The Nastiest Record Label Disputes of All Time

THE ROLLING STONES GIVE DECCA RECORDS A VERY SPECIFIC KIND OF BLUES

Were it not for the signing of rock’n’roll immortals (also perhaps the regular “impossible to kill” kind of immortals) the Rolling Stones, Decca Records would forever be known as the label that turned down the Beatles with the snide note “Guitar groups are on their way out.” As it happened, Decca Records instead ended up as the label that pissed off the Rolling Stones so much they called everyone in the entire company a cocksucker.

After nearly a decade of evolving from “white guys who cover old black guys” to “white guys who write original songs on enormous amounts of drugs” the Stones had chafed under Decca’s management, at one point splitting with their producer and mastering their own album. The members felt more than ready to strike out on their own, but Decca’s contract demanded the release of one more single.

To meet the demand, Mick Jagger penned the profoundly filthy “Schoolboy Blues,” the lyrics of which (in many cases direct references to Decca managers and employees) led to the song being popularly known as “Cocksucker Blues.” Decca naturally refused to publish the unplayable song, but retained the rights to it before eventually unloading it in a weird West German-only box album entitled The Rest of the Best, and the song made an appearance during live shows and ended up on a self-titled bootleg live album.