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Rockman
Without being in the Stones, Mick and Keith might have never had the chance to realize their songwriting potential- they might have been relegated to being a small time Chuck Berry/blues covers pub band

Yep without the Ark Moses would
probably have just ended manager of The Animals ....

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Hairball
Versatile, experimental, and innovative - he probably would have been successful even without the Rolling Stones, while the same can't be said of the others in the band.

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MKjan
Had Brian and Stu not formed the Rolling Stones, it's doubtful that Brian would have the success he had with the Stones. It's more likely Mick and Keith would have done better. Look at how the Stones have done without Brian. And then there is the songwriting...... Mick and Keith would have been fine.

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TrulyMicks1

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MKjan
Had Brian and Stu not formed the Rolling Stones, it's doubtful that Brian would have the success he had with the Stones. It's more likely Mick and Keith would have done better. Look at how the Stones have done without Brian. And then there is the songwriting...... Mick and Keith would have been fine.

I totally agree. Who knows, if Mick and Keith had started playing with someone other than Brian back then, they may have had twice as many hits by this point. We will never know, but I do know no one's been able to touch the Mick/Keith writing combo or the Mick/Keith live performances. I do think Brian was very talented, though, and it's sad he died so young before being able to reach his full potential.

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MKjan
The real chemistry began at the Dartford train station.

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MKjan
It was more than a reunion, it was a bigger bang. Respect for Brian, but he was very lucky when Mick and Keith showed up.

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georgie48

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TrulyMicks1

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MKjan
Had Brian and Stu not formed the Rolling Stones, it's doubtful that Brian would have the success he had with the Stones. It's more likely Mick and Keith would have done better. Look at how the Stones have done without Brian. And then there is the songwriting...... Mick and Keith would have been fine.

I totally agree. Who knows, if Mick and Keith had started playing with someone other than Brian back then, they may have had twice as many hits by this point. We will never know, but I do know no one's been able to touch the Mick/Keith writing combo or the Mick/Keith live performances. I do think Brian was very talented, though, and it's sad he died so young before being able to reach his full potential.

I suggest that you take some time to read stuff about the Stones' early days, check interviews (!!! YouTube for instance, or His Majesty's site mentioned above) done with all Stones members, including Ian Stewart, as well as some others very close to them in those early days (Dick Taylor, Phil May, even Andrew Oldham for that matter, etc., etc., and you will find that without Brian's strong will to make a success of "his" band Mick and Keith would never have been the succesful great songwriters they became. Brian was the brilliant teacher, both instrumentally (both Mick and Keith learned a lot from him in the early days) and image wise. Mick and Keith were the willing and potentially (as turned out very) talented students. Brian was the teaser on stage and Mick (an extrovert and energetic person himself) picked up on that very quickly (and later James Brown became his inspiration). My guess is that Mick may have become a succesful business man, and Keith ??? (I vagely remember he said something about what he possibly would have done, if music would not bring success. Sure not very exiting stuff).

Chemistry is what it was and Brian (shortly after supported by Ian Stewart) was the one who started the chemical reaction
No Brian Jones, no Rollin(g) Stones. Just as simple as that.
Later on, no songwriting talented Mick and Keith, no more Rolling Stones, despite the great input by Bill and Charlie (and later off course Mick Taylor and Ronnie Wood). I feel blessed the way things turned out. 60 amazingly enjoyable years (so far ).

I can't wait to see the guys this summer!

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MKjan
It was more than a reunion, it was a bigger bang. Respect for Brian, but he was very lucky when Mick and Keith showed up.

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MKjan
Had Brian and Stu not formed the Rolling Stones, it's doubtful that Brian would have the success he had with the Stones. It's more likely Mick and Keith would have done better. Look at how the Stones have done without Brian. And then there is the songwriting...... Mick and Keith would have been fine.

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Doxa
I don't think it is fair to judge a dude who died so young by the shortcomings he committed during his short life. Yeah, shit happened, and Brian was gone, but people have the ability to change. He never had that chance.

But thinking him in purely musical merits and terms (and leaving kitchen psychology and moralism aside) , and the gift and potentiality there, I could easily imagine him doing something interesting. Not probably in terms of commercial pop music, and anything close to the popularity of the Stones. He had the drive for 'world music' two decades before there was a concept for it. His natural sense for musical experimentalism and incredible understanding of different instruments and sounds offers an endless potentia. What he might have done with all the synths etc. the modern technology allows. During the 70's when progressive rock killed the formula of a three minute pop song might have freed his creative soul. In Brian's film soundtrack there are glimpses for that direction. The proposed idea of Brian Eno with a good sense of rhythm sounds funny (and Eno hasn't sold that many records, but that doesn't seem to worry anyone).

If compared to the potentiality of other Stones members, with the exception of Charlie Watts, I think he had the best potential to do something completely different than the music of The Rolling Stones. Especially Mick and Keith are like doomed to sound Stonesy no matter what they do (and this isn't criticism). They breath that stuff.

Anyway, what has always fascinated me in regard to Brian Jones is that he, despite being initially like a model boy for a 'rock star', he somehow escapes all the typical definitions belonging to the rock culture. Compared to his substitutes, he is totally an unique musician. Taylor's pretty much a typical British post-Clapton 'guitar god' and Ronnie is almost like caricature or a walking cliche of British guitar-playing rock star, 'poor man's Keith Richards'. But Brian was something else, and he unfortunately didn't live long enough, or the rock music to develop enough, to really define himself. A 'multi-instrumentalist' yeah, but that also is a bit vague definition.

- Doxa

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Rocky Dijon
This is all silliness. All of them needed one another at the start as much as they needed management and promotion and opportunity and hunger and talent and luck. To speculate one member could have achieved the same with others or found their way on their own is ridiculous. They weren't Beethoven or Mozart. They were an R&B cover band that made good. Yes, they're amazing and yes, they deserve all that came their way, but the alignment of so many factors - musical chemistry, timing coming after The Beatles, just the right management & promotion, finding their way as performers and then songwriters. It is a one in a million chance or even greater to make it out of the pub circuit and then to have staying power. The factors that explain it are never about one or two people, it's all of them and everything that supported them and when and where they were in history. Change any of those factors and it would never be the same outcome.

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Rockman
Dont forget Dick Taylors mum ....

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Rocky Dijon
This is all silliness. All of them needed one another at the start as much as they needed management and promotion and opportunity and hunger and talent and luck. To speculate one member could have achieved the same with others or found their way on their own is ridiculous. They weren't Beethoven or Mozart. They were an R&B cover band that made good. Yes, they're amazing and yes, they deserve all that came their way, but the alignment of so many factors - musical chemistry, timing coming after The Beatles, just the right management & promotion, finding their way as performers and then songwriters. It is a one in a million chance or even greater to make it out of the pub circuit and then to have staying power. The factors that explain it are never about one or two people, it's all of them and everything that supported them and when and where they were in history. Change any of those factors and it would never be the same outcome.

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lean2323

- Sitar "Ain't Nothin' Wrong With That"&"My Little One" (Hendrix)

- Dulcimer ´"Citadel"´´2000 Light Years From Home´´

- Koto “Take It or Leave It.”"Ride On, Baby"

- Concert Harp "On with the Show"

- Sarod "Gomper"

- Organ "Back Street Girl"

- Mellotron"Gomper" ¨Degree of Murder¨ (movie soundtrack)

- Harpsichord ´´Ruby Tuesday´´

- Soprano Saxophone "Sing This All Together""On with the Show"´´Something Happened to Me Yesterday´´ " "Basement Flat"&"Summer with Monica" (McGough and McGear)

- Trumpet ´´She’s a Rainbow´´

- Oboe ´´Dandelion´´

- Tuba ´´Something Happened to Me Yesterday´´

- Trombone ´´Something Happened to Me Yesterday´´

- Shehnai "Gomper""Sing This All Together"

- Recorder ´"Back Street Girl"

- Euphonium "Is This What I Get For Loving You?" (Marianne Faithfull)

- Ocarina ´´Yellow Submarine´´ (Beatles)

- Marimba "Yesterday's Papers"

- Theremin ´´2000 Light Years From Home´´ "Sing This All Together"