Brian Jones (musician)

Brian Jones, 1965

Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (born February 28, 1942 in Cheltenham , Gloucestershire , † July 3, 1969 in Hartfield , Sussex ) was a British musician. As lead guitarist , he was one of the founding members of The Rolling Stones .

Live and act

Brian Jones was born on February 28, 1942, the first child of his Wales parents Lewis Blount Jones and Louisa Beatrice Jones (nee Simmonds). He had two sisters, Pamela , who was born in 1943 and died of leukemia at the age of two, and Barbara, who was born in 1946. His father was an aircraft engineer. His mother was a piano teacher. Brian also learned to play the piano from her, but also played the saxophone and clarinet . When he got a guitar for his 17th birthday, he was only interested in this instrument.

When his girlfriend, only 17-year-old Valerie Corbett, gave birth to their first illegitimate child Simon in Cheltenham in 1959, Brian's parents sent their son to relatives abroad, where he spent most of his time in record stores and music clubs with his passion for the blues . When he returned to Cheltenham soon afterwards, he fathered two more children.

When Sonny Boy Williamson performed there in 1961 at a Chris Barber concert , Brian Jones was completely captured by the blues and moved to London with Pat Andrews and their son , where he met Alexis Korner in December 1961 . When night listening records in Korner Kitchen Jones was fascinated by the slide guitar of Elmore James in Dust my Broom and began to work on his technique. On March 24, 1962 Alexis Korner brought him to the stage of the Ealing Club for the first time, where he played a few songs with his band Blues Incorporated . Brian Jones called himself "Elmo Lewis" back then.

Through Korner he met Mick Jagger and Keith Richards , with whom he founded The Rolling Stones in June 1962 . At first, Jones was the group leader.

Brian Jones (left) with the Rolling Stones at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol , 1964

Brian Jones was guitarist in the band The Roosters , founded by Paul Jones . As such, he was replaced by Eric Clapton in early 1963 .

While Brian Jones was mostly heard as the guitarist in the Rolling Stones songs recorded between 1963 and 1965, such as in I Wanna Be Your Man or Little Red Rooster , but also on the slide guitar and harmonica , he appeared from 1966 increasingly appearing as a multi-instrumentalist. On the albums Aftermath , Between the Buttons and Their Satanic Majesties Request he enriched the sound of the Rolling Stones with all kinds of instruments: with the flute ( Ruby Tuesday , Sing This All Together , Gomper) , with the sitar (Paint It Black , Mothers Little Helper , Gomper) , with the harp (On With The Show) , the marimba (Under my Thumb , Out of Time) , the Dulcimer (Lady Jane , I Am Waiting) , the harpsichord (Take it or leave it , Ride on Baby) , the accordion (Back Street Girl) , the kazoo and banjo (Cool Calm and Collected) , the organ (Complicated , 2000 Man) , the piano and various wind instruments (saxophone, trombone , clarinet) (Something happened to me yesterday , Dandelion and on the album Their Satanic Majesties Request) . He also used the Mellotron on several songs .

Jones' friend Linda Lawrence gave birth to a son in 1964, whom he named Julian, a name he had given to his son from his relationship with Pat Andrews. With this name he paid his respects to the saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley .

Brian Jones was known for his excessive lifestyle. He was adored by female fans, courted by scene people around Andy Warhol and Tom Wolfe, and most often photographed by all band members. Because of various hospital stays due to his drug and alcohol consumption, the Rolling Stones had to perform again and again without him. When he had to cancel concerts more and more often, the other band members began to distance themselves from him.

Their manager Andrew Loog Oldham favored the duo Mick Jagger / Keith Richards. Jones succeeded less and less to enforce his compositional ideas against these two. In addition, he suffered from asthma , which forced him to take constant medication. His drug use, his abusive behavior and airs did the rest to promote the alienation from the other band members.

On September 14, 1965, Jones met Anita Pallenberg , a model and actress, at an after-show party in Munich . Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were also interested in her, but she traveled to Morocco in 1966 with Brian Jones, who spoke a little German . The following year Anita Pallenberg starred in the film Murder and Manslaughter (by Volker Schlöndorff ), for which Jones wrote the soundtrack. When she and Jones became more and more jealous, she abruptly separated from him in the spring of 1967 on another trip to Morocco, in which Keith Richards also took part, and became Richards' girlfriend. Despite his shock, Brian Jones attended the 1967 Cannes Film Festival with her , where murder and manslaughter were presented.

Brian Jones, 1967

On May 10, 1967, Scotland Yard searched Brian Jones's apartment on Courtfield Road in London and arrested him and Stash de Rola , who was also present . Both have been tried for drug possession. The indictment was a traumatic experience for both parties. Brian Jones followed the advice of his lawyers and stayed away from the band members of the Rolling Stones during this time, which further worsened his mental state. De Rola was acquitted in the trial that did not take place until October 30, 1967. Brian Jones was sentenced to one year in prison for drug possession. This sentence was suspended for three years in an appeal hearing on December 12, 1967.

The last time on a European tour was Brian Jones with the Stones from March 25 to April 17, 1967. The final concert took place on April 17, 1967 in the Panathinaikos Stadium in Athens . He had his last appearances with the Stones in May 1968 at the Pollwinners Concert of the New Musical Express , where the Stones played the two songs Jumpin 'Jack Flash and Satisfaction , and at the Rock'n'Roll Circus in December 1968, where he was no longer a member all songs guitar, but sometimes only played percussion .

In June 1967, Brian Jones, enthusiastic about the emerging hippie and flower power movement, flew to San Francisco . There he attended the Monterey Pop Festival with the singer Nico on June 15, 1967 and announced the appearance of Jimi Hendrix . In the same year he got together with the model Suki Potier . With her he landed in Tangier on July 4th, 1968 to take up the Joujouka flute players . In November 1968, he bought Cotchford Farm in Hartfield, Sussex, formerly owned by Alan Alexander Milne , author of the Winnie the Pooh books . In 1969, Jones and Potier separated after 18 months. Then Jones was in a relationship with the Swedish dancer Anna Wohlin .

Leaving the band and death

After the Rolling Stones were no longer on tour because of the desperate condition of Brian Jones since 1967 and his participation in the studio recordings became less and less, the Stones decided to part with their former leader. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts drove to Cotchford Farm on June 8, 1969 and informed him of their decision. Jones accepted and accepted the offer of a one-time severance payment of £ 100,000 and £ 20,000 annually for as long as the Rolling Stones existed. On June 9, 1969, the separation was announced in a press release. There was talk of an amicable separation due to different musical preferences. According to his "old" mentor Alexis Korner, Jones wanted to start a new, progressive blues band in order to realize his musical ideas. Jones seemed to be recovering well in rural Sussex.

On July 2, 1969, building contractor and satanist Frank Thorogood and Janet Lawson, a nurse and friend of Tom Keylock , the Rolling Stones' chauffeur and road manager , were at Jones and Wohlin's home. Jones wanted to settle differences with Thorogood about allegedly outstanding funds for renovations at Cotchford Farm. According to contradicting statements, Brian Jones, Wohlin and Thorogood should have decided late at night to swim a few laps in the in-house pool. Wohlin left the pool after a short time and returned to Lawson's house, which would mean that Brian Jones and Frank Thorogood would have been alone in the pool for 10 to 15 minutes afterwards. When Thorogood lit a cigarette in the house, Janet Lawson saw from the window that something was wrong with Jones. She ran out and found him lying on the bottom of the pool. After Jones was pulled out of the pool, Anna Wohlin and Janet Lawson tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate him. The resuscitation attempts of the emergency services called also failed. Tom Keylock also appeared at the scene of the accident after Thorogood had informed him by telephone.

Drowning was given as the official cause of death. To this day, however, rumors persist that he was murdered. The murder theory is supported, among other things, by the film Stoned , in which the director and screenwriter Stephen Woolley - supported by testimony - argues that Jones was killed by Thorogood. In the end credits of the film it is mentioned that Frank Thorogood confessed to his friend Tom Keylock on his deathbed in 1993 about the murder of Brian Jones. Anna Wohlin, Jones's last friend, is also firmly convinced that Thorogood's assaults caused Jones to die. However, she is more likely to assume that Thorogood acted without intent to kill and negligently caused Jones' death.

The cause of death was re-examined by police 40 years later after a journalist handed over their new material; however, it was declared the following year that no new investigation would begin.

Jones' grave in Prestbury

A free concert by the Rolling Stones on July 5, 1969 in London's Hyde Park , which had been planned before Jones' death, became the memorial service. There was a large picture of him on the stage, Mick Jagger read from Adonais by Percy Bysshe Shelley , the Rolling Stones let hundreds of white butterflies fly. At this concert in front of around 250,000 fans, Jones' successor Mick Taylor performed live with the band for the first time.

Brian Jones was buried in Priory Road Cemetery in Prestbury, a suburb of his hometown of Cheltenham. The funeral was held in Cheltenham on July 10th. Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman were the only Stones members attending the funeral. Brian's parents, sister, and former girlfriend Suki Potier were also in attendance. The funeral was organized by Tom Keylock . Because of the elaborate arrangement and the ornate bronze coffin Keylock had obtained, there were differences of opinion with Lewis Jones, the musician's father.

Brian Jones, like other influential musicians, is assigned to Club 27 .

Posthumous effect

• Jim Morrison , singer of The Doors , published the poem Ode to LA While Thinking of Brian Jones, Deceased shortly after Brian Jones' death .
• Shortly after Brian Jones' death, Pete Townshend , head of British rock band The Who , published a poem entitled A Normal Day for Brian, A Man Who Died Every Day in The Times .
• In 1971, a documentary prepared by Brian Jones about Moroccan pan flute players from the village of Joujouka was published posthumously in 1971: Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan Of Joujouka .
• The English band Psychic TV released the song Godstar in 1985, which is dedicated to Brian Jones and was supposed to be part of a never released film about Brian Jones called Godstar .
• In the song Tightrope Ride , on Doors' album Other Voices , which was released in 1971, reference is made to Brian Jones (the song actually goes to the late frontman Jim Morrison).
• The German actor and songwriter Ben Becker released a song on his debut album called Brian Jones .
• The Japanese band Pizzicato Five dedicated a song or video to Brian Jones: Pizzicato Five: Sweet Soul Revue (Part II)
• In 1989 the Rolling Stones recorded the song Continental drift for their LP Steel Wheels together with the musicians from The Pipes of Pan of Joujouka . Some of these were the same musicians or their sons with whom Brian Jones recorded pan flute music in 1968.
• A film about the last few days by Brian Jones was released in 2005 under the title Stoned (Director: Stephan Woolley ).
• In March 2007 the song The Spirit of Brian Jones by the band Beyond the Vail was released .
• The American musician Anton Newcombe named his band after Jones and the Jonestown massacre The Brian Jonestown Massacre .
• The LP Brian Jones presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka (1971) was included in The Wire's “100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening)” .

Solo discography

• LP: Brian Jones presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka (1971) - Jones does not play a musical role on this album by the Master Musicians of Jajouka .
• Film: Murder and Manslaughter (1968) - Jones wrote the music for the film and recorded it himself with other studio musicians. The film's soundtrack was never released.

literature

• Paul Trynka: Sympathy For The Devil. The Birth of the Rolling Stones and the Death of Brian Jones , Hannibal Verlag 2015, ISBN 978-3854454830 .
• Nicholas Fitzgerald: Brian Jones: The inside story of the original Rolling Stone. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York 1985, ISBN 0399130616 .

Web links

Commons : Brian Jones  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Brian Jones in theInternet Movie Database(English)
• "Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones: The dead man in the pool" , commented photo gallery, one day , July 3, 2019

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eric Clapton: My Life. Translated from the English by Kristian Lutze and Werner Schmitz. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2007; Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-596-18061-5 , p. 46 f.
2. ↑ Stephen Davis: The Stones , pp. 180 ff.
3. ^ ^{A b} Tom Keylock: Rolling Stones fixer from the 1960s. In: The Independent. September 9, 2009, accessed August 20, 2019 . 
4. ↑ Murder in the swimming pool . In: Stern , June 18, 2006.
5. ↑ dpa: Brian Jones case: "I did that with Brian". In: faz.net . May 18, 2004, accessed July 22, 2014 .  
6. ^ Rolling Stones Brian Jones' lover Anna Wohlin claims he was killed in scuffle with minder. In: Daily Mirror. July 6, 2013, accessed August 20, 2019 . 
7. ↑ Police roll up the death of Brian Jones again. In: Spiegel Online . August 31, 2009, accessed July 22, 2014 . 
8. ↑ This is Bath: Detectives will not re-open Stones' death investigation. (No longer available online.) In: The Bath Chronicle . November 1, 2010, formerly in the original ; Retrieved July 22, 2014 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
9. ↑ Andreas Hartmann: The majesty of psychedelic pop . In: The daily newspaper: taz . May 25, 2019, ISSN  0931-9085 , p. 49 ( taz.de [accessed on July 12, 2019]).