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Zack
You heard Bill: "He had to go."

Also, Brian didn't play guitar on Amanda Jones.

I also don't think Hendrix and Morrison were spent creative forces at the time of their deaths, so the comparison is moot, aside from the fact they all died young.

Brian is the Marilyn Monroe of rock and roll. Marginal talent yet posthumously worshipped for being attractive and charismatic.

Everyone is also overlooking the fact that he was a whiny @#$%& and may not have deserved the degree of pampering from J/R that so many of you suggest. At Mathjis said, they were ready to burst into bloom and conquer America and there was no way Brian could handle it. The visa issue was a red herring.

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Zack
Jagger said "we had to baby him."

And if he had more than marginal talent, why do we need a thread to identify where he can be heard? Sure he had a facility with music but not exceptional talent. Maybe that's more than "marginal" but a simple progression on a marimba to take one example isn't a big deal.

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24FPS
We only need to point out what Brian did for the uninitiated. I was 15 the summer of 1969 when Brian died. I had no idea who he was, except a vague image of a blonde wearing a surfers cross necklace, which was considered cool at the time. After the radio announced his death they played Satisfaction. I wasn't sure if Brian played the signature riff or not, but I didn't think so.

The point is that it took some time to understand who Brian was and his influence on the band. In 1972 I had a large format paperback coffee table book history of the group with a lot of Brian articles reprinted. It made me realize his stamp on the group's image, and what a dark individual he could be. I realized his passing was not just a sideman going down, but maybe the most Rolling Stone of the Rolling Stones. This was 1972, and the Stones were at their peak in public perception as this decadent, hard rocking, hard living band. I understood that Brian was the soul of where that came from.

Hot Rocks, the two disc greatest hits package, sold tons of units and came at a time, once again, 1972, that the world was ready to turn to the Stones and learn about their past. The Beatles were really kaput, and their solo efforts had started to drag. The Stones were now on top of the world in a way they'd never been. But it was the second greatest hits package, More Hot Rocks, that illuminated Brian's musical contribution. And by the time you get to 'I Can't Be Satisfied' you realize you're dealing with an extraordinary musician. People say he 'a colourist', but he was an absolute flat out master of the slide guitar. Why people denigrate this talent is beyond me. There are very few slide guitarists of the skill, and most importantly, the feel of Brian Jones. Only Duane Allman, an underrated George Harrison, and maybe Jeremy Spencer of Fleetwood Mac come to mind. But Brian led the way.

I think fans herald Brian for the simple reason they don't want him to be forgotten. He was not Jimi Hendrix. Nobody else was. But of all the Rolling Stones, Jimi gravitated to Brian. There was a spirituality to both of them that seemed at odds with their pursuit of earthly desires, but both recognized a kinship of communicating beyond words.

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Zack
And if he had more than marginal talent, why do we need a thread to identify where he can be heard? Sure he had a facility with music but not exceptional talent. Maybe that's more than "marginal" but a simple progression on a marimba to take one example isn't a big deal.

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Zack
You heard Bill: "He had to go."

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Zack
Marginal talent.

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Zack
Everyone is also overlooking the fact that he was a whiny @#$%& and may not have deserved the degree of pampering from J/R that so many of you suggest.

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bob r
I've often wondered why companies like Rhino or Sundazed who specialize in rare releases from the 60's dont issue the soundtrack to 'A Degree of Murder" which Brian composed and played guitar, recorder, mellotron, etc on-- I've heard bits and pieces of it and I thought it was pretty interesting stuff. I am sure there would be an audience for it--

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tonterapi

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Zack
You heard Bill: "He had to go."

True and he wanted to go as well. He wasn't interested in the Stones anymore and I sincerly believe that the meeting at Cotchford was a mutual agreement and not a "you're fired" meeting. I honestly don't think that Mick and Keith wanted to say that to him since they knew that he wasn't well.

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Zack
Marginal talent.

Brian had an amazing understanding for instruments, sounds and how to use them. A lot of the songs show that and his addings made them stand out from other bands in a time when the public wasn't used to "exotic" sounds. He was a very good slide player and also knew how to handle the harmonica. He also used the dulcimer and mellotron in ways nobody had done before.
Brian was a musicians soul but never set out to be anything other than a musical swiss army knife. He could have been a very good producer.

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Zack
Everyone is also overlooking the fact that he was a whiny @#$%& and may not have deserved the degree of pampering from J/R that so many of you suggest.

Brian's weird behaviour fits different types of personality disorders and with that comes a very fragile personality. It wasn't known in the 60's and therefor it could escalate freely only to hurt Brian in the end. Doing drugs was the worst thing he could do to himself. Yes, he acted like an @#$%& many times - but it's pretty clear that he lived with issues beyond his control. Music and drugs were his comfort. His negative sides has also been exaggerated mainly by two he used to call friends. Character assassination because of guilt, jealousy and justification of actions/behaviour.
J/R didn't pamper him. They actually did the opposite most of the time and weren't any better towards Brian than what they blame him for. They knew Brian was sensitive and used that against him. But they most likely didn't understood what it did to Brian. The weird friendship that they had only seem to work when Brian was alone with either Mick or (especially) Keith. The things that really made that party crash for good was the Anita-incident.

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Redhotcarpet
I think tonterapi nailed it. I also believe Brian couldnt handle losing Anita to Keith and it was this inability to cope with life after her that slowly killed him. He even tried to take his own life that summer. The busts must have hit him a lot harder too. There was one Brian Jones 1962-1967 and then there was the suddenly numb ghost of Brian Jones 1967-1968 and then the "smiling" satyr of 1968-1969. There's no way he was happy or drug free when he died. A short relief in June before the concert in Hyde Park.

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M4000D
I blame it all on mandrax. I have studied this pill it's the same pill that screwed up syd Barrett. It acts on your GABA receptors and no one walks away undamaged. Dylan told people he crashed his motorcycle it was a lie he also was taking mandrax. Coming off this shite puts people into psychosis. Anyways it's a drug of the 60s, LSD gets all the blame for wrecking people's minds but I don't think that's true.

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M4000D
You haven't a clue. Mandrax binds to your brain receptors LSD passes through them. Once you are chemically dependent on mandrax you can not quit cold turkey like Syd Barrett did and he had a seizure doing so.
GABA receptors are in your brains lungs and stomach and allowing them to become chemically dependent and not tapering off the pill puts people into psychosis and terrible withdrawals.

People didn't know this in the 60s
We do now.

LSD has never caused the damage that mandrax and Valium caused.
Not to mention the other downers.

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M4000D
I blame it all on mandrax. I have studied this pill it's the same pill that screwed up syd Barrett. It acts on your GABA receptors and no one walks away undamaged. Dylan told people he crashed his motorcycle it was a lie he also was taking mandrax. Coming off this shite puts people into psychosis. Anyways it's a drug of the 60s, LSD gets all the blame for wrecking people's minds but I don't think that's true.

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stones78
Syd Barrett had Schizophrenia, I mean, drugs certainly didn't help at all but he was mentally ill and according to R. Waters started to show some symptoms before he started abusing LSD/Mandrax or whatever.

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M4000D
I took LSD twice didn't have too hard of a time not taking it again.
Never tried mandrax but I would have when I was younger.

I truly believe mandrax and all downers are the worst drugs to become chemically dependent on and withdraw from.


Yes coming off of heroin is hell on earth for a month
But you feel good after it's over.

The hell getting off a benzodiazepine or worse a barbiturate can last for a year or longer.

If you know the story of Syd you will remember his friend Dougie saying they found him frothing from the mouth.
That's a typical seizure symptom and coming off a pill like mandrax would cause someone to seize not LSD.

Syd took way too much but people forget about his mandrax abuse
And all those trippers who took LSD in the 60s are now eating organic these days. I just don't think LSD caused the problems like the benzos and barbs did.

Fair ?

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BJPortugal
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Listen to the Little Red Rooster..[/quote]

Fanstastic. Some of these TV appearances are the only good chance to hear and see the band live from that period. And you can see that Brian is still excited about the Stones at that point.

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Edith Grove
5 Great Brian Jones Moments with The Stones
Aidin Vaziri | 06.29.2010
Brian Jones was the soul behind The Rolling Stones. Even though the guitarist had fallen out with the band a month before his body was found in his swimming pool on July 2, 1969, his contribution to rock and roll’s greatest gang was immutable – from the way they dressed to the way they sounded. He came up with the band’s name, served as their first manager and gave them their direction. To commemorate the anniversary of his passing, we look back at some of his most influential contributions to the group.

“Not Fade Away” (1964)
One of Jones’ greatest musical roles with the Stones was his fiery harmonica playing. On this early, blues-inspired track it provides the steam for the chugging rhythms and Keith Richards’ scratchy riffs.






“Little Red Rooster” (1964)
The Rolling Stones’ take on this Howlin’ Wolf classic became a No. 1 single in the U.K. The band did a faithful reading of the original with Jones’ slide guitar work introducing an entire generation of shaggy-haired British teenagers to one of rock’s most enduring blues riffs.






“The Last Time” (1965)
Jones played the insistent, melodic blues riff on this Stones classic, the group’s first U.K. single. The Andrew Loog Oldham-production also points the way to the famous “guitar weaving” sound that became the band’s signature later on.






“Paint It, Black” (1966)
Inspired by George Harrison, Jones taught himself to play the sitar and immediate put it to use on two of the most distinctive Stones tunes of all time – “Street Fighting Man” and this psychedelic era staple.






“Let’s Spend The Night Together” (1967)
A group effort saw Richards play piano and bass while Jones provided the ethereal organ sounds that fill out this soulful Stones hit. It was one of the tracks that defined the second phase of the band and one of Jones’ last significant contributions




[www.gibson.com]