Brian Jones

For other people with the same name, see Brian Jones (disambiguation)

Brian Jones

Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was the founding member, lead and rhythm guitarist and backing singer in the English rock group, The Rolling Stones.

Jones was known for his multi-instrumental skills, fashionable mod image, and his drug and sexual excesses. His death at age 27 made him a member of music's infamous 27 Club.

Biography

Early life

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

Brian's parents were both very interested in music, and it seems their interest had a profound effect on young Brian. In addition to his job as an aeronautical engineer, Brian's father played both piano and organ, and led the choir at the local church. Jones's mother Louisa was a piano teacher and started teaching her son the instrument at a very young age. Eventually Brian required formal lessons as he progressed too quickly for her to continue teaching him. He soon learned how to read music, and eventually took up the clarinet, becoming first clarinet in his school orchestra at 14.

In 1957 Jones was first exposed to the jazz musician Charlie Parker; this sparked a lifelong interest in jazz music and Jones persuaded his parents to buy him a saxophone. As with many instruments he attempted to learn, Jones initially played endlessly, only to find he became somewhat bored with the instrument after a while, and finally would search for another instrument to play. Two years later his parents gave him his first acoustic guitar as a present for his 17th birthday.

Attending local schools including Dean Close School, from 1949 to 1953 and Cheltenham Grammar School for Boys, where he started in September 1953 after easily passing the Eleven-plus Jones was known as an exceptional student, getting very high marks in all of his classes while doing relatively little work. He enjoyed badminton and diving but otherwise was not very skilled at sports. However he found his schooling to be too regimented and formal, and refused to conform when he reached adolescence. He was known to eschew wearing the school uniforms, refusing to wear his mortarboard, and angering teachers with his behaviour. As a result, he remained very popular and well-liked with the students. This open hostility towards authority figures got him suspended from school on two separate occasions.

Dick Hattrell, a childhood friend of Brian's, is quoted as saying about the guitarist:

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

In 1957 Jones obtained nine O-levels in his exams.

All this, and his popularity with the other school pupils, came to an end in the spring of 1959, when at the age of 17 Jones impregnated his girlfriend, a 16-year-old Cheltenham schoolgirl named Valerie. She was four months younger than Jones, who encouraged her to have an abortion. After this she wanted no further contact with Brian and instead chose to have the baby boy adopted. The child, named Simon, was given to an infertile couple upon his birth and Brian quit school in disgrace and left home, travelling throughout northern Europe, including Scandinavia, for the summer. During this time, Jones later claimed, he lived something of a bohemian lifestyle, busking and playing guitar on the streets for money, living off the kindness of others. Simon never met his biological father.

While Jones was fond of telling others about his trip throughout Europe, it remains uncertain as to how much of his story is real and how much is embellishment. Other friends and acquaintances spoke of Jones merely staying with relatives outside the UK, yet to hear it from the musician himself, he had no money, no home, no friends and no family after he left England.

Upon his return, Jones became much more interested in various types of music. He was taught classical music at a young age, and he always preferred blues (particularly Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson); however, he soon took an interest in country, jazz, and rock 'n roll. He began playing at local blues and jazz clubs in addition to busking and working various odd jobs, and used the money he earned to buy more instruments. He was also known to steal small amounts of money to pay for cigarettes, which got him fired from jobs on several occasions.

Despite the unwanted attention he received from impregnating his girlfriend at a young age, Jones showed no signs of changing his lifestyle. A second child, whom Jones named Julian Mark Andrews (his mother being Jones's then-girlfriend Pat Andrews), was born in October 1961. He sold his record collection the day his son was born to buy flowers for Pat and clothes for the newborn and lived with them for a while.

Forming the Rolling Stones

Jones eventually left Cheltenham completely and moved to London where he met and 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 and spearheaded. He became a proficient 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 the spring of 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 featured playing Elmore James' "Dust My Broom" with Korner's band at The Ealing Club. On his initiative, Jagger brought guitarist Richards with him to the rehearsals; Richards then joined the band. Jones's 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, it was Jones who 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 the following line-up: Jagger, Richards, Jones, Stewart, bass player Dick Taylor (later of The Pretty Things) and drummer Tony Chapman.

Throughout much of 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 they lived there, Jones and Richards spent day after day playing guitar while listening to blues records (most notably Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters & Howlin' Wolf), and Jones showed Jagger how to play the harmonica properly.

The four Rollin' Stones then went searching for a steady bassist and drummer, and after several auditions and try-outs they settled on Bill Wyman on bass (mainly because he had two large VOX AC30 guitar amps and cigarettes). After having played 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, Inc. to play drums.

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:

a) To get us on the stage in a club and be paid a half-crown

and

b) to be billed as an R&B band.

The group played at local blues and jazz clubs around London, eventually forming a solid fan base despite strong resistance from traditional jazz musicians who felt threatened by the Stones's popularity. While Mick Jagger was the lead singer, Jones, in the group's embryonic period, was the leader - promoting the band, getting them shows around London, and negotiating with venue owners. Jones would often act more as an entertainer in these early days, playing several instruments including vocals, rhythm guitar, slide guitar, and harmonica.

During live performances around this time, and especially at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, Jones was frequently 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 at all.

While acting as 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' popularity grew, they came to the attention of Andrew Loog Oldham, who met the band in April 1963 at the suggestion of Record Mirror music writer Peter Jones (no relation) and soon became, with Eric Eastman, their co-manager. Oldham, who had worked briefly 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 kind of blues-inflected, rough-edged answer to the more amiable Beatles, using the novel's protagonist and his gang as his inspiration. It was Oldham who coined the phrase "Would you let your daughter marry a Rolling Stone?"

Piano player Ian Stewart was pushed into the background by Oldham for two main reasons: Oldham felt that Stewart, a somewhat burly Scotsman, did not fit in with the image he wanted of the group; and Oldham felt that six group members were too many for audiences to remember clearly. Stewart remained the Stones' road manager and principal keyboard player until his death in 1985.

Oldham's arrival also marked the beginning of Jones' own slow estrangement from the band, one which saw his prominent role progressively diminished as Oldham sought to shift the Stones's centre of gravity away from Jones and towards Jagger and Richards.

Until this time all of the songs in the group's repertoire were either blues covers or instrumentals credited to "Nanker Phelge" — a credit that indicated the song was a Jagger/Jones/Richards/Watts/Wyman composition. Oldham, and everybody in the group, recognised the financial advantages of writing one's own songs, as exemplified by the Lennon/McCartney team, as well as the simple fact that playing covers won't keep a band in the limelight for years to come. Further, Oldham wanted to make Jagger's onstage 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-penned 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 would adopt the surname Leitch after 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 a musical aptitude, having the ability to play a myriad of instruments due to his training on the piano and clarinet in his youth. As soon as the Stones earned enough money to record in professional, well equipped recording studios like Olympic Studio and the RCA and Sunset Sound Recorders studios in Los Angeles, Jones started experimenting with different wind and stringed instruments at a rapid pace.

Throughout his years with the band he played stringed instruments (guitar, sitar, tamboura, dulcimer), keyboards (piano, organ,mellotron), wind instruments (recorder, clarinet, saxophone, harmonica) and several other instruments like xylophone and marimba. Brian's main guitar in the early years was a Gretsch Double Anniversary in two tone green, but Jones is mainly known for his signature teardrop-shaped prototype Vox Phantom Mark III. In the later years Jones used various Gibson models (various Firebirds, ES-330, and Les Paul models), as well as a Rickenbacker 12-String model made famous by George Harrison.

Brian contributed significantly to the 1960s sound of the Stones, playing slide guitar on "I Wanna Be Your Man," "Little Red Rooster, "No Expectations, tamboura on "Street Fighting Man", marimba on "Under My Thumb", recorder on "Ruby Tuesday", trumpet and trumbone on "Something Happened To Me Yesterday", dulcimer on "Lady Jane" and "I Am Waiting", accordion on "Backstreet Girl", mellotron on "2000 Light Years from Home" and "We Love You", saxophone on "Citadel" and autoharp on "You Got the Silver". Jones played blues harp ("harmonica") on most of the Stones' recordings throughout the 1960s.

In the Stones' early years, Jones was also a harmony singer for the Stones, particularly from 1962–1964. Notable examples are "I Wanna Be Your Man" and "Walking The Dog." Jones' somewhat gruff backing vocals can also be heard on "Come On," "Bye Bye Johnny," ""Money" and "Empty Heart" (alongside Jagger and Richards).

Jones and Keith Richards excelled on what is known as "guitar weaving," later dubbed the Ancient Form of Weaving, that has become a signature part of the sound of the Rolling Stones throughout their career. It involves both guitarists playing rhythm and lead parts at the same time, without ever really differentiating between the two styles. This style of playing 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.

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 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's multi-instrumental talents throughout. The 1969 album Let it Bleed 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, the former home of Winnie the Pooh author A. A. Milne.

Estrangement from the Rolling Stones

The hard days on the road, the money and fame, and the feeling of being alienated from the group resulted in Jones' greater and greater indulgence in drugs and alcohol. He frequently used LSD, cocaine and cannabis, and was known to be a heavy drinker.

These indulgences did nothing positive for Jones's physical health (he suffered from asthma, and was never a very health-conscious individual). On several occasions he was in the hospital while the rest of the group was elsewhere, doubtlessly contributing to his paranoia and physically 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 in Jones's possession. He confessed to marijuana use but claimed he did not use hard drugs. Like the arrests of his bandmates, protesters appeared outside the 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 romantic relationship. Here he met Frank Zappa and Dennis Hopper, and went on stage to introduce the Jimi Hendrix Experience. One review referred to Jones as "the unofficial 'king' of the festival."

Jagger and Richards grew increasingly hostile towards Jones, who became alienated from the rest of the group. Although by many accounts Jones was often a friendly and outgoing person, other band members — including Bill Wyman — commented that Jones could often be cruel and extremely difficult to get along with. By most accounts, Jones's attitude changed frequently, one minute being 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 heavy drug use and drinking did not help matters. His contributions with the Rolling Stones would become more sporadic even as he began some projects outside the group. Keith Richards began to play more lead guitar. Jones, bored with the instrument, would usually find something exotic to play, though he was frequently absent from recording sessions. Jones's gradual decline in contributions started around 1967 and continued until May 1968, when he recorded his last substantial contributions to Stones songs. Clips of Jones 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 recreational drug on the scene at the time. However, Jones maintained close relationships with many others outside of the Stones camp, including Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, and Steve Marriott.

Life continued to get more difficult for Jones. In March 1967, Jones's girlfriend Anita Pallenberg ran off with Richards while Jones was in hospital, severely damaging Jones and Richards's friendship. Pallenberg later claimed that Jones was hospitalised after a fight the two had 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 center.

Jones's 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. A relaxed 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 process. The film chronicles the making of the song "Sympathy for the Devil." While he played an acoustic guitar for the backing track, it is not included in the final version, though occasionally audible in the film through the microphones of the film crew.

At this time, it was becoming clear that Jones was not long for the group. Whereas before he would normally play multiple instruments on nearly every track, he was no longer a ubiquitous presence on the album, only appearing on about half of the tracks. He plays acoustic slide guitar on "No Expectations," harmonica on "Dear Doctor" and "Prodigal Son," tamboura on "Street Fighting Man", and mellotron on the fade-out of "Stray Cat Blues."

Jones's last formal appearance with the Stones 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 due to Mick Jagger being unhappy with the band's performance as 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 from the group 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's time with the Stones was near, and Pete Townshend of The Who even states that he thought it would be Jones's last musical live performance.

Other contributions

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Inside cover of Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At 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 his then-girlfriend Anita Pallenberg. He hired various 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. Although Jones was by no means sympathetic to the Nazis, many were offended by the photographs.

Jones played percussion on an unreleased Jimi Hendrix version of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" together with a handful of unreleased jams with Hendrix and Dave Mason of Traffic in early 1968, in addition to playing the alto saxophone on a Beatles song, "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) and "Yellow Submarine", in which he hit two pieces of glass together.

In the summer of 1968, Jones recorded the Morocco-based ensemble, the Master Musicians of Jajouka. In 1971, Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka [SIC], was posthumously released; it remains a World Music landmark. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards first 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 Brian 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 off 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.

Death

Jones was arrested a second time on 21 May 1968, this time for marijuana possession. Jones claimed the marijuana was left behind by previous owners of his home, but he was facing a long jail sentence if found guilty, due to his probation. Bill 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." The prosecution's case was very weak, relying on testimony of police who were later found to be corrupt . (The same corrupt officers who harassed Jones would go on to harass Beatle John Lennon in 1969. (Beatles' Anthology)

Brian's continuing legal troubles, estrangement from his bandmates, substance abuse, sporadic contributions, and mood swings finally became too much for the Rolling Stones. 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.

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, at this time 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 recording of 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 forward he made himself scarce, rarely attending sessions. Ry Cooder (fielded as a possible replacement) observed that the guitarist even retreated into a corner and cried on the rare occasions when he did show up. By May, he had made only two contributions to the work in progress: an autoharp part on "You Got the Silver" and extra percussion (two large tribal drums played with beaters) on the epic "Midnight Rambler". Jones was duly 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 extremely frail, he nonetheless showed.

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

To the public, it appeared as if Jones had suddenly left; the others told him that although he was being asked to leave, they stressed that it was his choice how to break it to the public. Jones released a statement on 9 June announcing his departure from the group. In the public 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 just as the Stones were returning to their blues roots, which Jones had always emphasized. Jones was replaced by 20-year-old guitarist Mick Taylor (formerly of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers), who started sessions with the Stones right away.

At this point Jones mostly stayed at Cotchford Farm (formerly the residence of "Winnie-the-Pooh" author A. A. Milne), with intentions to form another band. He did visit Olympic studios the next week to discuss the future with his former bandmates, with 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 the idea of joining Korner's New Church band, but Korner instead suggested Jones form his own band. Miller occasionally brought his family over, and Jones had invited him to do so again in early July.

There is uncertainty as to the mental and physical state Jones was in at this time. The last known photographs taken of Jones, taken in June 1969 shortly after his departure from the Stones, are not flattering. Jones appears bloated with deep-set eyes, although people who visited Jones (particularly Alexis Korner) were surprised by Jones' 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 such good spirits.

At around midnight on 3 July 1969, Brian Jones was discovered motionless at the bottom of his swimming pool at his home in Hartfield, Sussex, England, where he had been for only a matter of minutes. His girlfriend Anna Wohlin is convinced he was still alive when they took him out; insisting that he still had a pulse. However when the doctors arrived, it was too late for Brian and he was pronounced dead on the scene. The coroner's report stated "Death by misadventure", and noted that 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.

However, Anna Wohlin claimed in 1999 that he had been murdered by a builder who had been staying with them renovating the house the couple shared. The builder, Frank Thorogood, allegedly confessed to the murder on his deathbed to the Rolling Stones's driver, Tom Keylock; however, it should be noted that there were no other witnesses to this confession. In her book ("The Murder Of Brian Jones") she alleges that Frank Thorogood behaved suspiciously and showed little sympathy when Jones was discovered in the pool (he was also the last one to see Brian alive), but she admits that she was not actually present at the time of Jones's death. Witnesses have been interviewed by various journalists who claim to have seen the 'murder'; however, these witnesses almost always use pseudonyms, and none of them have been willing to go on record or report what they claim to have seen 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 demo recordings made by Jones for his future projects were stolen as well, but to date nothing has ever surfaced. Several of the instruments stolen from Jones's house have later turned up on the collectors market.

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.

When asked by a newspaper reporter his reaction to Jones's death, George Harrison responded, "When I met him I liked him quite a lot. He was a good fellow you know. I got to know him very well, I think, and I felt very close to him; you know how it is with some people, you feel for them, feel near to them. He was born on 28 February 1942, and I was born on 25 February 1943, and he was with Mick and Keith, and I was with John and Paul in the groups, so there was a sort of understanding between the two of us. The positions were similar, and I often seemed to meet him in his times of trouble. There was nothing the matter with him that a little extra love wouldn't have cured. I don't think he had enough love or understanding. He was very nice and sincere and sensitive, and we must remember that's what he was."

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 and uncaring about their former bandmate. In response to this criticism, 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, due to the extreme heat, most of the moths had already died in their boxes; 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 (to prevent exhumation by ghoulish trophy hunters) in (reportedly) a lavish silver and bronze casket (as the casket was lowered manually by two people it is unlikely the casket was solid bronze) 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 traveling to Australia to begin filming a movie and claimed the film's 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 the present fans.

Writing credits

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

However, in the years following Jones's death, two distinct fan bases have been established. Many Stones fans feel that Jones contributed a great deal to numerous Stones songs and deserved credit which he never received for several of their earlier compositions. Other Stones fans feel that Jones's contributions were very important for the sound and music of the Stones but that he lacked the compositional talent to deserve any songwriting credits. There is likely some truth in both camps' arguments, however the extent to which Jones did contribute to the writing will probably never be known with absolute certainty.

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, but this didn't work out. Bill Wyman has stated in many interviews that although Jagger and Richards were very protective to their roles as writers, they would be open to good ideas, and he names his "In Another Land" and "Downtown Suzie" as examples where you could get your own material through. Wyman commented also that Jones was "an incredibly gifted musician, but not a song writer". Ron Wood has also commented in interviews that he is very proud that he was able to get about two dozen of his songs recorded and released by the Stones, and Wood also has 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 officially credited to Jones, the 30 second "Rice Krispies" jingle for the Kellogg's company, co-written with J.W. Thompson in 1963 and which the group performed incognito as a commercial (which was common practice for bands to earn money). A second song, "Sure I Do", was written, recorded and sung completely by Jones in 1963, but the only known copy of it remains in Bill Wyman's "Sticky Fingers" restaurant. It remains unreleased and to date no one is known to have listened to it.

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.

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

To conclude, Jones might have co-written a small number of the group's more obscure works, and may have even played a minor role in the composition of a handful of their more popular songs. it is clear that songwriting was not his greatest strength, and even generous estimates of how much he wrote pale in comparison to the number of Jagger/Richards songs.

Public image and legend

Jones' biggest achievement, probably even more important than being a musician, was his status as a fashion icon, exemplified by his rebellious, outlandish fashion sense. 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 any other musician.

He was of small stature at 5'6" (1.68 m), with blue-green eyes and blonde hair, yet he was a pioneer in molding the "rock star" image. He was known to deliberately walk in crowded streets until girls would recognize him and start chasing him, at which point he would run away as fast as he could (like The Beatles in the film A Hard Day's Night).

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

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

The 2006 film Stoned is a fictional account of Jones and his role in the Rolling Stones.

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

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
• Stoned: a new movie about Brian Jones (trailer)
• Brian Jones: A Rollin' Stone
• Master Musicians of Jajouka
• 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.