‘Schoolboy Blues’: the song that got The Rolling Stones kicked off their record contract
With a husky laugh and a knowing grin, Keith Richards spoke of The Rolling Stones’ reputation in their documentary Crossfire Hurricane, saying, “The Beatles got the white hat. What’s left? The black hat.”
The band revelled in their troublesome reputation, one that welcomed fans disillusioned by the overwhelming popularity of music’s Liverpudlian sweethearts and instead craved something more dangerous. In its essence, that is indeed an interesting idea. It’s where the concentrated concept of punk was formed and where important pockets of counter-culture grew strength in the face of bureaucratic corruption.
But The Rolling Stones weren’t in the business of using their rebellious demeanour as an agent of social change. No, they were largely interested in themselves and utilised their mischief to manipulate the system as best as possible, ringing out every ounce of salacious excess their fame allowed.
They weren’t exactly shy about it either. Their lyrics are laced with misogyny, overt and questionable sexuality and at times, racism. Take their famous song ‘Brown Sugar’ for example. It was Mick Jagger unashamedly indulging us all in his sexual fantasies, in a song he hoped would be an ode to interracial sex, but the reality was completely different. The changing tides of social consciousness have highlighted it for what it truly was: a derogatory and racist take.
“I never would write that song now,” Jagger said in an interview with Rolling Stone in 1995. “I would probably censor myself. I’d think, ‘Oh God, I can’t. I’ve got to stop. I can’t just write raw like that.’”
Released on the band’s 1971 album Sticky Fingers, it was them at their bulletproof prime. Writing horrific sounds without the fear of accountability and allowing themselves to demean the sexual realities they lived off stage because, as the 1970s rock gods they were, the business of sex, shock and awe all added to their must mythologised reputation.
But their provocative methodology wasn’t exclusively deployed to build their brand of risque offensiveness. No, a year prior to Sticky Fingers, the band were penning overtly sexual songs for a very different reason.
In 1970, the band found themselves tied into a deal with Decca Records that they felt was becoming increasingly ill-fitting. But, they were contractually obliged to release their music under the name while growing frustrated, watching The Beatles in their white hats release music with more autonomy, under their own label, Apple Records.
The Rolling Stones wanted to follow suit, but could find no reasonable way to exit the deal they had struck with Decca. So they once again went back to their well of disgust and wrote a tune so offensive that Decca would have no choice but to cut ties with the band. They conjured up their track ‘Cocksucker Blues’, which was later amended to ‘Schoolboy Blues’. It was a truly grotesque song that featured explicit references to fellatio, anal sex and bestiality.
The Stones’ plan seemed to work, with Decca pulling the track from any broadcasting channels and, as such, leaving them incensed. But then, before the label could grant their wish and cut ties with the band altogether, they decided to milk their cash cow one last time and release a compilation record called Stone Age, without the band’s consent.
Luckily for The Stones, that was all they had to swallow, and the label released them that year, consigning their vulgar track to the bins of history.
