The Shocking Story Behind This Unreleased Rolling Stones Single

The legendary Rolling Stones have been thrilling U.S. and international audiences for nearly six decades with a break from 1982 until 1989. They were under contract with the internationally famous Decca label from 1964 until a spectacular, unexpected – some would say ungodly — finish in 1984. Their first album, titled The Rolling Stones, was one of the biggest sellers in the UK in 1964, and the number one seller for 12 weeks

Mick Jagger sets the bar for ‘The Rolling Stones’

Separating truth from legend can be challenging with a star as colorful as Mick Jagger. According to his biographer, he has slept with more than 4,000 women, many of them famous, and David Bowie as well. Despite his love of glitz and glam, he admired British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, known for her power suits. “She didn’t change for anyone,” he said.

Jagger’s music career had an unlikely beginning. He sang in his church choir. His father was a teacher, and he was a scholarship student at London School of Economics where he studied accounting and finance. At college, he reconnected with his childhood friend Keith Richards. They decided to start a band, which ended Jagger’s formal education and set him and Keith on the road to fame.

According to Psychobabble, “In 1964, the hysteria over The Rolling Stones’ shockingly long hair reached new heights of idiocy when Mick said he was approached by an eighty-year-old woman who asked if he was a member of The Supremes and she wasn’t kidding!

The music icon bought a multi-million pound historic Hampshire mansion in England named Stargroves while high on acid according to a memoir attributed to him. During the ’70s, the Rolling Stones used the mansion as a recording venue.

Tina Turner claims she was Jagger’s dance teacher. She said: “Mick wanted to dance…He said his mother taught him how to dance. But we worked with him in the dressing room…and we taught him how to Pony.”

Keith Richards kicks up the bar for ‘The Rolling Stones’

Keith Richards, the Stones’ iconic guitarist was often busted for drugs. He was charged with possession in Canada in 1977. When his case got to court in 1978, each court appearance drew a crowd of noisy fans. A persistent blind woman buttonholed the judge and pleaded for her hero. His community-service sentence was to play a benefit concert for the blind. 

Richards confessed that the strangest thing he every snorted were his father’s ashes. He provided some details in Life. “As I took the lid off of the box, a fine spray of his ashes blew out on to the table…I couldn’t just brush him off, so I wiped my finger over it and snorted the residue.”

In 1972, he was exiled from France because of drug charges and from Great Britain for tax reasons. He moved to a chalet in Switzerland and learned to ski while stoned. He said his drug supply was top quality.

During the 1989 Steel Wheels tour, the Rolling Stones’ catering set-up was a realistic English pub with a jukebox and standard pub grub. When Richards arrived late, he found someone had eaten the shepherd’s pie he was anticipating before the concert. He delayed the concert until another shepherd’s pie was prepared and cooled enough so he could eat it. Jagger was reportedly furious. 

By the 1990s the only thing left for Richards to do to shock his fans was to get married. He settled down with his wife Patti and two daughters. The family moved from Manhattan to pastoral Weston, Connecticut. 

‘The Rolling Stones’ had the last word

Of course, they did.  The Rolling Stones are still going strong with concerts scheduled through the summer of 2019 despite Jagger’s heart surgery in the spring of 2019. As for Decca, they rejected The Beatles and could not hold on to the Rolling Stones.  

In 1970, the group was under contract to Decca. They decided it was time to leave and create their own label-free from corporate meddling and restrictions. They gave Decca that last song and they continued touring.

They honored their contract with Decca by recording the now-infamous “Schoolboy Blues.” The song was too profane for Decca to release, so they buried it — they thought. In 1983, the controversial song was accidentally included in a four-LP box set titled The Rest of the Best and released in Germany.

This oversight probably cost someone their job. The records were pulled from shelves. and the set was reissued without “Schoolboy Blues.” Now, thanks to the Internet, the censored song is a YouTube sensation. 

If you’ve not heard the Stones’ “Schoolboy Blues,” originally titled “C…sucker Blues,” it is as near as your Smartphone or laptop. How offensive are the lyrics? Go here to read them and you decide.