Exile In May Street Part 4: The Rolling Stones and Robert Frank Get Their Rocks Off

“Rocks Off,” Track 1 on Side 1 of Exile on Main Street, is rarely brought up as one of The Rolling Stones' all-time greatest album openers. But this is understandable when your canon of kick-offs also includes “Paint It, Black,” “Sympathy for the Devil,” “Gimme Shelter,” “Brown Sugar,” “Miss You” and “Start Me Up.”

Nevertheless, “Rocks Off,” a propulsive, grimy tale of sexual frustration and jet-setting decadence sets the tone for Exile perfectly. I recently came across the following clip on YouTube which marries the tune to super-8 footage of the band shot by Robert Frank, the great photographer behind Exile's cover and whose 1956 travelogue The Americans is the Exile on Main Street of art photography books.

Frank, with a great photographer's eye, has a way of saying volumes about the band and their time just by showing them walking around Coney Island and driving in their car.


Frank also filmed a legendary documentary about the band, following them on their 1972 mega-tour across the US. I won't repeat the film's name here but its two-word title combines euphemisms for a rooster and a lollipop, along with the type of music the Stones started out playing.

The film, which shows the private jets, hotel rooms, boredom, repetition, hangers-on and, when time allows, amazing music that accompanies life on a major rock tour, was cinema verite to a fault, to the point that the band never released it. In fact, Mick Jagger told Frank that he loved the film, but he feared that if it was released commercially, the band would never be allowed back in the States.

So while the film is not available on DVD and probably never will be, it is on YouTube in 10 parts. Here’s part 1. You can see the other parts here. I have only watched a couple segments but while the way the roadies treat the groupies while the band looks on is geniuinely offensive, the film itself is a fascinating look at the World’s Greatest Rock & Roll Band at the last time when the moniker was, if anything, an understatement.

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