Brian Jones at the Rock N' Roll Circus

As I understand it, Brian's amp WASN'T unplugged at the Rock N' Roll Circus - his parts have been simply mixed waaay down on the official releases except on No Expectations. I have also heard there are rehearsal tapes where he is audible on guitar. Can anyone confirm whether any of this is true? I'd like to hear what his guitar playing sounded like in '68.

 

It's obvious he was mostly mixed out on the other songs and it also looks to me like there was camera cropping to keep his appearances to a minimum.
Gotta love Mick and Keith for trying as hard as they could to keep his contributions minimal. Such sweethearts

 

According to Pete Townshend, when Brian arrived he was absolutely ****faced. Maybe that was the main reason he was mixed down wherever possible. Without him, they sound like they're not firing on all cylinders, which they're clearly not. Bad enough they had to follow The Who, but to do so with one member clearly below his best certainly didn't help.

 

Was it true the Who blew the Stones off the stage with their live performance? The stones were red faced? Just asking how true that story is.

Wish Brian had been somewhat sober to do a great performance with his mates.

 

True or not, it's exactly what I would expect given the live recordings we have of both bands at around that time.

 

Well he did do pretty good on No Expectations. A shame he was so wasted. I wish there was tape of their warm up number Route 66.

 

A matter of opinion. Get the DVD and decide. Not to me.

 

Thanks

 

Thanks

 

you can't hear him at all on You Can't Always Get What You Want even though he's clearly playing and the audience heard a much different mix to be sure

 

Minimal contributions? Mick and Keith wasn't in charge of the mixing or filming. Blame Michael Lindsay and ABKCO for that. They tried as hard they could to cover-up that he was wasted, so they were actually very kind to him. That he is mixed out of the record, tells he played badly.

You are forgetting they had been up in about 48 hours before they took the stage. It had nothing to do with Brian. They were simply very tired.

 

I am sure they mixed it to get the best band sound. If he was not playing well, he got mixed out. The final mix decisions would have been made decades later not while they were pissed at him then.

 

I knew they were up for a while. My point was that the sad shape Brian was in just made it that much harder.

 

I don't play guitar so no expert but I can't hear anything Brian is playing here and here's clearly playing...



Anyone?

 

That had always been the "official" explanation. Considering how long it took for the full presentation to be released, it's sort of true, considering that The Who's performance had been included on The Kids are Alright.

Didn't think that the Stones were that bad, but this Brian Jones episode seems plausible. That definitely affected group morale, whereas The Who meant business.

 

The Who meant business. BIG TIME !!

Thanks

 

The stones were in a transitional period at the time of R&R circus.

 

He was plugged in and his amp on, it is more audible on alternate versions of Parachute Woman and You Can't... which circulate on bootleg.

His playing is very basic stuff.

He plays a basic B chord and then the riff notes on low strings for JJF, partial chords for the chorus. Simple Chuck Berry type rhythm on Parachute Woman (which is fine enough and a slight glimmer of how the stones used to sound), and strumming partial C and F chords with moves to basic D chord and back to a partial C chord for the change in the song.

Essentially, his parts are unessential and, imo, are some variation of the least he could do to get through the filming.

 

Clearly he is not audible in the intro, but I think a touch of his rhythm guitar is in the mix where Keith does lead later on, for example around 1:20 and towards the end.

 

Even though the obvious acoustic guitar overdub has been removed (that's heard in 25X5 documentary) for the official release, there is an overdubbed electric guitar playing gently during the intro of YCAGWYW. It's just playing the C and F similar to what Brian is shown to be playing, but it is just slightly different. Really subtle and gentle strumming which adds a bit of bottom to keith's more obvious tremolo guitar part.

Brian's part becomes audible on the official release when the band kicks in after the intro (the overdubbed guitar seems to stop then). Problem is, the bass mostly covers it up. It's slightly more audible on the alternate version on which Mick played acoustic guitar and sang at same time.

 

They clearly did some work on it at the time, going as far as overdubbing etc.

How do we know the official release is not a mix from the time? or perhaps just a few years later when it was possibly going to be released?

 

25x5 make a great blu ray, as is a sucking vhs.

 

Not gonna be a Brian Jones 'any love thread for the dude' with topic matter.

 

It's a sad watch/listen and it's obvious that the stones needed someone new.

RIP The Rolling Stones.

 

Or they needed time to get their troubled founder back in shape which, sadly, never happened.