“Spanish” Tony Sanchez worked for The Rolling Stones for eight years in a number of capacities, including bodyguard, dope connection, and fall guy. He was friendly with Brian Jones before the group was formed, so he had intimate, first-hand knowledge of much of the bedlam and debauchery that followed The Stones through Swinging London. His unauthorized 1979 biography of the group is loaded with well-told inside stories that will ultimately leave you feeling very sober.
His telling of how Mick Jagger and Keith Richards pushed Jones (no choir boy himself) to the fringe of the group before expelling him provides a stark portrait of the egotistical, self-serving side of the Glimmer Twins. Certainly Jagger and Richards have never been accused of being sentimental pushovers, but here they come across as leering gargoyles, feeding off the flesh of anyone who crosses their path, and tossing aside the remains like so much rubbish.
Sanchez’ version of the Stones’ role in the Altamont Speedway tragedy is particularly gut-wrenching. On December 6th, 1969 the group gave a free concert for more than 250,000 people at the racetrack outside of San Francisco. The Hell’s Angels were hired as bodyguards, but rather than quelling the crowd, they helped ignite the orgy of violence that occurred that day. Four people died, including Meredith Hunter, a black man who was stabbed and kicked to death by a hoard of Angels within plain view of the stage. According to Sanchez, Jagger’s response to the disaster was to rhetorically ask “Flower Power was a load of crap wasn’t it?”
In truth, Altamont was The Stones’ Milli Vanilli moment, where the group was exposed as a bunch of scared young men merely playing tough. When confronted with real violence and darkness, Mick Jagger turned into a simpering schoolgirl, sputtering peace and love catchphrases while watching his security guards pummel the audience with pool cues. The movie Gimme Shelter, which captures the chaos of Altamont in ugly technicolor, is proof that it was actually The Stones’ swaggering, hard-as-nails stance that was a load of crap.
Bill Graham has a quote midway through that sets the tone for this book: “Mick Jagger may be great as a performer, but he’s an egotistical creep as a person.” If you can believe even half of what’s spun in Up And Down With The Rolling Stones, you’ll probably still enjoy the group’s music, but you won’t see the men behind those songs in quite the same way.
Tags: Books, Rolling Stones, Tony Sanchez, Up And Down With The Rolling Stones
