Brian Jones statue to the Rolling Stones founder - a Cheltenham town statue to Brian is overdue! - No Brian Jones, no Rolling Stones!

 

Brian Jones - Rolling Stones founder

A statue in Cheltenham to him is long overdue!

A statue with Brian with his Vox Guitar (Above) is overdue!

This is a call to arms of sorts, but around 60 years after the Rolling Stones broke onto the music scene, the time is now overdue to honour the late Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones with a statue in his home town of Cheltenham.

This talented multi-instrumentalist is one of the most recognisable stars from the 1960's and his untimely death in 1969 should not result in the end of this great musical talent's presence. A musical legacy on video and on record keeps his memory alive but more is needed!

If Liverpool can have the Beatles in statue form, then Cheltenham must have Brian Jones. I can think of no better image to use for this statue than Brian playing his iconic white Vox teardrop guitar, used on the Top of the Pops clip of 'This can be the last time', perhaps even including the famous Vox amplifier that Brian used in that tribute. 

This was Brian's golden era and how many of us would like to remember him.

The early Rolling Stones music up to 1969 used the multitude of musical talent Brian was able to contribute to the music through the many instruments he played from Banjo, Recorder, Harmonica, Marimba, guitar, sitar, harpsichord, piano - to name just a selection.

In my view no Brian Jones, no Rolling Stones.

Always on our minds - Elvis Presley, 40 years on

Elvis remembered - on the road to Aberystwyth, Wales -

Elvis still rocks, on a rock

This year will mark the 40th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, perhaps the most famous popular music star of all time.

At the end, but still popular despite his demise

I was only young when Elvis died, I had only seen him and his music through odd glimpses of his films that were put on television during the school holidays. This was the post 'Sun' Elvis, but even so, when his death was announced on the television news, it did have meaning to me, even at that age. I was yet to discover the 'Sun' records era and when I did, this was a game changer.

Elvis in 1954 at the Sun Studios

The real Elvis to most people isn't the singer of saccharine material that was foisted on him in the course of the films he made or the latter Vegas years, no the real deal to most was the material recorded at the Sun Studios with Scotty Moore, Bill Black and DJ Fontana.

The Elvis that was Hound dog, That's all right, My Baby left me and Mystery train, to name but a few of his landmark early records.

The raw energy of this music was so different from anything else at the time and everything changed overnight. It eclipsed Bill Haley, one of the founding fathers of Rock and Roll. Although I am a great fan of Bill, Elvis and his group were raw firepower.

Bill Haley was an important artist and catalyst, he came along at the time through Western Swing and from a jazz background and was part of the evolvement of music that came to be Rock and Roll. Rock around the Clock was catchy and it was musical 'Pop Art.'

Roy Lichtenstein's 'Pop Art' was simple, impact heavy and immediate -

Just like 'Hound Dog,' if it had been done on paper

The music fulfilled the 'Pop Art' ethos that would come along with Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol around the same era. It had dynamic, but simple impact.

Tracks like Hound Dog with the explosive drum phrasing and the Scotty Moore sharp and echo laden guitar sound even today sound fresh, over 60 years later. 

Elvis - the 68 comeback

It was like he never went away

The syrupy early 60's allowed Elvis to star in the films and produce more middle of the road appealing material which kept him popular, but to many, Elvis was that stripped down hard edge of roots music from 1954.

Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones often references the sound of Scotty Moore in his musical education, but also the 'stripped down' nature of the Sun Studio set up.

Often all the Sun studio performers were in one studio with the inevitable overspill of sound into other performer's own microphones, helping to create that unique sound.

These players were all mixed onto a one track recording in the main, although Sam Phillips of Sun was a technical innovator in those early days of 'modern' music recording.

Keith Richards still performing and enjoying it

Keith Richards said in an interview how these days the Rolling Stones had the luxury of a studio with the capacity of almost infinite amount of tracks for each song. He lamented that in the Sun days how they achieved so much with so few tracks and that helped with the immediacy of the music.

No years in the studio making an album, likely it would be concluded in a day or two, with little if any possibility for adding on to existing tracks. It was then a case of play, record, press out the record for sale.

Scotty Moore with Elvis, on stage in the Sun days

Even on some of those early records that made the record shops, they are often not the 'best cut,' but Sam Phillips instinctively knew that some takes, mistakes included were superior to others. But it was just 'that sound' that Sam Phillips got.

The sum of the parts, unrelated as they were just came together. Elvis, the band, the acoustics of the room. Today we are spoilt with modern technology to play and record music with.

Back in the day, many musicians often used what was available -

Not everyone could afford top of the line Gretsch, Gibson or Fender guitars

A whole industry caters for 'vintage' equipment but is that actually the way to find that sound? Cheque book musicianship is not the way to get a good sound, you need the ability and talent in the first place.

The other factors required are talent and the artist's individuality. Elvis, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent and hundreds of others did it their way. And that was what made them unique. 

Elvis in the Vegas years - some wrote him off as a rhinestone parody

He however produced some landmark records in this era

The 68 'Comeback Special' that Elvis appeared in, was a situation that showed that Elvis was still lean and could do the music. This led onto the Vegas circuit, Elvis managed to get material like 'Suspicious minds' and make it his own during this era.

The important thing was he was still performing, even if others from the 50's were largely now no longer performing or even alive.

Vegas topped off a wealth of music, Vegas also proved that Elvis was not stuck in a time warp, reissuing old hits, no, he was carving a new path and the Vegas type material also showed his breadth of talent, tackling material and arrangements that showed how good he was as a performer. 

However you remember Elvis, he was good.

Yesterday's papers - The Rolling Stones - The Brian Jones years

Brian Jones with Gretsch 6118 Anniversary guitar, with the Rolling Stones circa 1964 

In about 1984 I came across the Rolling Stones album Rolled Gold, it was quite interesting to hear the tracks on there which spanned the early career of the Stones.

They were playing around the Richmond area in the years just prior to me being born, an area  rich with talent from the The Yardbirds, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, to name but a few who had come out of the Kingston Art School.

As many will know, Brian Jones started the Rolling Stones group and the Ealing Jazz club was an early venue where Mick Jagger and Keith Richards saw the bare bones of the group.

Brian Jones, a musical prodigy from Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire was running under the stage name of Elmo Lewis, likely in homage to the Mississippi Delta and not the Richmond upon Thames Delta where much local talent displayed its wares at the Craw Daddy Club, Eel Pie island, the Klooks Kleek Klub and other sundry and savoury venues!

The Ealing venue was run by Alexis Korner and a man named Cyril and it provided an alternative music venue to showcase the underground music scene of the Blues as opposed to the current top ten line-up music. Other performers like Long John Baldry made appearances there, likely to be seen and signed by a new breed of pop impresario and manager, people such as Georgio Gomelski.

 In 1963, the Top Ten was fairly well dominated by Cliff Richard (and / or / with his backing group The Shadows, charters in their own right with instrumental guitar music), The (early) Beatles and a host of lightweight poppy smooth and marketable teen market stars.

Recently I came across the Stones on an Ipod album and listened to their own compositions from 1963-1969. Having moved on from  re-interpreting  Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry and other waxings from the Brian Jones audio library, the group started to expand the library of their own self-penned output.

I found listening to these early tracks, how good a sound could be made with what is essentially by today's standards, 'primitive' equipment. Aside from guitars which are still produced today in the same model versions, the imaginative use of instruments such as the Marimba, Harpsichord, Vibes and Recorder were avant garde to say the least.

Listening to the remastered tracks, one can hear more separation in the mix of instruments and this really does show the quality of vision and musical ideas that were evolving to create the unique montage of sounds, being able to hear more than before.

The arrangements of the songs were imaginative and not just bashed out 12, 16 or 24 bar themes. The spectrum of Brian Jones's talents as a multi-instrumentalist are evident and brought to the fore in this early work.

However badly this ended for Brian, it is a slice of musical history and the Rolling Stones to me IS essentially something from 1963-69 of the Brian Jones era. No Rolling Stones 1960's pop video is complete without Brian Jones in it.

Brian Jones was a great talent and that was sadly lost to chemical excesses and a conveniently placed swimming pool, a matter that has never been satisfactorily explained.

He should be missed as a great talent, with a great untapped potential.