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Were The Rolling Stones at their best with Brian Jones at the helm?(Credits: Far Out / Bent Rej)
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Were The Rolling Stones at their best with Brian Jones at the helm?
Ben Forrest
Sun 7 April 2024 14:30, UK
The case of Brian Jones remains one of the greatest ‘what-ifs’ in rock and roll history. A gifted multi-instrumentalist and the original founder of The Rolling Stones, Jones gave the group their edge. Despite this, as the years went by, with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards taking the helm, Jones became more and more disenfranchised with the band he had formed. Amid a period of drug addiction, musical differences and a battle of egos, Jones was forced out of the Stones in 1969. For many, the group would never recapture the energy that they had had with Brian Jones in the line-up.
It was Jones who was responsible for forming The Rolling Stones after he placed an advertisement for musicians in a copy of Jazz News back in 1962. The following few years would see the rag-tag bunch of adolescent rebels transcend the London blues scene to become one of the world’s most recognisable rock and roll outfits. Whatever your thoughts on Brian Jones are, the fact remains that, without him, there is no Rolling Stones. During their initial period, the band was flying under Jones’ leadership, learning their craft and performing some incredible blues covers.
Inevitably, though, the music industry intervened. The group’s manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, thought the group could earn a bit more money and notoriety if they started writing their own songs, à la Lennon and McCartney. According to Mick Jagger, Jones was not a gifted songwriter, once telling Rolling Stone, “To be honest, Brian had no talent for writing songs. None. I’ve never known a guy with less talent for songwriting”. Harsh words coming from the man whose songwriting talents were largely restricted to ripping off Black blues artists, but alas, Jones began to fade into the background of the group.
Soon, The Stones became known for the songwriting partnership of Jagger and Richards, with Brian Jones slowly being erased from the decision-making side of the group. Although his apparent lack of songwriting quality meant he could never retake the reins of the group, his talented instrumentation certainly did not go unnoticed. Even as the band abandoned their blues roots for flirts with psychedelia on Their Satanic Majesties Request, Jones proved himself to be adaptable to any genre or mood – even if his guitar role had largely been eclipsed by Richards.
Despite the clear talent of the multi-instrumentalist, that notion was not shared by his bandmates. Richards once told Classic Rock, “Because he’s dead, I can say, ‘Oh, Brian was a fantastic musician’, but it wasn’t true. Brian wasn’t a great musician”.
Richards added: “He did have a certain feel for certain things, but then everybody in the band has that for certain things too. And there was a nice bit of chemistry there for a while, which unfortunately didn’t stay”.
So, when things started to turn sour, with Jones increasingly disheartened with his place within the group and the band becoming frustrated with his temper and drug addiction, you would assume that the Stones would not miss Jones.
However, once he officially left the group in 1969 to be replaced by Mick Taylor, the quality of the band’s output took a steep nosedive. Sure, they would still have hits, and they would still be lauded as one of the world’s greatest rock bands, but the departure of Jones marked the death of their reputation as Britain’s misfit rock and rollers – the first in their steps towards, regrettably, dad rock.
Brian Jones might not have been the best man to lead the band, but he was an integral part of their appeal.
