Brian Jones letters to his parents. Early insights on The Rolling Stones

Cafe Society
1

I suggest opening the photo gallery into full screen and reading the letters. Brian had good handwriting and imho easy to read. Much better than mine. :smiley: I searched and couldn’t find a full transcript of the letters online. If someone finds a transcript, please post a link!

Brian was a founding member of the Stones. I think his comments about the business side of music is very interesting. Brian says the band isn’t happy with their new single Come On. He says, “The record does not do justice to the group.” That it was a rush job aimed at the commercial pop market.

Then he talks about how the band markets itself. “Publicity angles have been good,The long hair, wild off beat sort of thing”, “we’ve created quite a stir”, Brian said.

Brian was a smart guy that understood this was a serious job. He talks about being the spokesman for the band and that he’s paid more for that responsibility.

People have forgotten that Brian was the original leader. Mick Jagger took over later.

It’s such a shame Brian lost control and let drugs take him down. I wonder how different the Stones might have been with Brian clear-headed and in charge.

2

I had never heard Come On. Gosh, that is gruesome. The Stones were still finding their sound. I guess every band starts like this. LOL

3

The letters confirms what Wyman has said.

4

Neat, thanks. Off-topic, that’s Julian Lennon in one of the photos they use in that article (surely at the Rock’n’Roll Circus, Dec. 1968).

5

I got the impression there are several letters. The article only had portions of two letters.

I hope all are scanned and published.

I know a collector bought the letters. The real value is the letters in Brian’s own handwriting.

I don’t think they’d lose value (as a collectable) if the content was published.

6

(Bolding mine)

Mick is the frontman. Keith is the leader, certainly musically.

Brian was the leader but fucked it up. Couldn’t write songs; a thorny leadership style that Mick and Keith rebelled against. And when their new manager Andrew Loog Oldham found Mick and Keith easier to work with AND they started writing songs, the writing was on the wall. And when Brian hit Anita Pallenberg and she hooked up with Keith, Jones was shunted aside.

Great musician. Lousy leader. Apparently not a great guy, but I suspect more complicated than that.

7

Pardon the slight hijack…I was having trouble earlier loading the original link, and while searching for an alternate I found this other letter he had sent to Mick & Keith…guess he was a bit off on his insights/predictions:

Brian Jones Hopes for the Rolling Stones

8

There is a good book by Paul Trynka about Brian.

It was great to read the perspective about the one who didn’t survive. It was his vision to imagine a British R and B band. This was unheard of then, and very influential on the way music evolved in the decade. He had traveled around playing lots of solo blues guitar gigs, well before the Stones, when Mick and Keith were practicing in the mirror. He hired mick and keith for his project. And that was the Stones.

9

Fake news.

The site is called Letters of Not, which I only noticed after I’d already decided that the letter was a fake.

10

:smack: Thanks…should have figured that…handwriting didn’t look the same. At least it’s funny now instead of sad.

I thought the “e” in NOTE on the page banner was covered up by bad HTML coding - missed the actual weblink text.

11

This line was a bit of a “tell”:

12

Brian Jones and Syd Barrett. Two of the biggest “Shoulda Beens”.

13

Syd wrote songs. Brian didn’t in an era where that was central to a band. Mick and Keith got the power because they wrote the songs. Brian was a Coulda, not a Shoulda. He could’ve held onto his power longer and probably not turned to drugs as an escape if he could write songs.

He was a great sideman.