Who Was The Real Brian Jones?

[winston]

Born Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones, Brian Jones as we came to know him when he was with the Rolling Stones was a trend setter.

He was also a man that had so many facets that Keith Richards remarked to Empire Magazine (in one of his more sober moments of course) that Brian was "the nicest bunch of blokes you'd ever meet". Meaning of course that he suspected him of having multiple personalities.

Bill Wyman observed in his book Stone Alone, “There were two Brian’s…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.”

Brian was a rebel even in grammar school. Although he shunned obvious participation in class and school uniforms in particular he managed to pass 9 GCE "0" Level courses. That is no mean feat let me assure you. He was a person that was absolutely brilliant when it came to exams. Later on in life the qualities that he had honed as a student managed to gain him entrance into a very exclusive circle of friends.

His parents both played music and Brian (as we know him) played both clarinet saxophone at an early age. On his 17th birthday his parents purchased him an acoustic guitar.

He was exposed to the influences of jazz and classical music but developed a keen liking for blues. When Brian moved to London to pursue his love of music, he became fast friends with other musicians who had a similar taste in music. People like Alexis Korner, 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 were counted amongst his peers. As we know, Brian ultimately became a very proficient multi instrumentalist.


History records that it was Brian who was initially the driving force behind the band that he came to name after a looking at an album that was laying on the floor as he was talking to a booking agent. The album was "The Best of Muddy Waters" and one song on that album was called Rollin' Stone Blues" When asked what the name of his band was he supposedly blurted out "The Rolling Stones"

Brian was the founder of the band that eventually threw him out. He was their business manager and band leader initially and he was their front man in every respect even on stage.

Andrew Loog Oldham eventually replaced him as manager and decided very early on that he wanted to market Mick as their front man and that he also wanted to pursue the making of a Lennon/McCartney type writing team with Jagger and Richards. Brian was not a writer and even though he wrote snippets of songs he never could summon up the courage to show his band mates what he was working on. This did not sit well with Oldham and the rot started to set in.

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

That was the beginning of the end for Brian, but that is a whole other story.

Was Brian a genius with a multiple personality disorder, who could be outgoing and fun on one hand and introverted, demanding, spiteful and fearful on the other? Or was he the victim of a manager, fresh from being in the Beatles camp that wanted an image and a success story that he knew Brian could not ultimately fit into.

Would the Stones have been successful had Brian stayed alive and never left them?

Oh I said he was a trendsetter at the beginning of all this. Let me explain. Not only was Brian at the forefront of the mod movement setting clothing and hairstyle trends but he is also dubiously known as the founding member of the 27 club.

The 27 club is not something that aspiring rock stars want to join. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison died at the same age within the next two years (Morrison, died exactly two years after Brian).

The notoriety of this club lives on. Its latest member, Kurt Cobain joined it in 1994

Your thoughts?

[jimk]

Quite interesting. Thanks for the bio.

JimK

[tamborineman]

You have covered it well Brian.
imho, when B.Jones was in the band, the music seemed quite different. it's hard for me to imagine Keith having much to do with songs like Lady Jane or As Tears Go By. After Brian's death Mick Taylor completely changed thier sound! Taylor gets no credit but I think Keith learned a lot from him about how to play guitar.
I liked the Jones era Stones a lot. He sure had a lot of influence for some one who didn't write any songs. I have no facts to back up my opinions. What was it about him?

[JakeK]

The Jones era of the Stones (1963-1969) was the highlight of the Stones in my opinion. He provided so much for the band, and was so talented, too. He is one of the greatest rhythm guitarists out there (It's All Over Now, Miss Amanda Jones), and his licks and riffs (The Last Time, Get Off of My Cloud, 19th Nervous Breakdown) were memorable, too.

[winston]

The Brian Jones period with the Stones was probably different for the following reason.

Keith Richards is on record as saying that what he and Brian Jones called "guitar weaving" came about as a result of 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.”

Guitar weaving became a signature sound of the Rolling Stones. It involves both guitarists playing rhythm and lead parts at the same time, without differentiating between the two styles.

They were obviously very close and worked hard together to achieve the results that they desired.

[tamborineman]

It's to bad that we didn't get a chance to hear what he could do on his own.

[winston]

It's to bad that we didn't get a chance to hear what he could do on his own.

Sadly there is nothing in the public domain that we would instantly recognize as being something that Brian Jones had a hand in.

Except for perhaps, those who know that he composed the soundtrack to the film, A Degree Of Murder. The soundtrack is the only recording that that can be pointed to as a Brian Jones solo effort.

His contribution to The "Stones" early sound was enormous and I believe that he would have eventually risen to the top again had he not died.

[studiotwosession]

Looking back, Oldham was a fool for not making a songwriting team out of Jones, and Wyman and perhaps throwing Watts in there, too. Jagger and Richards were starting from scratch, why not get some tunes out of the others as well? But I think he was sucking up to Jagger and Richards instead of being a better businessman. Wyman has put forth at least one theory as to why Brian coudln't cope with life, but clearly losing all creative control of his band, and not being given writing tasks while others in his band were toiling away (i.e. too much idle time) didn't help. Was his impregnating a number of women whom he didn't marry his way of emulating the likes of Screaming Jay Hawkins, and likely many other American bluesmen? I discussed Brian with a friend recently and he subscribes to the "there's a lot more here than meets the eye" theory regarding Jone's death. He pointed out that Brian owned the band's name. And yes, Mick Taylor had a lot more to do with the sounds and songs that comprise his era of the Stones.

[winston]

It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words so, here we have Brian playing a Rickenbacker during his last tour with The Rolling Stones.

jnsjagg67.jpg (7.52 KiB) Viewed 2240 times

[winston]

Glenn,

I found this birth timeline concerning the children whom he fathered with several women.

Brian was first a first-time father at the age of 16. Though the 'facts' regarding the true lineage of other children have come into question, at least five (5) children are known to exist or have existed.

1959 (m?/d?) - Simon (originally Barry David), son born to 14-year-old student Valerie (ln?). The baby would later be adopted.
1960 (Aug. 4) - unknown, daughter born to a married Cheltenham woman.
1961 (Oct. 22) - Julian Mark, son born to Pat Andrews.
1964 (Jul. 23) - Julian Brian, son born to Linda Lawrence.
1965 (Mar. 24) - John (Paul Andrew), son born to Dawn Molloy, later adopted.

It is said that Brian consistently asked the mothers of his children that if the child was a boy, he be named Julian. Brian was an avid admirer of Jazz great Julian "Cannonball" Adderley.

I would think that he was a fairly typical "rockstar" back then in the sense that he took advantage of his access to young women. I don't suppose that activity was robbing his focus from managing the band. I suspect that the band was getting a little cheesed off at Brian for being a bit of a money grabber and a grand stander so the rest of the band decided to look for a manager who would distribute income from gigs more fairly. More on this subject later when I finish my research into the decision to hire Oldham.

Here he is in striking a leaders pose when he was on top of the world.

[studiotwosession]

Hey Brian, I am far from a Stones expert. I read Wyman's book (talk about taking advantage of women!) and some interviews here and there. Of course, the Mother of one of his sons, Linda, has long been married to Donovan. I had a pleasure of being in their company one night after a gig here a few years ago. Also in the room was one of my neighbors, who was the longtime love of Noel Redding. Needless to say, it was rather an amazing group of people from the 60s English pop scene. I had no idea about Brian's handling of the money in the early days. I'm sure, though, the rest also had their fun with groupies but didn't end up fathers to the children of so many of them. I suspect that made them think about his role as one with responsibility.

[winston]

I am no expert on the Stones either. However, the albeit short life of Brian Jones has always interested me.

I recently found this quote from Mick on Brian. I thought it was an interesting comment given that history is fairly clear on the fact that Brian was the one that had had always insisted that the band should continue to maintain its R&B roots.

Mick Jagger stated in his 1989 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acceptance speech, Brian "...often took us off our bluesy course, with at times marvelous results.

It seems to me on many occasions that people who were not there at the time are constantly re-writing history to fit their theories or notions and I don't want to fall into that same trap. Never the less Mick's comment probably should not be taken out of context. I believe that he was alluding to Brian's role of a being utility player who could add other instruments that gave texture to songs like Lady Jane, Under My Thumb, Ruby Tuesday, Paint it Black and so on that were in fact a radical departure from their early signature R&B sound.

This was one of the things that I liked about Brian. He had the unique ability to listen to a song and know exactly what instrument it needed to take it from being just a good song and on to the next level and make it into a hit record.

[studiotwosession]

Indeed, it does seem like he was about to embrace new instruments and deftly weild them into the most pop of Stones recordings (I find Between the Buttons to be among the most interesting things they ever did) and it's ironic that after his departure they seemed to lose the ability to do much else than Chess and Chuck insfluenced stuff.

[winston]

I watched a TV show recently where they had a physcic try to obtain the details of Brian's death. The bottom line is that after the results came in that the police committed to have his body exhumed. This is weird or what?

[sloop_john_b]

I heard that Brian wrote "Ruby Tuesday", but his rather large contribution was not credited for whatever reason.