads for the slow side, we will allow it. With those two, we have filled the same two-song quota of GHS outtakes that was given on the original album. "Living in the Heart of Love" and the Dobie Gray cover "Drift Away" are the only songs from the Tattoo You deluxe edition to feature vintage vocals, with "Living in the Heart of Love" featuring a new Ronnie Wood guitar solo, and "Drift Away" featuring some instrumental overdubs. They are both also from the It's Only Rock and Roll sessions, the only period not to be featured in any capacity on the original Tattoo You, something we've fixed by including them. Also, given that we have no Black and Blue era outtakes left, those two songs take over their slots on the album, which I think is fair enough. "Claudine" and "So Young" are the only songs from the Some Girls deluxe edition to feature vintage vocals, with the former being a full-on vintage master, and the latter only featuring a new piano overdub, filling the two-song quota for Some Girls outtakes.

"We Had it All", also from the Some Girls deluxe edition but dating from the Emotional Rescue sessions, is our Keith lead vocal for the album, being a completely vintage master. It's also a cover, and while the Stones were no strangers to putting covers on their LPs, they hadn't done so on Tattoo You. I'll allow it given their history and the fact that we have some pretty serious constraints. "Everything's Turning to Gold" was an Emotional Rescue outtake featured in the Sucking in the Seventies compilation, which was mixed and mastered virtually concurrently with Tattoo You, in late 1980 in Paris. If any one song can claim to be the closest to the album, it's this one. Meanwhile, "I Think I'm Going Mad", another Emotional Rescue outtake, was the b-side of the "She Was Hot" single in 1983. Since it postdates the release of Tattoo You, it's fair game and we can use it without any issues. With that, we have reached nine songs, two short of the obligatory eleven, and have completely run out of vintage vocals from the officially released studio albums. That's when the bootlegs come to our rescue! In the Fully Finished Studio Outtakes boot, we gained access to many alternate versions of Stones outtakes, including good quality versions of the original "Fast Talking, Slow Walking" from the IORR sessions, as well as the original "Fiji Jim", from the Some Girls sessions, before old man Mick Jagger had laid his hands on them. Truth be told, they are pretty unfinished, but given the alternatives they are more than worthy inclusions on this album, giving us both our final ballad and our final rocker.

The second half of the album takes most of its cues from the first, with the single and best song in the album serving as the lead-off track, a weirder song as the second, a disco experiment as song three, a blues exercise as song five, and so on. As previously stated, it's divided into a fast first side and a slow second side, which I did consider swapping to make things interesting, but since it didn't work very well I kept it as it was. Clocking in at 45 minutes with a slightly longer side one, this collection is clearly not as good as the real deal, but a fun exercise nonetheless. It goes places where the original didn't manage to go, such as rockabilly, covers, or country ballads, which are an essential part of the Stones' music, becoming a nice complement to Tattoo You. The title is just me playing around with Too and Two, as apparently the album was supposed to be named simply "Tattoo", and no one has any idea where the "You" came from. The accompanying cover is Keith's face from the gatefold, a solid choice for a cover given this is just part two. With "Living in the Heart of Love" already hand-picked for a single release, I could see "Criss Cross Man" being the second single, with "I Think I'm Goin' Mad" and "Claudine" serving as their b-sides. And since the original 1981 album was just an excuse for the Stones to go on a tour that year, I could easily see this second volume getting released just in time for the European leg of that tour in May 1982. It's a shame that these outtakes had to linger in the vaults for almost another forty years, reminders of a bygone time when it seemed like everything these guys touched turned to gold.

Sources:

- The Rolling Stones Database by Nico Zentgraf

- IORR Forum - Tattoo You Deluxe Edition

Paul McCartney & Elvis Costello - Flowers in the Dirt (1987)

Paul McCartney released his sixth studio album, Press to Play, on 25 August 1986 through Parlophone Records. His first after the breakup of Wings not to be produced by George Martin, it was co-written and co-produced by Eric Stewart of 10cc fame, and became his second critical and commercial failure in a row, after Give My Regards to Broad Street. This failure hurt Paul pretty bad, and he felt he needed to bounce back both from the middling sales and from the criticism he received, and set about to try to stage a comeback. It was at this point that his manager suggested a new collaborator, Elvis Costello. The pair had met during the concerts for Cambodia in 1979, and shared an engineer and a studio while recording Tug of War and Imperial Bedroom in 1981. Paul had even played with Elvis' keyboardist Steve Nieve and drummer Pete Thomas in a TV show in early 1987, but had never performed with Elvis himself before. After Elvis agreed to join him, the first thing he did was change a few words of a finished song, "Back on My Feet", and travel to Paul's farm in Scotland to co-write fourteen brand new songs. Elvis had Liverpudlian roots and a verbose, literate style that complemented Paul's melodic sensibilities particularly well, making for an inspired choice of partner. The songwriting sessions go smoothly, as they write together with ease and complement each other much like Lennon and McCartney did, playing mirrored acoustic guitars and bouncing ideas off of each other. The results of these songwriting sessions were great, and so the two made plans to record them together, starting with demo sessions in February and March 1988. But the trouble came when it came to recording together.

Elvis, who had already been burned by trying out a contemporary 80s sound on the awful Goodbye Cruel World, wanted them to go for a stripped-down, bare-bones sound for the album. Paul, who was very hurt by the commercial failure of Press to Play, found himself chasing trends and playing catch up, and wanted a contemporary-sounding album, which he thought could be the key to a comeback. With that in mind, they recorded with Hamish Stuart of the AWB, guitarist Kevin Armstrong, and drummer Chris Whitten, who despite being great were a clear mismatch for the material. The ever-present drums with gated reverb, synthesizers, and all that goes along with it were there from the get-go. There is even a quite humorous moment when Paul mentions new wave pop band the Human League as a possible inspiration for one of the tracks and Elvis has to leave the room to calm himself down. By that point, it was clear that the differences between the two were too great for a full album together, so they decided to split amicably and each do what they think is best for the material. Elvis takes a couple of the pair's songs and releases Spike, and even has his only ever Top 20 hit with "Veronica", a McCartney co-write. Meanwhile, four producers and nearly two years later, Paul releases his own Flowers in the Dirt, a real mishmash of styles and genres which was considered a return to form and gave him a hit with Costello co-write "My Brave Face". From then, they kept using songs from these songwriting sessions all the way to the mid-90s, showing how fruitful these had been, but sadly never wrote together again. With that, fans of both artists were left with the sense that the two could have done much more together.

But what if Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello had managed to record a full album together? To answer that question, we will be gathering together every single song the two wrote as songwriting partners and turning it into a full-blown record, as Paul's very own version of the Travelling Wilburys, joining forces with another great songwriter to try and reverse his failing fortunes, as well as his attempt at finally finding the ideal writing partner almost twenty years after parting ways with John Lennon. It would have been recorded in early 1988 and released sometime later that year, instead of taking more than two years to complete with many producers, as was the case with Paul's Flowers in the Dirt. Given enough luck, they might even beat George Harrison and his Wilburys to the punch, making them the copycats! As for the rules, only McCartney/McManus originals are allowed to be considered, so even Elvis' "This Town", which even features Paul playing the bass, cannot be included in this album as it was written solely by him. And unless no duo version of the song exists, solo versions of the songs are not allowed to be included, as this would have been a full collaboration between the two and we need the both of them to be in every song. That also helps us with the problem that the production in the songs Paul took with him is remarkably different to the songs Elvis took, which would make for a jarring listening experience with two very different sounds. Fortunately, the McCartney/McManus demo sessions have been very well documented, so there don't seem to be many exceptions to this rule, giving us little to fix in this album. With all that out of the way, here's what our joint Costello/McCartney album looks like:

The Lovers That Never Were (Flowers in the Dirt)

Veronica (Spike)

Tommy's Coming Home (Flowers in the Dirt)

Twenty Fine Fingers (Flowers in the Dirt)

So Like Candy (Flowers in the Dirt)

You Want Her Too (Flowers in the Dirt)

Shallow Grave (Flowers in the Dirt)

-

Mistress and Maid (Flowers in the Dirt)

I Don't Want to Confess (Flowers in the Dirt)

That Day is Done (Flowers in the Dirt)

Don't Be Careless Love (Flowers in the Dirt)

My Brave Face (Flowers in the Dirt)

Pads, Paws and Claws (Spike)

From a Playboy to a Man (Flowers in the Dirt)

Download link:

Paul McCartney & Elvis Costello - Flowers in the Dirt (1987)

McManus and McCartney playing together at the Royal Albert Hall, April 1999.

"The Lovers That Never Were", "Tommy's Coming Home", "Twenty Fine Fingers", "So Like Candy", "You Want Her Too", "That Day is Done", "Don't Be Careless Love", "My Brave Face" and "Playboy to a Man" are solo acoustic demos from October and November 1987, featuring both McCartney and Costello, taken from the Special Edition of Flowers in the Dirt. Those nine tracks, in the other they were presented in the box set, will make the bulk of the album, with any other material we choose to include getting added into this sequence. Coming from these same demo sessions are "I Don't Want to Confess", "Mistress and Maid", and "Shallow Grave", which didn't make the main box set but were released as a Record Store Day exclusive in 2017 in a three-song cassette. Now, the sound quality of this cassette is noticeably rougher than the first nine songs, having been recorded on the very same day they wrote the songs. But the fact that they are great performances of essential songs, and that they come from the exact same late 1987 period, makes their inclusion a no-brainer, sound quality be damned. That leaves "Veronica" and "Pads, Paws and Claws", which are solo Costello demos from late 1987, taken from the deluxe edition of his Spike album. Now, while these demos sadly don't feature McCartney in any form, the fact that they're just Elvis with an acoustic guitar means they fit quite well with the other duo demos. And of course, given that Paul would most likely take the lead on about 90% of the other songs, it makes sense to have two songs serving as Elvis' "solo spot", where he would sing lead and Paul would just harmonize with him, taking a backseat role on an album that's already quite heavy on him.

The rougher cassette recordings are added right to the middle of the sequence, with the morbid "Shallow Grave" serving as side one closer and the great "Mistress and Maid" as the opener to side two. The lesser "I Don't Want to Confess", one of only three songs that didn't make it to any Paul McCartney or Elvis Costello album within the next ten years, gets placed in the middle of side two, where it won't bother anybody. Meanwhile, Elvis' two solo spots are added to opposite ends of the album, with the second and second-to-last songs being "Veronica" and "Pads, Paws and Claws" respectively. Ideally, the album's backing band would consist of McCartney, Costello, Attractions drummer Pete Thomas and keyboardist Steve Nieve, as well as Paul's guitarist Robbie McIntosh. A best-of-both-worlds scenario where we get the power of the Attractions and the technical ability of Paul's solo band, him obviously taking bass duties. And produced by Geoff Emerick, who had a lot of experience working with Elvis (he had produced the fantastic Imperial Bedroom album), and especially Paul, serving as engineer on nearly a dozen of his albums. A familiar figure to both, who could mediate whatever creative issues the two had and help them get the best album possible. This would most likely be a more stripped-down affair as Costello had intended, foregoing the more contemporary, slick sound McCartney had insisted on. I personally have nothing against the eighties sound, but there's a great mismatch between the folky, sometimes somber but sweet songs these two wrote and that type of production, which was much more suited to the poppier material Paul was writing outside his collaboration with Costello.

Since the name Flowers in the Dirt is taken from the lyrics to "That Day is Done", and is also a pretty nice title, we can retain it as the album's title for our reconstruction. The album is fourteen songs long, as that's exactly how many songs the two wrote from scratch ("Back on My Feet" only received  some small tweaks by Costello). It was also how many songs were featured in any early Beatles album, a detail which certainly would be picked up by Elvis. And since all the songs are on the short side, it works pretty well and makes for a regular 42-minute record, fitting into LPs, CDs and cassete tapes with ease. As for the cover, I took one of the few existing photos of the two during the sessions for FITD, threw some effects on it, and added both of their names and the album title. Of course, Paul will get top billing, but their names are the same size and both are featured prominently on this cover. It ended up looking more like the late 1990s than the late 1980s, but I figured it was good enough, and as rough as the material in the album itself. When it comes to the lead single we have it pretty easy, as both of them had hits with this material: Elvis with "Veronica", and Paul with "My Brave Face". I can see the both of them getting released as singles, with Paul's getting released first as a question of hierarchy more than anything. The strength of this collaboration is such that it easily obscures both Spike and the original Flowers in the Dirt, making for Paul's greatest late-career album and one of Elvis' greatest efforts, even in the form of half-baked demos! Then it's a shame those two couldn't put their differences aside and turn this album into a reality, with both putting their twenty fine fingers to very good use in this record.

Sources:

- Paul McCartney - Flowers in the Dirt [Archive Collection]

- Elvis Costello - Spike [Deluxe Edition]

- The Paul McCartney Project