Cocksucker Blues (1972)

This fly-on-the-wall documentary follows the Rolling Stones on their 1972 North American Tour, their first return to the States since the tragedy at Altamont. Because of the free-form ... See full summary »

Director:

Robert Frank

Stars:

Truman Capote, Dick Cavett, Marshall Chess

Cast

Credited cast:
Truman Capote	...	Himself
Dick Cavett	...	Himself
Marshall Chess	...	Himself
Chris Collins	...	Connection
Ahmet Ertegun	...	Himself
Steve Geolke	...	Make-Up Man
Nicky Hopkins	...	Himself
Bianca Jagger	...	Herself
Mick Jagger	...	Himself
Bobby Keyes	...	Himself
Bobby Keys	...	Himself
Otto Levine	...	Producer
Jim Price	...	Himself
Lee Radziwill	...	Herself (as Princess Radziwill)
Keith Richards	...	Himself

Storyline

This fly-on-the-wall documentary follows the Rolling Stones on their 1972 North American Tour, their first return to the States since the tragedy at Altamont. Because of the free-form nature of filming, Cocksucker Blues captured band members and entourage members taking part in events the Rolling Stones preferred not to publicize. It can only legally be screened with director Robert Frank in attendance. The title of the film is the same of that of a Rolling Stones song (aka Schoolboy Blues), which was written to complete the band's contractual obligations to Decca Records and specifically to be unreleasable.

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Plot Keywords:

live performance | classic rock music | hotel party | female rear nudity | hippie | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Music

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

April 1979 (USA)

Also Known As:

CS Blues

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although The Rolling Stones have never officially released the film themselves, black and white scenes form the infamous documentary can be seen in their subsequent video/DVD releases. These include: Video Rewind: The Rolling Stones' Great Video Hits and Rolling Stones: 4 Flicks.

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Connections

Referenced in Let's Make Lemonade (2011)

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Soundtracks

"If You've Got Time (To Say Goodbye)"
(uncredited)
Written and Performed by Merle Haggard
(played during the poker game)

User Reviews

In excess

Watched this on my Ipod on a holiday flight as a real dyed in the wool Stones fan. However, the copy I saw had obvious editing problems and may have been a rough-cut, but then again maybe not...

John Lennon once likened the madness around the Beatles mid-60's tours as like Fellini's Satyricon, well here it's certainly made flesh as we get a more candid than candid fly-on-the-wall insight into life on the road with the Rolling Stones around the time of their 1972 US tour. It's not an edifying sight, with groupies being treated as casual sex-objects to the amusement of the leering male entourage, drugs openly ingested by needle and inhalation and of course the classic "rock-star" cliché of Keith Richard ceremoniously dumping a TV out of the band's high-storey hotel window.

In between these scenes of madness are odd shots of, or sequences with celebrity hangers-on like Truman Capote and Dick Cavett, as well as star support turns Tina Turner and Stevie Wonder and endless static non-shots of Mick and a gap-toothed Keith (Bill Wyman, Mick Taylor and Charlie Watts barely get a look-in) and other grainy shots of producer Jimmy Miller well on his way to his early drug-overdose death, if the footage here is any guide. At times in fact the whole sometimes looks like some cheap, almost "snuff"-type exploitation movie.

Somehow though, the endless boozing and schmoozing doesn't affect the band on stage and they look like the great louche rockers they were by this point. Thus there's the odd occasional musical interlude where the "film" flickers to life (an exciting encore of Stevie's "Uptight" spliced with the Stones' "Satisfaction") and a rollicking "Happy" but watching this monument to decadence, hedonism and self-indulgence left me at the end actually liking the Stones less, certainly as people. No, for me the whole sex and drugs and rock roll mystique is shot to bits here and I can only hope that the Stones themselves are a bit older and wiser now.

To paraphrase John Lennon again, you shouldn't ought to have been there!