‘Memo From Turner’: The song that almost destroyed The Rolling Stones
When you think of the British invasion and the period when British bands completely took over America, two of the first acts that come to mind are The Beatles and Rolling Stones. The Stones’ former manager would disagree with you, though, as Andrew Loog Oldham attests that when it came to the early days of the British invasion, the Dave Clark Five and Herman’s Hermits were leagues ahead. And yet, now, with the luxury of hindsight, we know The Rolling Stones are still celebrated as one of the greatest bands of all time, so what’s their secret?
There are a number of different factors that contribute towards the Rolling Stones’ success. They make great music and have an outstanding stage presence, but one of the most significant factors that contributed to the fact that they were all a lot of people could talk about was that the band was made up of characters who were larger than life. It seemed that no matter where you turned, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were always involved in some hijinks or controversial scandals, which meant it was difficult to escape them.
The band’s personality also added another layer to their music. Many rock ‘n’ roll bands would sing about drugs, sex, and rock ‘n’ roll, but the Rolling Stones were the living embodiment of it. Not only were they going on stage and singing about making love and getting drunk, but they were constantly doing it, and the papers reported the same.
As a result, the band felt mysterious. So many stories circulated about what they got up to in their spare time that the band assumed caricatures of themselves. Mick Jagger became the lady’s man to end all lady’s men, the kind that people would beg not to take their partners away from them because of his unwavering charisma and raw sex appeal.
Generally speaking, if you heard a rumour that sex scenes in a movie weren’t faked, you would brush that rumour off as a fun piece of fiction. However, when the actor in question is Mick Jagger, it’s harder to ignore, and that’s what got Keith Richards so annoyed when on-set behaviour about Jagger when filming the 1970 picture Performance started circulating.
Jagger isn’t known as an actor, and for good reason, it’s certainly not his strongest talent. That said, he is pretty convincing in Performance as he assumes the role of a rock star turned gangster. He was in the film with Anita Pallenberg, who was dating Keith Richards at the time. Richards had no problem with the two working together; however, he lost his temper when rumours began to circulate that the sex scenes between Jagger and Pallenberg were 100% authentic.
Richards got so frustrated that he refused to work with Jagger. The two were supposed to be writing a song, ‘Memo From Turner’, for the album, but Richards stepped away from the creative process, saying he had no intention of working with Jagger. This dispute cut deep and almost saw an end to the Rolling Stones as we know them. It wasn’t until the film’s co-director, Donal Cammell, stepped in and helped with some lyrics that the song took shape and Jagger and Richards put their differences aside.
Whether the sex scene rumours are true or not remains a mystery, but there certainly is something to speculate about. As mentioned before, Jagger was never that good an actor…
