Song Lyric Sunday – Start Me Up

Whenever I hear the intro to this song it reminds me of being at a pro basketball game. I’m immediately pumped up! As you can see this week I have chosen “Start Me Up” by The Rolling Stones. Jim Adams prompted us with Around, Down, Sideways and Up for Song Lyric Sunday.

This is a great live concert video with some backstage clips. The music starts at 1 minute 25 secs. Mick is in his usual fine form on stage and I love him performing this song in his green coat!

Wiki says, “Start Me Up” is featured on the 1981 album Tattoo You. Released as the album’s lead single, it reached number one on Australian Kent Music Report, number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and number seven on the UK Singles Chart.

The basic track “Start Me Up” was recorded during the January and March 1978 sessions for the Rolling Stones’ album Some Girls. The song began as a reggae-rock track named “Never Stop”, but after dozens of takes it was abandoned. “Start Me Up” was not chosen for the album and was saved for later use. Richards 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. 

In 1981, with the band looking to tour, engineer Chris 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 City at the recording studios Electric Lady Studios and The Hit Factory. 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.

Lyrics
Start Me Up
The Rolling Stones


If you start me up
If you start me up I'll never stop

You can start me up
You can start me up I'll never stop
I've been running hot
You got me ticking going to blow my top
If you start me up
If you start me up I'll never stop

Never stop, never stop, never stop
You make a grown man cry
You make a grown man cry
You make a grown man cry

Spread out the oil, the gasoline
I walk smooth, ride in a mean, mean machine
Start it up
If you start it up

Kick on the starter
Give it all you got, you got, you got
I can't compete with the riders in the other heats
If you rough it up
If you like it, I can slide it up
Slide it up, slide it up, slide it up

Don't make a grown man cry
Don't make a grown man cry
Don't make a grown man cry

My eyes dilate, my lips go green
My hands are greasy
She's a mean, mean machine
Start it up
Start me up
Ah, give it all you got
You got to never, never, never stop
Slide it up, baby, just slide it up
Slide it up, slide it up, never, never, never

You make a grown man cry
You make a grown man cry
You make a grown man cry

Ride like the wind at double speed
I'll take you places that you've never, never seen
If you start it up
Love the day when we will never stop, never stop
Never, never, never stop
Tough me up
Never stop, never stop

You, you, you make a grown man cry
You, you made a dead man come
You, you made a dead man come

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Mick Jagger / Keith Richards
Start Me Up lyrics
© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

  14 comments for “Song Lyric Sunday – Start Me Up

  1. November 3, 2019 at 12:31 pm

    It does get the blood pumping. Great choice for the prompt, Christine.

    • Christine Bolton
      November 3, 2019 at 1:39 pm

      Yes, probably why I hear it so much at sporting events! 🙂

      • November 3, 2019 at 2:03 pm

        🙂

  2. November 3, 2019 at 10:51 am

    Definitely one of my favorites! What a concert too! Wish I had seen them live when I had the chance. Thanks for sharing.

    • Christine Bolton
      November 3, 2019 at 11:54 am

      I know I couldn’t take my eyes of him in that coat! 🙂

  3. November 3, 2019 at 9:46 am

    Mick just keeps on moving once he is started up.

    • Christine Bolton
      November 3, 2019 at 11:52 am

      He sure does! He’s amazing even today!

  4. November 3, 2019 at 7:19 am

    You are so right!

  5. November 3, 2019 at 5:37 am

    Great choice, I love the stones too 💜💜

  6. November 3, 2019 at 4:22 am

    Wonderful… I can listen to the Stones all day xx

    • Christine Bolton
      November 3, 2019 at 5:45 am

      I was torn between this and Down the Road Apiece by the Stones. The video was vintage Mick with his movements! So much fun to watch him 🙂

      • November 3, 2019 at 5:51 am

        I saw Mick and the Stones live in Melbourne, back in 1973….!!

      • Christine Bolton
        November 3, 2019 at 7:39 am

        Oh lucky you!!! 🙂👍

      • November 3, 2019 at 7:46 am

        Mick was fantastic, it was a Saturday afternoon show, 40’C and he went flat out for over 2 hours.. super superb

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