Cocksucker Blues [1972]

EMM# : 6089
Added: 2014-12-16

Cocksucker Blues (1972)

Rating: 6.5

Movie Details:

Genre: Documentary (Music)

Length: 1 h 40 min - 100 min

Video: 704x480 (29.970 Fps - 1 300 Kbps)

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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. Written by

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dbborroughs from Glen Cove, New York
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A couple of things at the start. The rating of five is purely because I can't accurately rate this movie. Enjoyment is based upon your love of the Stones. My feelings for the Stones is one of like not love. I do enjoy their music but I think that they are little more a money machine now with their interesting music coming out of the various side projects.

This is the story of the Stones 1972 tour (sort of, director Robert Frank is interested in doing more than a straight documentary). Mostly its following the Stones from Hotel room to hotel room and performance to performance. Its the rich and famous interacting with the not so rich and far from famous, with everyone behaving badly. In its way its a sad story as Mick and the boys seem to drift aimlessly with in the confines of their cages. How they manged to survive it and, not go mad and continue on the road is probably a story that needs to be told. This story on the other hand is a bit dull and long at 90 minutes. It comes alive in fits and starts, mostly when we get to see one of the too few musical numbers (the Stevie Wonder/ Stones piece is amazing).

This film is rarely screened since due to a lawsuit it can only be run once a year and only when the director is present. Its rather dumb if you ask me, but the Stones were unhappy with the result and how they are seen to be. Why this film is still restricted considering all thats passed in the 30 plus years since its filming is beyond me. At this point it couldn't hurt the boys at all, since all it does is give visualization to what we knew already.

If you can manage to see this and you're a Stones fan do so. If you're not a fan you may want to give it a try, if for no other reason than its a unique and rare experience (due to the law suit that restricts its viewing).

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matthew wilder (cosmovitelli@mediaone.net) from los angeles
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An East Village guitar-store owner sold me a bootleg copy of this legendary Robert Frank documentary, which was suppressed by its subjects, the Rolling Stones. Full of arty effects and stony, fragmentative editing, the movie intermittently fascinates in its depiction of a day in the life of the Stones--a life that alternates between massive, almost unthinkable amounts of ego-gratification, and routine, torpid, everyday boredom. The intent seems to be an anthropological portrait of the habits of visiting alien gods: the Stones are made both otherworldly-regal and incalculably drab. Because of the scenes of groupie-shagging and substance abuse, Frank was forced to credit the Stones as "playing characters" in the end credits (if memory serves, Keith Richards plays "Pizza Delivery Man"), and the picture is available to be screened, by Mick-generated court order, only when Frank is present.

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JCMB from United States
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I like both Robert Frank and the Rolling Stones, but this combination is not that hot. As the other reviewer ( withnail-4) pointed out, this is pretty banal with lots of drug taking. Robert Frank is a photographer and this film seems like a motor wind gone wild. Imagine the "Exile on Main Street" cover coming to life and you have a pretty good idea of what this film is going to be like. The mystique comes from the fact that the Rolling Stones have done a pretty good job of keeping this off the market and out of the theatres. Thanks to modern technology, this film is pretty readily available in forms of varying quality. In fact, it was a local film groups showing this from a DVD that rekindled my interest in seeing the film. Short of being a serious fan of the Stones, you will be pretty bored with this film. You might even be pretty bored if you are a serious

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anonymous from United States of America
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The defining moment of this film is watching an inhumanly bored Charlie Watts staring morosely at commercials on a hotel television screen. In fact, you'll find yourself slumped in a chair somewhat like Charlie as you watch this haggard, limply compelling shambles of a documentary. The Stones themselves come off less as satan's own emissaries on earth and more as boring, boorish, and mundane teenagers -- emissaries of casual personal disintegration. It all leaves one feeling icky, stained, and disrespectful of rock legends, which is probably why it's impossible to see today. That, and the scenes with groupies having sex and roadies shooting up and nodding off. Interminably boring and unstructured, but probably a dead-on accurate portrait of a travelling rock band.

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Tashtago from Vancouver, Canada
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As an artifact of rock n' roll in the 70's this film is hard to beat. . The movie demystifies the band - Mick, Keith etc. seem extremely ordinary going about the day to day drudgery of being on tour. As far as the music goes this was the band at their peak both live and on record. I didn't realize what a good country/blues piano player Keith is. There are also a couple of interesting moments showing both Jagger and Richards composing. Visually, director Frank's purpose seems to be to re-create the pictorial equivalent of a heroin trip. The film is an at times almost unwatchable series of grainy images, disembodied voices muttering banalities, and freakish distorted faces. The in-famous sex/rape (?) of the groupies on the plane accompanied by the Stones playing cabalistic percussion says a lot about the attitude the group took to the various women who flocked to them. It is disgusting/haunting/ and comical all at the same time. Tough viewing but essential for any fan of rock music.

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BlackJack_B
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CS Blues is one of the most infamous documentaries ever made. So controversial that the Rolling Stones refused to call it a documentary they were funding and wanted to be seen as just "actors". The film, directed by Robert Frank and produced by Marshall Chess, details highlights of TRS's Exile On Main St. tour from late 1972. While we see some great numbers from The Stones such as "Midnight Rambler", "Brown Sugar" and a great duo performance by Mick Jagger and Stevie Wonder, the film is more known for the explicit sex and drug use. We see what many have called "real reality-TV" here. Orgies, various drugs being used, and the slice-of-life look at what the later years of the hippie generation had brought.

There are some hilarious scenes, though. The woman credited as "Snatch Girl" makes some hilariously druggy comments; Keith Richards attempt to order fresh fruit from the concierge is another good bit. Later, Richards and saxophonist Bobby Keys (who still tours with TRS today) are shown tossing a T.V. out the window in the guise of T.V. repairmen. Sadly, we also see the anorexic heroin addict shooting up and you wonder if she or any of the other groupies survived.

TRS are not part of any of the explicit activities; they are merely spectators to the party. However, early in the film, a man who may be Mick Jagger is seen fondling his nether regions. Also, the infamous CS Blues song is played at one point.

Many originally thought that CS Blues was a lost film but enough copies survived into the digital era and have made it onto DVD. You might be able to see this huge slice of Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'N Roll somewhere. It is certainly something else.

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ericl-2 from New York
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Sheer brilliance from Robert Frank, one of the great visual artists of our time. Let's say right at the start that the concert footage (the only portions of "CB" in color) captures some of the Stones' best performances ever on film, including a splendid "Midnight Rambler" and a wonderful medley of "Uptight" and "Satisfaction" with Stevie Wonder.

But the meat of this film is in the off-the-cuff, life-on-the-road footage, shot in a beautiful, grainy black and white. Other important filmmakers worked with the Stones before and after (J-L Godard on "One Plus One," Hal Ashby on the regrettable "Let's Spend the Night Together"), but this is the great one because it does the opposite of glamorizing the band -- it reveals the quotidian nature of their antics on the road. Lots of outrageous things happen: roadies shoot up, Keith Richards throws a TV set out the window and displays himself in various states of extreme intoxication and/or nodding off, groupies are abused on the tour bus, etc.

But Frank reveals it all in his unique deadpan style, letting you see the band members as individuals carrying on an everyday existence rather than as celebrities. In his camera, the excess is all of a piece with the mundane details: Jagger sitting on his hotel bed ordering a bowl of fruit, a conversationless walk along a road, etc.

Frank doesn't deglamorize his subject, either -- despite the squalor of some of what he shows us, he isn't out to debunk the Stones and their hangers-on, but to reveal them to us as part of everyday life and the spectacle they put on as a workaday component of the larger spectacle society feeds to the masses as entertainment. The effect is a little like the messier backstage scenes of such films as von Sternberg's "The Blue Angel," Bergman's "Sawdust and Tinsel," or Fellini's "Variety Lights," where the everyday routine that goes on behind the making of an illusion seems somehow harder and crueller than it would in any other setting. But it's life, as Robert Frank observes it in our airbrushed, late-capitalist world.

The wonderful last shot, as Jagger throws his arm into the air amidst an explosion of lights and camera flashes, ends it with a flourish, but by now we've seen the mess behind the flash. This film grows you up.

Officially, "CB" was the film of the Stones' 1972 US tour, but for murky reasons (one hears it was the shooting-up sequences that did it) the band barred its release and only allows it to be shown occasionally. In its place, the relatively uninspired "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones!" was released. Too bad -- catch "CB" if you can, or seek out one of the many bootleg videotapes circulating, although the color repro on the latter can sometimes be lousy.

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Brett Scieszka from United States
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I used to think that 'Gimme Shelter' was the end all, be all of Rolling Stones documentaries. The Maysles' film is undeniably heroic, but its shine and polish, its squeaky clean view of the Stones as consummate professionals utterly belies the fact that road life with the skinny brits did involve a good deal of sex, drugs, and a bit of rock and roll too. Filmed during a tour to promote my personal favorite Stones record, 'Exile on Main St,' 'Cocksucker Blues' is a grimy, sordid foray in the behind the scenes workings of the Rolling Stones machine.

Gloriously filmed in both color and black and white super 8, and artfully presented with a strong focus on non-diagetic audio tracks, 'Cocksucker Blues' is no simple document of events, but a solid work of art in its own right. The haphazard filming style during performances is more kinetic and subjective than the Maysles' lens and suits the jarring, hell-bent nature of the music.

The craziness of tour life is captured in some particularly amazing and unforgettable scenes. The kook, nearly suicidal fan, whose baby's been taken away due to mom's acid habit, the primitive and forceful disrobing of women on the plane while the band cooks up a beat to go with it, and the junky sound man all create a subterrainian truthful texture to the Stones experience that was most likely not available to the Maysles brothers.

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joe smith from United Kingdom
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I saw a screening of this last year at the Tate modern, i had heard a lot of the rumours surrounding this film... Was Robert Frank going to be there, was it the only screening that year... Well no on both points, it was however the only time it was likely to be shown in London this decade. But it did contain some of the most legendary and amazing rock and roll images that exist.. there were groupies having mass orgies on private jets, TV's thrown over balconies, awesome drug taking, celebrities, and sheer backstage boredom. Half way through, however, i did think, this is rubbish, its just full of rock cliches. But then i thought, actually no. This is where the cliches come from, they were the first people to do these things... And that is what you have to remember when watching this film, it is truly a snapshot in to the creation of rock and roll. If you get a chance to see an authorised screening of this film... Don't miss out. If that never happens, there are always copies floating about....

Joe

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Thomas Kornkven from United States
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For me, an admittedly huge Stones fan, this documentary was the stuff of legend. I could not believe it when I saw this in an independent music store. I had read quite a bit about this movie, but to actually see and hear it was awesome.

The Stones, after an incredible run of great albums, Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main Streeet, tour America in 1972. This tour is generally considered to be one of the most decadent, excess filled tours in rock n roll history. They hired Robert Greenfield to write a book, and Robert Frank to film it. Given nearly unlimited access, Frank tries to convey what it's like on a rock tour of this magnitude. I have read that some of the scenes were manufactured, such as Keith and Bobby Keyes tossing the TV out the window, the famous groupie scene on the plane, among them.

Some of the scenes are a bit much. Heroin induced rants, rambling naked groupies, shooting up, all by the large entourage of hangers on that the Stones took around America with them. The Stones are in very few of these scenes, sub-titles on who these people are would have been nice. Some scenes are just bad, like the shot of what looks like Mick from the waist down, fondling himself, then you see Mick holding a camera, to supposedly make you wonder if that was Mick fondling himself. Was that supposed to be artsy?

Sometimes Frank does break through on what touring can be. Keith trying to order a fruit plate from room service, or being having to sign autographs as he checks out of a hotel. Playing cards. Charlie morosely sitting in front of a TV.

The excess as it takes it's toll. While Mick discusses business with Ahmet Ertegum, Keith is in the next room nodding off in the arms of some groupie, who also nods off, leaving them in a tangled mess. Chgarlie has said this tour is when the bulls..t level reached its highest point, particularly when Truman Capote and Princess Radish show up. That scene made me squirm, as these ancient, boring old farts glom onto the tour.

Then there is the reason for the tour. THE MUSIC. The music f...ing rocks. The Stones play their tails off. From the moment Mick pops thru the curtain as it rises, and the band is blasting out Brown Sugar, till the encore when Mick leads out Stevie Wonder and his band,(the opening act)to do a killer medley of Uptight and Satisfaction, the music kicks. Watch Mick as he get his rocks off during All Down the Line, as he pushes Charlie to kick it out even harder. Mick Taylor playing beautiful, fluid, perfect lead guitar. I have about 6 bootlegs from this era of the Stones, and he amazes every time, musically the Stones at their best, yet watching him on stage, I can see why he left. Bill Wyman is a whirling dervish in comparison. Ron Wood couldn't carry his guitar case as a player, but I can see why Ronnie's personality has helped keep the band together.

There is lots of other great stuff, Keith playing some very nice piano. Listening to a single of Happy, wondering if it should be in mono. Playing pool in a bar down south with a bunch of brothers.

This is a great documentary of rock n roll on tour in the early 70's. I personally think the Maysles Brothers, who did Gimme Shelter, would have done a better job, and the shelved double album with the Stones and Stevie Wonder should definitely be brought out of the vault.

I would recommend this to as essential viewing for all fans of rock n roll.

AKAs Titles:

Certifications:
Chile:(Banned) (original rating)