Brian and Charlie were always the ones I focused on whenever the band played on TV, which was a special occasion in the days of yore.
Yeah, it’s funny to think back to the 60’s, where bands we loved weren’t omnipresent like now with YouTube and DVDs etc. Seeing the Stones on Ed Sullivan or the Hollywood Palace, etc. was a big event in my life,something to really enjoy. And well before VCRs, if I was out with the family or away from a TV for any reason, too bad. Missed them, or whoever .
They were a fantastic R&B band, Greatest RnR band in the world was post-Brian. I love it all, this gets tedious LOL.
I feel Stu had a big role initially and then it became Brian’s band But when Jagger-Richard began writing songs power shifted I am probably reiterating the official story
Brian’s contributions to the group are there on the albums to be discovered. He also brought a visual element to the group (often the focus of photos and standing out on album covers) and a style and taste that Jagger and Richards ended up appropriating for themselves (Jones was one of the best dressed rock stars of the 60’s). It can be said that the group was never as adventurous or varied after Brian. While they may have refined their approach into a premier rock group, they lost some of their mystique, charisma, and elegance post-Jones.
I guess we could all debate it until we're dead, but what does it matter? I love the Rolling Stones up to and including Let it Bleed. But after that there isn't much that grabs me. Exile is pretty great, but the rest of it is so spotty. I guess I liked them when there were 1 or 2 clinkers on each album, instead of 1 or 2 good songs on each album.
Fair enough. It just gets tired sometimes when some (not you) feel duty driven to drop into every Stones thread to impart the vital information that they lost interest after Brian, MT, whatever, without actually saying Why.. As if that in itself is a contribution to whatever is being discussed. Sorry... ranting.. LOL
IMO, he contributed a sense of adventure and willingness to use non-traditional instrumentation and arrangements.
I think it can be fun to speculate about the past. As for judging people as “jerks” “good people” “bad people” etc... I wonder how any of us would respond to the pressures and temptations of sudden success and remember these were young people, still with the degree of cruelty and callousness that can accompany youth. There is no need, for me, to go tearing down Brian Jones or building him up to mythical status. Music is powerful and mysterious - who knows who contributed what to what apart from the obvious of who played what or who wrote what.. I could only speculate. One thing I like about Stones fans as they tend to have a more open and casual view of their “idols”. Unlike some cultists of other bands. Thanks to all for your posts, I have enjoyed this thread.
Before locking horns with Jones, Jagger and Richards were previously members of Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys, along with original bassist Dick Taylor, who later quit the band to return to graphic arts. Therefore, it's true that the Stones formed out of two bands: Blues, Inc. (with Jones and Watts) and Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys (Jagger/Richards). ~Ben
He may have picked the musicians, named the band and inspired them to play the blues classics the band started out with, but once Mick Jagger and Keith Richards started to write their own material for the band they were really in charge. Brian Jones remained an important part of the band until he quit, but Jagger and Richards were the true leaders of the band.
If Brian gets no credit for creating The Rolling Stones in 1962... Brian Jones' children 1. Name unknown, a son, born in 1959 to a 14-year-old Cheltenham schoolgirl named Valerie; the baby was adopted by other people 2. Name unknown, a daughter, born August 4, 1960 to a married woman from Cheltenham 3. Julian Mark, born October 22, 1961 to Cheltenham girl Pat Andrews 4. Julian Brian, born July 23, 1964 to Windsor teenager Linda Lawrence 5. John (Paul Andrew), born March 24, 1965 to teenager Dawn Molloy; adopted by other people Are Brian's children heirs to his fortune? Brian is said to have died £200,000 in debt and with virtually nothing in the bank. At any rate, under English law at that time, illegitimate children did not have inheritance rights. Brian's parents, still living as far as anyone knows, inherited his estate and receive any performance royalties due Brian. It is widely reported that they ignore all Brian's kids. Brian Jones' Children
As I understand it, the genesis of the Stones was in two, broadly parallel strands in 1961, one being Brian Jones meeting and friendship with Alexis Korner, and the other Mick Jagger and Keith Richards chance meeting in Dartford. As regards the first, British jazz musician, Chris Barber, formed a London-based group with two blues musicians, Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies. The group played in Cheltenham in 1961, where Brian Jones saw them, and met with Korner after. Korner offered help if Brian Jones came up to London, which he subsequently did. Barber’s group didn’t last long, and Korner and Davies formed Blues Incorporated. They had trouble getting gigs in the old jazz clubs so they set up their own, the Ealing Club, in West London, to play as Blues Incorporated. The club opened in March 1962. Separately Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had met in October 1961 (the famous Dartford train station meet), and Mick invited Keith to join a (private) group he had formed with a mutual friend, Dick Taylor, called Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys. The Ealing Club quickly got a name for itself and Mick, Keith and Brian Jones became regular visitors, along with the likes of Paul Jones (later of Manfred Mann), Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce (later of Cream). Korner encouraged visitors to join his Blues Incorporated on stage if they were good. Mick saw Brian Jones and Paul Jones do this, thought he could do at least as well, and did his own first stint. Mick has said that’s where it started. Two months after the Ealing Club had opened, in May 62, Brian placed his advert in Jazz News, looking for members of a new band. Ian Stewart was the first to join, after which Mick, Keith, and Dick Taylor joined, along with Mick Avory (later of the Kinks). In July 62, Korner’s Blues Incorporated were due to play at the Marquee club in London, but appeared instead on the BBC’s Jazz Club show. The Rolling (or Rollin’) Stones (as they were newly called, after the Muddy Water’s song Rolling Stone Blues), took the Blues Inc slot at the Marquee, in what was their debut. The line up was that which had emerged from Brian Jones advert, and the meetings at the Ealing Club, namely, Brian, Mick, Keith, Ian Stewart, Dick Taylor and Mick Avory. By January 1963, Dick Taylor and Mick Avory had left, and were replaced first by Bill Wyman and then by Charlie Watts. Andrew Loog Oldham saw the Stones in Richmond in London in April 63, became their manager, got them a record deal, and persuaded Mick Jagger and Brian Jones to drop Ian Stewart, who remained as driver, road manager, and (as pianist) became the famous “sixth Stone”. If this is right, then Brian Jones did take the lead in establishing the Stones, and he was initially the leader, though Alexis Korner and his Ealing Club had a lot to do with providing the opportunity for the formation of the initial line up.
Wyman wasn't a founding member, he joined later. His opinion is important insofar as Brian Jones' playing a leadership role in the early stages, but no so much on how it all started.
