COCKSUCKER
BLUES (1972)
IN
1972, THE Rolling Stones toured the USA for the first time since the tragic
Altamont concert (reviewed early in my blog series) with their masterpieve
album ‘Exile On Main Street’. Stills photographer Robert Frank shot hours of
backstage film footage and compiled it into the documentary COCKSUCKER BLUES,
which remains unreleased as it very much shows the band uncensored (Mick about
to snort cocaine for example) with groupie activity and drug-taking within the
group’s circle. It’s a roughly edited , hand-held film and mainly available in
poor bootleg quality, which does make it feel all the more illicit, but worth
seeing for fans of the band. It lifts the lid on the truth behind the sex n’
drugs n’ rock ‘n roll of a touring superstar rock group, warts and all.
It
begins with the mocking caption: ‘Except
for the musical numbers, the events depicted in this film are fictitious. No
representation of actual persons and events is intended’
Frank’s
idea was to leave cameras lying around for anyone to pick up and film, on the
understanding that no-one could say no to the final use of their image (Imagine
trying to get a band to agree to that on tour in this era of corporate
public-image protection).
Mick
Jagger, shown being interviewed by someone, remarks that on this tour the
Stones felt more relaxed then when they were in ’69. Hardly suprising
considering how vulnerable they were during the murder/Hell’s Angels interface
of Altamont.
There’s
copious back-stage meanderings: guitar warm-ups before going on, the adrenaline
rush of preparation, Mick as afore-mentioned is shown rolling up a bill tightly
before snorting coke off-camera. Drug use and its plentifulness is a continual
theme of the movie. A groupie is shown shooting up. She dozily asks afterwards:
“ How come you wanted to film that?”. Terry ‘EASY RIDER’ Southern drops by. He
is shown snorting coke and marvelling somewhat blurredly at the cost: “I don’t
think it’s possible to develop a habit”.
There
are fleeting cameos of other arts luminaries of the period coming to see the
Stones: Andy Warhol, Tina Turner, Truman Capote, Bianca Jagger travelling by
car briefly with Mick and Keith.
We
see plenty of glimpses of the kind of cliched activity you normally read about
rock stars getting up to. As their ‘plane takes off in another scene, one of
the entourage shouts ”We’re airborne” and immediately begins stripping his
shrieking, compliant groupie playmate of her bra. Amusingly, Keith Richards and
Bobby Keyes are shown chucking a TV set off their hotel room balcony, Keith
cautioning his pal: “ Make sure you hit the garbage area”. There’s also some low-grade ‘porn’
salaciousness of a groupie pleasuring herself, and Mick doing the same through
his trousers.
There
are also hints of the inevitable cooped-up boredom that must set in during the
day while on the road, since the band would struggle to go out in public
unmolested except maybe in small towns. A stoned Keith deals with the
limitations of hotel order policy when he asks for fruit from room service ‘And
three apples’. There’s an unintentionally wry moment, considering all the
illegal drug-taking, when Charlie Watts is in front of the TV playing an advert
for Excedrin.
The
concert footage is variable. There is the excitement of Stevie Wonder joining
them on stage for ‘Uptight’ and ‘Satisfaction’, and some lesser quality
recording/performance scenes (such as a shouty ‘Street Fightin’ Man’ but they
try to capture the live energy of the band which is very hard to do on screen.
Some
vox pop interview tape of fans outside the venues discuss how they make money
from ticket-scalping, and more alarmingly a young woman for whom the Stones
seem to be all that stop her from ending it all. She recounts her life as a
drug addict whose child was taken away by the authoritiies: ” What’s wrong with
a mother that’s on acid and loves her child?…She was born on acid”. I wonder if
she survived to have a sobering view of this clip later in life.
Incidentally,
the story behind the title song is that it was written to fulfill a contractual
obligation with Decca Records, so Mick delivered a tune about a London rent boy
with inevitably explicit lyrics. The band enjoyed the blocking of the song by
the label’s reactionary owner Sir Edward Lewis. Around this time was the famous
censorship trial of ‘Oz’ magazine and Marshall Chess, the producer, had the
idea of getting bands to contribute adult material to an album, including this
song. The concept didn’t get very far. More’s the pity. It would have made a
refreshing change to many of the self-righteous charity alternatives.
As
the decades roll by, the Rolling Stones prove well nigh indestructable and
arguably forever young in spirit. COCKSUCKER BLUES is an interesting and
unathorised peek into their lives on tour…
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