The Stones and Brian Jones

Two days before The Rolling Stones started its umpteenth tour of the U.S.A. in Houston, my friends and I went to see the movie documentary on Brian Jones, the first Stone to leave the band in 1969. The movie started with the comment, "almost nobody remembers him". Looking at the movie, that will not be true for the first generation of fans and certainly not the girls of that generation, although they may remember their fandom with a bit of embarrassment, as they tend to do later in life. Until the moment it has become something to look back fondly on.

Brian Jones had left the band just about the moment when I discovered the band. In the summer of 1969 'Honky Tonk Women' was the first hit for me. I do not have any recollection of the songs before that and several I truly did not get to know until several years later.

What struck me, how popular Brian Jones was, how pretty the girls were he dated (and got pregnant) and that it was not enough for him. The latter is probably the tragedy of it all. Had he been happy with his position as a popular Stone, who was not able to write songs, then he might still have been one. Of course, it may simply be the case he truly did not like what Jagger-Richards were writing but then he could just have left. In the meantime, like Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin, he was burning the candle from all angles at the same time, resulting in becoming a member of a club no one should aspire to joining.

I think that this popularity was what I was not prepared for. It is totally glazed over by the decades that followed and by the current bandmembers that have no use for a faint memory or better a ghost that doesn't age. There was nothing much on Brian Jones in the 'Unzipped' exhibition for example. Had Jones remained alive, who knows he might have been on stage in 2013-15, together with Mick Taylor and so helped towards a higher pension.

By 1968 though the man had turned from a nuisance into a liability and that is what determined the outcome and the memory of the other four band members. That is what makes a person's memory. Ex-bassist Bill Wyman tries hard to do Jones right and shows his contributions to individual songs by pointing to his musicality. The others remain fairly aloof. It is a thin legacy in the end.

Let's face it. What was the band's most popular period? 1968-1972 and by 1968 Brian Jones had already drifted away. The "greatest rock and roll band in the world" is not what he was a part of. Couldn't be, because he had become a liability. There was no way that he could go back on tour with the band in 1969. So, he went and, coincidentally died within weeks after leaving.

What remains after seeing the movie is the memory of someone who was very insecure, desperately seeking his parents' approval. The most memorable and touching moment is a letter his father sent him, found in a box on the attic of one of the girl friends/mothers. A band that continued regardless, just like many others in the movie who were left by the wayside, after having served their purpose as whatever. (And the girls going from one Stone to the other and in the other direction found there.)

What remains is the music. The first six years are not my favourite where the albums are concerned. Most of the singles though are fantastic. And Brian Jones is forever a part of that. The music tells all and that is a legacy that will not be forgotten, transcending the fact that some people do not recognise him in the pictures.

Wout de Natris