The Stones & Brian Jones

Brain Jones founded the Rolling Stones. He was shy, sexually attractive (and careless with it), and increasingly unhappy for not being Mick Jagger. Kicked out of the band for a level of drug abuse that made him unreliable, he died young a short while later. Nick Broomfield's film is a sympathetic account of his life that doesn't hide from the fact he wasn't always a nice person to be around, and a sad lesson of the perils of getting what you might have thought you wanted. The film relies quite a lot on Bill Wyman, but Wyman actually provides some perspective that those who stayed in the band for longer perhaps would not provide. It's an elegaic portrait of an ultimately tragic life.

From last year comes a documentary from master documentarian Nick Broomfield (Driving Me Crazy/Kurt & Courtney) about one time member of the Rolling Stones, Brian Jones, who ended up dying from drowning in his pool (after taking drugs) back in 1969. You think the sky was the limit for Jones as he was one of the founding members of the greatest, arguably, rock & roll band in the world (& history) but as we find out from archival footage & actor reenactments from his own missives, Jones soon found himself falling under the influence of his excessive drug taking & his predilection for feeling he was being constantly verbally attacked by fellow bandmates Mick Jagger & Keith Richards even though according to Bill Wyman some of the signature licks on key tracks came from him but it's sad to see how when the band was celebrating its best life, poor Jones found himself in a rabbit hole of his own making which he could not find himself out of.

Greetings again from the darkness. Nick Broomfield has been making documentaries for nearly 50 years. The list of subjects is quite diverse, yet his interest in musicians seems to recur periodically, but even in these, his focus is mainly on the person rather than the notes on the scale or the performances on stage. A perfect example is his 2019 doc, MARIANNE & LEONARD: WORDS OF LOVE. His latest on Brian Jones again fits the description.

Brian Jones formed The Rolling Stones in 1962 as a British Blues Band. Here we are more than 60 years later and in 2023, the band has recently released a new album and single ... yet very few remember or even know the name Brian Jones. Director Broomfield sets out to tell the story of this enigmatic and talented musician who was ultimately kicked out of his dream band, leading to his much-too-young death shortly after. On the surface it's a tragic rock 'n roll story, but deep down, it's the story of Jones' personality and substance abuse.

Former Rolling Stones' bassist Bill Wyman is featured here and provides a great deal of backstory. For more on Wyman, I recommend the 2019 documentary, THE QUIET ONE, which portrays his obsessive attention to collections and history. Alongside Wyman's input, there is archival footage from Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Marianne Faithfull, and Eric Burdon. Even the older interviews and clips help us understand Brian Jones' difficulty as the band evolved from blues to rock. We also learn more about his ability to father kids at the level of an NBA player. But what really strikes is his problems stemming from an abuse of alcohol and drugs (and women).

Andrew Loog Oldham pushed the band towards commercial success with rock 'n roll and away from Brian's beloved blues. So he lost his position as band manager and his preferred style of music, as Mick Jagger's on stage persona took over and Jagger/Richards compositions filled a role that Brian couldn't. He was fired from the band after the "Let it Bleed" album and prior to the band's next U. S. tour. It is mentioned that Brian lost the one thing that mattered to him ... the band. He lost his life a few weeks later, and kudos to Broomfield for not dwelling on the conspiracy theories around his death.

Included here are interviews and clips of early Stones' live performances that you've likely not seen before. I can't help but contrast Brian's story with that of Robert Fripp in the recent documentary I watched on King Crimson. Two original architects of long-standing bands - one lost everything, while the other remained and rebuilt the band a few times. Two musical geniuses with opposite paths.

In theaters November 17, 2023.

I grew up loving the British Invasion. The Beatles, Stones, The Kinks, and the Who were the soundtrack of my early teen life. When I saw The Stones and Brian Jones was playing at our local "Art" house movie theater, I had to see it. Brian was my favorite when the Stones first hit the big time. Loved his hair and his Vox Teardrop guitar which is featured prominently in the movie.

Quite simply, the writing and the content of the movie is excellent. It covered Brian's life from a child to his unfortunate death in 1969. It would have been nice if some of the remaining Stones would have been available to give the viewer their spin on Brian 50 years on, but that wasn't the case with only retired bass guitarist Bill Wyman talking on camera from a point of hindsight. And when he first appears, my wife and I had no idea who he was! He looked nothing like the Bill Wyman I remember, but we all age.

But the biggest issue with the doc is the producers and directors could not either afford to pay for the rights to any Stones songs written by members of the band or could not get the approval from the Stones to use their songs. For the exception of a few snippets of Satisfaction and another tune or two, only the early covers of Blues standards which was the Stones bread and butter in the early days are featured. I reminded me of the Hendrix movie that came out about 25 years ago that only had Hendrix songs written by others such as Dylan, and other Blues legends. It's about getting rights to the songs that would have made this movie pop.

Some scenes used what I would call, elevator music, as background which was cringeworthy at the least.

Most of the footage was new to me and that was the best part of the movie. The music, meh...

This is an unblemished look at Brian Jones and the band he helped to create.

It shows Brian as a very troubled individual who abused women, was a substance abuser - and essentially lost control of himself.

It was like he couldn't compete and adjust to the fast-paced changes that were part of the Stones during the 1960s.

This is a very personal documentary with many interviews - of the band members, of Brian's wife and girlfriends, plus of his parents. With his parents, he could never find acceptance, and this is very sad indeed.

The documentary also high-lights the musical contributions he made to the band.