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The Rolling Stones: Fugitives in Exile · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis.
0:17
Speaker 2: The stories about the Rolling Stones time in exile on
0:20
Speaker 2: the French Riviera are insane. Gunfights, heroin trafficking, burglaries, kidnapping, threats,
0:27
Speaker 2: and much much more. All went down in and around
0:30
Speaker 2: the walls of Pillonellcott, the massive mansion and converted makeshift
0:34
Speaker 2: recording studio rented by Stones guitarist Keith Richards during the
0:38
Speaker 2: spring and summer of nineteen seventy one. Having been chased
0:42
Speaker 2: out of the UK by over aggressive tax men, the
0:45
Speaker 2: Rolling Stones were in effect outlaws, a title that suited
0:50
Speaker 2: them just fine. They were also broke and desperate to
0:53
Speaker 2: create new music to help relieve their ruinous financial burden
0:56
Speaker 2: at a time when Keith Richards decided to take on
0:59
Speaker 2: a series heroin addiction and singer Mick Jagger decided to
1:03
Speaker 2: get married and start a family, while the rest of
1:06
Speaker 2: the band hung on for dear life. Through it all,
1:09
Speaker 2: they made great music, possibly the greatest rock and roll
1:13
Speaker 2: music ever made. That music I played for you at
1:15
Speaker 2: the top of the show. That wasn't great music. That
1:19
Speaker 2: was a preset loop from my melotron called Stoned Mellow
1:22
Speaker 2: Games BK two. I played you that loop because I
1:26
Speaker 2: can't afford the rights to Joy to the World by
1:29
Speaker 2: three Dog Night, And why would I play you that
1:31
Speaker 2: specific slice of junkie cheese? Could I afford it? Because
1:36
Speaker 2: that was the number one song in America on April fifth,
1:39
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy one, and that was the day that Keith
1:42
Speaker 2: Richards escaped Britain for Villainellcot on the coast of France
1:46
Speaker 2: to begin the recording of what would become The Rolling
1:49
Speaker 2: Stones masterpiece, Exile on Main Street. On this episode, stoned games,
1:56
Speaker 2: junkie cheese, debauchery, desperation from the Rolling Stone. In Exile,
2:01
Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan and this is disgrace. Keith Richards had
2:29
Speaker 2: a lot on his mind, which was saying something. For
2:32
Speaker 2: a man who was the rock and roll equivalent of
2:34
Speaker 2: a great white shark, the most dangerous animal in the
2:37
Speaker 2: ocean that basically has two thoughts, kill and eat. Similarly,
2:43
Speaker 2: the guitar player for the most dangerous band on the planet,
2:46
Speaker 2: The Rolling Stones, spent his days with basically only two
2:50
Speaker 2: thoughts of his own rock and roll, mainly roll. He
2:54
Speaker 2: left most of the rock part to Mick Jagger, his singer,
2:58
Speaker 2: a man who woke up every day with a precise
3:00
Speaker 2: list of things to accomplish to propel his band and
3:02
Speaker 2: his career forward to satisfy his desires. Their partnership was
3:07
Speaker 2: more complimentary than any other in this still young genre.
3:10
Speaker 2: Mick was sex, Keith was drugs, and together they were
3:13
Speaker 2: rock and roll. Unlike Mick, Keith rolled out of bed
3:17
Speaker 2: and moved through his days to the natural rhythms of
3:20
Speaker 2: the world around him. His main priority was always playing guitar,
3:24
Speaker 2: making music, writing songs, but not in the formal I'm
3:27
Speaker 2: gonna sit down and write a song about X that
3:29
Speaker 2: has a rhythm like why it moves to the bridge,
3:31
Speaker 2: that sounds like ze and is perfectly calibrated for pop
3:34
Speaker 2: superstar success sort of way. For Keith, it was all
3:38
Speaker 2: about feel vibe, a perpetual dance with the muse, and
3:42
Speaker 2: that meant Keith took his acoustic guitar with him everywhere
3:45
Speaker 2: and playing it took priority or everything. He slept with it,
3:49
Speaker 2: and he fell asleep playing it in the middle of
3:52
Speaker 2: recording session takes. So this band sitting around dumbfounded, helpless
3:55
Speaker 2: to do anything but wait until their guitar player and
3:58
Speaker 2: songwriter awoke, hopefully still bound to his muse, So with
4:03
Speaker 2: his Gibson Acoustic he roamed the halls of Nellcott, the
4:06
Speaker 2: big mansion he was renting for twenty four hundred dollars
4:08
Speaker 2: a week on the French Riviera, the former Gestapo headquarters
4:12
Speaker 2: with a swastika engraved heating vents and complex maze of
4:16
Speaker 2: basement rooms believed to have once been a Nazi torture
4:19
Speaker 2: chamber during Germany's occupation of France, pausing to sit and
4:23
Speaker 2: storm away until he found the right feel, and then
4:26
Speaker 2: maybe that feel would grow into a rift, and that
4:29
Speaker 2: riff might evolve into a chord progression. And if it
4:32
Speaker 2: still felt right, then Keith, if he could remember, might
4:35
Speaker 2: play that chord progression for his bandmates. And if the
4:38
Speaker 2: gods were smiling, and if the tape was rolling, and
4:41
Speaker 2: if the guitars weren't pushed out of tune by the
4:43
Speaker 2: Mediterranean humidity in the dank basement DIY studio at Nellcott
4:47
Speaker 2: with electrical wiring that was fifty to fifty at best,
4:50
Speaker 2: if it didn't blow, and if the producer, Jimmy Miller,
4:53
Speaker 2: didn't blow too many drugs and fuck up the take,
4:55
Speaker 2: and if the twenty year old engineer Andy Johns remembered
4:58
Speaker 2: to hit record inside of the mobile courting truck parked
5:01
Speaker 2: out back. And if Bill Wyman, the bass player, was
5:03
Speaker 2: paying attention, and if Charlie Watts the drummer, hadn't lost interest,
5:06
Speaker 2: and if the kids slide player Mick Taylor wasn't scared
5:09
Speaker 2: into inaction, and if and this was the biggest if
5:12
Speaker 2: of all, if his pain in the ass singer Mick
5:14
Speaker 2: Jagger deigned to show up for the session, then maybe,
5:17
Speaker 2: just maybe Keith's original inspiration would find itself turned into
5:22
Speaker 2: a song. A hell of a lot of ifs for
5:26
Speaker 2: a band that desperately needed to complete an album in
5:28
Speaker 2: order to escape the financial ruin they had landed in
5:31
Speaker 2: thanks to their own disinterest in shady accounting of former managers,
5:35
Speaker 2: the pseudos Bengali Andrew log Oldham and the cunning and
5:39
Speaker 2: powerful Alan Klein, now along with the band, all suing
5:42
Speaker 2: each other, making matters worse. As of nineteen seventy one,
5:46
Speaker 2: each member of The Stones owed the British government more
5:49
Speaker 2: than one hundred thousand pounds in back taxes. And if
5:53
Speaker 2: that weren't bad enough, because of their success and their
5:56
Speaker 2: earning power as taxpayers, they were in the top UK
5:59
Speaker 2: tax bracket, meaning that out of every dollar they made
6:03
Speaker 2: they had a fork over ninety three percent of it
6:05
Speaker 2: ninety three percent. During their rocket ship ascent to the
6:10
Speaker 2: top of the charts with bank busting record and concert sales,
6:13
Speaker 2: the band had spent nearly all of their money maintaining
6:16
Speaker 2: their overhead and indulgent lifestyle English country homes to live
6:20
Speaker 2: in in skyrocketing legal fees to keep them out of
6:22
Speaker 2: prison due to their various drug busts. The situation was
6:26
Speaker 2: dire and the Rolling Stones were desperate and there was
6:30
Speaker 2: simply no money left to pay the taxman, and with
6:33
Speaker 2: the tax rate being so prohibitive, the Rolling Stones were
6:36
Speaker 2: actually too rich to grow out and make any more money.
6:39
Speaker 2: The only possible way to make money to pay their
6:42
Speaker 2: bills was to flee their home country for somewhere friendlier
6:45
Speaker 2: to enterprising, decadent millionaires, and to then remake their fortunes
6:49
Speaker 2: as the most famous fugitives on the planet tax exiles.
6:54
Speaker 2: There was a tremendous amount of pressure, and the band's
6:57
Speaker 2: financial burden troubled Mick Jagger the most. A new record
7:01
Speaker 2: was Keith. Without it, they couldn't tour the States and
7:03
Speaker 2: that's where the real money was. So no record, no bread,
7:07
Speaker 2: and the band would cease to exist. And Mick couldn't
7:11
Speaker 2: make a record without Keith. He needed him, and Keith,
7:14
Speaker 2: whether he knew it or not or whatever, acknowledge it
7:17
Speaker 2: even to himself, needed Mick. But the problem was that
7:21
Speaker 2: in the spring and summer of nineteen seventy one, Keith
7:24
Speaker 2: Richards was in no mood for Mick Jagger, a man who,
7:27
Speaker 2: throughout all of the madness of the band's nine year existence,
7:30
Speaker 2: Keith had thought of as a brother, a man who
7:33
Speaker 2: he had more in common with musically despite their many
7:36
Speaker 2: personal differences, than anyone he had ever met. A man
7:39
Speaker 2: Keith loved Mick Jagger, a man who had not too
7:43
Speaker 2: long ago and not too secretly carried on a torred
7:45
Speaker 2: affair with Anita Pallenberg, the love of Keith's life and
7:49
Speaker 2: mother of his son. So forget whatever pressure Mick was
7:52
Speaker 2: feeling or whatever desperation was in the air. Keith Richards
7:56
Speaker 2: could give a fuck, and not giving a fuck was
7:59
Speaker 2: Keith's natural state. Who the fuck is mc jagger? So
8:02
Speaker 2: it was easy icing out Mick. Icing out Anita was
8:05
Speaker 2: a different story, try as he may focusing on music
8:09
Speaker 2: was becoming more and more difficult. Mick Anita, the Stones, problems,
8:13
Speaker 2: his celebrity, thoughts of all of it began seeping into
8:17
Speaker 2: Keith's mind, and a new feeling, something approaching stress reared
8:20
Speaker 2: its beastly head. So Keith turned with more frequency to Heroin,
8:25
Speaker 2: and with a hit of smack, Keith could block everything
8:28
Speaker 2: out and focus solely on his true love, his guitar.
8:32
Speaker 2: But Anita wouldn't quit, wouldn't quit talking in that she
8:35
Speaker 2: yet fascist Italian German accent, and she wouldn't quit fucking
8:39
Speaker 2: around either with whoever micked the various hangers on at Nellcott,
8:42
Speaker 2: it didn't matter, and she wouldn't quit shooting Heroin. She
8:46
Speaker 2: was a full blown junkie. King junkie. William S. Burrows
8:49
Speaker 2: had recommended the facility for her most recent detox, but
8:53
Speaker 2: it didn't take. Anita escaped to Nellcott, where it seemed
8:57
Speaker 2: her primary function was to lounge about the house day
9:00
Speaker 2: night in a leopard print bikini apparently made of dental
9:03
Speaker 2: floss that, of course reinforced her piercing sexuality and drove
9:07
Speaker 2: everyone wild. But bikinis were in Anita's main fashion concern
9:12
Speaker 2: suspenders were specifically those worn by her favorite drug dealer, Johnny,
9:16
Speaker 2: who Keith had nicknamed Johnny Brace's because of his suspenders,
9:20
Speaker 2: and Johnny Braceis was en route to Nellcott to help
9:23
Speaker 2: sert out Anita in Keith's problem not having a regular
9:26
Speaker 2: supply of heroin. Anita wouldn't shut up about it, which,
9:30
Speaker 2: to Keith's estimation, was a minor victory. At least, she
9:33
Speaker 2: wasn't talking about Bianca Perez Moro Massias, the Nicaraguan beauty
9:38
Speaker 2: whom Mick had just married in a fever down the
9:40
Speaker 2: coast in Saint Tropez, an event that still had Anita upset.
9:44
Speaker 2: For some reason, Anita swore Bianca was a man, and
9:47
Speaker 2: she let everyone she could know about it, which made sense.
9:51
Speaker 2: Bianca was a stunning woman, but she looked just like Mick,
9:54
Speaker 2: so much so that Mick's previous girlfriend, the British starlet
9:57
Speaker 2: and Stones mused Marrianne Faithful, Anita's best friend who had
10:01
Speaker 2: once slept with Keith and who was seeing Mick at
10:03
Speaker 2: the time Anita was sleeping with Mick while Anita was
10:05
Speaker 2: seeing Keith, who Anita had left Brian Jones for. But
10:08
Speaker 2: I digress Mary n faithful had said of Mick marrying
10:11
Speaker 2: Bianca quote he had finally given in to his narcissism
10:14
Speaker 2: and married himself. If the reason behind Anita's preoccupation with
10:19
Speaker 2: Mick's marriage to Bianca ranked Keith, he didn't let it show.
10:23
Speaker 2: He was entirely too cool for anything as conventional as jealousy.
10:27
Speaker 2: But he did continue to ice Mick out, and he
10:30
Speaker 2: welcomed the dope and became more dependent on it. It
10:33
Speaker 2: was self medicating and blocked out the blinding sun. Anita Pallenberg,
10:37
Speaker 2: who the various Rolling Stones planets all revolved around allowing
10:41
Speaker 2: Keith to focus on what really mattered music. He'd eventually
10:45
Speaker 2: let Mike in, and eventually Mick would show up for real.
10:49
Speaker 2: Until then, there'd be other distractions like guitars, dope, and
10:53
Speaker 2: gunfights with locals, depending on who you asked. The cast
11:14
Speaker 2: of characters hanging around Nellcott during the summer of seventy
11:18
Speaker 2: one while the Rolling Stones set out to make their
11:20
Speaker 2: next record were either wildly entertaining or wildly distracting. There
11:25
Speaker 2: was the aforementioned dealer, Johnny Brace's and Anita the Witch,
11:29
Speaker 2: another dealer, Spanish Tony Puss, the Heiress Rupert Prince, Michelle
11:34
Speaker 2: the actress and Madeline the dancer. The American record exec
11:37
Speaker 2: of Royal Blues and R and B Lineage Marshall Chess,
11:40
Speaker 2: head of the newly formed Rolling Stones Records, was in
11:42
Speaker 2: and out. Graham Parsons, cosmic American country singer, fall down
11:47
Speaker 2: drunk and world class junkie, had made the scene, as
11:50
Speaker 2: did the impossibly handsome race car driver Tommy Weber, who
11:54
Speaker 2: it was said, dabbled in a little bit of this
11:56
Speaker 2: and a little bit of that. Tommy didn't move enough
11:58
Speaker 2: weight to satisfy Keith's definition of what a dealer was.
12:02
Speaker 2: It was instead more of a drug buddy and procurer
12:04
Speaker 2: of whatever Keith and Anita might need or might need
12:07
Speaker 2: to go away and right now. After a heavy dinner
12:11
Speaker 2: around the massive nell Cat dining room table and too
12:14
Speaker 2: much Cvorsier and Mandricks, a powerful downer that is the
12:17
Speaker 2: European answer to the American quailud, Keith and Anita needed rest,
12:23
Speaker 2: so they, along with Spanish Tony, Tommy, Michelle and Madeline,
12:27
Speaker 2: retreated to Keith's bedroom where they all fell on to
12:29
Speaker 2: Keith and Anita's massive lou the fourteenth bed. Half of
12:33
Speaker 2: them promptly passed out Spanish Tony was kept awake by
12:37
Speaker 2: the sounds of Tommy, the race car driver penetrating the
12:39
Speaker 2: master of the house's old lady, Anita Pollenberg. In the morning.
12:44
Speaker 2: When he awoke, Keith Richards was either none the wiser
12:47
Speaker 2: or simply didn't care. Either way, He had a mission
12:50
Speaker 2: that day. Nellcott rested on the banks of the French Riviera,
12:54
Speaker 2: and Keith wanted a boat, a speedboat. He was inspired
12:57
Speaker 2: by last night's high and knew just what he'd named
13:00
Speaker 2: new speedy vessel, the Mandres. The French Riviera in the
13:08
Speaker 2: early to mid twentieth century was the place for the
13:11
Speaker 2: jet set. It was a playground with a rich history,
13:14
Speaker 2: where the internationally famous and wealthy aristocrats and celebrities among
13:18
Speaker 2: them would over indulge themselves their kinks, fetishes, and bad
13:22
Speaker 2: behavior away from the prying eyes of the press back
13:25
Speaker 2: in their respective homelands. Errol Flynn famously brawled with the
13:29
Speaker 2: local police. Winston Churchill succme willingly, perhaps to the unwanted
13:34
Speaker 2: seduction of a local socialite. The Hemingways and Fitzgerald summered there,
13:38
Speaker 2: getting up to god knows what sorts of madness The
13:43
Speaker 2: French Riviera, located between Monaco and Marseilles on the southeastern
13:47
Speaker 2: coast of France, was positioned perfectly for the drug trade,
13:51
Speaker 2: all manner of refraft dealers, hustler's, pimps, prostitutes continent. They
13:56
Speaker 2: all washed up onto the shores near Niece, where Nelkov was.
14:00
Speaker 2: The English playwright Somerset mom famously dubbed the French Riviera
14:04
Speaker 2: a sunny place for shady people, which suited Keith Richards perfectly.
14:10
Speaker 2: The sun was blinding. The speedboat he was interested in
14:13
Speaker 2: purchasing was just up ahead, docked in the harbor. The
14:16
Speaker 2: beach roads became increasingly small. As he his two year
14:20
Speaker 2: old son Marlin in Spanish Tony approached in Keith's Jaguar
14:24
Speaker 2: x ke, the road narrowed even further, and then, incredibly,
14:28
Speaker 2: another Jaguar helm by two locals attempted to squeeze by
14:32
Speaker 2: Keith's car, ripping a violent sounding scratch along the side
14:35
Speaker 2: of his brand new jack. Keith immediately incense started screaming
14:39
Speaker 2: out of his window at the couple in the other car,
14:41
Speaker 2: What do you think you're fucking well doing. I'll smash
14:43
Speaker 2: your fucking heads in, And he meant it in an instant.
14:47
Speaker 2: As both cars stopped to assess the damage, Keith bounded
14:50
Speaker 2: out of the driver's side, brandishing his massive German hunting knife,
14:53
Speaker 2: the one he kept on him in a leather satchel
14:55
Speaker 2: whenever he left the house. You stupid, fucking idiot, Keith screamed,
14:59
Speaker 2: while rushing toward the driver and the jag that had
15:01
Speaker 2: hit him. Just then, a mountain of a man, the
15:05
Speaker 2: harbor Master, seeing what was all about to go down,
15:08
Speaker 2: vaulted from his office and quickly interjected himself. Keith swung
15:11
Speaker 2: at him, connecting his massive scull ring directly with the
15:14
Speaker 2: Harbormaster's cheekbone, which quickly began dripping blood. The harbor Master
15:18
Speaker 2: shocked unloaded with a heavy right handed punch to the
15:21
Speaker 2: side of Keith's head, and Keith quickly crumpled. The Spanish
15:25
Speaker 2: Tony took a swing at the harbor Master. It landed
15:27
Speaker 2: weak and the harbor Master was unfazed, and the petrified
15:30
Speaker 2: couple in the other car took the escalating melee as
15:33
Speaker 2: their queue to beat a quick retreat to safety. Inside
15:35
Speaker 2: of the Harbormaster's office, Keith pulled himself to his feet
15:39
Speaker 2: and over into his car and emerged with a thirty
15:42
Speaker 2: eight pistol. He pointed straight into the face of the
15:45
Speaker 2: harbor Master, who was quick to pull his own gun,
15:47
Speaker 2: and the two were now squared off silence. But for
15:51
Speaker 2: the gentle sounds of the harbor. The melee had turned
15:54
Speaker 2: into a standoff. A seaside spaghetti western on the banks
15:57
Speaker 2: of the French Riviera, two pistols pointed straight at each other,
16:01
Speaker 2: gripped tight by their alpha owners, the harbormaster and the
16:05
Speaker 2: rock and roll pirate, neither intent on giving an inch. Then,
16:10
Speaker 2: in a moment of what can only be described as
16:12
Speaker 2: pure genius, Spanish tony, knowing full well the stubborn fuck
16:15
Speaker 2: all constitution of Keith Richards, dove at his friend and
16:19
Speaker 2: in a flash, ripped the pistol from his hand and
16:21
Speaker 2: chucked it into the harbor, in effect diffusing the situation.
16:25
Speaker 2: The two of them quickly gathered Marlin and made their
16:27
Speaker 2: way back to Nellcott. Once safely ensconced back at his
16:34
Speaker 2: rented mansion, Keith held court, detailing his latest adventure to
16:37
Speaker 2: the various jokers and De Bosch's royalty surrounding him. Graham
16:41
Speaker 2: Parsons was mesmerized by his Hero's recounting of the excitement,
16:45
Speaker 2: it was almost enough to distract him from his Jones. Graham,
16:49
Speaker 2: like Anita, was fresh off a filled stint in detox
16:52
Speaker 2: and excited to be back around Keith and the Stones.
16:54
Speaker 2: The former Bird was on the outs of his car band,
16:57
Speaker 2: the Flying Burrito Brothers, and was secretly hoped and Keith
17:00
Speaker 2: would produce his solo debut for Rolling Stones Records. Johnny
17:04
Speaker 2: Bracis was also among the group, and he found the
17:07
Speaker 2: story particularly funny and Johnny needed a laugh. Jim Morrison,
17:12
Speaker 2: rock star, singer of The Doors and boyfriend of Pamela Corson,
17:15
Speaker 2: who Johnny was carrying on an affair with, unbeknownst to Jim,
17:19
Speaker 2: of course, had just overdosed and died on what Johnny
17:22
Speaker 2: was pretty sure was dope that he'd sold them, and
17:25
Speaker 2: dope was the reason Johnny Braceis was at Nellcott, dope
17:28
Speaker 2: and distraction, because distractions like the dust up at the
17:31
Speaker 2: Harbor were a regular event. There was always something going
17:34
Speaker 2: down at Elcott that summer. There were the instruments that
17:38
Speaker 2: went missing, seemingly right under the noses of Keith and
17:41
Speaker 2: his entourage while they knotted off in front of the television.
17:44
Speaker 2: One afternoon, the home was invaded by bandits who stole
17:47
Speaker 2: three saxophones and nine guitars, including the Flying v Keith
17:51
Speaker 2: had played back at their Hyde Park show in nineteen
17:53
Speaker 2: sixty nine. There was the time when Fat Jack the
17:56
Speaker 2: Chef emerged from the kitchen enraged at the Lord of
17:59
Speaker 2: the manor because grapevine had it that his lady, Anita,
18:02
Speaker 2: had turned the chef's fourteen year old daughter onto heroin.
18:06
Speaker 2: And then there was a sketchy Oliver dude from the
18:08
Speaker 2: far out Living Theater, a stage hero of Jim Morrison's, who,
18:12
Speaker 2: while staying at Nellcott survived on a diet of bourgelais
18:15
Speaker 2: a Mandrex aka Randy Mandys that three young local boys
18:19
Speaker 2: accused him of plying them with an attempting rape. It
18:23
Speaker 2: was a bad scene, filled with bad juju, remnants of
18:26
Speaker 2: the Gestapo, dope craze, behavior and desperation. Everything seemed to
18:30
Speaker 2: be happening except the making of music, a fact that
18:34
Speaker 2: no doubt annoyed Mick Jagger to no end. Mick was
18:38
Speaker 2: newly married, had a baby on the way, a massive
18:40
Speaker 2: tax debt, a tour of the United States. He was
18:43
Speaker 2: trying to set up an album he desperately needed to complete,
18:46
Speaker 2: an album that he and his bandmates had barely even
18:48
Speaker 2: begun to make, and a heavily distracted songwriting partner in
18:52
Speaker 2: Keith Richards, a songwriting partner who at the time seemingly
18:55
Speaker 2: had Mick and Mixed problems on the Pay No Mind list.
18:59
Speaker 2: As if the dopes actions at Nellcott weren't enough, Keith
19:02
Speaker 2: was also distracted by the baby growing in the belly
19:04
Speaker 2: of his heroin addicted girlfriend, Anita. It wasn't the prospect
19:08
Speaker 2: of another kid that occupied his thoughts, it was the
19:11
Speaker 2: thought of who the father might be in his Heroin Hayes.
19:14
Speaker 2: That summer, Keith and Anita seldom had sex with each other.
19:19
Speaker 2: Keith preferred the convenience of manual ejaculation, Anita preferred whatever
19:23
Speaker 2: whoever was nearest, willing and most charming trades. Mick Jagger,
19:27
Speaker 2: despite his nu marital bliss, had in spades, and the
19:31
Speaker 2: tension was thick enough to perhaps make lesser men throwing
19:34
Speaker 2: the towel on the madness of exile on the French
19:37
Speaker 2: Riviera and inject the suicide files of morphine left behind
19:41
Speaker 2: by the Nazis in the basement of Nellcott but Mick
19:44
Speaker 2: had a record to do, and Keith had more dope
19:47
Speaker 2: to do. Somehow they'd have to see themselves through. But
19:51
Speaker 2: first there was the matter of the Corsicans. We'll be
19:54
Speaker 2: right back after this word word word. Mick Jagger was
20:01
Speaker 2: in the basement, the dank, dusty makeshift recording studio Keith
20:05
Speaker 2: had cobbled together to record their new album in. It
20:08
Speaker 2: was as dark down here as the debauchery upstairs in
20:11
Speaker 2: the living quarters. Mick wanted no part of what was
20:14
Speaker 2: going on up there. He was down here with Charlie
20:17
Speaker 2: Bill and the other Mick banging around an old Bluesit's
20:19
Speaker 2: stank of desperation, hoping to inspire Keith to join them
20:23
Speaker 2: and get something down on tape. But the jam without
20:26
Speaker 2: Keith was obviously uninspired, and besides, Keith was obviously preoccupied.
20:31
Speaker 2: Johnny Braces had made the connection. Finally, It's what Keith
20:34
Speaker 2: and Anita were waiting for, a connection to weight serious dope,
20:38
Speaker 2: enough heroin to fuel Nellcott for a month at a time,
20:41
Speaker 2: nine thousand dollars worth. The Corsicans had come through for Johnny,
20:46
Speaker 2: which was a relief. Had they not, Johnny would have
20:48
Speaker 2: been out serious bread and with little recourse. These Corsicans
20:52
Speaker 2: were a nasty lot, big and intimidating. They sweat tropicana
20:56
Speaker 2: and their glands released a scent that could only be
20:58
Speaker 2: described as a mix of cheap cologne, hand rolled tobacco,
21:02
Speaker 2: and feta cheese. Their gold chains and sweat stained, dacked
21:06
Speaker 2: summer suits screamed nouveau drug money, while the bulges along
21:10
Speaker 2: their waistbands screamed indiscriminate murder for hire, Riviera cowboys, every
21:17
Speaker 2: bit of outlaws. The tax exiles and junkie hangers on
21:20
Speaker 2: sitting across the table from them. They fit right in,
21:23
Speaker 2: But Johnny Braces was worried the Corsicans might have a
21:26
Speaker 2: look around the mansion and realized there was a bigger
21:29
Speaker 2: score to be had than the nine grand a month
21:31
Speaker 2: and dope trade. Kidnapping you can fetch big bucks. And
21:35
Speaker 2: that little boy, the one they call Marlin, looked mighty
21:38
Speaker 2: vulnerable running around unattended to by his junkie parents. But
21:42
Speaker 2: something in the vacant eyes of the pirate looking father
21:44
Speaker 2: with the snaggletoothed, wiry fuck all frame warned them off.
21:49
Speaker 2: The monthly nut would have to do. They took their
21:51
Speaker 2: cash and split back on their speedboats and off into
21:54
Speaker 2: the ocean. From whence they came. Graham Parsons stood by,
21:58
Speaker 2: wild eyed, his whistle wet with junkie anticipation. He watched
22:03
Speaker 2: his keys stepped on the fresh batch of Corsican delivered heroin.
22:06
Speaker 2: Keith was shabby but surgical in his approach. Hovering over
22:10
Speaker 2: his wrenched mansion, standing in the table, shirtless, wearing nothing
22:13
Speaker 2: but low slung striped corduroys, he carefully doled out the
22:17
Speaker 2: appropriate balance of kenine and then talcum powder, and added
22:20
Speaker 2: it to the pile of pink tie heroin. The heroin
22:24
Speaker 2: was incredibly pure and thus deadly. Graham suggested cutting it
22:28
Speaker 2: with laundry detertion, inexperienced in most things in life. Compared
22:32
Speaker 2: to Keith Richards, Graham Parsons was overruled. This incredibly lethal
22:37
Speaker 2: heroin needed to be tempered, but Keith didn't want to
22:39
Speaker 2: turn it into a batch of streets gag. Last year,
22:43
Speaker 2: while on tour in the States, Keith had heard of
22:45
Speaker 2: a drug dealer in Harlem who had been flying in
22:48
Speaker 2: nearly pure heroin from Vietnam and distributing it in a
22:51
Speaker 2: twelve percent potency compared to the usual five percent of
22:55
Speaker 2: most street dope. The Harlem dope King's trick was cutting
22:58
Speaker 2: the smack with kenine, non intoxicating medication, as opposed to
23:03
Speaker 2: cutting it like most dealers did with rat poison, or,
23:06
Speaker 2: as Graham had suggested, with laundry detertion. If they were
23:09
Speaker 2: going to make this Keilo last a month before the
23:12
Speaker 2: Corsican zipped in again up the front Riviera on their speedboats,
23:16
Speaker 2: then Keith needed to cut the smack properly. Key nine, yes,
23:19
Speaker 2: talcum powder, maybe, laundry detergent, definitely not. Graham felt the
23:25
Speaker 2: sting of dejection, but shrugged it off. He needed a fix.
23:28
Speaker 2: Getting a hair across his ass about it wasn't going
23:30
Speaker 2: to help Matters. Satisfied that the heroine was properly calibrated,
23:35
Speaker 2: Keith dipped his German hunting knife into the pile, scooped
23:38
Speaker 2: out a sizeable bump. Turned to Graham, who was standing
23:41
Speaker 2: at his side, nearly salivating it. In a voice that
23:43
Speaker 2: was part laughter, part two pack a day cough, said,
23:47
Speaker 2: have at it, boy. Graham delicately brought his nose to
23:51
Speaker 2: the blade, looked up to Keith dutifully, and with gratitude,
23:54
Speaker 2: pressed his right thumb to his right nostril, vacuuming up
23:57
Speaker 2: the powder. In one quick snart, heroine shot through him
24:01
Speaker 2: like a comet, hard fast and without regard for anything
24:04
Speaker 2: in its path. Graham stumbled a bit, groped about with
24:07
Speaker 2: his hands resting them on the dining room table's surface,
24:10
Speaker 2: and hung his heavy head to his chest. His long
24:13
Speaker 2: dark hair swung delicately as he tried steadying himself. He
24:17
Speaker 2: then gently slumped back into the chair behind him and
24:20
Speaker 2: knotted off. Keith laughed to himself, thinking lightweight, and then
24:25
Speaker 2: finally decided it was time to go to work. Graham
24:30
Speaker 2: awoke to the sounds of Keith and his bandmates messing
24:33
Speaker 2: with the slow blues from the studio in the cellar.
24:36
Speaker 2: Mick laid it on thick with a vocal, but the
24:38
Speaker 2: tune quickly devolved. It was obvious that Keith lost interest
24:42
Speaker 2: in whatever did he ask koodoo Mick was attempting to conjure.
24:46
Speaker 2: Then Graham heard the newly familiar chorus to what would
24:48
Speaker 2: become a Stone's masterpiece all down the line, burbling up
24:52
Speaker 2: from the basement into a blast of swampy sonic magnificence.
24:57
Speaker 2: G c d back to the g Keith carved up
25:01
Speaker 2: the riff with his Telly Charlie and Bill pulled the
25:04
Speaker 2: rhythm into form. Mick Taylor skidded across the top of
25:07
Speaker 2: it all with his loose slide, while Jagger channeled Big
25:10
Speaker 2: Mama Thornton through his skinny English frame. Keith then pushed
25:14
Speaker 2: the tune to the forecord Mick hit the chorus. Keith
25:17
Speaker 2: couldn't contain himself. He muscled over to Mick and sang
25:19
Speaker 2: out into Jagger's handheld mike alongside him, the two of
25:23
Speaker 2: them a shambalic mess of spontaneous rock and roll brilliance,
25:26
Speaker 2: their voices saturated with junk and ambition, respectively, and before
25:31
Speaker 2: jumping back into the rift, Keith let out a short,
25:34
Speaker 2: ecstatic yeah. Graham heard it all unfold from upstairs. He
25:39
Speaker 2: brimmed with jealousy and the basement. While the Stones were
25:42
Speaker 2: recording with strictly off limits unless you were contributing to
25:45
Speaker 2: the music in a meaningful way, A well meaning as
25:48
Speaker 2: he was, there was nothing meaningful about Graham Parson's contribution
25:52
Speaker 2: to the Rolling Stones recordings while exiled on the French Riviera.
25:56
Speaker 2: A less, of course, you count being Keith Richard's Junkie
25:59
Speaker 2: pilot Fish is particularly meaningful now during working hours midnight
26:04
Speaker 2: ish to whenever Keith passed out, Graham was relegated to
26:07
Speaker 2: the upstairs with the women and the rest of the
26:09
Speaker 2: junkie hangers on. None of this is to say that
26:12
Speaker 2: Graham and Keith didn't have a special relationship. They did,
26:15
Speaker 2: for sure. He and Keith would get high and sit
26:18
Speaker 2: around talking country music until the sun came up. It
26:21
Speaker 2: was a genuine mutual admiration club, and it drove Mick
26:24
Speaker 2: Jagger nuts. Here was Mick fighting for the survival of
26:28
Speaker 2: their band, trying to move Helen Earth to engage Keith,
26:30
Speaker 2: his songwriting partner creatively, only to be continuously iced out
26:34
Speaker 2: by Keith while he got high and traded old honky
26:38
Speaker 2: tonk songs on acoustics with another songwriter, Graham Parsons, for
26:42
Speaker 2: hours on end. Graham knew Mick hated him, hated the
26:46
Speaker 2: contention that someone else, someone like Graham Parsons, was going
26:49
Speaker 2: to teach him, Keith Richards, or any of the Rolling
26:52
Speaker 2: Stones for that matter, about country music. After all, on
26:55
Speaker 2: their previous smash hit long Players Sticky Fingers, Mick had
26:59
Speaker 2: written the country inspired dead flowers. Fuck you very much,
27:02
Speaker 2: mister Parsons. The rivalry drove Mick and eventually Mixed Drive
27:08
Speaker 2: did what it always did, caught keys up in its
27:11
Speaker 2: draft and pulled them into the creative frey until finally
27:14
Speaker 2: the two got down to doing what they'd left England
27:16
Speaker 2: to do, make the greatest rock and roll record of
27:18
Speaker 2: all time. But the record wouldn't be completed at Villainelle Cott.
27:37
Speaker 2: French police were polite but stern. They'd come calling to
27:41
Speaker 2: follow up on various reports Corsican drug dealers were seen
27:44
Speaker 2: entering the house. There were reports of rampant drug use,
27:47
Speaker 2: including from miners, and there were also rumors of miners
27:51
Speaker 2: being assaulted sexually, a result no doubt of Sketchy Oliver
27:54
Speaker 2: as Randy Mandy's. Despite this serious list of transgressions, the
27:59
Speaker 2: local authorities did not, it seemed, take the searching of
28:02
Speaker 2: the house seriously. When they left, Anita moved quick she
28:08
Speaker 2: knew what was up. There was no search because the
28:10
Speaker 2: cops were looking for her bribe, which Keith was too
28:12
Speaker 2: oblivious to offer them, which meant, by Anita's estimation that
28:16
Speaker 2: the authorities would be back, and this time not so
28:19
Speaker 2: lackluster in their search. Convinced they were still out there
28:23
Speaker 2: watching the house, Anita grabbed as much dope as she
28:26
Speaker 2: could fit into her purse and then grabbed Keith by
28:28
Speaker 2: the hand, who then grabbed Marlin, and the three of
28:31
Speaker 2: them headed to their upstairs bedroom. The drill, the bus
28:34
Speaker 2: drill had been well rehearsed. Out the bedroom window, onto
28:38
Speaker 2: the roof of the mobile recording truck, down its side,
28:40
Speaker 2: onto the manicured lawn, down the back steps to the dock,
28:43
Speaker 2: onto the speedboat, and the fuck out of dodge, and
28:46
Speaker 2: just like that, they were gone in the wind Outlaws
28:52
Speaker 2: up next the Wild Wild West, Los Angeles. The band,
28:56
Speaker 2: due to the heavy sales of their previous record, Sticky Figures,
28:59
Speaker 2: had banked enough bread during their time away from the
29:02
Speaker 2: UK in France to finance the completion of the record.
29:05
Speaker 2: In America, a country whose music blues country in R
29:09
Speaker 2: and B, the band, like most of their contemporaries, found
29:12
Speaker 2: endlessly compelling American music. So compelled the Rolling Stones that,
29:18
Speaker 2: no matter what their situation, exiled addicted whatever they were
29:21
Speaker 2: able to lock into the music and keep themselves from
29:24
Speaker 2: spinning off at the face of the earth, despite whatever
29:27
Speaker 2: desperate circumstance they found themselves in. The Rolling Stones always
29:31
Speaker 2: seemed to rise to the creative challenge. Their approach to
29:34
Speaker 2: their craft, making the greatest rock and roll music the
29:37
Speaker 2: world had ever heard, being the greatest rock and roll
29:40
Speaker 2: band the world had ever seen, and doing it all
29:42
Speaker 2: without a playbook was inspired. America was big and its
29:46
Speaker 2: music worthy of respect making. Keith knew that if they
29:49
Speaker 2: were going to fuck with it, they needed to treat
29:51
Speaker 2: it with the reverence it deserved. So when it came
29:53
Speaker 2: to their craft, the band worked hard, dope, guns, money,
29:57
Speaker 2: and women could wait. As careless as it seemed. Rock
30:01
Speaker 2: and roll was serious business for rock musicians in the
30:05
Speaker 2: early seventies. For Graham Parsons, Eric Clapton, Leon Russell Elton,
30:09
Speaker 2: John led Zeppelin, The Grateful Dead, the Band, The Eagles,
30:12
Speaker 2: John Paul, George Evn Ringo, the race was on to
30:15
Speaker 2: see who could crack the code to American roots music,
30:18
Speaker 2: a music with a fascinatingly rich stew of influences Delta blues, country, soul, gospel,
30:25
Speaker 2: R and B. This mixture had produced the first generation
30:28
Speaker 2: of rock and rollers that The Stones and their contemporaries
30:31
Speaker 2: have all grown up on. And who would influenced them
30:33
Speaker 2: to start making music to begin with artists like Elvis Presley,
30:37
Speaker 2: Jerry Lee, Lewis, Bo Diddley, and others. How could this
30:40
Speaker 2: endlessly fascinating music, American music, be reimagined into something entirely
30:45
Speaker 2: new for today's generation of rock and roll fans. That
30:49
Speaker 2: was the question, and at Villanellcott in the summer of
30:53
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy one, almost by accident, the Rolling Stones answered
30:57
Speaker 2: it was a question they were uniquely qualified answer. Their
31:01
Speaker 2: situation in exile meant they were as steeped in desperation
31:04
Speaker 2: as the financially strapped post war blues musicians who inspired
31:08
Speaker 2: them to pick up guitars in the first place, and
31:10
Speaker 2: they'd spent the entirety of their post pubescent lives studying
31:13
Speaker 2: and trying to replicate American music, all while embodying the
31:17
Speaker 2: fuck all ethos of the evolving rock star avatar. If
31:21
Speaker 2: success for the straight world is when preparation and opportunity align,
31:25
Speaker 2: then success for the Rolling Stones was when circumstance and
31:28
Speaker 2: necessity aligned. Preparation wasn't part of the equation musically. They've
31:33
Speaker 2: been preparing to make this record their whole lives, and
31:36
Speaker 2: that record the one they began at Nellcott, the basic
31:40
Speaker 2: tracks they'd cobbled together in a basement through a haze
31:43
Speaker 2: of dope, desperation and distractions, thick personal tension, electrical fires,
31:48
Speaker 2: small time burglaries, police raids, gunplay. What the Rolling Stones
31:52
Speaker 2: emerged with while exiled in a foreign country, away from
31:56
Speaker 2: their home country was a wholly unique interpretation of another country,
32:00
Speaker 2: entirely America. The music The Stone is desperately concocted in
32:04
Speaker 2: keith sweaty basement, would shine a light on the underbelly
32:08
Speaker 2: of Americana and show the world the potential of where
32:10
Speaker 2: rock music is a genre could go exile on Main Street.
32:14
Speaker 2: The record they emerged with was a masterpiece. It was official.
32:19
Speaker 2: The race was won. Despite their dysfunction, despite their desperation,
32:23
Speaker 2: The Rolling Stones were kings. They may have been exiled outlaws,
32:28
Speaker 2: but they were now rock and roll royalty. I'm Jake
32:32
Speaker 2: Brennan and this is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created by Yours
32:44
Speaker 2: Truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits
32:47
Speaker 2: for this episode can be found on the show notes
32:49
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32:53
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33:32
Speaker 2: a roll up. He then man