Brian Jones

For other people named Brian Jones, see Brian Jones (disambiguation).

Brian Jones

Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was a founding member, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist in the English rock group The Rolling Stones.

Jones was known for his skills on multiple instruments, fashionable mod image, and his excessive drug use. His death at age 27 made him one of the first members of music's infamous 27 Club.

Biography

Early life

Jones was born in the Park Nursing Home in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, during World War II. He suffered from asthma all his life. His middle-class parents, Lewis Blount and Louisa Beatrice Jones, were of Welsh descent. Brian had two sisters: Pamela, who was born on 3 October 1943 and who died on 14 October 1945 of leukemia; and Barbara, born in 1946.

Both Jones's parents were interested in music and their interest had a profound effect on him. In addition to his job as an aeronautical engineer, Lewis Jones played piano and organ and led the choir at the local church and Louisa was a piano teacher. Jones eventually took up the clarinet, becoming first clarinet in his school orchestra at the age of 14.

In 1957, Jones was exposed to the jazz musician Charlie Parker and developed a lifelong interest in jazz music. Jones persuaded his parents to buy him a saxophone, and two years later, his parents gave him his first acoustic guitar as a 17th-birthday present.

Jones attended local schools, including the Dean Close School, from 1949 to 1953 and Cheltenham Grammar School for Boys, which he entered in September 1953 after passing the Eleven-plus exam. He was an exceptional student, earning high marks in all of his classes while doing little work. He enjoyed badminton and diving but otherwise was not skilled at sports. In 1957, Jones reportedly obtained nine O-levels passes. Despite his academic ability, however, he found school too regimented and refused to conform. He was known to eschew wearing the school uniforms and angered teachers with his behaviour, though he was popular among the other students. His open hostility to authority figures got him suspended from school on two occasions.

According to Dick Hattrell, a childhood friend:

He was a rebel without a cause, but when examinations came he was brilliant.

In the spring of 1959, Jones's 16-year-old girlfriend, a Cheltenham schoolgirl named Valerie Corbett, became pregnant. She later married one of Jones' friends, Graham Ride, an author. She was four months younger than Jones, who encouraged her to have an abortion. As a result, she wanted no further contact with Jones and chose to place the baby boy for adoption. The child was given to an infertile couple and never knew his father.

Brian quit school in disgrace and left home, traveling through northern Europe and Scandinavia for a summer. During this period, he lived a bohemian lifestyle, busking and playing guitar on the streets for money, living off the kindness of others. While Jones was fond of telling others about his trip throughout Europe, it remains uncertain how much of his descriptions were real and how much embellishment. Other friends claimed that Jones merely stayed with friends and relatives outside the UK.

Jones grew up listening to classical music, but supposedly always preferred blues, (particularly Elmore James and Robert Johnson). He began playing at local blues and jazz clubs in addition to busking and working various odd jobs. He was also known to steal small amounts of money to pay for cigarettes, which tended to get him fired.

In November 1959, Jones went to the Wooden Bridge Hotel in Guilford to see a band. He met a young, married woman named Angeline, and the two had a one-night stand that resulted in a pregnancy. Angeline and her husband decided to have the baby.

Despite the fact that he had fathered two children at a young age, both with women to whom he was not married, Jones showed no sign of changing his lifestyle. In fact, in October of 1961, he became the father of a third child, whom he named Julian Mark Andrews, the mother being Jones's girlfriend Pat Andrews. Jones sold his record collection to buy flowers for Pat and clothes for the newborn and lived with them for a while.

Forming the Rolling Stones

Jones left Cheltenham and moved to London where he befriended fellow musicians Alexis Korner, future Manfred Mann singer Paul Jones, future Cream bassist Jack Bruce and others who made up the small London Rhythm n' Blues scene that the Rolling Stones soon dominated. He became a blues musician, for a brief time christening himself "Elmo Lewis", and Bill Wyman claimed he was one of the first guitarists in the UK to play slide guitar.

In spring 1962, Jones recruited Ian "Stu" Stewart and singer Mick Jagger into his band — who, with Jagger's childhood friend Keith Richards, met Jones when he and Paul Jones were playing Elmore James' "Dust My Broom" with Korner's band at The Ealing Club.

On his initiative, Jagger brought guitarist Richards with him to rehearsals; Richards then joined the band. Jones' and Stewart's acceptance of Richards and the Chuck Berry songs he wanted to play coincided with the departure of blues purists Geoff Bradford and Brian Knight, who had no tolerance for Chuck Berry.

As Keith Richards tells it, Jones came up with the name "The Rollin' Stones" (later with the 'g') while on the phone with a venue owner.

The voice on the other end of the line obviously said, 'What are you called?' Panic. 'The Best Of Muddy Waters' album was lying on the floor — and Track One was 'Rollin' Stone Blues.'

The Stones had their first gig on 12 July 1962 in the Marquee Club in London with Jagger, Richards, Jones, Stewart, bass player Dick Taylor (later of The Pretty Things) and drummer Mick Avory (later of The Kinks).

Throughout 1962 and 1963 Jones, Jagger and Richards shared an apartment (referred to by Richards as "a beautiful dump") in Chelsea, London at 102 Edith Grove with James Phelge, a future photographer whose last name would later be used in some of the band's writing credits. While there, Jones and Richards spent day after day playing guitar while listening to blues records (notably Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters & Howlin' Wolf), and Jones showed Jagger how to play the harmonica.

The four Rollin' Stones then went searching for a bassist and drummer, and after several auditions they settled on Bill Wyman on bass (because he had a spare VOX AC30 guitar amp and cigarettes) to spare. After playing with Mick Avory later of the Kinks, Tony Chapman and Carlo Little for a few gigs, they chose jazz-influenced Charlie Watts, considered by fellow musicians to be one of the best drummers of the London music scene, from the Alexis Korner group Blues Incorporated.

Watts described Brian's role in these early days, "Brian was very instrumental in pushing the band at the beginning. Keith and I would look at him and say he was barmy. It was a crusade to him to get us on the stage in a club and be paid a half-crown and to be billed as an R&B band."

The group played at local blues and jazz clubs, forming fans despite resistance from traditional jazz musicians who felt threatened by their popularity. While Jagger was the lead singer, Jones, in the group's embryonic period, was the leader - promoting the band, getting shows and negotiating with venue owners. Jones often acted more as an entertainer, playing guitar and harmonica. During live performances, and especially at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, Jones supposedly was a more animated and engaging performer than even Mick Jagger. Jagger initially stood still while singing - mainly by necessity, as there was hardly any room for him to move.

While business manager, Jones arranged to have himself paid £5 pounds sterling more than the other members of the group, a practice which did not sit well with the rest of the band and created resentment against him .

Fame and Fortune

As the Stones' notoriety grew, they came to the attention of Andrew Loog Oldham, who met the band on April 28, 1963 at the suggestion of Record Mirror music writer Peter Jones (no relation) and became, with Eric Eastman, their co-manager. Oldham, who had worked as the Beatles publicist, was an admirer of Anthony Burgess' novel A Clockwork Orange, as well as the film Expresso Bongo, cultivated an image for the band as unruly and slightly menacing, a blues-inflected, rough-edged answer to the more amiable Beatles, using the novel's protagonist and his gang as inspiration. It was Oldham who coined the phrase "Would you let your daughter marry a Rolling Stone?", although inadvertently because, according to his autobiography Stoned, the original question was "Would you let your daughter go out with a Rolling Stone?" He said he was delighted when he was misquoted because it sounded better.

Piano player Ian Stewart was pushed into the background by Oldham for two reasons: Oldham felt that Stewart, a burly Scotsman, did not fit the image he wanted; and Oldham felt six members were too many for audiences to remember. Stewart was fired from the band and became the Stones' road manager and occasional keyboard player until his death in 1985.

Until this time the songs in the group's repertoire were blues covers or instrumentals credited to "Nanker Phelge" — a credit that indicated the song was a Jagger/Jones/Richards/Watts/Wyman composition. Through a publishing construction Oldham would also benefit from the Nanker/Phelge moniker.

Oldham's arrival also marked the beginning of Jones' slow estrangement from the band, one which saw his prominent role diminished as Oldham sought to shift the Stones's centre from Jones to Jagger and Richards. Oldham, and everybody in the group, recognised the advantages of writing their own songs, as exemplified by the Lennon/McCartney team, as well as that playing covers won't keep a band in the limelight for long. Further, Oldham wanted to make Jagger's charisma and flamboyance a central focus of the band's live performances. Jones saw his influence over the Stones's direction slide as their repertoire comprised fewer of the blues covers he would have preferred, and more Jagger-and-Richards originals, and as Oldham began asserting increasing managerial control, displacing Jones from another key role.

On 23 July 1964 Jones fathered another child out of wedlock, this time to girlfriend Linda Lawrence. Jones named this child Julian Brian Lawrence. (Julian adopted the surname Leitch after Linda Lawrence married the folk singer Donovan on 2 October 1970.) Jones is said to have named both sons Julian in tribute to the jazz saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley.

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Jones playing his custom mando-guitar

Throughout his career, Jones showed musical aptitude, having the ability to play many instruments to a level that it could be used on recordings. As soon as the Stones earned enough money to record in professional studios like Olympic Studio and the RCA and Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles, and undoubtedly influenced by The Beach Boys 1966 album Pet Sounds and The Beatles experimentation with Indian music (most notably George Harrison's use of the sitar and tamboura), Jones started experimenting with different wind and stringed instruments.

Throughout his years with the band he played stringed instruments (guitar, sitar, tamboura, dulcimer), keyboards (organ, mellotron), wind instruments (recorder, harmonica) and several other instruments like xylophone and marimba.

Jones' main guitar in the early years was a Gretsch Double Anniversary in two tone green, but Jones is known for his signature teardrop-shaped prototype Vox Phantom Mark III. From late 1965 til his death, Jones used Gibson models (various Firebirds, ES-330, and a Les Paul model), as well as two Rickenbacker 12-String models. He also was seen playing two Epiphone guitars: a Casino and a Texan 12-string.

Jones contributed to the 1960s sound of the Stones, playing slide guitar on "I Wanna Be Your Man", "Little Red Rooster" and "No Expectations", harmonica on "Come On", "Dear Doctor", "Prodigal Son", "2120 South Michigan Avenue", "I Just Want to Make Love to You", "Look What You've Done" and "Not Fade Away", tambura and sitar on "Street Fighting Man" and "Paint It, Black", organ on "Let's Spend The Night Together", "Complicated" and "2000 Man", marimba on "Under My Thumb" and "Yesterday's Papers", recorder on "Ruby Tuesday", saxophone on "Child of the Moon", dulcimer on "Lady Jane", accordion on "Backstreet Girl", harpsichord, saxophone and oboe on "Dandelion", harpsichord on Lady Jane, mellotron on "She's A Rainbow", "Stray Cat Blues", "We Love You" and on "2000 Light Years from Home", tambourine on "Can I Get a Witness" and "Tell Me (You're Coming Back), and autoharp on "You Got the Silver".

In the Stones' early years, Jones was also a harmony singer, mainly from 1962–1965. Notable examples are "I Wanna Be Your Man", "Can I Get A Witness" and "Walking The Dog". Jones' somewhat raspy and gruff backing vocals can also be heard on "Come On", "Bye Bye Johnny", the 12 X 5 recording of "Time Is On My Side", "You Better Move On", "Money", "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love", "Tell Me (You're Coming Back)" (alongside Jagger, Richards and Wyman), "Empty Heart" (alongside Jagger and Richards), and "It's All Over Now" (with Richards).

Keith Richards maintains that what he and Jones called "guitar weaving" grew out of this period, from listening to Jimmy Reed albums:

We listened to the teamwork, trying to work out what was going on in those records; how you could play together with two guitars and make it sound like four or five.

Jones and Richards excelled on guitar weaving that has become a signature part of the sound of the Rolling Stones. It involves both guitarists playing rhythm and lead parts at the same time, without differentiating between the two styles. This is also known as the "Chicago" style, as it can be heard on albums by Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, with Hubert Sumlin as the main exponent.

Jones and Richards perfected what they heard on the 50s Chicago Blues albums. The best examples can be heard on the first album The Rolling Stones and Out of Our Heads. Starting with the 1966 album Aftermath, the 1967 albums Between the Buttons and Their Satanic Majesties Request showcase Jones' multi-instrumental talents throughout. The 1968 album Beggars Banquet and the 1969 Let it Bleed album has Jones mostly missing, instead featuring guitar weaving by either Richards alone or with session musicians such as Ry Cooder and Dave Mason.

In November 1968, Jones purchased Cotchford Farm in East Sussex, formerly owned by Winnie-the-Pooh author A. A. Milne.

Estrangement from the Rolling Stones

The days on the road, the money and fame, and the feeling of being alienated from the group resulted in Jones' indulgence in alcohol and other drugs. He frequently used LSD, cocaine and cannabis, and was a heavy drinker. These indulgences did nothing positive for Jones' physical health. He suffered from asthma and was never health-conscious. On several occasions he was in the hospital while the rest of the group was elsewhere, contributing to his paranoia and separating him from his bandmates.

Jones was arrested for drug use for the first time on 10 May 1967, shortly after the Redlands incident at Richards' Sussex home. Authorities found marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamine. He confessed to marijuana use but claimed he did not use hard drugs. Like the arrests of his bandmates, protesters appeared outside court demanding that Jones be freed, and he was not kept in jail for long. He was fined, given probation, and ordered to see a counselor.

In June 1967, Jones attended the Monterey Pop Festival. He attended the festival with singer Nico, with whom he had a brief relationship. Here he met Frank Zappa and Dennis Hopper, and went on stage to introduce the Jimi Hendrix Experience, then unknown in the U.S. One review referred to Jones as "the unofficial 'king' of the festival."

Hostility grew between Jones and the Jagger/Richards duo, alienating Jones from the group. Although by many accounts Jones was a friendly and outgoing person, Wyman commented that Jones could be cruel and difficult to get along with. By most accounts, Jones' attitude changed frequently, one minute caring and generous, the next making an effort to anger everyone.

As bandmate Wyman observed in his book Stone Alone,

There were two Brians…one was introverted, shy, sensitive, deep-thinking…the other was a preening peacock, gregarious, artistic, desperately needing assurance from his peers…he pushed every friendship to the limit and way beyond.

Tensions grew between Jagger, Richards, and Jones, and his drug use and drinking did not help. His contributions became more sporadic. Richards began to play more guitar, while Jones, bored with the instrument, would find something exotic to play, though he was frequently absent from recordings. Jones only guitar part from early 1966 until his death in 1969 was slide guitar on No Expectations. Jones' gradual decline started around 1967 and continued until May 1968, when he recorded his last substantial contributions. Clips in the 1967 promotional film for "We Love You" show him slumped and barely able to keep his eyes open, most likely due to the effects of Mandrax (quaalude), a popular drug at the time. However, Jones maintained close relationships with many others outside of the Stones camp, including Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, and Steve Marriott.

In March 1967, Jones' girlfriend Anita Pallenberg ran off with Richards while Jones was hospitalised, damaging Jones and Richards' friendship. Pallenberg claimed Jones was hospitalised after a fight during which Jones hit her and broke his wrist; although as Richards remembers it, Brian simply "fell ill."

Richards later made the following remarks about the incident:

That was the final nail in the coffin with me and Brian. He'd never forgive me for that and I don't blame him, but, hell, shit happens.

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The Rolling Stones on the cover of their 1968 single "Jumpin' Jack Flash," Brian Jones in centre.

Jones' last substantial sessions with the Stones were in the spring and summer of 1968, when the Stones produced the classic "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and the Beggars Banquet album. Jones can be seen in the Jean-Luc Godard film One Plus One, playing acoustic guitar, chatting and sharing cigarettes with Richards, although Jones is generally neglected in the music-making. The film chronicles the making of the song "Sympathy for the Devil." While he played acoustic guitar for the backing track, it is not in the final released version, though occasionally audible in the film through the microphones of the film crew.

At this time, it was becoming clear Jones was not long for the group. While at one time he would play multiple instruments on many tracks, he was now no longer an ubiquitous presence on the album. He plays acoustic slide guitar on "No Expectations", harmonica on "Dear Doctor" and "Prodigal Son", sitar and tambura on "Street Fighting Man", as well as mellotron on "Stray Cat Blues".

Jones' last formal appearance was in the December 1968 The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, a part concert, part circus-act film organized by the band. It went unreleased for 25 years because Mick Jagger was unhappy with the band's performance compared to other bands in the film, such as Jethro Tull, The Who, and Taj Mahal. In the film Jones appears uninterested and at times intoxicated. While introducing concert pianist Julius Katchen, his speech was slurred and inarticulate. During the Stones set he appears distant and his playing is inaudible except for a shaky rendition of "No Expectations." Extra material on the DVD release of the film indicates that almost everyone at the concert knew that the end of Jones' time with the Stones was near, and Pete Townshend of The Who states he thought it would be Jones' last musical live performance.

Other contributions

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Inside cover of Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka a recording of Master Musicians of Joujouka

In 1966 Jones produced, played on and wrote the soundtrack for the film "Mord und Totschlag" (aka "A Degree Of Murder"), an avant-garde German film with Anita Pallenberg. He hired musicians to play on the soundtrack, among them guitarist Jimmy Page. Jones and Pallenberg attracted controversy during the making of the film when Jones posed in a Nazi uniform while standing on a naked doll for a photograph, along with Pallenberg.

Jones played alto saxophone on a Beatles song, "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)", not released until after his death.

In the summer of 1968, Jones recorded the Morocco-based ensemble, the Master Musicians of Joujouka. In 1971, Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka, was posthumously released; it remains a World Music landmark. Jagger and Richards traveled to Jajouka in 1989 after recording the track "Continental Drift" for the Stones album Steel Wheels with the Master Musicians of Jajouka featuring Bachir Attar in Tangier. Bachir Attar, son of the leader of the Jajouka musicians that Jones had recorded had coincidentally written to the Rolling Stones at that time, and Jagger, Richards, Ron Wood, and Matt Clifford (who was working on the album with them) flew to meet him and the Jajouka musicians. This encounter is documented in a rarely seen BBC television film called "Rolling Stones in Morocco", later released on cassette. The homage to Brian Jones "Brian Jones Joujouka very Stoned" by Mohamed Hamri the painter who brought him to his home village to record appeared on Joujouka Black Eyes by Master Musicians of Joujouka in 1995.

Death

Jones was arrested a second time - on 21 May 1968, for marijuana possession. Jones claimed the marijuana was left by previous owners of his home; he was facing a long jail sentence if found guilty, owing to his probation. Wyman commented "The fact that the police had secured a warrant with no evidence showed the arrest was part of a carefully orchestrated plan. Brian and the Stones were being targeted in an effort to deter the public from taking drugs." The jury found him guilty, yet the judge had sympathy for Jones. Instead of fining and warning him, the judge said, "For goodness sake, don't get into trouble again or it really will be serious."

Brian's legal troubles, estrangement from his bandmates, substance abuse, sporadic contributions, and mood swings became too much. The Stones wanted to tour the United States in 1969 for the first time in three years, but Jones's second arrest exacerbated problems with US immigration. Jones was unable to acquire a work visa.

In addition, the Stones's music was heavily based on the two weaving guitars. Brian's penchant for exotic instrumentation worked to complement Richards' guitar work; however, Brian would rarely come into the studio, and if he did he would frequently contribute nothing musically or his guitar would be switched off by his bandmates, leaving Richards playing nearly all the guitars. According to Gary Herman, he was "literally incapable of making music; when he tried to play harmonica, his mouth started bleeding".

This behaviour began to wreak havoc during the Beggar's Banquet sessions but had fully flourished by the time the band commenced Let It Bleed. While the band was recording "You Can't Always Get What You Want", Jones meekly asked an agitated Jagger, "What can I play?" Jagger's terse response was "I don't know, Brian, what can you play?" From this point he made himself scarce, rarely attending sessions. By May, he had made two contributions to the work in progress: an autoharp on "You Got the Silver" and percussion on the epic "Midnight Rambler", which remains inaudible on the released version. Jones was informed by Jagger that he would be dismissed from the band if he did not appear at a photo shoot for the compilation album Through The Past Darkly. Looking frail, he showed.

The Stones decided that following the release of the Let it Bleed album (scheduled for a July 1969 release in the USA) they would start a North American tour in November 1969, the first in three years. However, the Stones management was informed that Jones would not receive a permit due to his drug convictions. At the suggestion of pianist and road manager Ian Stewart, the Stones decided to add a new guitarist, and on 8 June 1969, Jones was visited by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts, and was told that the group he formed would continue without him.

To the public, it appeared as if Jones had left voluntarily; the others told him that although he was being asked to leave, it was his choice how to break it to the public. Jones released a statement on 9 June announcing his departure. In the statement he said, among other things, that

I no longer see eye-to-eye with the others over the discs we are cutting.

Ironically, this would come as the Stones were returning to their blues roots, which Jones had always emphasized. Jones was replaced by 21-year-old guitarist Mick Taylor (formerly of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers), who started sessions with the Stones at once.

At this point Jones stayed at Cotchford Farm, with intentions to form another band. He did visit Olympic studios the next week to discuss the future with his former bandmates, Bill Wyman noting that he was "excited about his own plans". He is known to have contacted Ian Stewart, Mitch Mitchell, Alexis Korner and Jimmy Miller. He toyed with joining Korner's New Church band, but Korner suggested Jones form his own band.

There is uncertainty as to the mental and physical state Jones was in at this time. The last known photographs, taken by schoolgirl Helen Spittal on June 23, 1969, shortly after his departure from the Stones, are not flattering. Jones appears bloated with deep-set eyes, although people who visited (particularly Alexis Korner) were surprised by Jones's state in late June. Korner noted that Jones was "happier than he had ever been" at this time, and supposedly Jimmy Miller was surprised to find Jones in good spirits.

At around midnight on 3 July 1969, Jones was discovered motionless at the bottom of his swimming pool at his home in Hartfield, Sussex, England. His girlfriend, Anna Wohlin, is convinced he was alive when they took him out, insisting he still had a pulse. However, when the doctors arrived, it was too late and he was pronounced dead. The coroner's report stated "Death by misadventure", and noted his liver and heart were heavily enlarged by drug and alcohol abuse.Some felt it was suicide, however, blaming Jagger and Richards for his state of mental depression.

Wohlin claimed in 1999 that Jones had been murdered by a builder who had been renovating the house the couple shared. The builder, Frank Thorogood, allegedly confessed to the murder on his deathbed to the Rolling Stones' driver, Tom Keylock; however, there were no other witnesses. In ("The Murder Of Brian Jones") Wohlin alleges that Thorogood behaved suspiciously and showed little sympathy when Jones was discovered in the pool (he was the last to see Brian alive), but she admits she was not present at Jones's death. Witnesses have been interviewed by journalists who claim to have seen the 'murder'; however, these witnesses almost always use pseudonyms, and none has been willing to go on record or report to the police.

Many items, such as instruments and expensive furniture, were stolen from the home after Jones's death, most likely by Thorogood, driver Tom Keylock, and others who worked on the property. Rumours also exist that recordings by Jones for his future projects were stolen but nothing has surfaced to date. A watch given by Alexis Korner to Brian, with a personal inscription, surfaced at Christie's in New York.

Upon his death, Pete Townshend wrote a poem titled "A Normal Day For Brian, A Man Who Died Every Day" (printed in The Times), Jimi Hendrix dedicated a song to him on U.S. television, and Jim Morrison of The Doors wrote a published poem entitled Ode To L.A. While Thinking Of Brian Jones, Deceased.

The Rolling Stones performed a free concert in Hyde Park on 5 July 1969, two days after his death. The concert had been scheduled weeks earlier as an opportunity to present the new guitarist. However, critics accused the band of being callous about their former bandmate. In response, the band dedicated the concert to Jones. Before the concert began, Jagger read excepts from "Adonais", a poem by Percy Shelley about the death of his friend John Keats. Their manager had come up with a plan to release thousands of white moths at the Hyde Park concert but, owing to the heat, most of the moths had already died; the surviving moths barely made it into the air before dying and falling on the heads of concertgoers. The Stones opened with a Johnny Winter song that was one of Brian's favorites, "I'm Yours And I'm Hers".

Jones was reportedly buried 12 feet deep in Cheltenham Cemetery (to prevent exhumation by trophy hunters) in a lavish casket sent for his funeral in Cheltenham by friend Bob Dylan. The Stones asked fans to stay away, and of the group only Watts and Wyman attended. Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull did not attend as they were travelling to Australia to begin a movie and claimed the producers prohibited their attendance upon threat of having their contract severed. Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg did not attend, afraid their presence would raise an uproar by fans.

Writing credits

In contrast to Jagger and Richards, Jones was not known to write songs for the Rolling Stones. Jones was admittedly unsure and insecure as a composer, and although reports differ as to how many released compositions he co-wrote or proposed to the group, Jones was no prolific songwriter.

Allegedly, when the Stones first met him, Andrew Oldham tried to set up a songwriting partnership between Jones and Gene Pitney, the American crooner-songwriter-pianist. Wyman has stated in many interviews that although Jagger and Richards were protective of their roles as writers, they would be open to ideas, and he names his "In Another Land" and "Downtown Suzie" as examples. Wyman commented that Jones was "an incredibly gifted musician, but not a song writer". Ron Wood has also commented in interviews that he is proud that he was able to get about two dozen songs recorded and released, and Wood also mentioned the protective nature of the Jagger/Richards songwriting partnership. In any case, the Jagger/Richards originals laid the foundation of the success of The Stones.

To date, only one officially released song is credited to Jones, the 30-second "Rice Krispies" jingle for Kellogg's, co-written with J. W. Thompson in 1963 and which the group performed incognito. The fact that Jones took sole credit for the track did not sit well with the rest of the Stones, as they felt it was a group effort and all should benefit equally. It is known that 14 Stones songs were credited to "Nanker Phelge", a pseudonym indicating that all members of the group (including Jones) authored the song. They would retire the pseudonym after 1965. A 'Nanker' was a strange face Jones and Richards would often make, and Phelge came from their former roommate James Phelge.

A second song, "Sure I Do", is reportedly written, recorded, and sung completely by Jones in 1963, but it remains unreleased. A vinyl disc with a label containing the title remains in Wyman's "Sticky Fingers" restaurant; however, it is unclear whether the song exists.

One of the best examples of the dispute is "Ruby Tuesday". Brian's recorder is a key musical ingredient, as is Jack Nitzsche's piano and Richards' and Wyman's combined double-bass effort. Some fans suggest Jones should have received a writing credit for his recorder part. Bill Wyman and Glyn Johns state that Richards wrote the song, and Richards has stated in various interviews (as well as his own website) that he wrote the song in a hotel room in Los Angeles in early 1966. He also explained the title of the song being the name of a hotel he visited on tour in the US, and the song's story being about a groupie. Mick Jagger stated of 'Ruby Tuesday', when discussing the songs he wrote with Richards in Rolling Stone "Beautiful lyrics and music, neither of which I wrote". One source claims Jones wrote the song; Marianne Faithfull states in her book that Jones composed the song's basic melody as a mix between medieval music and Skip James's blues numbers.

When asked in 1965 if he had written songs, Jones replied "Always tried. I've written quite a few, but mostly in blues style." Richards had this to say : "No, no. Absolutely not. That was the one thing he would never do. Brian wouldn't show them to anybody within the Stones. Brian as far as I know never wrote a single finished song in his life; he wrote bits and pieces but he never presented them to us. No doubt he spent hours, weeks, working on things, but his paranoia was so great that he could never bring himself to present them to us." However, he did compose the soundtrack to a German film, A Degree Of Murder, in which his name is mentioned during the movie's opening credits. The soundtrack is the only thing the public has ever heard of a Brian Jones solo recording.

Public image and legend

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Pat Douthwaite - Homage to Brian Jones - 1969

Brian Jones enjoyed high status as a fashion icon, exemplified by his rebellious, outlandish style. As the most photogenic member of the early Rolling Stones, his style of dress and manner did more to influence the fashion scene of swinging 1960s London than, perhaps, that of any other musician.

He was 1.68 m with blue-green eyes and blond hair, yet he was a pioneer in moulding the "surly rock star" image. He was known to walk deliberately in crowded streets until girls would start chasing him, at which point he would run away as fast as he could.

Brian Jones, like Jagger, was politically inclined, and stated in an interview that abortion and recreational drugs should be legal, and expressed his support for gay rights. He gave interviews frequently and is regarded as the most eloquent of the group. His intellect, combined with outspoken dislike of socially imposed constraints, made him one of the earliest English rock stars of the British Invasion.

His death at 27 made him the first major death of the Sixties rock movement, and when Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison found their own drug-related deaths at the same age within the next two years (the last, Morrison, dying exactly two years after Jones), Brian Jones was immortalised as a member (the founder?) of the 27 Club, and since the notoriety of this "club" lives on (Kurt Cobain "joining" it in 1994), his current fame is much greater than could have been foreseen at his death, as he was neither the major star or songwriter of the Rolling Stones.

The Psychic TV song "Godstar" is about the death of Jones, as is the Robyn Hitchcock song "Trash."

The 2005 film Stoned is a fictional account of Jones and his role in the Rolling Stones.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre was named partially after Jones.

In 2001, Jones was mentioned in the lyrics to De Phazz's "Death By Chocolate" album in the song "Something Special".

In 1969, acclaimed Scottish artist Pat Douthwaite paid tribute to Jones' life and work with her Homage to Brian Jones.

References

• Gary Herman, Rock 'N' Roll Babylon (Norfolk: Fakenham Press, 1982), ISBN 0-85965-041-3
• Geoffrey Giuliano, Paint It Black: The Murder Of Brian Jones.
• Gered Mankowitz, Brian Jones: Like a Rollin' Stone
• R. Weingartner, A tribute to Brian Jones
• Terry Rawlings (1994), Who Killed Christopher Robin?: The Life and Death of Brian Jones, ISBN 0-7522-0989-2
• Laura Jackson (1992), Golden Stone: The Untold Life and Tragic Death of Brian Jones, ISBN 0-312-09820-0
• R. Chapman, "The bittersweet symphony", Mojo, 68 (July 1999), pg.62-84
• Bill Wyman and Ray Coleman, Stone Alone, ISBN 0-670-82894-7
• Alan Clayson, Brian Jones, ISBN 1-86074-544-X
• Bill Wyman, Rolling With The Stones, ISBN 0-7894-8967-8
• Andrew Loog Oldham, Stoned : A Memoir of London in the 1960s ISBN 978-0312270940

External links

• The Official Brian Jones Fan Club
• Fans: Yahoo! discussion group of Brian Jones and other '60's stars
• Brian Jones Fans: Yahoo! group for Brian with a lots of photos
• Brian Jones Fans 2: Second part of the group with more photos of Brian
• Official site of The Master Musicians of Jajouka, showing Julian Brian Lawrence, son of Brian Jones, on a visit to Jajouka
• Official Master Musicians of Joujouka site
• Stoned: a new movie about Brian Jones (trailer)
• Brian Jones: A Rollin' Stone
• Brian Jones Fansite
• Brian Jones at Find-A-Grave
• Brian Jones, Founder of the Rolling Stones, Brian Jones profile with comprehensive discography and bibliography at YoursDaily.com.
• Brian Jones: Death of a Rolling Stone
• Brian Jones Joujouka Joujouka very Stoned by Master Musicians of Joujouka 30 second music clip