For information about how to use this forum please check out forum help and policies.
Quote
Socrates1
There's nothing like a good stark contrast.
Quote
His MajestyQuote
Socrates1
There's nothing like a good stark contrast.
Quote
Bliss
The older Stones books have considerable value because people's memories were fresher then and also because of the availability of some of those interviewed, eg Stu.
Mandy Aftel is an exceptional woman.
Quote
Redhotcarpet
Thank you Swiss and HM et al for info. I have Charones book. Have to find Aftels
Quote
Silver Dagger
The Aftel and Charone books are both good reads. But be wary, the Brian Jones story is an emotional one and many commentators bend and shape the story to suit their own views and over dramatise the 'injustice' in his life to create a heroes and villains scenario to make their books more readable.
I don't think we will ever get the truth of what happened in the last few years of his life as only those who were there really know and the remaining ones have either forgotten or aren't telling.
Quote
Palace Revolution 2000
I read all the "Brian" books back to back. I think there was 3 of them that I read, and I remember this one being by far the best. Mainly because it isn't wildly speculative. But on this board in things Brian, I'd follow HisMajesty's advice anyway.
Quote
Palace Revolution 2000
It's true about the earlier books being better. For many reasons I love the older books a lot more. It's kind of a pity because so many of these books are well laid out nowadays. But they don't have this sense of awe and mystery about them anymore. And memories have not only faded, but distorted. Keith has been completely swallowed up by this public persona of his/and the public's creation. In fairness to him he is not the only one though. This show has been going on for quite a while, and the remaining actors all have an agenda. Jagger, Faithfull, ALO,. And look how many have left us who were there, and who have stories.
Quote
Palace Revolution 2000
I dont see where Swiss asked about Charone, but that is by far my favorite book on Keith. I had just made this point in some other thread, that IMO bios are best done by examining one small period of the person's life.
Quote
Silver Dagger
The Aftel and Charone books are both good reads. But be wary, the Brian Jones story is an emotional one and many commentators bend and shape the story to suit their own views and over dramatise the 'injustice' in his life to create a heroes and villains scenario to make their books more readable.
I don't think we will ever get the truth of what happened in the last few years of his life as only those who were there really know and the remaining ones have either forgotten or aren't telling.
Quote
Palace Revolution 2000
I read all the "Brian" books back to back. I think there was 3 of them that I read, and I remember this one being by far the best. Mainly because it isn't wildly speculative.
But on this board in things Brian, I'd follow HisMajesty's advice anyway..
It's true about the earlier books being better. For many reasons I love the older books a lot more. It's kind of a pity because so many of these books are well laid out nowadays. But they don't have this sense of awe and mystery about them anymore. And memories have not only faded, but distorted.
Quote
His MajestyQuote
Silver Dagger
The Aftel and Charone books are both good reads. But be wary, the Brian Jones story is an emotional one and many commentators bend and shape the story to suit their own views and over dramatise the 'injustice' in his life to create a heroes and villains scenario to make their books more readable.
I don't think we will ever get the truth of what happened in the last few years of his life as only those who were there really know and the remaining ones have either forgotten or aren't telling.
Yes, i'd rather have the raw, unedited interviews the books are based on than the finished story by the writer using quotes. That would let us see how much, if at all, the interviewee pushed things in a particular direction and so on.
Agreed on the last few years, the jigsaw puzzle pieces of info we have only let us know so much, still many pieces missing. The biggest being Brian's own side of things.
Quote
His Majesty
Also, for Brian related stuff Aftels book has a partner in the Keith book by Barbara Charone from around the same time.
Keith talks a lot about Brian in the Charone book, and again it's in that fresh memory, more reflective way than can be typical of later interviews etc.
The contrast between the Keith in those two books compard to how he is decades later in Life is quite stark.
Quote
EJM
The thing about "Life" is it that I suspect it was written during the recovery period after his head injury at a time when he was trying to make some sort of sense of the muddle of stuff that he could remember and which had shaped his life - what you get is a narrative of the things that affected him emotionally and / or associated with guilt (so probably very unreliable) and quite sentient musings on stuff with which he was comfortable. Brian must have fallen into the former bucket.
Quote
stonehearted
Mandy Aftel's book was the first Brian bio I ever read, in fact the first bio book on an individual Stone, in the early eighties after I had been a fan for a year or two. It's been 35-odd years since I read it, but one of the things I recall offhand is how he was said to have had an obsession with washing his hair, that he would wash it two, even three times daily. There was one instance when he barged into a London salon in the middle of the day demanding to use one of their sinks so he could wash his hair, and to be allowed to use a hair dryer as well, as though it were a medical emergency. There must have been a television appearance upcoming that evening, or something.
Quote
Silver Dagger
By commentators I mean those connected to the Stones at the time, however remotely, who come out and voice opinions rather than facts. There were only ever a handful of people in the Stones' inner sanctum who really knew the truth about Brian's decline and exit.
By pure chance I went out with the daughter of the psychiatrist who treated Brian towards the end but obviously he did not want to talk about his former patient.
Quote
Silver Dagger
By commentators I mean those connected to the Stones at the time, however remotely, who come out and voice opinions rather than facts. There were only ever a handful of people in the Stones' inner sanctum who really knew the truth about Brian's decline and exit.
By pure chance I went out with the daughter of the psychiatrist who treated Brian towards the end but obviously he did not want to talk about his former patient.
Quote
Palace Revolution 2000
Just want to add - were I to want to write something on Brian nowadays; maybe try to find some insight - Bill Wyman would be the one I talk to. Wyman is really getting up there.
Quote
swissQuote
Bliss
The older Stones books have considerable value because people's memories were fresher then and also because of the availability of some of those interviewed, eg Stu.
Mandy Aftel is an exceptional woman.
Bliss,
Agreed: she seems to be! (Do you know her?)
- swiss