Start Me Up

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

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 you can slide it up, slide it up

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

If you start me up
Give it all you got
You got to never, never, never stop
Never, never
Slide it up

You make a grown man cry
Ride like the wind at double speed
I'll take you places that you've never, never seen
Start it up
Love the day when we will never stop, never stop
Never stop, never stop
Tough me up
Never stop, never stop, never stop

You, you, you make a grown man cry
You, you make a dead man cum
You, you make a dead man cum




- Released August 14, 1981

- "Start Me Up" was first recorded in Munich during the 1975 Black and Blue sessions, and later in the 1978 Some Girls sessions under the working titles "Never Stop" and "Start It 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

- Keith Richards: "The story here is the miracle that we ever found that track. I was convinced - and I think Mick was - that it was definitely a Reggae song. And we did it in 38 takes - 'Start me up. Yeah, man, cool. You know, you know, Jah Rastafari.' And it didn't make it. And somewhere in the middle of a break, just to break the tension, Charlie and I hit the Rock And Roll version. And right after that we went straight back to Reggae. And we forgot totally about this one little burst in the middle, until about 5 years later when somebody sifted all the way through these Reggae takes. After doing about 70 takes of "Start Me Up" he found that one in the middle. It was just buried in there. Suddenly I had it. Nobody remembered cutting it. But we leapt on it again. We did a few overdubs on it, and it was like a gift, you know? One of the great luxuries of The Stones is we have an enormous, great big can of stuff. I mean what anybody hears is just the tip of an iceberg, you know. And down there is vaults of stuff. But you have to have the patience and the time to actually sift through it."

- 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. 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."

- Microsoft Corporation used this song in the Windows 95 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.

- The Blue Angels use this song when starting up their engines before a performance.

- The Kansas City Chiefs, Chicago Bulls, Montreal Canadiens and Iowa Hawkeyes football team are among those known to use the song during sporting events.