I still have my Alice Cooper ‘Muscle of Love’ perforated box and fold-out.
agreed!! Within You, Without You is tops as well!
And while it doesn’t have the same “music importance” as Sgt. Peppers, I have to say that i enjoy it more. You can play it end-to-end without having to skip the stinkers - just about all the McCartney songs if you ask me…
It would have been even better.
Common misconception. Brian was fine in 1967. He didn’t begin to really become dysfunctional until May 1968, when he was busted for the second time. Mick and Keith were writing the songs. Brian was adding overdubs on top of them, and most of his additions took average songs to newer heights. You can hear this on the session tapes. All of the band sans Bill was taking acid in 1967.
The one song that can be attributed to him songwriting wise is Ruby Tuesday, which was written around the end of 1966. He wrote the song instrumentally while Keith wrote the lyrics. Mick had nothing to do with that song’s creation. I’d say that’s a pretty good work to have under your belt. He proudly showed off the piano work at his home to Italian reporters around Jan or Feb '67 and created and arranged the recorder parts.
Even on Beggar’s, he plays on all but two songs. His decline hit full force by early 1969; he’s only on two songs on Let it Bleed.
Still though, he’s all over Satanic, Beggar’s and associated singles nonetheless:
**Satanic:
**
- Sing This All Together: Flute, Brass
- Citadel: Mellotron, Soprano Saxophone, Flute
- In Another Land: Mellotron
- 2000 Man: Acoustic Guitar
- See What Happens: Flute, Brass, Mellotron
- She’s A Rainbow: Mellotron (the trombone sounding parts), Percussion
- The Lantern: Organ, brass
- Gomper: Electric Dulcimer, Recorder
- 2000 Light Years from Home: Mellotron
- On With the Show: Mellotron, Concert Harp
Singles:
Dandelion:
Mellotron, Harpsichord, and Soprano Saxophone
We Love You:
Mellotron
**Beggars:
**1) Sympathy: Backing vocals
2) No Expectations: Slide Guitar
3) Dear Doctor: Harmonica
4) Parachute Woman: Harmonica
5) Jig-Saw Puzzle: Mellotron (the eerie whine throughout the song is the ‘tron)
6) Street Fighting Man: Sitar, Tambura
7) Prodigal Son: Harmonica
8) Stray Cat Blues: Mellotron
Singles:
Jumpin’ Jack Flash: Guitar
Child of the Moon: Soprano Saxophone
**Let it Bleed:
**1) Midnight Rambler - Percussion (during the slow part, the heavy drum is Brian)
2) You Got the Silver - Autoharp
[quote=“Reddy_Mercury, post:45, topic:786685”]
- Prodigal Son: Harmonica
Say again? There’s harmonica in Prodigal Son?
Interesting. I’d always thought Between The Buttons was his peak, and that he was so very impressive on TSMR in spite of his decline already being underway.
Thanks, Reddy, for those wonderful details and timeline on Brian’s accomplishments. He was out of commission, so to speak, at the R’n’R Circus (Dec. '68), but it’s good to know he was productive until not long before that. I think he did his Jojouka, Morocco ethnmusical recordings pretty late in the game, and that was professional and astute, I think.
I did not know he wrote the music to Ruby Tuesday. Wow. My favorite Stones song, since I was nine. Even more reason to lament his untimely passing.
By every account I’ve read, Brian’s drug abuse and profound psychological crises were crippling him by the Beggars sessions. The most exhaustive account (Margotin and Guesdon’s recently published tome) goes into some depth regarding his condition and contributions during those sessions, and suggest that apart from his stellar slide guitar on No Expectations, his input and audible presence in the finished album is neglible.
By contrast, in the same book’s comments about the Satanic Majesties sessions, they say Brian’s creativity and energy were in full bloom. Which is how it’s always sounded to me.
Damn, the man was gifted. In this duffer’s opinion the Stones were never the same without him, and more’s the shame. Had he somehow managed to clean up and conquer his demons, I wonder what he might have accomplished with or without the Stones.
[quote=“TreacherousCretin, post:46, topic:786685”]
Just listened on headphones. It comes in (barely) after the antepenultimate verse (or the one before it).
[quote=“jaycat, post:50, topic:786685”]
Yeah, my understanding from a Jagger/Richards interview was that Brian would dazedly wander in at odd times clutching an instrument and they’d sort of shoehorn him in on whatever track they happened to be working on. With the exception noted above ( which Jagger remembered as the last time Brian offered any conversation or creative input on recording ) he was basically a ghost during that production.
While the band was certainly different after his departure, I don’t think I would argue it was worse. His major contribution was forming it in the first place. He wasn’t a song writer of note and his replacements were all quite able.
Have you read the Brian Jones bio? It’s a good story. He was a real visionary in forming the stones. Mick and Keith were basically pimply teens, who had never played out, while he was playing solo blues gigs and having kids out of wedlock. Starting a young R and B band was pretty much unheard of then, but Brian had the vision, and it came true.
You have to remember something. The Beggar’s Banquet sessions took months. In the first half of the sessions (Spring-May 1968) he was okay. Near the end of May 1968 he was busted a second time, and after this bust, he was terribly shaken. Multiple psychologists who interviewed him in the case said he was suicidal and terribly depressed. He was paranoid; he had likely been setup for the second bust (He was adamant, even in private, that the drugs were planted). After May 1968, for most of the year, he was worried about facing a long stretch in jail.
The Brian you see in the “One Plus One” film is this Brian. It was recorded in June '68 just after he had gotten arrested. Go compare that to photos from their NME performance in May 1968 - just days before he was busted. Two utterly different men.
He is audible on the Beggars Banquet tracks I said. 8 out of 10 tracks considering he was in very bad psychological shape for the second half of the sessions isn’t bad at all.
[quote=“Tamerlane, post:51, topic:786685”]
You’re confusing two periods. The Let it Bleed period is when he became ghostly. That was Spring 1969. He was depressed, apathetic, and had no interest in being in the band anymore. There’s been a lot of revisionism over the years. He actually suggested he was going to quit the Stones during a May 1969 session. He wasn’t fired. If you read Keith’s 1971 Rolling Stone interview, Keith says basically Brian said he couldn’t handle another American tour, and his departure was basically a mutual agreement. He was given a settlement and an offer to come back if he so chose.
Basically, it is easy to look at it this way: May 1968-May 1969 is the fall of Brian Jones.
Listen to the song Jigsaw Puzzle on Beggar’s. The eerie mellotron throughout the song is Brian. The song is basically a lead instrument there. Or his Sitar and Tambura work on Street Fightin’ Man on Beggar’s as well. Or his guitar work on Jumpin’ Jack Flash from the same sessions. Or his saxophone on Child of the Moon (released in May '68). Brian is definitely all over Beggar’s and assorted session songs.
It’s Let it Bleed where he really fell apart.
Nicky did a LOT of work on TSMR (and also the next several albums). You should listen to the TSMR sessions one day…He really was utterly important to the late 60s through mid 70s era of the band.
They definitely would never have made him a permanent member - he didn’t have “the look.” Ian Stewart was demoted from official sixth member to unofficial member because he didn’t fit the part visually.
Julian Dawson’s biography and on piano… Nicky Hopkins discusses this, especially on p137.
His wife Dolly said, “The Stones pretty much though they had exclusive rights to him at the time, because they had asked him to join the band so many times and he kept saying no.”
Keith Richards equivocated. “I think it probably was mooted around but I’m not sure it was actually offered… but at the same time I know we wouldn’t have turned him down.”
Dawson is forced to conclude “we’ll never know” but I don’t think it was impossible.
The one thing that stands out to me with the Stones, as much as I like them, was their focus on imagery. Wayne Perkins auditioned in 1974 to replace Mick Taylor and he was one of the finalists for the role. You can hear his work on several songs on Black & Blue and Tattoo You (Mainly, he plays the lead and solo on Hand of Fate, and the lead and solo on Waiting for a Friend). I would say he was a great guitarist based on those samples, personally. But when he auditioned, the first thing they did was take photos of him and Keith next to each other to see how they’d look together. They ultimately chose Ronnie Wood over him because Ronnie both had the look, and was British. And I feel Ronnie was in the long run a very poor choice.
And Hopkins was of course British. He’d have fit right in.
Nicky Hopkins (I am guessing) was the only musician to play with both the Stones and Jefferson Airplane.
AND Quicksilver Messenger Service AND the Jeff Beck Group!