Check Out My Review of "Brian Jones: The Making of The Rolling Stones"

Brian Jones: The Making of the Rolling Stones by Paul Trynka

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I feel very ambivalent about this book: On one hand, I admire how well written it is as well as the keen interest the author has for his subject, Brian Jones, the tragic founder of The Rolling Stones; on the other hand, this book is so arrogantly and steadfastly biased against Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, that it's hard to take it seriously at times. Not only does Trynka blame the duo, famously dubbed "The Glimmer Twins, for everything that went wrong for Jones , I'm surprised 9/11, the 2007-08 Wall Street meltdown and other modern ills were not factored into the equation.

This isn't to say that Jagger and Richards were not culpable in Jones' downfall. They were to a certain degree; however, much of that was orchestrated by their Machiavellian wunderkind manager Andrew Oldman who felt the sexually androgynous and charismatic frontman Jagger, aided and abetted by old childhood friend and guitarist par excellence Keith Richards, should muscle Jones out of the leadership and main decision-making. No doubt Oldman forcing Jagger and Richards to collaborate as songwriters so they could generate original material and thus be more competitive with rivals like The Beatles, exacerbated the growing power struggle with Jones who didn't write songs (although supposedly he was responsible for helping eke out a few classic tunes like "Ruby Tuesday" but for some reason never got the credit for them). Eventually, Jagger and Richards seized control of the Stones and marginalized Jones, further intensifying the latter's self-destructive tendencies.

By the time June 1969 came around, Jones was a drugged out shell of his former self, a consummate and versatile multi-instrumentalist, who at this juncture, could barely play the guitar, let alone the marimba (which he played in "Under My Thumb") or the accordion (which he played in "Back Street Girl"). Small wonder he was given the heave-ho by the Stones; a month later, he was found dead in his swimming pool under circumstances so murky that even today Rolling Stone biographers, aficionados, aging hangers-on and friends argue whether the drowning was an accident or murder (at the hands of contractor Frank Thorogood or sleazy sometime driver Tom Keylock).

The truth of Jones' death will never be known just as we most likely will never know how much of a role Jagger and Richards played in bringing about the ruin of Brian Jones. Obviously, Jagger's position as Stones' lead singer, the signature big-lipped face of the brand, coupled with he and Richards sharing songwriting duties, elevated and solidified their footing within the group as well as to the public.

Their reported mistreatment of Jones veered into blithe viciousness. Examples included abandoning Jones in a Morocco hospital while they went off gallivanting somewhere; and having Jones' musical contributions not recorded in a studio when Jones thought it was. This is terrible but mind you at this point and Trynka cites several sources who allege this, Jones was a blithering drugged-out mess. And, girlfriend Anita Pallenberg leaving him for Richards following the Morocco trip only unhinged the increasingly unstable Jones. Then there were the police raids on his home for drugs and the trials that exacted a damaging psychological toll on his state of mind.

But Jones was hardly free of reproach. He was supposedly violent and abusive toward Pallenberg on that trip. This Trynka does not deny although he does downplay it because it doesn't fit his agenda to demonize Jagger and Richards while portraying Jones as a hapless rock and roll martyr.

To be frank, the real mystery here is how Jones was able to live to 27 considering his massive drug intake and his frail health worsened by an ongoing battle with asthma and mental illness. The author has such an ax to grind against Jagger and Richards that he barely touches upon the latter. Given how he describes Jones' frequent manic mood swings, the dangerously volatile behavior, the unbridled promiscuity (four illegitimate children with four different underaged women before age 21?) and the wanton excesses, I agreed with the bipolar term that Trynka cavalierly tosses in one sentence and bizarrely never mentions again. It probably was the root of much of Jones' problems and it's unfortunate that Jagger and Richards, whom Jones supposedly loved like brothers, the author tells us, didn't extend too much sympathy to their bandmate's issues.

I remember watching a documentary on the Stones in which Jagger discussed Jones' self-destructiveness. To paraphrase him, Jagger said he and Richards took a lot of drugs but at least they could function; Jones could not. That was the bottom line. The Rolling Stones was a business, which Jagger, a former student at the London School of Economics, characterized as such. Jones was becoming the machine's unworkable cog that needed to be removed. Case closed.

Although I enjoyed reading about Jones' background and the genesis of his love of music, especially jazz, I was irritated by Trynka's vendetta against Jagger and Richards and his need to single them both out as the drivers of Jones' disintegration. Yes, they're not blameless here. But the real tragedy is a society and a system that did not view mental illness and drug rehabilitation with the same gravitas and sensitivity that we currently do. If they had, Jones might have licked his addictions, kept the bipolar tendencies under control and maybe started over with a new band. Perhaps that should have been the angle explored by Trynka rather than rehashing an old grievance.




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