For the past hour I've been listening to Lady Jane on the Stones More Hot Rocks CDs and got to thinking how little Brian Jones and Ian Stewart have been recognized for their contributions to the Stones' music.On Lady Jane you hear Brian's excellent finger picking as well as his mastery of the hammered dulcimer and Ian Stewart's beautiful keyboards on harpsichord.
Brian was always off in the wings and Ian even though he was unofficially called the 6th Stone,never got full induction into the inner sanctum.Between them both Ian and Brian brought a plethora of instrumental innovation to the sound of the band yet they were both more or less left on the outside.That just seems so unfair to me considering their combined contributions.So endeth my rant.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I don't think Brian Jones is under-appreciated at all: his contribution to the early, original Rolling Stone is held in wide esteem. But the media image of The Rolling Stones... a rollicking jet-set circus led by the Glimmer Twins... has justbendured longer than the Jones-era Stones.

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Jim Bordner
Gravity Music - www.gravitymusic.com
Composer, producer, Egnater Artist

Brian got screwed from day one by Andrew Loog Oldham, but he had alienated some of the other band members from day one. There's stories about him making sure he got better seats on the milk truck, better accommodations on the road, etc., before they were ever famous...

He was given great leeway to experiment, too--thus the inclusion of many unorthodox or exotic instruments in their recordings of that era. Ironically, his abilities as a blues player (especially on slide) initially made him invaluable to the band early on, but when they went all rootsy (starting with Beggar's Banquet), he was less and less useful due to wasteful/wasting drug habits and the resulting personality changes...

Outside of Ian Stuart, I always thought the Stone that was overlooked most was Mick Taylor...he added so much to so many songs, even songs that were released long after his tenure with the band (such as most of side two of Tattoo You)...I still think Taylor is one of the best three slide guitarists in history.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

+1 on both accounts. Drugs did Brian in and what a waste...

T2

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What time is it? It's Fender Time.

Yeah... The rest of the band was so squeaky clean, too. I don't think Keith ever touched the stuff.....

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Jim Bordner
Gravity Music - www.gravitymusic.com
Composer, producer, Egnater Artist

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

I've never really warmed to the stones, but I've read a few Nick Kent articles on Jones' time with them, which despite being fairly bleak to say the least makes for a very good read.

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Rated "M" for meaty.

I'm currently reading keefs auto bio and although it's his version of how things went down. It seems from the beginning Brian tried to seperate himself from the others. Secretly negotiating 5% more in pay for himself, not showing up for recording sessions for days and then dissappearing in the middle of tours.