Bumblebee wrote: ↑Sun Mar 10, 2024 11:22 am
The band were rehearsing for the 1978 Some Girls tour in a soundstage attached to which was the storage area where the bands gear was kept. Wood said that he was surprised to find in there Brian’s Vox Teardrop guitar which he retrieved and walked out to Keith with but before he could start playing it Richards tore him a strip off. Told him to put it back and to never touch it again.
Possibly the origin of the Spinal Tap scene with Nigel Tufnel and the guitar room, "Don't touch it, don't even look at it. It cannot be touched"?
Lord Reith wrote: ↑Sun Mar 10, 2024 9:03 am
Sad stuff with his dad. Hate to see stuff like that never be resolved.
Brian's parents came to accept his appeal to music fans, at least in later years.
An old friend of mine, a Stones fan, travelled to Cheltenham in the early/mid 1980s specifically to check out Brian's old haunts, and found his parents' address. He simply went and knocked on the door, and had a chat with them about their son.
He said they were very polite and engaging - and gave him an old tie from the 1960s, which they said belonged to Brian!
(the friend passed away a few years ago, and I have no idea what happened to the tie)
They read out a letter from his dad which was quite heartbreaking, beating himself up over having thrown Brian out of home. Don't know if Brian ever replied but clearly his father totally regretted what he had done and felt responsible for his son's problems.
Brian Jones is a difficult one for me, because everything I hear about him makes me loathe him more as a person, but on the other hand he is one of the reasons why I love 60s Stones so much. There was a time when I found out that one of the reasons why my favourite bands (when I was in my 20s) were the Beatles, the Stones, Led Zep and Jethro Tull were because they all featured multi-instrumentalists (Paul, Brian, J.P. Jones and Ian Anderson) and I'm a sucker for people who dabble in every instrument available to add color to an arrangement.
The irony is that in one of the albums that I used to point as an example of Brian's prowess, "The Rolling Stones No. 2", some of the guitars that I assumed to be Brian were in fact an overdubbed Keith imitating his slide guitar with a Bigsby tremolo arm. From what I read, in the Stones' early years Brian's health was not too strong and he missed several recordings sessions and live shows.
Bumblebee wrote: ↑Sun Mar 10, 2024 11:22 am
I’d also hazard a guess that it was Brian who handled a lot of the music on Satanic Majesties, flawed though it is.
Off the top of my head, he mainly played Mellotron (although some of it was Nicky Hopkins), some woodwinds, the Theremin in 2000 Light Years from Home and the electric dulcimer in Gomper. He's been frequently credited with harp in the last track - and in fact he *did* play harp in an outtake from the sessions - but that's actually Hopkins on a harpsichord on the "single string" register.
He seems to have been a imaginative guy. I mean, who would think of adding marimba to under my thumb? No one I suspect. But it really makes the song. Like The Beatles he was no great shakes as an instrumentalist but made up for it with inventiveness I think. And i always thought that while The Stones became a better band overall with Mick Taylor, they kind of became a caricature of themselves. They were definitely more inventive in the Brian years.
Bumblebee wrote: ↑Sun Mar 10, 2024 8:46 am
It’s a good documentary, already bootlegged by FAB. Jones was an interesting character, really driven as far as the blues goes. You can see how his look inspired a whole host of sixties bands, particularly in the USA - just look at the Byrds when they first started out.
Lennon claimed to have pulled a stunt on Jones; he was being driven through London in his Rolls Royce when he spotted Jones being chauffeured in his car. Lennon said that his Rolls was fitted with external speakers, so he started to make announcements through the car speakers that Jones was being followed by the police. If true, this no doubt did little to help Jones ever increasing paranoia.
The Hendrix jam referred to by Bill Wyman has been available for years, it’s called ‘Little One’ and there were two takes of it. Jones is on sitar, he might be on one or two other things as well. For a long time there was a rumour that Jones had left a whole cache of tapes secreted at Cotchford Farm, his last home, including songs he’d written. Alas it was wishful thinking and nothing has ever materialised. The closest has been a track called Dust My Pyramids, a wonderfully titled piece that later turned out to be a misidentified BBC session track.
The use of webcams in the documentary might be down to the fact that the film was being made in lockdown; regardless, it’s not necessarily a deliberate move by the BBC to lower its standards more a result of swingeing budget cuts.
Do you know if Dust My Pyramids survived or surfaced anywhere ? i've been trying to find a copy for years but no joy.
i read about it in Martin Elliot's book the complete recording sessions 1962-2002.
Ken
Bumblebee wrote: ↑Sun Mar 10, 2024 8:46 am
It’s a good documentary, already bootlegged by FAB. Jones was an interesting character, really driven as far as the blues goes. You can see how his look inspired a whole host of sixties bands, particularly in the USA - just look at the Byrds when they first started out.
Lennon claimed to have pulled a stunt on Jones; he was being driven through London in his Rolls Royce when he spotted Jones being chauffeured in his car. Lennon said that his Rolls was fitted with external speakers, so he started to make announcements through the car speakers that Jones was being followed by the police. If true, this no doubt did little to help Jones ever increasing paranoia.
The Hendrix jam referred to by Bill Wyman has been available for years, it’s called ‘Little One’ and there were two takes of it. Jones is on sitar, he might be on one or two other things as well. For a long time there was a rumour that Jones had left a whole cache of tapes secreted at Cotchford Farm, his last home, including songs he’d written. Alas it was wishful thinking and nothing has ever materialised. The closest has been a track called Dust My Pyramids, a wonderfully titled piece that later turned out to be a misidentified BBC session track.
The use of webcams in the documentary might be down to the fact that the film was being made in lockdown; regardless, it’s not necessarily a deliberate move by the BBC to lower its standards more a result of swingeing budget cuts.
Do you know if Dust My Pyramids survived or surfaced anywhere ? i've been trying to find a copy for years but no joy.
i read about it in Martin Elliot's book the complete recording sessions 1962-2002.
Ken
No, it's not.
I think band became carricature of himself once Ron Wood joined. I have no interest in anything they done since 1974 (and 1973-74 albums are not that great either).
To me their peak as a live band is that period around 1970 when they had Mick Taylor. The addition of a lead guitarist with real chops made a huge difference to their sound. Keith had run out of Chuck Berry licks by then.
Listen to them in the film Gimme Shelter. Wow, they are absolutely smokin'
My personal standard for nasty bluesy guitar are George Harrison in the White Album and Mick Taylor in Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out. Those bluesy distorted microtonal bendings in Midnight Rambler get me every time.
jgjohnson wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2024 4:29 am
One thing I remember Lennon saying about Brian Jones was:
"He turned into one of those guys you dread coming around"
Everybody knows one of them.
