Edit for headphones. Hurray, no "sax"ual harassment in this edit. That thing just doesn't belong in Stones music, period. So I made a long, nice & gentle vocal fade out. I hate to say it - actually I don't - but I evade every Stones song with a sax in it. Evasive manoeuvres. If you have the same problem... solved by this edit. Source cd of the edit: the 1981 album "Tattoo You" (Japan mini lp remastered 2005)(TOCP-66458). Charted #8 in the US, #17 in Holland, #44 in Australia, #50 in the UK. Experiments in my musical laboratory proved in any of the forementioned countries it would have been a nr. 1 hit if the sax - oh oh - phone had never been invented. Sax o phone players usually think they are the centre of a band, they want all the attention, perform way too long boring solo's... but what they really do is fart in a metal tube, for - generally - farting is what the sound of a woodwind's mouthpiece in a metal horn sounds like... (A sax is a woodwind instrument and not a brass instrument.)
The only reason why it was kind of a hit in the US and Holland was that MTV had just started in 1981 and desperately needed a video of a great band. Despite all the airplay on MTV it only reached nr. 8, prooving my point. However, there ARE some that know how to play this "phone" properly: Jim Sherwood on the Mothers of Invention's album "Ruben & The Jets", the song "Anything", written by lead singer Ray Collins.
Songfacts.com says:
This is a rare mature reflection from The Stones, as Mick Jagger sings about the values of friendship as opposed to women.
Originally Recorded in 1972 at the sessions for their album "Goats Head Soup", this didn't make the cut but was repackaged and released on "Tattoo You" nine years later. Released as a single, it did very well in America thanks to the advent of MTV; the network launched in 1981 and was thrilled to have a new video by a rock band of The Stones' stature.
The music video is very literal: Mick Jagger is standing in a doorway, waiting for his friend (Keith Richards) to come by. Then they go to a bar and meet up with the rest of the band. Directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who did their "Rock and Roll Circus" special in 1968, it did very well on MTV despite the very simple concept; the network launched a few months before the song was released as a single, and they were desperate for big-name rock acts.
Reggae legend Peter Tosh is the Rasta sitting on the stoop with Mick Jagger. It was filmed in New York City; the building where they are waiting also shows up on the cover of Led Zeppelin's album "Physical Graffiti".
There are no musician credits on "Tattoo You", but it is clear that Mick Taylor contributed on guitar, which he was not compensated for.
Mick Jagger said in 1983: "Just let me be cynical for a moment. First of all, it's really NOT about waiting on a woman friend. It's just about a FRIEND; it doesn't matter if it's a man or a woman.
