Song Of The Day – “Claudine” by The Rolling Stones
An outtake from the “Some Girls” sessions that has finally seen the light of day on the recent deluxe reissue of the album. At the age of 19 Claudine Longet met Andy Williams and married him, although she was 14 years younger. She had three children with Williams, and in the mid-sixties pursued an acting and singing career. She met Olympic skier Vladimir “Spider” Sabich while at a celebrity ski tournament in Bear Valley in 1972. By 1975 she and her children had moved into Sabich’s chalet in the Starwood section of Aspen, Colorado. Things went well between the two for nearly a year until the relationship started to deteriorate and Sabich asked that she leave the premises by April 1, 1976. On March 21, 1976 Sabich was shot dead on his bathroom floor with a .22 caliber pistol. Longet was responsible for what her lawyers described as an “accident”. She said that Sabich had been showing her how to use the gun when it went off. Ballistics experts at the trial testified that the safety catch was defective on the gun. He was killed by a single bullet (the only inaccuracy in the song is the reference to three shots) to the abdomen and bled to death on the way to the hospital. He was 31 years old. On January 14, 1977 she was convicted of negligent homicide and spent 30 days in the Pitkin County Jail. Claudine was granted family rights during the week which meant that she only served time on the weekends. She went on to marry her defense attorney and continues to live in Aspen.
