Menu
Marcia DeSanctis
  • Home
  • Bio
  • Print Media
  • Web
  • Book
  • Anthologies
  • Interviews
  • News
  • Blog
  • Contact
Close Menu
torn
October 25 2013

Torn and Frayed

 

The walk up the hill in Villefranche-sur-Mer.

 

The town of Villefranche-sur-Mer seems to be rather mum on the subject of its most famous residents, the Rolling Stones. They lived there during the summer of 1971 in the Villa Nellcote, a mansion overlooking the Mediterranean, and recorded much of Exile on Main Streetwithin the seclusion of its iron grates. This was chronicled in folkloric, debaucherous detail in Keith Richards memoir, Life.

This morning, I climbed the hills to the villa, whose whereabouts I knew from another life and whose gates are now lined with thick nylon canvas to keep people like me from looking inside and imagining that summer. Okay, I felt like a bit of a trespasser, even though I stayed safely on the sidewalk. I can’t say it’s all about the music, although the music was something and I still know EOMS from start to finish. My mother used to go to the record store in town and pick out a few that looked worthy to pile under the tree for me and my 3 big sisters. The Christmas of 6th grade, I got Exile as well as The Harder they Come by Jimmy Cliff, which I think I traded for Something, Anything by Todd Rundgren with one of my sisters. Being more in the Beatles camp, with a father who played Joan Baez and Johnny Cash and siblings very much into CSNY, I could give or take the Stones’ music. But this record was something unusual, especially the acoustic side, with its underwater/country guitar riffs and searing vocals on songs like Torn and Frayed. Later, it would become the soundtrack for a lovely stretch of time during my senior year of college but for now (back then), I just liked it better than the Stones of Satisfaction.

The house sits on a quiet street, quite dignified behind the impenetrable security zone. It’s almost as if nothing ever happened there. I wonder how the house holds its history all tight like a secret? How does anything or anyone hold its history?

Me, in a Suitcase The Off Season

Related Posts

travelessay

News & Events, Posts

The Travel Essay that Started My Career

millions-featured

Posts, Uncategorized

The Millions

summerisover

Posts, Uncategorized

The Summer is Over, Let Life Begin

Recent Posts

  • Interview with Unlocking Connecticut
  • The Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference: August 8-11, 2019
  • Podcast: Vignettes and Postcards from Paris
  • Travel Panel at Five Senses Festival, Washington, CT
  • Boston Book Festival, October 28, 2017

Archives

  • August 2019
  • August 2018
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • April 2017
  • February 2017
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • March 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • October 2013
  • August 2013
  • June 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • September 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • January 2012
  • November 2011
  • September 2011
  • April 2010
©2019 Marcia DeSanctis
Website Design: Dog & Pony Design