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Product Details
Hardcover: 432 pages
Read MorePublisher: Viking Adult (October 9, 2014) Language: English ISBN-10: 0670014745 ISBN-13: 978-0670014743 Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.3 x 9.4 inches Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
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I feel after reading the Brian Jones: The Making of the Rolling Stones book by Paula Trynka, that I'm a thousand percent more knowledgeable about who Brian Jones was.
The book does a great job covering Jones' life, particularly during the early days and development of The Rolling Stones. We're given a chapter on his childhood, including some rare facts like how he got a girl pregnant when he was 16. All that childhood information was quickly covered, as the real story in the book is about the creation of the Rolling Stones, which started on chapter two.
Trynka painstakingly detail Jones' involvement in creating the Rolling Stone, from coming up with the band's name to placing the original ad on Jazz News to drafting all the band members... Brian Jones was The Rolling Stones. Unfortunately, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards started to overshadowed Jones as the songwriting team, and by 1969, Brian Jones seemingly pressured into leaving the group.
To be fair, Trynka does document all of Jones' problems, leading up to his removal from the group. It started with health issues (rashes, epilepsy, asthmatic) causing Jones to miss shows to substance abuse in the later years (Trynka actually doesn't know what Jones was using, but suggested it was Mandrax prescription, combined with regular alcohol abuse). Instead of seeking help for Jones, the book tells us that everyone seemed to have just ignored Jones ... as if he was not there.
The vast majority of the book is focused on Brian Jones and the early days of the Rolling Stones, like the book title suggest, but like many of you, I was more interested in his death - which happened less than a month after he was walked away from the band. When I first got the book, I did skip to the final chapters to get Trynka's summarization of his death. What we're given here are facts, and Trynka let us make up our own conspiracies (if any) on Jones' "Death by Misadventure".
Some people suggests that it was suicide, especially before the Rolling Stones were about to play Hyde Park with their new guitarist Mick Taylor. Others think it was murder conspiracy by Jagger and Richards to seize control of the band.
Some interesting items in the Brian Jones' death:
Police version: accidental drowning due to drinking/blackout
Nicholas Fitzgerald: Fitzgerald and friend Richard Cadbury witnessed three men pushing someone under water.
A.E. Hotchner: According to his 1990 book Blown Away: The Rolling Stones and the Death of the Sixties, there were two witnesses, Dick Hattrell and 'Marty' saw Jones being murdered.
Tom Keylock: Brian's driver and minder, admitted that Frank Thorogood (the last person to see Jones alive) confessed on his deathbed that he killed Brian Jones (this was disputed by Jan Bell, daughter of Thorogood, who said no one came to visit her father before he died).
Jan Bell: Her father shared a story about how Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones were arguing over ownership of the name Rolling Stones - which Keith pulled a knife on Jones. This story is in question because the Stones were at Olympic on that date.
Geoffrey Giuliano: In Giuliano's 1994 book Paint It Black, 'Joe' and 'Sean' held Brian Jones underwater.
You wonder sometime, if Jones were to die today, with the internet/cell phone tracking/digital fingerprints/news coverage, that it would be a different story?
On defending Brian Jones, I did get a sense that for the man who created the Rolling Stones, I felt like he was taken advantage of and regularly mistreated. The book paints a picture that Jones slowly lost all support and friendship from the other band members. Furthermore, there were no support from Jagger/Richards, whether financially or donations to Jones' family and estate after his death.
Paula Trynka's book Brian Jones: The Making of the Rolling Stones is out now on Viking.
The book does a great job covering Jones' life, particularly during the early days and development of The Rolling Stones. We're given a chapter on his childhood, including some rare facts like how he got a girl pregnant when he was 16. All that childhood information was quickly covered, as the real story in the book is about the creation of the Rolling Stones, which started on chapter two.
Trynka painstakingly detail Jones' involvement in creating the Rolling Stone, from coming up with the band's name to placing the original ad on Jazz News to drafting all the band members... Brian Jones was The Rolling Stones. Unfortunately, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards started to overshadowed Jones as the songwriting team, and by 1969, Brian Jones seemingly pressured into leaving the group.
To be fair, Trynka does document all of Jones' problems, leading up to his removal from the group. It started with health issues (rashes, epilepsy, asthmatic) causing Jones to miss shows to substance abuse in the later years (Trynka actually doesn't know what Jones was using, but suggested it was Mandrax prescription, combined with regular alcohol abuse). Instead of seeking help for Jones, the book tells us that everyone seemed to have just ignored Jones ... as if he was not there.
The vast majority of the book is focused on Brian Jones and the early days of the Rolling Stones, like the book title suggest, but like many of you, I was more interested in his death - which happened less than a month after he was walked away from the band. When I first got the book, I did skip to the final chapters to get Trynka's summarization of his death. What we're given here are facts, and Trynka let us make up our own conspiracies (if any) on Jones' "Death by Misadventure".
Some people suggests that it was suicide, especially before the Rolling Stones were about to play Hyde Park with their new guitarist Mick Taylor. Others think it was murder conspiracy by Jagger and Richards to seize control of the band.
Some interesting items in the Brian Jones' death:
On defending Brian Jones, I did get a sense that for the man who created the Rolling Stones, I felt like he was taken advantage of and regularly mistreated. The book paints a picture that Jones slowly lost all support and friendship from the other band members. Furthermore, there were no support from Jagger/Richards, whether financially or donations to Jones' family and estate after his death.
Paula Trynka's book Brian Jones: The Making of the Rolling Stones is out now on Viking.
