Les Rolling Stones ont rendu l'Amérique les coup-experts
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Cocksucker Blues
Of all the tours the Rolling Stones have made across North America, the 1972 tour remains remembered as the most tasty, most angry, most bang musical tenacious five from London ever performed.
i used to be fortunate enough to ascertain this juicy juggernaut when it made its stop in Vancouver on Saturday, June 3rd, 1972. As Stones expert Harold Al Jolson has written elsewhere… "The fabled summer 1972 tour through the U.S. and North American country 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 speedboat of indoor triumph, outdoor maelstrom, and backstage debauch. In powerful testament to the present enduring sway, vast quantities of audio recordings, books, magazines, images, films, videos, and alternative 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 the present very day."
Cocksucker Blues is one among those enduring sub-licit channels which not solely celebrates the fore, middle and background of this tour, but which conjointly presents itself collectively of the absolute best rock tour movies ever made, and never seen.
have you heard about … it is not one of Those
Here's the scene: the Stones have not visited the North American nation since the 1969 disaster of Allotment -- conjointly immortalized by the Brothers measles in the tour/performance flick Gummier Shelter -- and therefore the group is riding high and hard on the success of their definitive album, Exile On Main Street. Myth-mad Mick, despite the astonishingly frank shots of commie Shelter, decides to try and do the film thing one more time and enlists the talent of celebrated shaper 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 motion picture, provides the palatine: Mick has already written a song referred to as Cocksucker Blues, a few gay hooker in London, to fulfill the group's contractual obligations to Decca records, that was run at the time by an old fart named Sir Edward Lewis. Apparently, throughout a meeting, Mick gets up and plays a demo of the song to the overstrung geezer… the lyrics of that are:
DON'T MISS THE ROLLING STONES
THE 1972 TOUR DE debauchee:
THE ROLLING STONES
1972
TOUR de debauchee
needless to say, this winsome ditty had the specified result, and also the song was never released. Chess goes on to say some cat in the big apple was organizing a benefit for Oz Magazine, which was being hassled by the government in an obscenity trial, and therefore the plan came up to do a smut album, with rock stars contributing "adult" material to raise dough for the underground magazine.
Cocksucker Blues was one song, and there have been others, like Dr John (The Night Tripper)'s "You will never Eat too much Pussy". Then the idea distended from an album to a film… which this isn't. Shot cinema Veriee, crock style, Cocksucker Blues may be a pinball machine of images -- soft, warm, harsh, explosive, funny, sad, boring, stupid and smart, jammed with pictures of excessive narcotic taking, nodding-off Stones, roadies fucking groupies, backstage parties, naked girls, diacetylmorphine shoot-ups, and, yes, some great concert footage. It was, however, thus over the top that the Stones prohibited its release and obtained a court injunction against its distribution. cinematographer Frank finally got the rights to screen the flick once a year, however one will solely obtain this flick on video in bootleg form.
I'm Bored. however about Some Sex & Drugs?
filmmaker Jim Jams, commenting on Cocksucker Blues, called it "definitely one among the most effective movies concerning rock and roll I've ever seen. . . . It makes you suppose being a rock and roll star is one in every of the last things you'd ever wish to do." Egyptian deity thereto. One has the feeling these guys square measure soldiers, looking forward to future battle, consequent opportunity to feel alive. within the meantime, there's the tedium, confusion, boredom, and sensible old angst & ennui of being latched into a giant money, massive stadium, huge everything rock tour. Director Frank unblinkingly reveals these patterns of unrest behind the Stone's bulletproof window of fame, showing United States of America the ever-present drugs and groupies, Keith Richards' addiction to heroin, Mick Jagger's problems with the high-maintenance Bianca (who feels like Comte Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade at a Nirvana concert) and, most interestingly, simply however adroit the Glimmer Twins are at concocting and manipulating their outlaw reputations. one of the sadder themes Frank conjointly films is the degeneration of his friend and co-cameraman Danny Seymour, who finally succumbs to the temptations of drugs and sex around him. while not downplayed, Frank underscores the concert performances with his fascination of 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 small music box; a bluesy, poignant piano theme; yammering local disc jockeys; and the nervous practice of antsy musicians simply just going onstage.
Some nice Music. but Not much Of It
For a 90-minute flick, only about fifteen are concert shots. we tend to watch the boys perform the opening song for pretty well every night of the tour, brown sugar, likewise 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 alright, with Keith egg laying down his usual heavy chops against Paddy Taylor's intelligent fills.
principally Classic self-indulgent Stuff
no doubt shocking when shot, but currently largely cliches, given the excesses of bands which followed - LED Zeppelin being first and foremost -- Cocksucker Blues reads like a litany of rock high priest 1000 chalet's:
watch everyone snort coke & shoot heroin marvel at policeman Keyed and Keith Richard as they toss a TV off their hotel balcony (first they check to visualize no one's below)thrill as Dick Cavity asks Bill Hyman, "what's running through your systema nervosum right now?"smirk as Hyman doesn't answer leer as Mick Jagger rubs his dink through his pants, then undoes them and gets his hand in for a more robust feel gasp as a girl attempting to induce into the concert complains her baby was taken from her because she's forever on acid laugh to discover a scalper is charging $10 for a $3.50 ticket chuckle as a very intoxicated Keith tries to order room service for some strawberries, blueberries and "three apples" verify your watch as the boys play some very bibulous poker. See Keith win. ooh as Charlie Watts makes a very troublesome pool shot in a very southern diner moan as a naked groupie rolls on a bed, legs spread, fingering her pussy build notes as Keith tells Mickey it's best to snort coke through a rolled up government note guffaw as Mick turns to the camera after a brief meeting with Tina Turner and says "I wouldn't mind…" investigate your watch again as the tour crew packs the group's suitcases and cleans out their hotel rooms marvel in amazement as Bianca sits dourly, smoking a fag and enjoying a little music box over and over.
the picture Quality Sucks the maximum amount because the Groupies.
OK, we're talking bootleg here. Gawd knows what number times this video has been copied before falling into my quivering hands. it is not pristine 35mm, that's obviously. On the other hand, the film itself is so zany that the extremely degraded picture quality (the sound has remained pretty good) will truly increase the ethereal nature of this strange trip. My copy shows massive color shifts to mostly blue, and therefore the definition between colors has degenerated to almost a posterior effect. In some shots you can't very tell who the individuals are any longer -- but does it matter? This ain't Steven Spielberg, this is hardcore rock 'n' roll, and it still has the backbit, thus you really can't snap. i believe this is the greatest rock movie ever made -- in all probability that ever will be made, combining a proficient, artistic filmmaker with the World's Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band at the height of their glory on their craziest tour. doesn't get much better than that.
Stones '72 tour exposed - With the release of their definitive album Exile on Main Street, the Stones
sought to document their own burgeoning celebrity and self-mythology by hiring renowned lensman /
filmmaker Robert Frank (known for his documentary study of madness ME and My Brother as well as the
brilliant cover photography for Exile itself). The ensuing moving-picture show was quickly therefore dreamy and harsh -- thronged
with scenes of the Stones nodding out, roadies balling groupies, and various tour hangers-on shooting up --
that the band refused to permit its release. Eventually Frank secured right to screen it once a year, but it
has only appeared on video in bootleg form. -
Marshall dark-green, Hollyhock
directed by Henry M. Robert Frank
After having the debacle of Allotment caught on film in the fascinating documentary "Gimme Shelter" (1970),
shrinking-violet Mick Jagger commissioned a film of the Rolling Stones 1972 U.S. Tour. artist
Robert Frank got the nod as director, and took a far artier approach to motion-picture photography the Stones on stage and off.
Footage of drug consumption, (staged) orgies and a unquestionably non-commercial title prevented "Cocksucker Blues"
from obtaining an officer unleash. however it's long been widely-available on video as a bootleg. maybe Franks' relative ignorance as a director is that the wrongdoer here. The film ne'er gains any momentum
and we ne'er see past the band's public cause. One putting detail that emerges within the film is that the deepening
of Keith Richards' drug downside within the interim (1969-1972) between concert documentaries. we have a tendency to see literary critic
nod-off backstage at a show and also the beginnings of the huge wear-and-tear on his haggard face nowadays.
The film would've benefited from a lot of live footage of the band rather than the endless scenes of the Stones
killing time between gigs. By 1972, their decline as a live band had begun, however having aforementioned that,
they still were capable of scattered moments of brilliance.
Excerpt from Henry M. Robert Frank interview , 1997
BC: I’ve got a matter regarding Cocksucker Blues. Those scenes on the plane {are|ar|area unit|square MEasure} pretty wild and it happens to me
that a number of them were musical organisation. Were they originated or were you simplygiftas a documentation?
RF: They very din’t need ME to create the film. They enjoyed having America around however to not film. i used to be with my friend
Danny and he had smart connections for dope, far better than they'd. And at one purpose I aforementioned to him nothing ever
happens on these plane visits. it'd be nice to own one thing happen.
BC: therefore you were a director then, not simply a shadow? RF: That was one among|one amongst|one in every of} the few things I aforementioned in all the time we have a tendency to spent on the plane. once the film came out the
Stones united to not cut something, though I had to chop some things with the officers from the company.
That’s what adds up; your experiences. creating a movie is AN expertise really; a lot of therefore than going
around photographing. creating a movie could be a real trip.
Because of a outlandish judicial writ, Henry M. Robert Frank’s legendary Rolling Stones documentary is that the most
underground of all underground films: it virtually can’t be shown unless the director is gift at the screening,
and even then with abundant legal issue. This makes such screenings a lot of precious than a layman’s likelihood
to see the insides of a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. No surprise the one showing of the film was a whole betrayal at
this year’s port of entry fete. Incredibly, Cocksucker Blues lives up to any or all of the packaging and anticipation.
It may be the simplest moving-picture show ever created regarding rock and roll. The film offers AN unshrinking explore the facet of request-ha was touched solely cleansing in movies like "Don’t Look Back"and "The Last Waltz." Many
of the antics of the restaurant attendant Stones aren't as surprising to America nowadays as they will are once the film was
first made, however what’s ultimately therefore special regarding this documentary is that it hasp’t dated every day. Henry M. Robert Frank
has a hang for exposing a budget and degrading dullness and also the disparate ennui of the every day
touring life for all concerned. - Film Threat Weekly
According to poet in From ny star Scotch, in real time once a personal screening of
Cocksucker Blues, Mick turned to Frank and told him, "It's a fucking smart film, Robert, however if it shows
in America we'll ne'er be allowed within the country once more." Jagger, I suspect, wasn't such a lot terrified of the
film's lurid and probably inculpatory pictures -- the opiate use, Jagger masturbating, or perhaps the extended
sequence of dubiously accordant cluster sex with a reluctant lover at thirty,000 feet (after all, this was
rock and roll) -- what Mick most likely found most annoying was the awful and correct portrait of the
obvious despair and loneliness of life on the road. Frank's obsession with following truth destroyed
the illusion of glamour for the world's most far-famed rock and roll band.
The Stones took Frank to court to forestall the film's distribution. It became, legally, a matter of WHO
owned the film, the creative person WHO created it or the patron WHO bought it. A decision of kinds was finally
worked out. The film, the decide ordained, may solely be screened if Henry M. Robert Frank himself was gift
in the audience. By then, the film maker was living a reclusive life in star terrier.
The film was effectively illegal.
