The Daily Feather — Spread Out the Oil, the Gasoline

The Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up” was a staple in MTV’s formative years. Though the video took off in 1981, the song itself was recorded in 1977, when that reggae movement was heating up. The iconic and indefatigable Keith Richards explained how the tune evolved: “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. 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 five 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?”

The opening guitar riff found The Stones a new legion of fans, with the tune peaking at No. 2 on Billboard. Peaks for the establishment of the smallest start-ups are elusive. We’re delighted to report that job openings for the smallest firms, with 1-9 employees, have bucked the trend.