{"id":61648,"date":"2022-08-01T21:52:31","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T21:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=61648"},"modified":"2022-08-01T21:52:31","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T21:52:31","slug":"memory-motel-the-rolling-stones","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/memory-motel-the-rolling-stones\/","title":{"rendered":"Memory of Love: The Rolling Stones’ Legacy in Montauk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On Wednesday 4 June 1975 The Rolling Stones did a photo shoot at the Alamo, San Antonio, Texas for the Daily Mirror. (Photo by Daily Mirror\/Mirrorpix\/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHannah, honey was a peachy kind of girl,\u201d laments The Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger in his poignant, wailing vocals on the bluesy track \u201cMemory Motel,\u201d on the 1976 record Black and Blue<\/em>. \u201cWe spent a lonely night at the Memory Motel. It\u2019s on the ocean, I guess you know it well.\u201d It\u2019s not your typical Rolling Stones tune. While lacking the punchy angst of their mid-\u201960s catalog, the ballad is embroiled in unquenchable soulful bravado with an earnest passion, recollecting a brief and whirlwind romance.<\/p>\n

Well over a decade after they conquered the nascent rock scene amid the heady days of the \u201cBritish invasion,\u201d the Stones embarked on yet another musical metamorphosis: discovering a safe haven in the quiet and quaint seaside town of Montauk in the Spring of 1975, at a little establishment dubbed the Memory Motel.<\/p>\n

The Stones had first uncovered the party potential of the Hamptons three years prior, when Jagger<\/a> and his then-wife Bianca vacationed at pop-art catalyst Andy Warhol\u2019s luxe Eothen estate<\/a> (originally built by the heirs to the Arm & Hammer fortune in 1931). Taking their holiday alongside Princess Lee Radziwill, the Jaggers dined at the local Shagwong Tavern (frequented by the likes of Robert De Niro, Elizabeth Taylor, and Paul Simon), and Gosman\u2019s at Montauk Harbor.<\/p>\n

Later returning to Eothen with his bandmates, guitarist Keith Richards, bassist Bill Wyman, drummer Charlie Watts<\/a>, and the newest addition to the band, guitarist Ronnie Wood, the \u201cGreatest Rock and Roll Band in the World\u201d also brought along collaborator Billy Preston and their touring percussionist Ollie Brown. The Rolling Stones prepared for their iconic Tour of the Americas set to take place in the summer of 1975, in a humble collection of coastal lodgings, courtesy of Warhol, for five creative weeks.<\/p>\n

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English singer Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones playing an acoustic guitar, October 1973. (Photo by Anwar Hussein\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It wasn\u2019t exactly a quiet respite. The Stones unleashed a maelstrom of mayhem upon the local haunts, one that’s still talked about today. Though they stayed at Warhol\u2019s luxe estate, the group would visit the Memory Motel to indulge in heavy drinking, dancing, shooting pool, tussling, scuffling, and playing the only piano in town until sunrise. Film producer and Warhol contemporary Vincent Fremont stayed with the brand at Eothen to play gopher, to wrangle the carousing bunch during rehearsals, and to oversee the security detail as more and more fans traveled out East in the hopes of a rock star sighting.<\/p>\n

\u201cMick Jagger really put Montauk on the map,\u201d said Warhol in the 1979 Bob Colacello book Exposures<\/em>. \u201cAll the motels were overflowing with groupies. When Mick went into town everything stopped. Surfers chased him from White\u2019s Drug Store to White\u2019s Liquor Store.\u201d<\/p>\n

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