The Brian Jones Q&A - And his Contributions as a Stone - Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Ophelia, Oct 16, 2016.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Bill Wyman maybe.
     
  2. Ophelia

    Ophelia Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, New York
    "Brian came up to me [at the end of 1968], looking pretty shaky, and asked me what I thought he should do - He didn't know where he fitted in. I told him to just pick up a guitar and start playing. Then he walked over to Mick and said, "What should I play?" Mick told him, "You're a member of the band, Brian, play whatever you want." So he played something, but Mick stopped him and said, "No, Brian, not that - that's no good." So Brian asked him again what to play, and Mick again told him to play whatever he wanted. So Brian played something else, but Mick cut him off again - "No, that's no good either, Brian." - Jack Nitzsche.
     
    DTK likes this.
  3. Ophelia

    Ophelia Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, New York
    Sam Cutler, road manager of the Stones (circa '68-69): "No one realizes, to put it bluntly, what cold c--ts Mick and Keith can be. All I can remember from the time is Brian, sitting on the floor in the studio looking lost. It was too painful for him. A lot of people take drugs to mask their inner turmoil and unhappiness, don't they? And Brian was one of them. Yes, Mick and Keith did make it worse. They just treated him like he didn't exist. The Stones have a very cold way of dealing with people, man. Ok, you're not on their radar anymore. You don't exist. They treat you as if you're not there." He noted Bill Wyman was treated with similar, but less cold, irrelevance at this time.
     
  4. Ophelia

    Ophelia Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, New York
    Cleo Sylvestre: "He'd been to Morocco, and he was terribly excited, was talking to me about the rhythms, the drums, the instruments, how he wanted to have this [new] group. He wanted to bring over some of the musicians he'd met. Really, it was a vision of what we now call world music. In those days it was totally radical. It's amazing when you think of all the records you can get now...Back then everything was well defined, and everything had a boundary. To have the vision, to break out and do something different, showed tremendous creativity and insight."

    Brian spoke to her very coherently and specifically about using Moroccan polyrhythms, with guitars on top, and Cleo singing. This was the vision he wanted to follow. Cleo thought his ideas were good, but "I was so insecure about my singing, I just said, 'Oh, Brian, you're sending me up." He said, "No, I'm serious." So I said let's meet, but I didn't pursue it."
     
  5. MHP

    MHP Lover of Rock ‘n Roll

    Location:
    DK
    Maybe because Jones had let them down too many times, instead of proclaimimg he had issues, he became bitter and acted like a little kid. Being 21-22 year old young men with the world at their feet, the last thing you want is an annoying comrade taking drugs and beating women.

    Again, all very promising. I am sure he could have created something, but it was not for The Stones.
     
  6. Ophelia

    Ophelia Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, New York
    Oldham, and Keith were having conversations as early as 1965 on how to ease him out of the band. Long before "too many let downs."
     
    pinkmoon likes this.
  7. pernod

    pernod Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Netherlands
    Where's the evidence for this? Or is it hearsay?
     
  8. Ophelia

    Ophelia Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, New York
    [In August 1966] Keith and Oldham had gone for a schmooze on [Allen] Klein's yacht with Bobby Vinton, the NME's Chris Hutchins, and a bunch of friends. They were making their way upriver to Shea Stadium for The Beatles' landmark show....Hutchinson was enjoying the party buzz when he joined Keith, Oldham and Klein on the bridge. "I walked in, and they were discussing how they could get rid of Brian. I don't mean kill him...They were discussing how they could ease him out of the band."
     
  9. pernod

    pernod Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Netherlands
    So it's based on what a journalist wrote in a music paper about what he alledgedly picked up when he walked into a conversation at a party on Klein's yacht. Hardly evidence.
     
    MHP likes this.
  10. Ophelia

    Ophelia Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, New York
    Well, what did you want, a Nixon tape equivalent?
     
  11. MHP

    MHP Lover of Rock ‘n Roll

    Location:
    DK
    Jones considered himself superior and more important than his band mates, travelling isolated from them and demanding more money. When the rest of the band found out about it, it established an alliance against him, as they felt betrayed about it. He was at least just as guilty in himself being alienated from the band. So much for being a band when your friend lets you down. Brian Jones was an unlikeable human being, but a great musician. Those who tries to paint a picture of him as a holy choir-boy, are fooling themselves big time.
     
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2016
  12. lennonfan1

    lennonfan1 Senior Member

    Location:
    baltimore maryland
    Mick Keith and Andrew are the main instigators....as I'm sure they felt him a prima donna and he didn't write, it doesn't surprise me how they wanted to kick him to the curb, like they did Bill later on..
     
    Dave Hoos likes this.
  13. lennonfan1

    lennonfan1 Senior Member

    Location:
    baltimore maryland
    yep, pretty darn wonderful stuff, as is the entire album IMO.
     
  14. MHP

    MHP Lover of Rock ‘n Roll

    Location:
    DK
    Yes, please. There is no evidence.

    He was a prima donna, constantly moaning and feeling betrayed. However, he betrayed himself from the outset by considering himself superior.
     
  15. pernod

    pernod Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Netherlands
    No, I'm just cautious when it comes to drawing conclusions. You're treating it as an established fact so I asked for evidence which ofcourse there isn't. People are making up stories all the time, you don't believe everything you read now do you? Brian Jones doesn't come across as a very likeable person in many testimonies from the people around him but there are also stories about of how friendly and generous he could be, it's obvious he was a troubled person with a very complicated personality but people are talking about him 47 years after his death as if they personally knew him and present evidence to back up their theories as if it's written in stone. None of these testimonies were taken under oath and a lot, if not most, should be treated with a handful grains of salt.
     
    KinkySmallFace1991 and Dave Hoos like this.
  16. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Well the other two caught up in the narcissism personified category, touche.
     
    pinkmoon, Ophelia and Dave Hoos like this.
  17. the sands

    the sands Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oslo, Norway
    I believe George Harrison liked him and he talks about him in The Beatles Anthology, he got visits from Jones in the middle of the night, he'd been partying and he stood outside his bedroom window and yelled George with a whispery voice, and he contributed supposedly uncredited to "Sgt. Pepper", playing on "Within You Without You" for instance. It looks as if for every person who try to paint him as a drug addled psychopath there are those who socialised with him and appreciated his company.
     
  18. Ophelia

    Ophelia Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, New York
    He also contributed saxophone to "You Know My Name, Look Up My Number" and backing vocals/effects to "Yellow Submarine". His other contributions include percussion to All Along the Watch Tower (Hendrix - the THWACK sounding drum, especially in the intro, you hear throughout the song is Brian)

    Other contributions:
    With Peter and Gordon
    "You've Had Better Times" (1968) drums
    "Mess of the Blues" (1964) harmonica

    With McGough and McGear
    "Basement Flat" (1968) saxophone
    "Summer with Monica" (1968) saxophone

    With Marianne Faithfull
    "Is This What I Get For Loving You?" (1966) euphonium
     
  19. booker

    booker Forum Resident

    Location:
    Poland
    We must remember also his harmonica/harp playing which was in the early days very distinctive part of many songs Stones performed. Well that's all Brian. Jagger took few lessons from Brian and started blowing the thing with Little Red Rooster up to I think Midinte Rambler (Brian Stones era). But for the most part of early Stones harmonica = Brian. There you can hear what this man was all about. Very passionate and tasteful playing to my ear.
     
    KinkySmallFace1991 and Dave Hoos like this.
  20. Ophelia

    Ophelia Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, New York
    He plays most of the harmonica on BB.
     
  21. Zack

    Zack Senior Member

    Location:
    Easton, MD
    Ophelia . . .

    Ode to L.A. While Thinking of Brian Jones, Deceased

    I'm a resident of a city
    They've just picked me to play
    the Prince of Denmark

    Poor Ophelia

    All those ghosts he never saw
    Floating to doom
    On an iron candle

    Come back, brave warrior
    Do the dive
    On another channel

    Hot buttered pool
    Where's Marrakesh
    Under the falls
    the wild storm
    where savages fell out
    in late afternoon
    monsters of rhythm

    You've left your
    Nothing
    to compete w/
    Silence

    I hope you went out
    Smiling
    Like a child
    Into the cool remnant
    of a dream

    The angel man
    w/ Serpents competing
    for his palms
    & fingers
    Finally claimed
    This benevolent
    Soul

    Ophelia

    Leaves, sodden
    in silk

    Chlorine
    dream
    mad stifled
    Witness

    The diving board, the plunge
    The pool

    You were a fighter
    a damask musky muse

    You were the bleached
    Sun
    for TV afternoon

    horned-toads
    maverick of a yellow spot

    Look now to where it's got
    You

    in meat heaven
    w/ the cannibals
    & jews

    The gardener
    Found
    The body, rampant, Floating

    Lucky Stiff
    What is this green pale stuff
    You're made of

    Poke holes in the goddess
    Skin

    Will he Stink
    Carried heavenward
    Thru the halls
    of music

    No Chance.

    Requiem for a heavy
    That smile
    That porky satyr's
    leer
    has leaped upward

    into the loam

    -- James Douglas Morrison
     
    Adam9, Dave Hoos and alexpop like this.
  22. peter

    peter Senior Member

    Location:
    Paradise
    edit.
     
  23. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Very elegant, regal and fitting epitaph.
     
  24. Darrin L.

    Darrin L. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Golden, CO
    I like how all his contributions are vague and "uncredited". Talk about trying to make something out of nothing.
     
  25. Ophelia

    Ophelia Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, New York
    I see the attempt to denigrate the man and downgrade him here, but his contributions aren't vague at all.

    Just some highlights:

    Paint it Black - Sitar and melody
    Yesterday's Papers - Vibraphone, counter melody
    Under My Thumb - Marimbas, main melody
    Sing This All Together - flute, trumpet, brass instruments, percussion
    The Last Time - guitars, lead riff
    She's A Rainbow - Melltron
    Ruby Tuesday - Recorder, Piano, and possibly the basic song structure itself
    Lady Jane - Dulcimer/main melody
    I Am Waiting - Dulcimer, which acts as the 'lead guitar'
    Sitting on a Fence - Lead guitar
    Citadel - Saxophone, Melltron (mandolin on Melltron), Flute
    Dandelion - Oboe
    We Love You - Melltron
    Street Fighting Man - Sitar, Tambura,
    No Expectations - Slide Guitar
    Dear Doctor - Harmonica
    2000 Lightyears from Home - Melltron
    Mother's Little Helper - Sitar
    Jigsaw Puzzle - Melltron

    These are but a few songs wherein his contribution basically makes the song what it is.
     
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2016
    Rne, pinkmoon, Suncola and 5 others like this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine