The Banned Rolling Stones Film: C*CKSUCKER BLUES & The 1972 Live Album That Never Was

Although Keith Richards loved the documentary, Mick Jagger warned him if the film was released the cops would be waiting for them.

The Rolling Stones Cocksucker Blues 

Cocksucker Blues is an unreleased documentary film directed by the still photographer Robert Frank chronicling The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972 in support of their album Exile on Main St. 
Watch the film by clicking this link:

The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972, also known as the "Stones Touring Party", shortened to S.T.P.  was a much-publicized and much-written-about concert tour of the United States and Canada in June and July 1972 by The Rolling Stones. Constituting the band's first performances in the United States following the Altamont Free Concert in December 1969, critic Dave Marsh would later write that the tour was "part of rock and roll legend" and one of the "benchmarks of an era." 

No live album was released from the tour at the time, although one was planned as far as having a front and back cover designed and studio touch-ups being made on several recorded tracks. Eventually, the album was shelved due to contractual disputes with Allen Klein.  

THE ROLLING STONES - UNRELEASED DECCA LIVE ALBUM 1972  

From Wikipedia:

Allen Klein (December 18, 1931 – July 4, 2009) was an American businessman whose aggressive negotiation tactics affected industry standards for compensating recording artists. He founded ABKCO Music & Records Incorporated. Klein increased profits for his musician clients by negotiating new record company contracts. He first scored monetary and contractual gains for Buddy Knox and Jimmy Bowen, one-hit rockabillies of the late 1950s, then parlayed his early successes into a position managing Sam Cooke, and eventually managed the Beatles and the Rolling Stones simultaneously, along with many other artists, becoming one of the most powerful individuals in the music industry during his era.

Rather than offering financial advice and maximizing his clients' income, as a business manager normally would, Klein set up what he called "buy/sell agreements" where a company that Klein owned became an intermediary between his client and the record label, owning the rights to the music, manufacturing the records, selling them to the record label, and paying royalties and cash advances to the client. Although Klein greatly increased his clients' incomes, he also enriched himself, sometimes without his clients' knowledge. The Rolling Stones' $1.25 million advance from the Decca Records label in 1965, for example, was deposited into a company that Klein had established, and the fine print of the contract did not require Klein to release it for 20 years. Klein's involvement with both the Beatles and Rolling Stones would lead to years of litigation and, specifically for the Rolling Stones, accusations from the group that Klein had withheld royalty payments, stolen the publishing rights to their songs, and neglected to pay their taxes for five years; thus had necessitated their French "exile" in 1971.

After years of pursuit by the IRS, Klein was convicted of the misdemeanor charge of making a false statement on his 1972 tax return, for which, in 1980, he was jailed for two months.

In the spring of 1965 Andrew Loog Oldham, co-manager of the Rolling Stones, saw in Klein a terrific business adviser and ally, one who could help him win an incipient power struggle with Eric Easton, a music business veteran who was then the other half of the band's management team. Barely 21, Oldham was profoundly important in the development of the Stones' image, and in initiating the songwriting partnership of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. After some management mishaps, blame for which fell at Easton's feet, and Jagger's ascension in the band's hierarchy following "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", the Stones' first number one record in America, Oldham sought and received Jagger's blessing to bring Klein aboard for re-negotiation of the group's contract with Decca Records. The label offered the band the opportunity to make $300,000 if their records continued to sell. Klein countered with, and quickly secured, an arrangement paying the Stones twice as much, in the form of an advance. He also forced London Records, Decca's American subsidiary, to sign a separate contract. It too was for $600,000. By the time Klein subsequently re-negotiated the deal one year later, Easton having been removed as co-manager, the Stones were guaranteed $2.6 million—more than the Beatles were making.

When Klein examined the Stones' management contract with Easton and Oldham he found that the two were receiving a disproportionate share of the group's income: not only did Easton and Oldham receive an 8 percent royalty on sales of the Stones' singles—the Stones themselves received only 6 percent—but they also received a 25 percent commission on the Stones' income. At Klein's insistence, Oldham increased the Stones' royalties to 7 percent and relinquished his commission. Klein offered the Stones a million-dollar minimum guarantee, paid over a 20-year period to reduce the Stones' tax liability, to let him become their music publisher, based on his faith in the Jagger-Richards songwriting team. He also arranged for a level of tour support and publicity far above anything the band had ever previously experienced for the Stones' 1965 American tour in support of the album December's Children.

Jagger, who had studied at the London School of Economics, gradually became distrustful of Klein, particularly for the latter's ability to insert himself as a profit participant in the group's ever-growing financial affairs. For example, in 1968 Klein very profitably bought out Oldham's share in the band for $750,000. By 1968 the Stones were so concerned with how their finances were being handled by Klein that they hired a London law firm, Berger Oliver & Co, to look into their financial situation and Jagger hired the titled merchant banker Prince Rupert Loewenstein to be his personal financial adviser. Another possible factor in the Stones' dissatisfaction with Klein was that when the latter began to manage the Beatles he focused more of his attention on that band's affairs than on the concerns of the Stones. In 1970, on the occasion of needing to negotiate a new contract with Decca, Jagger announced that Klein would be replaced as manager by Loewenstein.

The split between Klein and the Stones led to years of litigation. In 1971 the Stones sued Klein over U.S. publishing rights. The suit was settled the following year, with the Stones receiving $1.2 million as a settlement of all American royalties earned up to that point (and was essentially the $1.25 million advance that Decca had paid the Stones in 1965 that Klein had been withholding since August 1965). However, the Stones were unable to break their contract with Klein, who held an additional $2 million of the Stones' money to be paid over a 15-year period, ostensibly for tax purposes. Klein's company, ABKCO, continued to control the rights to publish the Stones' music and it was Klein who made a fortune off the band's all-time best-selling album, Hot Rocks 1964–1971.

In 1972, Klein alleged that some of the songs on their album Exile on Main Street had been composed while the Stones were still under contract with ABKCO. As a result, ABKCO acquired ownership of the disputed songs and was able to publish another Rolling Stones album, More Hot Rocks (Big Hits and Fazed Cookies).^[69] In 1974 negotiations over royalties led to a payment of $375,000 to the Stones and ABKCO's release of an additional Rolling Stones album, Metamorphosis.^[70] In 1975 more lawsuits and negotiations resulted in a $1 million payment to the Stones for non-payment by Klein of songwriting royalties, and the release of four Rolling Stones albums including Rock and Roll Circus and Rolled Gold: The Very Best of the Rolling Stones.^[71] In 1984 Jagger and Richards sued to break their publishing agreement with ABKCO because of non-payment of royalties. The judge encouraged the two sides to reach a settlement.

Starting in 1986, when the introduction of compact discs brought great profits to the music industry, relations began to improve between Klein and the Stones.^[73] In 2002, the Stones' album Forty Licks and the Licks Tour, celebrating the band's 40th anniversary, incorporated songs owned by ABKCO. The Stones agreed to a five-year payment plan suggested by Klein's son, Jody. In 2003, Klein negotiated with Steve Jobs to make ABKCO's Rolling Stones songs available on iTunes.

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