Page 132 - VH Magazine N°187 - Novembre & Décembre 2020

dOLCE VITA I I Close Up

looking band of traveling musicians.
Jagger and Beaton are sat next to
each other at dinner. Jagger with a
Vodka Collins resting in his hand and
a joint of hashish between two fingers.
them. They drove to Tangier, then onto Beaton recalls how Jagger had an
Madrid and finally London. inborn elegance about him.
Jones had lost both the love of his
life and his best friend, a fatal blow the MAster MusiciANs Of
from which he never recovered. He JOuJOukA
returned to England broken and alone. The great Paul Bowles was passionate
The Rolling Stones would never be the about indigenous Moroccan music.
same again. Their trip to Morocco, far In particular, the Master Musicians
from saving the band, had destroyed of Joujouka. Bowles first heard their
it. Often band members ate at sepa- ancient music in 1950. He was atten-
rate tables after one of their notorious ding a moussem (a religious festival)
spats. But the band endured, and the on the Atlantic, not far from Tangier.
Rolling Stones continued. Mick Taylor Bowles had made recordings of indi-
took the place of Brian Jones in 1969. genous Moroccan music between 1959
Jones drowned in his pool 2 months unbearable tension radiates from the and 1962.
later. A concoction of substances was photograph. The author of The Sheltering Sky had
found in his body after years of battling taken Brian Jones to Joujouka in 1968.
addiction. A chANce eNcOuNter iN Brian spent a long time in Marrakech.
Richards and Pallenberg would have a MArrAkesh He traveled to Tangier after hearing
12-year relationship and had children In Marrakesh, the Stones met British about the Joujouka. Jones wrote -
together. Later, Richards developed photographer Cecil Beaton. Beaton “They are not singing to an audience
his own problems with drugs and had visited Morocco since the 1930s. of mortals, but rather an incantation
alcohol. A troubled soul, some might He took striking portraits of the band to those on another plane”.
say, racked with guilt over the betrayal by a poolside in the Red City, dressed Joujouka is a small farming community
of his friend. in elaborate, if not shoddy outfits. around 50 miles south of Tangier. It lies
A song by Richards, "Coming Down" Beaton recorded in his diary a dinner at the foot of the Rif in the Moroccan
speaks of this guilt, as well as his he had with the band in March 1967. He mountains. Magnificent mountainous
love for Anita. The last photo of the arrived late to the engagement. Mick terrain and sunny wheatfields glisten
three together is rather harrowing - Jagger was sat beside a rather sleepy- in the hot sun. Vibrant colors of tradi-

132 VH magazine Novembre & Décembre 2020