The technical abilities of Brian Jones

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by MHP, Aug 11, 2016.

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  1. drbryant

    drbryant Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    About once a month someone posts something here about the lack of "technical skills" of Brian, or Charlie, or Keith, or Bill, or Ronnie, or the band in general. I always point out Jagger's solo tour from 1988, which featured the best players money could buy, particularly Joe Satriani on guitar and Simon Phillips on drums -technical studs if ever there were any. The result is widely available on YouTube. It's technically perfect - no bum notes, no timing issues, etc. But something sounds wrong - I have a hard time articulating it.

    But, any iteration of the Stones, whether Brian, Mick T (who was a technical stud), Ronnie or Daryl Jones, always maintained a naturally bluesy, wonderfully loose organic band sound that just sounds good. It's the reason people of all ages continue to pack stadiums 50 years down the road.
     
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  2. aoxomoxoa

    aoxomoxoa I'm an ear sitting in the sky

    Location:
    USA
    I've always thought the same. But he probably was more musical than his band mates in general.
     
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  3. old school

    old school Senior Member

    A fanboy? Well I have been a fan of the Rolling Stones for 52 years. You're post #93 does not have one bit of accuracy! I would love to be objective but how can I when post #93 is full of untruths and no historical value whatsoever! You really need to learn the history of the band!
     
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2016
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  4. vonwegen

    vonwegen Forum Resident

    Yeah, exactly. ALO peering, p#ssed off from behind the studio glass, but still ecstatic at capturing the mojo, already thinking about how to fend off Brian's upcoming claims of "making the song work"... Bill thinking, "I hope nobody notices how much I nicked my bassline from James Jamerson, Mick nodding his head during the first playback, turning to Keef and saying, "That'll do. Pub?" and Keef nodding "Yeah!". Meanwhile, Charlie is counting the unfamiliar American coinage in his pockets, thinking, "Got enough to phone Shirley? What time is it in London now...?"
     
  5. Tommyboy

    Tommyboy Senior Member

    Location:
    New York
    I don't think so.I know enough about the Stones. Just move on.
     
  6. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Good there's a lot of love for the golden stone.
     
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  7. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Good there's a lot of love for the golden stone.
     
  8. Coricama

    Coricama Classic Rocker

    Location:
    Marietta, GA
    He certainly didn't walk on water...:hide:
     
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  9. old school

    old school Senior Member

    Sometimes all you can do is have a good sense of humor Tristero.
     
  10. Dave Hoos

    Dave Hoos Nothing is revealed

    I thought the other one was the B&W version?
     
  11. douglas mcclenaghan

    douglas mcclenaghan Forum Resident

    Ditto. This comment, all day.
     
  12. ssmith3046

    ssmith3046 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Arizona desert
    He certainly was a fertile lad.
     
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  13. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    TV version was the makeup one .. Jagger- Indian war paint.
     
  14. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Favourite Brian Jones /RS involved Decca single?

    JJF/Child Of The Moon
     
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  15. notesfrom

    notesfrom Forum Resident

    Location:
    NC USA
    Looks like Jones was a master musician after all...

    From a Bob Dylan 2009 interview/article in RS:

    I ask whether, as bandleader, Dylan had ever played a set with the perfect guitarist. Dylan jumps at the opportunity to answer rather reminiscently. "The guy that I always miss, and I think he'd still be around if he stayed with me, actually, was Mike Bloomfield," Dylan says of his collaborator on Highway 61 Revisited (who also famously played electric guitar with him at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965). "He could just flat-out play. He had so much soul. And he knew all the styles, and he could play them so incredibly well. He was an expert player and a real prodigy, too. Started playing early. But then again a lot of good guitarists have played with me. Freddy Tackett, Steve Ripley — Mick Taylor played with me for a minute."

    Full of memory lane, Dylan goes on to tell a story about first meeting Bloomfield in Chicago at a headhunt on the South Side. A social misfit, Bloomfield was the rare white guitarist who had recorded with the likes of Sleepy John Estes and Big Joe Williams. "He could play like Willie Brown or Charlie Patton," Dylan says. "He could play like Robert Johnson way back then in the Sixties. The only other guy who could do that in those days was Brian Jones, who played in the Rolling Stones. He could also do the same thing. Fingerpicking rhythms that hardly anyone could do. Those are the only two guys I've ever met who could ... from back then ... the only two guys who could play the pure style of country blues authentically."


    Bob Dylan's Late-Era, Old-Style American Individualism - Rolling Stone »
     
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  16. alchemy

    alchemy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sterling, VA
    Thanks! What a great quotation to share.

    I recall reading an interview with Keith about how he and Brian pulled apart the playing of Jimmy Reed and Eddie Taylor and then where able to put their interplay together for their playing.

    Also I think it was from an interview with Bill Wyman, about how Bo Diddley thought that Brian was one of the few who really could do Bo's beat.
     
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  17. jwoverho

    jwoverho Licensed Drug Dealer

    Location:
    Mobile, AL USA
    Yep, Bo had high praise for Brian's playing on Mona. Now Chuck Berry on the other hand, didn't think Keith played Carol correctly.....;)
     
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  18. Dave Hoos

    Dave Hoos Nothing is revealed

    A good example is the fingerpicking rhythm that Jones plays in "It's All Over Now" during the verses. And also the intro to "Little By Little" has a nice, bluesy, country style lick. And that really was his thing: great, great, tasteful rhythm and great slide.
     
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  19. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    Brian Jones Stones:

    [​IMG]

    Post-Jones Stones:

    [​IMG]
     
  20. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    I suspect that Brian was capable of things on the guitar that never really got captured on Stones recordings.
     
  21. jwoverho

    jwoverho Licensed Drug Dealer

    Location:
    Mobile, AL USA
    What does Dylan know about guitar players? I mean c'mon! Why don't you talk to someone who's been around?;)

    Brian was no Satriani, but then neither were any of the British Invasion musicians. What he did bring to the table was a creative mind and a gift for knowing the precise instrument to add to an arrangement.
     
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2016
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  22. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    YEAH! He's only seen a few . . .
     
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  23. Jayce

    Jayce Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    I don't care what his technical musicianship is. All I know is that he was a fantastic, essential part of the Stones and helped create some of the most memorable music of my lifetime. And the music they made during his tenure is so much more interesting than what came after. The crayon analogy above is spot on.

    Though I am not a fanboy, I have strong opinions about Brian Jones and the music he helped create. I am not talking about the Stones 1960s soap opera, so much of which is just sad and unpleasant.

    I wrote this in another Brian Jones thread regarding his importance to the band:

    I respect everyone's opinions and taste on this matter. Some are flat wrong.:)

    IMHO, Brian Jones and Keith Moon are the two most impactful individual musicians in any rock band in rock history. Period. Not the best, mind you. Once they left their bands (and Jones "left" about a year before he was fired), their bands' music completely, utterly changed - for better or worse. They were indispensable and inimitable.


    Here's another:

    For me, "We Love You" is the best thing that the Stones released in the 1960s, and the best thing they ever recorded. To these ears, it is easily the most powerful song they ever recorded. Everything comes together: a stunning Jagger vocal; unbelievable harmonies (courtesy John and Paul); huge, pounding drums; swooping bass; the most sinister piano they ever committed to tape; and, to top it off, my favorite mellotron performance of all time, courtesy of Brian Jones, who sends this recording into both hell and the stratosphere. IMO, his concluding mellotron solo is the best individual studio performance a Rolling Stone ever contributed to a Stones record. In an all-too-short career filled with stunning musical contributions, this is his greatest moment.

    Hyperbole to some, but I cannot communicate clearly enough how fantastic I think this song is.


    And finally:

    There was another thread that asked us to contribute a "most beautiful" song, and one of my contributions was "No Expectations." Talk about perhaps the saddest song the Stones ever recorded: Keith's somber acoustic chording; Bill's sad, rubber band bass; the crying organ; the claves (or whatever they are) sounding out their head-shaking "tsk...tsk" rhythm; Mick's incredibly mournful, valedictory vocal; Nicky Hopkins' teardrop piano.

    Yet, once again, as great as all those elements are (and how wonderful they are! These guys are blessed by the gods!), they pale in comparison to yet another Brian Jones performance that sends this song into the deepest well of melancholy the Stones ever plunged. Of course, this song's lyric and Brian's otherworldly performance would take on greater significance in July 1969, and it's impossible to hear this song without his loss in mind. However, what a contribution - usually cited as his last "great" moment.

    From what we have all heard, Brian was not the nicest of people - but he sure could channel his feelings into his music, couldn't he?
     
  24. mlew

    mlew Pub Rocker

    Many rock n rollers learned how to play their instruments outside of conventional school bands/orchestras and
    did not take private lessons as children. However Brian Jones' mom was a piano teacher and his dad played
    keyboards in church. Brian was First Clarinet in a school band and listened to classical music as a child.
    He also played some saxophone. So he has a keyboard and woodwind background.
    So lucky for us, Brian channeled his "traditional" musical background with his love of acoustic blues/ 50s rock n roll to give the Stones songs those wonderful licks on all those different instruments.
     
  25. Dave Hoos

    Dave Hoos Nothing is revealed

    Great post. That's just about the best take on "We Love You" that I've read. Sums it up perfectly. That mellotron outro that Jones plays, sounding like some nightmarish Arabian descent into hell, still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, every time I play it. Majestic and menacing at the same time and utterly spellbinding.

    I think it's in the top ten Stones songs.
     
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