THE ROLLING STONES ROCK WARHOL’S EAST HAMPTON PAD | MONTAUK, 1975
Andy Warhol cultural icon, and Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones – Image by © Ken Regan
BY JP-It was spring of 1975, and the rolling stones were gearing up for their epic Tour Of The Americas (TOTA)– which they would later kick off in NYC by performing “Brown Sugar” on the
back of a flatbed truck driving down 5th Ave. Looking for a place to
rest up, rehearse for the tour, and work on songs for their upcoming
album, Black and Blue, the boys rented their pal Andy Warhol’s
pad (for 5k a month), and got busy being themselves. Let’s just say
their presence did not go unnoticed by their buttoned-up neighbors:
“Throughout April sensationally loud
music welled through the windows, into the ruts and hollows over the
tangled crab-grass of an estate in Montauk, Long Island. Residents of
the Ditch Plains trailer park were woken in the night – yapping dogs,
even wolves, the loud grief of coyotes. From East Hampton to New York
the word spread with the ferocity of a brush fire: The Rolling Stones
were rehearsing!”
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June, 1975 — The Rolling Stones, with
guest percussionist Ollie E. Brown, outside their rehearsal room at
Andy Warhol’s Montauk Church Estate – Image by © Ken Regan. Although
the Stones tried to keep a low profile, their fans found their hide
away. Andy Warhol remembered, “Mick Jagger really put Montauk on the
map. All the motels were overflowing with groupies. Two girls with no
hair and black cats on leashes followed them all the way to Montauk. Mr.
Winters, the caretaker of the estate, found them hiding in the bushes!”
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June, 1975 — The Rolling Stones, with
guest percussionist Ollie E. Brown, outside their rehearsal room at
Andy Warhol’s Montauk Church Estate – Image by © Ken Regan.
Following Mick Taylor’s leaving the band, Ronnie Wood stepped in to
(try and) fill his shoes. Wood was still a member of the Faces while he
toured with the Stones on TOTA, and recorded with them on Black and
Blue. The Faces wouldn’t officially announce they’re breakup until Dec.
1975, and the Stones announced Wood as an official member of the band in
Feb. 1976. “I remember learning 150 of their repertoire (laughs). I
gave up trying to remember which key each one was in or the chord
sequence to a lot of them. I did a lot of it by feel in the end, you
know. Had to, it’s impossible to log all of those songs. It was intense–
to get hit with all of those Mick Taylor lines, to echo what Brian had
done, then to add my own bluesy input to it all.” –Ron Wood
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Below is a great little read from Montauk live that
recounts the days of Andy Warhol’s move to East Hampton, The Rolling
Stones’ legendary visit to the Church Estate that Warhol owned, and
other interesting tidbits of that time:
If
there was one thing Andy loved more than fame, it was money. That’s
what first brought the intensely urban Warhol to wide open Montauk. A
long time visitor to the Hamptons proper, he and Paul Morrissey,
director of many of Andy’s early avant garde films, decided a home here
would be a great investment. Ironically, they turned to East Hampton
realtor Tina Fredericks, who had been one of Andy’s early champions when
art director of Vogue in the mid-1950′s.
One rainy weekend in early 1972, Andy and
Paul piled into Tina’s Eldorado for a tour of the East End. She started
showing them houses in the primest of areas of the East End –
Southampton’s tony Gin Lane, East Hampton’s posh Further Lane and Ocean
Avenue, but nothing moved Andy. It wasn’t until they drove into Montauk
that eccentric Andy began to perk up.
According to Tina, it was the unlikely
sight of the absurd architecture of the Memory Motel and Ronjo Motels
that caught Andy’s eye. It seems the mix of Polynesian, Tudor, and
“Motel Six” design amused Andy. Driving east of town along the ocean
Tina brought them to a dramatic compound, overlooking the Atlantic on
the wind swept cliffs of Montauk.
1972 — Mr. Winters on his tractor at the Church Estate, Montauk. — Image by Peter Beard via
The Church Estate was a
collection of 5 classic, clapboard houses built in the 1920s. Set on 20
acres high above the Atlantic, they had been designed by noted architect
Stanford White. The main house, with 7 bedrooms, 5 baths, 4 stone
fireplaces and large living areas would be perfect for entertaining. The
4 smaller cottages would be guest accommodations. They agreed to the
price and Andy and Paul split the $225,000 cost. As it turned out, this
good investment was the best buy of Andy’s life. Currently on the market
for a cool $50,000,000, it’s the most expensive home for sale on the
East End, and one of the most expensive in all of America. (Currently owned by J.Crew’s Mickey Drexler.)
Although Andy was happy with his new
house, his primary concern that first year was finding a tenant to help
with the bills. That started a long parade of celebrity renters for the
Montauk home. That first year Andy rented the main house to Lee
Radziwill, Jackie Onassis’s famed sister. In her recent bio, Happy Times, Lee remembered that Summer fondly. “The
main house had a floor of huge old flagstones and two enormous
fireplaces opposite each other. It smelled of cedar and the sea.”
Andy she saw in a different light – “He
was almost allergic to fresh air, but once in a while felt obliged to
leave the city and check in on the happenings at his place in Montauk.
Here a somewhat different person was on display. He loved children and
was inventive with them, creating activities in which they became
totally abandoned such as when he sat them down at a large round table
in the living room to show them how to edit a film in a simple way. He
was something of a pied piper, always keeping their attention, always
admiring and encouraging them at whatever they did.”
“We spent long lazy afternoons on the
beach, talking and burying each other in the sand. At times like this,
Andy wasn’t as strange as he initially seemed, but revealed himself as a
keen, subtle observer of everything around him.”
“He had a simple supper every night
at six before going out, seven nights a week to observe. He didn’t eat
the rich food at the dinners and parties that he constantly attended. He
was too fragile after the attempt on his life and his serious
operation.”
1973, New York– Andy Warhol and Lee
Radziwill –Image by © Condeˆ Nast Archive / Corbis. Jackie Kennedy
Onassis’s sister, Lee Radziwell rented the largest of the five houses on
Andy Warhol’s property in Montauk during the first summer he bought it.
Lee was there to supervise the “rescue” of Grey Gardens
where her eccentric East Hampton cousins, the Beales, lived. Jackie
visited Lee several times that summer. It was Lee Radziwell’s idea for
the Maysles Brothers (who had filmed The Rolling Stones’ Altamont concert for the documentary “Gimme Shelter”) to film her cousins which became the famous documentary, Grey Gardens. via
That Summer, Jackie came for a number of visits with young Caroline and John John. Andy remembered, “They
used to run around throwing balloons filled with water at everybody.
They were always having egg fights. John John was the ring leader. He
was about 12 then. He told the funniest stories and the best jokes. John
John and Caroline loved to go down to the candy store to look for
pictures of themselves in the movie mags.”
Andy was so proud of his association with the first family of America, that Bob Colacello Interview editor and one of Andy’s closest companions, remembers – “Andy joked about putting up gold plaques that said ‘Lee slept here’ and ‘Jackie slept here.’” The shy boy from the wrong side of the tracks had come a long way.
It seems one of the
reasons Lee spent 1972 in Montauk had to do with Andy’s charismatic next
door neighbor, Peter Beard. Andy described him as – “one of the
most fascinating men in the world … he’s like a modern Tarzan. He jumps
in and out of the snake pit he keeps at his home. He cuts himself and
paints with the blood. He wears sandals and no socks in the middle of
Winter. He lived in a parked car on 13th Street for six months. He moved
when he woke up and found a transvestite sleeping on the roof.” He also thought Peter was one of the best looking men he’d ever seen. So did Lee.
Peter was both Andy’s neighbor and artist
in arms. Unlike some who built his reputation around Andy, Peter had
established himself as one of the great nature and fashion photographers
long before meeting Andy. Grandson of a well to do western family,
Manhattan/England/Yale educated, he began his career while still in
college, signed to a $12,000 a year contract by Vogue in 1955. That was
also the year he first traveled to Africa, a trip that would forever
change his life and work. His landmark work, The End of the Game
(1963), a collection of essays and photographs on the rapid decline of
Africa and it’s wildlife, is a testament to early ecological and
sociological sensibilities.
Peter first came to know
Andy through his uncle, Jerome Hill, one of the early partners in
Andy’s Interview magazine. Beard in turn came to know Lee when he was
assigned a photo shoot of The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street
tour in 1972. Long remembered as one of the most decadent rock and roll
campaigns of the overly indulgent ’70s, the frenzy to report this
momentous event was such that the most prominent papers of the day
battled to cover this bacchanalian tour. Rolling Stone magazine topped them all by assigning Truma Capote to follow the tour, and Peter Beard to photograph.
While on tour Peter became good friends with Mick Jagger. They partied their way across the country in the “Lapping Tongue”
– the Stones speciality outfitted DC-7. As has been well documented
they flew considerably higher than the clouds that surrounded them. Half
way through the tour, Truman Capote met the group in Kansas City. In
tow was his new best friend, Lee Radziwill. The mix of rock royalty and
Fortunate Four Hundred did not work well. Jagger hated Capote’s mincing
manners, and Capote called Mick – “…a scared little boy… about as sexy as a pissing toad.” Stones guitarist Keith Richards welcomed the cultured Radziwill by banging on her hotel door that night, screaming “Princess Radish… C’mon you old tart, there’s a party going’ downstairs!”
Biance Jagger, Mick Jagger –Images by © Peter beard
The final date of the
tour was scheduled for Mick’s birthday – July 26, at Madison Square
Garden. Afterwards a lavish party was given for the 29 year old Stone by
Ashmet Ertgun, president of Atlantic Records, at his palatial roof top
suite atop the St. Regis Hotel. Overlooking Manhattan, the creme de la
creme of arts and society came to honor the pouting prince– including
Andy, Peter, Truman, and Lee. Andy provided the high light of the party.
A naked girl popped out of a towering birthday cake, and twirled her
silicon tits as a dozen black tap dancers provided a chorus line. The
New York Post reported, “In the perfumed twilight of the Roman Empire unspeakable things went on. Are we entering that same twilight?”
The next day Peter invited the exhausted
Mick and bride Bianca, to visit his house In Montauk for a quick
R&R. They flew into Montauk airport and spent the next few days
relaxing at the shore, water skiing on Lake Montauk, and walking the
beach. It was an introduction to Montauk that would lead to a much
longer stay.
By the Spring of 1975,
the Stones were in the midst of planning their next American tour. What
better place to cool out and prepare, than quiet Montauk? Andy rented
Mick and the boys the compound for a princely sum of $5,000 a month, and
the Stones began rehearsals for what would become Black and Blue. As was then reported: “Throughout
April sensationally loud music welled through the windows, into the
ruts and hollows over the tangled crab-grass of an estate in Montauk.
Long Island. Residents of the Ditch Plains trailer park were woken in
the night – yapping dogs, even wolves, the loud grief of coyotes. From
East Hampton to New York the word spread with the ferocity of a brush
fire– The Rolling Stones were rehearsing!”
Andy and Jagger first met in 1963, when The Rolling Stones
were invited to play a birthday party for then Warhol starlet, Baby
Jane Holzer, at the New York Academy of Music. Over the years the
artistically inclined Jagger kept tabs on the musically inclined Warhol.
Mick was such an admirer, that in 1972 when the Stones formed their own
record company, they tapped Andy to design their logo. With
characteristic flair Andy came up with the stylized Jagger mouth and
tongue that would grace all their albums. Andy also designed the
infamous cover for that year’s release, Sticky Fingers-- a cover shot of Jagger from the hips down, in skin tight jeans, with a fully working zippered crotch!
Andy Warhol visited the
boys often that Summer. Although the Stones tried to keep a low profile,
their fans found their hide away. Andy remembers, “Mick Jagger
really put Montauk on the map. All the motels were overflowing with
groupies. Two girls with no hair and black cats on leashes followed them
all the way to Montauk. Mr. Winters – the caretaker of the estate –
found them hiding in the bushes!”
At times the attention went beyond mere
fan worship. Andy remembers playing with Mick and Bianca’s then 4 year
old daughter, Jade. As he often did with small children he delighted in
showing her how to draw and paint. At one point Andy was searching for
some material, opened a drawer and much to his surprise found a loaded
gun. Jade said,“That’s my daddy’s!” Turned out, Jagger was
being hounded by a pair of Rolling Stones obsessed fans that summer, and
felt the need for a little extra protection.
Keith Richards cooking in the kitchen
of Andy Warhol’s Montauk home where The Rolling Stones were rehearsing
for their 1975 Tour of the Americas. image by ken regan.
Little Jade was Andy’s favorite Jagger– “I
love Mick and Bianca, but Jade’s more my speed. I taught her how to
color and she showed me how to play Monopoly. She was four and I was
forty-four. Mick got jealous. He said I was a bad influence because I
gave her champagne.”
One of Mick’s favorite hang outs that summer was the Shagwong
on Main Street. A little rougher around the edges in those days, it’s
main attractions were a pool table and a juke box full of rock and roll.
Only problem was, the only Stones tune on it was the by then golden
oldie “Get Off My Cloud.” They’d play it every time Mick came in for a drink. One night Mick had enough. After 10 Pina Coladas, and the same number of “Get Off My Cloud”, Mick got off his bar stool, put a quarter in the box, punched up the classic disco tune – “Stand, Stand, Stand” – and started singing along. The whole place got quiet at first, and then exploded.
Keith Richards on phone in the
kitchen of Andy Warhol’s Montauk home where the Rolling Stones were
rehearsing for their 1975 Tour of the Americas.IMAGE BY KEN REGEN
Now as then, Jimmy Hewitt owned the Shagwong. He remembers Mick and Bianca would come in once or twice a week. “They were great for business. We had girls camped out three deep up and down the sidewalk waiting for them!” Mick would take up a stool at the end of the bar, where he’d sit with his private bottle of Grand Marnier.
Bianca would waltz into the kitchen to pick out dinner, and kibitz with
the crew. She’d roll up the sleeves of her Yves Saint Laurent dresses
and open clams. Many nights after closing, Mick would invite Jimmy back
to the hose to hear the Stones rehearse. The only problem was the
nocturnal Stones wouldn’t even start 2 or 3 in the morning. By then it
was time for Jimmy to go home.
Of course one of the indelible remains of the Stones stay in Montauk, is the song “Memory Motel.” Named for the bar and motel of same name, this lament for a lost girl has become one of the Stones signature tunes.
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“Hannah honey was a peachy kind of girl-
Her eyes were hazel
And her nose were slightly curved
We spent a lonely night at the Memory Motel
It’s on the ocean, I guess you know it well
It took a starry to steal my breath away
Down on the water front
Her hair all drenched in spray”
(Jagger/Richards – C- Rolling Stones/Virgin Records 1975 )
As atmospheric a tune as it was, the truth is, the Memory Motel
was not the center of the Stones stay in Montauk. Peter Beard remembers
taking Mick there one afternoon, with disastrous results. It seems the
owners, an older couple, didn’t much care for the Stones. The bartender
as much as told Jagger that to his face. So far as Peter can remember,
that was the only time they set foot in the place! As for the “honey of a girl”
mentioned in the song, it wasn’t some lovely Montauk lass Mick was
pining after, but the Stones traveling photographer, Annie Liebowitz.
One girl who many in Montauk pined for,
was a certain Barbara Allen. The pretty young wife of Joe Allen, one of
Andy’s Interview backers, Barbara attracted attention where ever she
went. Years before she and Peter had a fling. That summer married Mick
seemed to find her company very enjoyable. According to Bob Colacello,
he was inadvertently present at a night time rendezvous while staying at
Peter Beard’s house. One hot summer’s night he was dropping off to a
peaceful night’s sleep, when through the open window comes none other
than Mick! Seemed he’d mistaken Bob’s room, for Barbara Allen’s. Poor
Bob, it was the closest he’d get to having a Rock ‘n’ Roll star in his
bed that summer.
Ken Regan with The Rolling Stones at Camera 5 Studios .
