Brian Jones in 1965
Guitar Reviews 4U Why Brian Jones was 'out of time' by 1965
Brian Jones in Cheltenham had a dream of creating a British Blues Band playing the music in that style. He was not alone, in Home Counties Ripley, Surrey, Eric Clapton was doing the same. In Kingston Surrey, Keith Relf and Jeff Beck were into that music and in Dartford, Kent Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were likewise following that star.
Cliff Richard and the Shadows c. 1961
with Hank Marvin on the right with Stratocaster
By this time they had made films and were London Palladium top billing
The British music scene since the mid 1950's had been dominated by American artists with Rock n Roll, a music that like fashions changed quickly. By 1960, the last knockings of the original American RnR performers were still performing, but were being overtaken by smoother crooners and an emerging Detroit sound.
where the Rolling Stones had a residency
Britain had not been slow to copy the new music from the other side of the Atlantic, even that as we have seen was not immune to fashionable change. Cliff Richard and the Shadows it would be fair to say had a dominance on the British music scene from 1959-63.
Cliff Richard imported a Fiesta Red Fender Stratocaster for Shadows guitarist Hank Marvin in 1959, a guitar that would change British popular music history and Marvin's playing and this guitar would influence thousands of bedroom guitarists - some of whom would later find fame, Jeff Lynne, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Brian May, Mark Knopfler and countless others who never made it past the youth club or pub rock scene.
A very young Rolling Stones in 1963
Brian Jones at right with his Gretsch 6118 2 tone Anniversary guitar
By 1960 there was no shortage of bands in the mould of Cliff and the Shadows, but that did not stop some young players of the time delving back further into the roots of the 1950's RnR to the Blues aspect of that music, just as there had been a 'jazz revival' in Britain at the time.
In his Ripley, Surrey back garden, Eric Clapton would endlessly pick at an acoustic guitar, leading to his Kingston Art School studies giving way to a full time music career, fellow Kingston students Keith Relf and Chris Dreyja would also find fame with Clapton in the Yardbirds, before Clapton left to pursue a more authentic Blues vehicle with John Mayall.
On a Kent railway platform back around the start of the 60's Mick Jagger saw Keith Richards holding a Blues vinyl LP a meeting of minds that ignited a musical flame.
1965 - This can be the last time performance
Brian with the iconic Vox 'teardrop' guitar
A music paper advert by Brian Jones sowed the seed for the young Jagger and Richards living an almost hand to mouth existence in the bohemian Chelsea to audition for Jones, a spot at the Ealing Jazz club followed and the band that Brian Jones started a while previously had sifted out players and the Jagger and Richards compound made the formula complete.
The 'British Invasion' had yet to hit America but this crop of bands that was growing underground very much in the south of the country - the Home Counties and London. Motown music would soon hit the UK around 1964 with the establishment of the Mod scene.
The Beatles now back from Hamburg, displaced thanks to the Cliff Richard and the Shadows mania, now in 1963 were starting to make a name for themselves. The future 'invasion bands' of the Yardbirds (with a soon to depart Clapton, replaced by Jeff Beck), The Kinks, The Who (Acton based), The Animals (Newcastle based) and the Stones came to the fore in 1963 to 1965.
The early Rolling Stones chart output was cover versions of Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly songs, the Beatles who had been doing some BBC Studio sessions in London, came down to Richmond to see the Rolling Stones play and offered them a song they had written - 'I wanna be your man.'
Although this song was 'Bluesed' up by Brian Jones playing slide guitar on it, it was essentially a pop song. It was from this point that Brian Jones and his dream of a pure blues band died.
Spurred on by the gift of the Beatles song, Keith and Mick started writing songs together and Brian was effectively displaced in the Rolling Stones as leader.
We must not write off Brian Jones though, because from the early times, Brian was a very gifted multi-instrumentalist - a fact that drove the Beatles on to constantly reinvent their music.
The management of the Rolling Stones saw Jagger and Richards as the front and centre of the group, Brian's pure Blues band dream had been dashed. However, the group's success was in part, besides Brian's vision that provided the catalyst that brought hose 5 players together, his ability to put Saxophone, Clarinet, Bass Pedals, Sitar, Harmonica, Piano and Hammond Organ onto the bones of the Jagger and Richards words and music.
By 1965, Brian Jones was like the Jagger and Richards song and was literally 'Out of time'. His musical contribution to the songs doesn't always get the credit it deserves, sadly.
The Rolling Stones still performs many of the early songs that Brian helped to make iconic.
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