Brain Jones... Stoned.

[becca]

There's a documentary about Rolling Stones founding member Brian Jones coming out on DVD. It's called 'Stoned'. I used to think Jones was just some lame drugged out tambourine banger, but now I know he was the person most instrumental in bringing the Rolling Stones group together, that before that he played with Alexis Korner in Blues Incorporated backing various U.S. blues legends, and could play 16 instruments! He was also very hard to work with even before the drug use got so heavy. It seems now a real waste to me, and not the good riddance thoughts I used to have, that he was found dead in his swimming pool weeks after being kicked out by the other Stones. Was it suicide? Jones was an excellent swimmer, but then so was Dennis Wilson. Was it murder? The gardener is said to have confessed on his deathbed twenty five years after the fact. Was it drugs? Some sleeping pill barbituates were found in him, but not massive amounts of heroin or anything.

Who was this guy? Did he have any musical friends he could keep? Nico maybe? They were seen together at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. Was he a genius? What recordings make a case for this? How much did he or didn't he do?