The 1970 Rolling Stones single so offensive it was never released
The Rolling Stones didn’t become the most dangerous band on the planet by accident. They built their reputation by pushing boundaries, offending audiences, and creating headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The Stones played up to this image at almost every opportunity and got a thrill out of seeking danger. As Keith Richards famously quipped, “I’ve never had a problem with drugs, I’ve had a problem with the police.” It might just be a joke, but beneath the punchline lies a revolutionary attitude.
In the 1960s, pop culture was still highly conservative, and a series of unspoken taboos were firmly in place. Elvis Presley’s crotch couldn’t even be televised in the early days. The Rolling Stones pushed the needle by openly alluding to sex and drugs within their lyrics, but for the most part, they were subtle enough nods for the songs to still be played on the radio.
As much as The Stones took pride in courting controversy, they still needed to toe the line to some degree. Ultimately, Decca Records was their boss and had the final say on any song before it was released. This relationship both brought about The Stones’ most offensive track, and ensured it was never released.
The grovelling young band played up to this hell-raising reputation in their younger days whenever possible. For example, in 1978, when frontman Mick Jagger was asked by NBC News to comment on remarks that their latest record was racist and sexist, he rather glibly slurred: “The next [record] is going to be more racist and more sexist, and it is going to be a whole bunch better.”
Of course, there was a punk context to the comments, but away from the facile, condemnable effrontery, it is indicative of the band’s penchant for often wilfully embracing offence. In the mid-60s, they had even embraced cults in a bid to embellish their image with satanic kudos.
But they went beyond that on one barmy occasion when the notion of offence was the singular aim of a song. In 1970, the triumphant band were still contracted to Decca Records but had grown disillusioned.
After seeing The Beatles fly from the nest of EMI to their own Apple Records label, The Stones wanted to leave to start their own label to ensure they got a greater cut of their royalties. The issue was that they were still under contract with Decca and had one more single to fulfil their end of the deal.
However, things had turned tempestuous. Thus, out of contempt for Decca, the band decided that their best plan of bird-flipping action was to write them a single so flagrantly offensive that it could never be played on the radio. With that in mind – and this would be part of the TV show where it announces viewer discretion is advised – the band penned a track titled ‘Cocksucker Blues’, which was later amended to ‘Schoolboy Blues’. That amendment can hardly be considered the height of moral gentrification.
If Decca were to publish the song, they would also be liable for the offence caused as the gatekeepers of the band’s output at the time. Thus, they could hardly throw the track back in the group’s face and release it anyway to cause a backlash. But from a legal perspective, The Rolling Stones had indeed fulfilled their contract, therefore marking it a stroke of genius.
As a result, the song ended up on the ash heap of history. It had belonged there all along, in truth. However, Decca decided to get their own back on the band in a different way by releasing the compilation record Stone Age. It infuriated The Rolling Stones.
The band denounced the album in full-page press adverts, taken out at ther own expense, stating: “We didn’t know this record was going to be released. It is, in our opinion, below the standard we try to keep up, both in choice of content and cover design.”
That appeared to be the end of the matter. Then, in 1983, a German-exclusive four-LP box set titled The Rolling Stones Story – Part 2 was released. The album featured single tracks and rarities from the Decca period, and ‘Cocksucker Blues’ was left on the end of the acetate in error, resulting in it being part of the release.
The box set was pulled, and the offensive track was removed for the amended release four weeks later, but the cat was out of the bag now as astounded fans made copies of the grotesque track. With the prior content presently unknown to these bewildered fans, the song seemed even more egregious.
With ‘Cocksucker Blues’, The Rolling Stones played with fire but largely came out of the burning building unscathed. It could have had catastrophic consequences for the band if the song had been released, yet it was still a risk that The Stones were prepared to take.
