THE ROLLING STONES & BRIAN JONES

On this day nearly 50 years ago, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards met Brian Jones for the first time. Jones was calling himself Elmo Lewis and playing slide guitar with Paul Jones (later of Manfred Mann) at the Ealing Jazz Club in London. Jones’ band was called “The Roosters.” After Brain left the group to form “The Rolliin’ Stones” with Mick and Keith, Eric Clapton took over his position as guitarist.

The Rollin’ Stones played their first gig three months later on July 12, 1962 at the Marquee Club in London. Jagger, Richards and Jones were there along with pianist Ian Stewart, bass player Dick Taylor and drummer Tony Chapman. Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts joined the Stones later.

As Keith Richards tells it, Jones came up with the name “The Rollin’ Stones” (later with the ‘g’) while on the phone with a venue owner. “The voice on the other end of the line said, ‘What are you called?’ and The Best of Muddy Waters album was lying on the floor—and track one was Rollin’ Stone Blues.” Jones grew up listening to classical music but preferred blues, particularly Elmore James and Robert Johnson. His innovative use of traditional folk instruments, such as the sitar and marimba, was integral to the changing sound of the band as they moved from blues based rock.

Brian was originally the leader of the group, but Jagger and Richards soon overshadowed him after they became a successful songwriting team. Jones left The Rolling Stones in June of 1969 and died less than a month later at age 27 when he apparently drowned in his own swimming pool.

(Photographer: Unknown)

THE 27 CLUB

A memorial went up in Aberdeen, Washington the other day to commemorate Kurt Cobain on the anniversary of his death. His “suicide” on April 5, 1994 is clouded in the same kind of mystery as Brian Jones’ death twenty five years earlier. Along with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Chris Bell, Pete Ham, and Robert Johnson, Jones and Cobain died at age 27.

Some more interesting stuff: Cobain and Hendrix