southern covered the rolling stones 1972 american tour, where he met and began a collaboration with peter beard, and they would work sporadically on the never-filmed screenplay "the end of the game" until southern's death. southern immersed himself in the bacchanalian atmosphere of the tour, and his essay on the stones tour, "riding the lapping tongue", was published in the august 12, 1972, edition of "saturday review". he also wrote a bawdy anti-nixon skit which was performed at a george mcgovern fundraiser, and "twirlin' at ole miss" was included in "the new journalism".