Even the Title of This Banned Rolling Stones Documentary Was Too Horny for Primetime

1969 was well documented as the Summer of Love: it was also, famously, the summer of the Rolling Stones’ disastrous appearence at the Altamont Free Concert, where the Hell’s Angels ended up killing—intentionally and accidentally—four people in total. It was a scandal, a mess, and a memorable, bloody end to the year, and it kept the Stones in the UK for two years, worried about returning to the US for another potentially messy tour.

But return they did, in 1972: and this time, the American photographer Robert Frank was in tow. His mission was to document the Stones’ US tour and all the behind-the-scenes madness that came with it. And that he did: so well and faithfully, in fact, that the resultant film, Cocksucker Blues, was considered too controversial to screen until very recently.

Controversial might be putting it mildly. In fact, for years the film was legally impossible to screen in the absence of its director, due to the Stones’ own misgivings.

You wouldn’t think that the Rolling Stones would end up being so prudish: after all, they’d given Frank permission to photograph them at their most heinous. Cocksucker Blues showed Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and co. shooting, snorting, and smoking all manner of contraband. It shows band members all but openly copulating with their numerous groupies, pulling at their dicks, and hobnobbing with the likes of Andy Warhol, Stevie Wonder, and Truman Capote.

Basically it’s a total 70s fest, with Frank carting a series of cameras around to make available for outsiders to use. He wanted the footage to come from everywhere, from every angle, and from every kind of person. What he achieved is a confusing, if perfectly verite document that gives us the Stones at their least inhibited. Which is why the Stones to this day aren’t thrilled about it.

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He is cage match ready.

But what about the title? Is there anything in the footage to justify it? Well, yes and no. Cocksucker Blues comes from a Stones song that was created out of spite to piss off an “uptight Englishman”, we’re told early on, and the title stuck. There was another one called ‘How Much P*ssy Can You Eat’ which is perhaps a better reflection of the kind of sex that goes on between the Stones and their (mostly female) entourage.

That said, for fans of Mick Jagger, there’s quite a bit of him on display. Even if the Stones’ queerness was more bluster than reality, we get an up-close look at all of that queer-coded posturing and dick-grabbing that we’ve come to associate with the act.

Cocksucker Blues isn’t the rollicking homo fest one might hope: but as a portrait of an era, it’s a damn good—and damn horny—one.