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Cocksucker Blues Cast: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Mick Taylor, Danny Seymour, Bianca Jagger, Tina Turner, Truman Capote, Stevie Wonder, Andy Warhol, Dick Cavett, Terry Southern, Princess Radziwell, Cynthia Jones, various groupies, roadies and scalpers. Directed by Robert Frank Produced by Marshall Chess Editors: Robert Frank, Paul Justman, Susan Steinberg Camera: Robert Frank, Danny Seymour Sound: Danny Seymour 1972, Unreleased; 95 min, colour Drugs, Sex, Drugs & Rock 'n' Roll (and drugs & more sex) Reviewed by Rick McGrath Of all the tours the Rolling Stones have made across North America, the 1972 tour is still remembered as the most outrageous, most provocative, most inventive musical outing the fab five from London ever performed. I was fortunate enough to see this juicy juggernaut when it made its stop in Vancouver on Saturday, June 3rd, 1972. Fittingly, there was a riot outside as we watched the Stones' riotous show on the inside. It was pretty crazy. As Stones expert Harold Colson has written elsewhere… "The fabled summer 1972 tour through the U.S. and Canada is revered by Stones fans worldwide as arguably the band's greatest ever, and it remains enshrined in the annals of rock lore and popular imagination as the masterpiece speedball of indoor triumph, outdoor maelstrom, and backstage debauch. In powerful testament to this enduring sway, vast quantities of audio recordings, books, magazines, photographs, films, videos, and other memorabilia have since issued through licit and sub-licit channels to keep the coveted sights and sounds of the Stones Touring Party alive, rolling, and fresh to this very day." Cocksucker Blues is one of those enduring sub-licit channels which not only celebrates the fore, middle and background of this tour, but which also presents itself as one of the very best rock tour movies ever made, and never seen. Have You Heard About The… It's Not One Of Those. Here's the scene: the Stones have not visited the US since the 1969 disaster of Altamont -- also immortalized by the Brothers Maysles in the tour/performance flick Gimme Shelter -- and the group is riding high and hard on the success of their definitive rock album, Exile On Main Street. Adventurous Mick, despite the angst & ennui of that perpetual bummer, Gimme Shelter, decides to do the film thing one more time and enlists the talent of famous photog/filmmaker Robert Frank (he shot the pix on the Exile album cover, and shot a brutal documentary on madness, called Me and My Brother). In comes producer Marshall Chess, who, early in the movie, gives the plotline: Mick has already written a song called Cocksucker Blues, about a gay hooker in London, to fulfill the group's contractual obligations to Decca records, which was run at the time by an old fart named Sir Edward Lewis. Apparently, during a meeting, Mick gets up and plays a demo of the song to the uptight geezer… here's some sample lyrics: Oh where can I get my cock sucked? Where can I get my ass fucked? I may have no money, but I know where to put it every time Well, he fucked me with his truncheon and his helmet was way too tight Needless to say, this winsome ditty had the desired effect, and the song was never released. Chess goes on to say some cat in New York was organizing a benefit for Oz Magazine, which was being hassled by the government in an obscenity trial, and the idea came up to do a porno album, with rock stars contributing "adult" material to raise dough for the underground magazine. Cocksucker Blues was one song, and there were others, like Dr John (The Night Tripper)'s "You Can Never Eat Too Much Pussy". Then the idea expanded from an album to a film… which this isn't. Nope. This is your straightforward rock tour film. No time-tripping cuts like Gimme Shelter. Shot cinema verite, docu-rocku style, Cocksucker Blues is a pinball machine of images -- soft, warm, harsh, exploitive, funny, sad, boring, stupid and smart, jammed with images of excessive hard drug taking, nodding-off Stones, roadies fucking groupies, backstage parties, naked women, heroin shoot-ups, and, yes, some great concert footage. But not that much. For Robert Frank, the real performance was everywhere but the stage. The resulting film, basically a look behind the scenes at a never-ending private party, with some songs tossed in, was so over the top that The Stones, shocked, banned its release and obtained a court injunction against its distribution. Cinematographer Frank finally got the rights to screen the flick once a year, but as far as I know you can only obtain this movie on video or dvd in bootleg form. I'm Bored. How About Some Sex & Drugs? Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, commenting on Cocksucker Blues, called it "definitely one of the best movies about rock and roll I've ever seen. . . . It makes you think being a rock and roll star is one of the last things you'd ever want to do." Well, maybe that depends. It looked like a lot of fun for most of The Stones. Do you get the feeling these guys are soldiers, bored and waiting for the next battle, the next opportunity to feel alive? Are we supposed to believe that our boys are victims of the tedium, confusion, boredom, and good old angst & ennui of being locked into a big money, big stadium, big everything rock tour? Not on your life. These are the freakin Rolling stones, man... it's 1972... they're all around 30 years old, and kicking ass. Check the screen. See Director Frank's unblinking eye reveal all: the ever-present drugs and groupies, Keith Richards' addiction to heroin, Mick Jagger's problems with the high-maintenance Bianca (who looks like Sade at a Ted Nugent concert) and, most interestingly, just how adroit the Glimmer Twins are at concocting and manipulating their new party-boys outlaw reputations. Hell, if this film had shown The Stones in a heroic light, do you think they would have banned it? And ya gotta figure, if this is what Frank got to see, imagine all the stuff he didn't get to poke his camera at... But it's not all nookie and needles. Mostly, Frank is fascinated with the backstage world, and allows the mundane sounds of the tour to set the film's themes and feel: raw and inconsequential conversations, Bianca's tiny music box, a bluesy, poignant piano theme, yammering local disc jockeys, and the nervous practice of antsy musicians just prior to going onstage. Some Great Music. But Not Much Of It. For a 90-minute flick, only about 15 are concert shots. We watch the boys perform the opening song for pretty well every night of the tour, Brown Sugar, as well as Midnight Rambler, Uptight (with Stevie Wonder), Happy, and Street Fighting Man. Midnight Rambler is notable for Mick's haunting harp opening, and the band, blitzed as they are, still play very well, with Keith laying down his usual heavy chops against Mick Taylor's intelligent fills. Mostly Classic Self-Indulgent Stuff. No doubt shocking when shot, but now mostly cliches, given the excesses of bands which followed - Led Zeppelin being first and foremost -- Cocksucker Blues reads like a litany of rock high priest thou shalt's: • watch everybody snort coke & shoot heroin • marvel at Bobby Keyes and Keith Richard as they toss a TV off their hotel balcony (first they check to see no one's below) • thrill as Dick Cavett asks Bill Wyman, "what's running through your nervous system right now?" • smirk as Wyman doesn't answer • leer as Mick Jagger rubs his dink through his pants, then undoes them and gets his hand in for a better feel • gasp as a girl trying to get into the concert complains her baby was taken from her because she's always on acid • laugh to discover a scalper is charging $10 for a $3.50 ticket • chuckle as a totally stoned Keith tries to order room service for some strawberries, blueberries and "three apples" • look at your watch as the boys play some very drunken poker. See Keith win. • ooh as Charlie Watts makes a very difficult pool shot in a southern diner • moan as a naked groupie rolls on a bed, legs spread, fingering her pussy • make notes as Keith tells Mick it's best to snort coke through a rolled up dollar bill • guffaw as Mick turns to the camera after a brief meeting with Tina Turner and says "I wouldn't mind…" • look at your watch again as the tour crew packs the group's suitcases and cleans out their hotel rooms • wonder in amazement as Bianca sits sullenly, smoking a cigarette and playing a little music box over and over. The Picture Quality Used To Suck As Much As The Groupies. OK, we're talking bootleg here. Gawd knows how many times this film had been copied before falling into my quivering hands. It's not pristine 35mm, that's for sure. My original video copy showed massive colour shifts to mostly blue, and the definition between colours had degenerated to almost a posterized effect. In some shots you can't really tell who the people are anymore -- but does it matter? This ain't Spielberg, this is hardcore rock 'n' roll, and it still has the backbeat, so you really can't lose it. Sure. When ya ain't got nuthin, ya got nuthin to lose. Now, thanks to the miracles of home DVD authoring, this once-copied-to-death monster has been digitized and needs no longer suffer the ravages of analog information loss. My new 2-DVD bootleg set has vastly improved video, great audio in Dolby 5.1 mix, interactive menus and song selection, plus a second DVD of bonus material from thast general time: a 1969 Saville Theatre performance, a 1973 Australian Tour Documentary, various promos, a 1973 Brown Sugar clip, a 1969 David Frost Show gig, interviews with mick... and get this for later irony: the vid of Mick & Bianca's wedding. On the other hand, any version you can get your hands on is great. So what if the resolution and colours are zany -- often the degraded picture can actually add to the ethereal nature of this strange trip (audio typically remains pretty good). Ladies And Gentlemen... My Conclusion! I think this is the greatest rock movie ever made -- probably that ever will be made -- combining an innovative, artistic filmmaker with the World's Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band at the height of their glory and the depths of their despair on their craziest tour. It shows a kind of fin de siècle of the 1960's Stones, a dionysian outpouring of whacked-out camaraderie that marked the top and end of an era. Doesn't get much better than that. © 2001 Rick McGrath MORE REVIEWS Movies: Jack Hill - Pit Stop Jack Hill - Spider Baby Sam Fuller - Shock Corridor Curtis Harrington - Night Tide Jack Hill - Switchblade Sisters Jack Hill - The Swinging Cheerleaders Sam Fuller - Meanest Men In The West Robert Frank - Rolling Stones' Cocksucker Blues Maysles Brothers - Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter Various Shorts - Franz Kafka's It's A Wonderful Life Jason and Brett Butler - Alive & Lubricated and Bums Robert Fantinatto - Echoes of Forgotten Places Television: Patrick McGoohan - The Prisoner Features: Bohren und der Club of Gore - Drilling For Doom. And Finding It. Bohren und der Club of Gore - Geisterfaust. Not Your Average Ghost Story These Boots Were Made For Burnin' - The Bootleg Collector's Obsession Music Concert DVD: Sheryl Crow - Rockin The Globe Live Steely Dan - Two Against Nature Music CD: Sade - Lovers Live Sade - Lovers Rock Sade - The Best Of Sade Phil Manzanera - Vozero Roger Waters - In The Flesh Steely Dan - Two Against Nature Lamya - Learning From Falling Shania Twain - Up! Books: Will Self - Grey Area Will Self - My Idea of Fun Will Self - Great Apes Will Self - Junk Mail JG Ballard - High-Rise Gregory Benford - Cosm Douglas Coupland - Girlfriend in a Coma Will Self - The Quantity Theory of Insanity Will Self - Tough Tough Toys For Tough Tough Boys
		ROCK STAR INTERVIEWS Elton John April, 1971 Van Morrison February, 1971 Led Zeppelin August 19/20, 1971 Fleetwood Mac February 1971 Chicago Transit Authority April, 1970 Savoy Brown September, 1970 Pentangle May, 1970 Gordon Lightfoot October, 1970 Captain Beefheart September, 1971 Captain Beefheart March, 1973 Crowbar August, 1971 Crowbar March 10, 1971 Mitch Ryder July, 1970 Lamya October, 2002 Al Neil December, 1972 Red Robinson January, 1972 High Flying Bird May, 1972 McDog Bootleg Music & DVD Trade List Classic Rock Concert Pix Retinal Circus Psychedelic Postcards Early Beatles Fan Magazines