‘Cocksucker Blues’: The Rolling Stones Get Dirtier (1970)

By Marcelo Sonaglioni on August 15, 2025

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Rolling Stones unreleased: Cocksucker Blues

Also known as: CS Blues, Schoolboy Blues or Lonesome Schoolboy
Written by: Jagger/Richard
Recorded: Rolling Stones Mobile, Stargoves, Newbury and Olympic Sound Studios, London, England, May 1970

From Martin Elliott’s book THE ROLLING STONES COMPLETE RECORDING SESSIONS 1962-2012:
As the Stones terminated their contract with Decca an executive reminded them that they still had to deliver one further single. The Stones duly obliged presenting them with the master tape of Cocksucker Blues. It was the Stones’ last two-finger salute to the record company who, through the years, continually censored album covers and products alike. Decca were morally obliged not to release the ‘X’ rated Cocksucker Blues. It is a slow blues song featuring just acoustic guitar and Mick Jagger’s wailful tones. Mick is the likely acoustic guitar player. The lyrics freely describe homosexual practices.

The track was later retitled Schoolboy Blues when it was included in the stage production of The Trials of Oz by Geoff Robertson. Original demos were recorded in the mobile recording unit at Stargroves, Newbury, Berkshire. In 1984 the German boxed set of Decca material contained a bonus single with Cocksucker Blues on it. It was available for a short period and then in 1985 was discontinued and Decca in Hamburg declined to comment. An interesting electric version was played in May 1978 during rehearsals for the upcoming tour. It was not featured on the setlist!

*Cocksucker Blues is also the name of an unreleased documentary film directed by the still photographer Robert Frank chronicling The Stones American Tour 1972 in support of their album Exile on Main St.

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**More about Cocksucker Blues by The Rolling Stones**

*By Marcelo Sonaglioni

rolling stones unreleased cocksucker blues 1970

Cocksucker Blues: The Stones’ Not-So-Polite Farewell to Decca

When the Rolling Stones decided to break free from Decca, the label kindly reminded them they still owed one last single. Naturally, the Stones delivered Cocksucker Blues, a cheeky two-finger salute to a company that had spent years censoring album covers and reining in their antics. Slow, sparse, and dripping with acoustic blues, the track features Mick Jagger wailing over what is likely his own acoustic guitar strumming, singing about… let’s just say very specific adult adventures. Decca, predictably, blanched.

Morally obliged—or perhaps just too polite to admit otherwise—they never released the track in its “X-rated” glory. Over the years, the song morphed under different aliases: CS Blues, Schoolboy Blues, etc., appearing in stage productions and briefly on a German boxed set before quietly disappearing again. Truly, the Stones’ idea of a parting gift was to make their ex-label blush.

From Stargroves to Stage and Beyond

Recorded in May 1970 at Stargroves, Newbury, and later at London’s Olympic Sound Studios, Cocksucker Blues led a quietly rebellious life. Its sparse acoustic blues, with Mick Jagger’s wailing vocals, was the Stones’ cheeky farewell to Decca, a label that had spent years policing their art. Fast forward eight years to 1978, and the band dusted it off during U.S. tour rehearsals—electric this time—but true to form, it never made the setlist. The track’s shadowy existence continued: in 1984, a German boxed set briefly included it as a bonus, only for it to vanish again a year later. Decca in Hamburg, predictably tight-lipped, declined to comment. And so Cocksucker Blues remains a forbidden gem: a wink, a middle finger, and a reminder that even in retreat, the Rolling Stones could turn a simple blues number into an audacious act of defiance.

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