Hear The Rolling Stones’ Previously Unreleased Tattoo You Outtake “Come To The Ball”

Right now, the Rolling Stones are mourning the loss of iconic drummer Charlie Watts, but they’re still attending to business, too. The band is currently touring American stadiums, and they’ve also got the new deluxe reissue of the band’s 1981 album Tattoo You. That reissue, announced back in August, features a bunch of previously unreleased tracks, including “Living In The Heart Of Love” and the Stones’ cover of the Chi-Lites’ “Troubles A’ Comin.” Today, the Tattoo You box set has out, and the band has shared “Come To The Ball,” another previously unreleased song from those Tattoo You sessions.

“Come To The Ball” is a squalid, messy rocker that definitely sounds like the Stones operating somewhere near their peak. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are the song’s credited co-writers, and the band recorded it with Jimmy Miller, who didn’t produce Tattoo You but who did produce Stones classics like Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile On Main St.

On “Come To The Ball,” the Stones play with a funky insistence. The song doesn’t have the biggest or most immediate hooks, but it’s definitely a convincingly grimy rocker, and it’s amazing to think that it’s just been sitting in a vault for 40 years. Check it out below.