The Rolling Stones mourn the loss of life of Cocksucker Blues director Robert Frank

Images pioneer and Rolling Stones documentarian Robert Frank has handed away. He died in his dwelling in Nova Scotia on the age of 94.

“We’re very unhappy to listen to the information that the visionary photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank has died,” The Rolling Stones mourned in an official assertion. “Robert collaborated with us on quite a lot of initiatives together with the duvet design of Exile on Major Road and [he] directed the Cocksucker Blues documentary. He was an unimaginable artist whose distinctive fashion broke the mould. Our ideas are along with his household and associates right now.”

Frank launched his groundbreaking ebook, The People, in 1958. That includes an introduction from Jack Kerouac, the challenge was comprised of black-and-white pictures of American society.

The Swiss-American photographer is maybe extra famously identified for Cocksucker Blues, his controversial documentary on The Rolling Stones. The movie was commissioned by the band following Frank’s pictures work for the duvet of Exile on Major Road.

Footage for Cocksucker Blues was captured by Frank in the course of the band’s 1972 tour. Shot cinéma vérité-style, it options numerous stunning behind-the-scenes moments. The documentary features a scene by which frontman Mick Jagger is seen snorting cocaine, whereas others present Rolling Stones groupies doing medicine at a celebration.

As a result of such footage may probably taint their popularity, The Rolling Stones sought to forestall Frank from releasing the movie. A authorized battle ensued till the 2 events lastly agreed — although to fairly uncommon phrases.

The English rockers allowed for Cocksucker Blues to be screened in an “archival” setting. Nevertheless, Frank may solely achieve this 4 instances every year and needed to be current for every screening occasion.

“It’s a authorized ruling proper out of the stoned ’70s: a bit ungapatchka, not likely all that logical,” wrote Selection in 2016. “However the result’s that ‘C—sucker Blues’ is the underground doc of rock & roll extra that isn’t fully misplaced.”

Lately, Cocksucker Blues has been proven on the Museum of the Trendy Artwork in New York in 2012, in addition to in the course of the Telluride Movie Competition in Colorado in 2015.