Mick Jagger's secret love letters up for sale
'I'm broke' says Marsha Hunt, inspiration for Brown Sugar, who is selling 'Mick in his own words' from summer of 69 at Sotheby's

The Guardian, Friday 9 November 2012 10.59 EST


Mick Jagger in a still from Ned Kelly, filmed in 1969. His letters to Marsha Hunt reveal he was reading Emily Dickinson poetry and excited to meet Christopher Isherwood. Photograph: Cine Text/Sportsphoto/Allstar


To some people in 1969, Mick Jagger was little short of being an uncouth hoodlum, what with his drug taking, louche lifestyle and rebellious views. But secret love letters, revealed here for the first time, show the rock star in a different light: as an articulate, dreamy, sensitive artist with a grounded self-awareness.

This side emerges in a series of letters he sent from Australia to Marsha Hunt, his lover, first child's mother and the inspiration for Jagger's controversial song Brown Sugar.

Written during one of the most tumultuous periods of Jagger's life, the letters reveal a man spending his free time reading the diaries of Nijinsky, the poems of Emily Dickinson and larking with Christopher Isherwood.

The letters are being sold by Hunt, who lives in a beautiful money pit of a house in France. She is well aware that the first question will be: why?

"I'm broke," she said. "Anyone who has the impression that I have money knows nothing about me. I had friends who came to visit from Pennsylvania and there was no electricity in the house because the bill had been too high, I was kind of grooving it with a wood burning stove. One friend said, 'surely you've got something you could sell?'"

That led to a light going off about the letters from the summer of 1969 which have sat in bank vaults for the best part of 30 years.

Hunt is 66 and says she does not want to become a liability. "Someone will protect them [the letters] and someone who protects them will protect me because I will make enough money from the sale to repair my house in France and if I fall down tomorrow with a stroke, which is happening with several of my friends, my daughter doesn't have to say 'what are we going to do about mom?'"

She hopes the buyer will "recognise that they have a piece of history", adding: "The letters speak for Mick at an incredible juncture of our lives. The summer of 69 was the end of a whole era of revolutionary spirit – we didn't know it was about to die. And who knew that this group of boys making music would 50 years on be still celebrated as a voice of the period?"

While the letters have remained secret, the affair has become a well documented chapter of British cultural history.

Hunt was a high-profile fixture of swinging 60s London and one of the only black faces. Born in Philadelphia, the Berkeley graduate arrived in London in 1966 and performed on the blues circuit with Alexis Korner and a young Elton John. Her big breakthrough was appearing in the original West End production of Hair, which led to Patrick Lichfield taking a famous nude picture of her for American Vogue and her appearance as the Christmas cover of Queen magazine with baubles in her distinctive Afro hair.

Hunt had success with her record Walk on Gilded Splinters and was approached about appearing in the photograph for the cover of the Stones' single Honky Tonk Woman. She was to be "girl in bar". "I said no," recalled Hunt. "I didn't want to look like I'd been had by all the Rolling Stones."

Jagger later turned up in person at her Bloomsbury flat sometime in May 1969 and one thing led to another.


Marsha Hunt found greater success in the UK than her native US with her cover of Dr John's Walk on Gilded Splinters. Photograph: Mccarthy/Getty Images

For the Stones, it was a time of turmoil. They sacked Brian Jones and it was Hunt who pointed Jagger in the direction of Jones's replacement, Mick Taylor.

The relationship, a closely guarded secret until 1972, resulted in a daughter, Karis. "We commenced on something in the 60s that was perceived to be what the future would be," said Hunt. "That you don't get married and monogamy is not necessarily the way to go. We've backed away from that but at the time I think Mick and I felt we were doing something modern – we were having a child outside of marriage and that was acceptable."

Ten letters are being sold, all written in July and August of 1969 when Jagger was filming Ned Kelly in New South Wales. They paint a picture far removed from the popular media image of Jagger at the time. He talks about the books Hunt sent him for his birthday – "toying" through Nijinsky's diaries, reading about Navajo Indians, enjoying the poems of Emily "Dix" (Dickinson). In another he recounts being excited at meeting Isherwood, who was coming to discuss a screenplay of Robert Graves' I Claudius. "… I hope I get the part of Caligula," he writes.

Jagger uses one letter to talk about an unrealised future project of an intimate performance that would include "all our medias – films, music, drama and magic" in a "procession of images".

That's not to say the Jagger swagger is not in the letters too. He went to one party and the "chicks" were so plain that all he could do was eat chocolate eclairs. No boogaloo was happening, he laments.

There are also references to what was by any measure a fantastically eventful summer. For example, he dates his letter of the 20 July "Sunday the Moon" to mark the first moon landing; he talks about his regret at missing the Isle of Wight festival – where Dylan made his spectacular comeback – as well as "John & Yoko boring everybody".

Also he makes oblique reference to harrowing events such as the death of Jones and his failing relationship with Marianne Faithfull, who was taken to hospital in Australia after an overdose of pills. In one letter he wonders why some people's lives are so short and in another he explains that things are "a little difficult" – "my patience snaps my love peters out at vital moments".

Jagger also makes reference to what was an unhappy shoot in New South Wales. Although he waxes lyrical about the Outback – how the early morning mist "turns red and violent then hard and warm" – Jagger misses Europe with its "renaissance houses and medieval gardens".

"They are much the best letters by Jagger to have come up at auction," said the Sotheby's manuscripts specialist, Gabriel Heaton. "It is obviously a really important time in terms of cultural history."

Heaton said Jagger shows a "strength of character" that has enabled him to survive and thrive in the unreal world he lives in. "He has a strong sense of irony about himself and what it is to be a superstar. He is very self-aware but think about it – in order for someone to stay sane with what was going on in all of his adult life you would need to be pretty centred."

The filming of Ned Kelly, directed by Tony Richardson, was not a particularly happy one. His handwriting is noticeably different in one letter, the result of a gun backfiring badly and injuring his hand. "Boring crap," he writes.

It was while in Australia that Jagger wrote Brown Sugar and the letters have scattered references to songwriting. His first letter begins with the lyrics to Monkey Man with three extra lines specially for Hunt. Heaton said there was a lyricism that was reminiscent of his songs, lines like "… wind blows, rains cold, stars shine, millions of them, guitar riffs on & on … "

The letters will be sold as one lot at Sotheby's on 12 December and carry an estimate of £70,000-£100,000. Hunt said if she hadn't been hard up she would have happily offered them to have a public institution but she hopes the letters will correct some of the misinformation there has been about Jagger and that time.


Mick Jagger's signature on a letter to Marsha Hunt.

She has told Jagger of her intention to sell. Does he support it? "I don't think so but they're not his."

She went on: "This is Mick in his own words … This is part of English history, it is part of rock history, part of cultural history and it corrects all the misinformation and I think we live in a time when misinformation is swallowed as, 'well, who cares?' Facts are relevant.

"The sale is important. Someone, I hope, will buy those letters as our generation is dying and with us will go the reality of who we were and what life was."

[www.guardian.co.uk]

"Marsha, will you go out with me? Check either the yes or no box... shidoobee"

I'm not sure it's historically significant, but I'm sure there's some people out there who would be interested.

Mick wins the "my hat's too big" contest.

Keith looks on.

Well, I guess if Mick was nosy enough to read Nijinsky's diaries, then he won't mind other people reading his letters.

Her daughter is fairly well off..why doesn't she help her mother out?

Someone recently posted here named MarshaH, with unseen pics of Karis. Perhaps that poster could weigh in on this topic.

As to the letters...Mick could always buy them back from her. But if she puts them up for sale, she may have a legal battle on her hands, as Chrissie Shrimpton did.

Can you get away with things like that with your honor intact?

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Stoneage
Can you get away with things like that with your honor intact?

You can't. What a despicable decision. Why can't she go get an ordinary job like anyone else...

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SonicDreamer

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Stoneage
Can you get away with things like that with your honor intact?

You can't. What a despicable decision. Why can't she go get an ordinary job like anyone else...

There is a distinct shortage of employment in rural France, even for those who aren't superannuated African-Americans.

..well they ain't secret no more ..............



ROCKMAN

So Chrissie Shrimpton was fooled into giving her letters back ? Philip Norman says that she owned the actual paper they were written on so couldn't be forced to give them back.

Pretty sad overall but he did treat her like crap and was even told so much by the Stones' office as explained by Norman. He'll buy them back and make up for his past stinginess.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-11-10 16:50 by gotdablouse.

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Bliss
Her daughter is fairly well off..why doesn't she help her mother out?

Someone recently posted here named MarshaH, with unseen pics of Karis. Perhaps that poster could weigh in on this topic.

As to the letters...Mick could always buy them back from her. But if she puts them up for sale, she may have a legal battle on her hands, as Chrissie Shrimpton did.

I don't know Marsha personally but I do know that Karis has helped her mother over the years but Marsha doesn't want to be a financial burden to her daughter anymore. If you've seen pictures of Marsha recently she looks really bad, she is 66 and has battled cancer. From what I've heard Mick offered Marsha money not to sell the letters but she felt that she could make more money auctioning the letters off.

I do believe that Marsha has some bitterness towards Mick because she feels that her career suffered when she sued him for child support payments. Marsha felt that she was blacklisted in the industry because of the palimony suit.

Jo selling Ronnie's stuff...
Marsha wants to sell Mick's love letters...
I wonder who's the next lovable lady coming up to get what she deeply needs and deserves.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-11-10 17:41 by Phil Good.

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Phil Good
Jo selling Ronnie's stuff...
Marsha wants to sell Mick's love letters...
I wonder who's the next bitch coming up to press money out of a former relationship.

Mick is worth $300 million dollars. Marsha just wants to have her lights turned back on.

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Phil Good
Jo selling Ronnie's stuff...
Marsha wants to sell Mick's love letters...
I wonder who's the next bitch coming up to press money out of a former relationship.

Whichever one got screwed over by one of them lovable bast-d's. Don't be so quick to judge man, no one knows what really went one with Mick and Marsha.

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MarshaH

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Phil Good
Jo selling Ronnie's stuff...
Marsha wants to sell Mick's love letters...
I wonder who's the next bitch coming up to press money out of a former relationship.

Mick is worth $300 million dollars. Marsha just wants to have her lights turned back on.

Exactly.

OK, I stand correct and edited my initial post.

What Marsha likes, as much as money and she's gone through a lot of it -- is ATTENTION.

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stonesrule
What Marsha likes, as much as money and she's gone through a lot of it -- is ATTENTION.

Interesting perspective stonesrule which reinforces what I have said, we don't really know what went on between the two of them.

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MarshaH

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Bliss
Her daughter is fairly well off..why doesn't she help her mother out?

Someone recently posted here named MarshaH, with unseen pics of Karis. Perhaps that poster could weigh in on this topic.

As to the letters...Mick could always buy them back from her. But if she puts them up for sale, she may have a legal battle on her hands, as Chrissie Shrimpton did.

I don't know Marsha personally but I do know that Karis has helped her mother over the years but Marsha doesn't want to be a financial burden to her daughter anymore. If you've seen pictures of Marsha recently she looks really bad, she is 66 and has battled cancer. From what I've heard Mick offered Marsha money not to sell the letters but she felt that she could make more money auctioning the letters off.

I do believe that Marsha has some bitterness towards Mick because she feels that her career suffered when she sued him for child support payments. Marsha felt that she was blacklisted in the industry because of the palimony suit.

Thank you for your input, MarshaH; very interesting. Let us hope that Mick's interest in the letters will lead to his involvement in the auction. He has been known to bid on items related to his history such as tapes, and I imagine he would prefer to have these letters back in his hands. And who knows, with house auctions, many never make it to the auction block, as they are sold to a keen buyer beforehand, and it could well be the same in this situation. Wishing Marsha all the very best.

Here is one of the envelope of the letters, from a Belgian newspaper.

MarshaH,

May I respectfully comment that Karis Jagger is not a public figure and it's really not fair of you to post all those photos of her. I doubt that you'd want someone to do this to you. It is an invasion of privacy,

Regarding Marsha, whom you don't know, your comments are not accurate.

IORR was established for fans of the Rolling Stones. I believe that BV did not mean for it to be a tabloid of gossip and fantasy.

Thanks for posting. Very interesting.

Mick Jagger's love letters to Marsha Hunt reveal 'secret history' of the Rolling Stone



A series of love letters revealing a passionate and clandestine romance between Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger and American actress and original Hair cast-member Marsha Hunt (pictured) will go under the hammer next month.

The ten missives written by Jagger to Hunt, the inspiration for "Brown Sugar", during the summer of 1969 while he was filming Ned Kelly in Australia are expected to fetch between £70,000-£100,000 at Sotheby’s English Literature and History sale on 1 December.

London-based model, singer and actress Hunt was a poster girl for the “Black is Beautiful” movement and also the face of ground-breaking West End play Hair.

She had been asked by the Rolling Stones to appear in a photo shoot for “Honky Tonk Woman” but refused in consideration of her position as a role model for black women. “I didn’t want to look like I’d just been had by all the Rolling Stones,” she said.

But Jagger pursued Hunt, appearing at midnight at the door of her Bloomsbury apartment. She wrote in her 1986 memoir Real Life, he stood, “framed by the doorway as he stood grinning with a dark coat …He drew one hand out of his pocket and pointed it at me like a pistol…Bang.”

The letters include references to the first moon landing, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Christopher Isherwood and the Isle of Wight festival. They reveal Jagger’s artistic and intellectual interests, snatches of poetry, surreal flights of fancy and his sexual desires.

Hunt said: “When a serious historian finally examines how and why Britain’s boy bands affected international culture and politics, this well-preserved collection of Mick Jagger’s hand-written letters will be a revelation.”

“Despite his high profile and my own as a singer, actress, Vogue model and star of London’s original Hair cast, our delicate love affair remains as much part of his secret history as his concerns over the death of Brian Jones and the suicide attempt of his girlfriend, Marianne Faithfull.”

Writing of their relationship, Jagger says: “I feel with you something so unsung there is no need to sing it…”; his describes the Australian outback as the early morning mist “turns red and violent then hard and warm”; he maligns “John & Yoko boring everybody…”’ and thanks Hunt for being “so nice to an evil old man like me”.

Jagger, who was 25 when he wrote the letters to 23-year-old Hunt, includes the full lyrics for “Monkey Man” in one, with three additional lines and a track list of songs with accompanying comments such as “OK” and “dodgy”.

The letters contain veiled references to the death of Brian Jones and Jagger’s increasingly difficult relationship with Faithful, with whom he had been due to co-star in Ned Kelly, but who took an overdose of barbiturates and almost died soon after her arrival in Australia.

This letter made available by Sotheby's Saturday Nov. 10, 2012 shows a letter addressed to American-born singer Marsha Hunt. Handwritten letters from Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger to his former lover Marsha Hunt will be auctioned in London next month. Hunt is a singer who was the inspiration for the Stones' 1971 hit
The letters, written on a range of headed stationery (from Chevron Hotel, Sydney; JHA Sykes, Palerand, Bungendore, New South Wales and Woodfall Limited, Bondi Junction, New South Wales) are filled with anxiety about the future of his relationship with Hunt.
Jagger seems to deliberately misspell words and his handwriting declines through the correspondence following an injury to his hand sustained when a prop pistol on Ned Kelly misfired.

Dr Gabriel Heaton, Sotheby’s Books Specialist said: “These beautifully written and lyrical letters from the heart of the cultural and social revolution of 1969, frame a vivid moment in cultural history. Here we see Mick Jagger, not as the global superstar he has become, but as a poetic and self-aware 25-year-old, with wideranging intellectual and artistic interests.”

“Written from a film set in the Australian Outback in that momentous year for The ‘Stones, just after their landmark Hyde Park concert and before the tragic events of Altamont, we are afforded an insight into how one of the central actors in the momentous cultural events of the time saw the world as it changed around him. They provide a rare glimpse of Jagger that is very different from his public persona: passionate but self-contained, lyrical but with a strong sense of irony.”
Jagger and Hunt went on to have a child together in 1970.

[www.independent.co.uk]

Marianne is at deaths door and Mick is writing letters to snother woman.

Classy people.

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SonicDreamer
You can't. What a despicable decision. Why can't she go get an ordinary job like anyone else...

Isn't a man supposed to make sure the women he has reproduced with can always approach him in times of real need?

I doubt very much that this is hurtful or embarassing for Mick - he is said to relish his reputation as a lady's man. The letters sound charming and interesting, and indeed they will have historical value as time marches on.

Im just impressed that he read Emily Dickinson.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-11-12 22:09 by stupidguy2.

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His Majesty
Marianne is at deaths door and Mick is writing letters to snother woman.

Classy people.

Which is why it's always best that we view celebrity with the deceptive facade of myth and fantasy. If we get to know who they really are, through such things as biography and published editions of personal letters, we may come to realize that we don't really like them all that much, and we resort to being judgmental.

Stonesnow, I congratulate you on this intelligent post.