biography brian hopkin jones

Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English guitarist and founding member of the English rock group The Rolling Stones. Jones was known for his use of multiple instruments, fashionable mod image, recreational drug excesses and his death at age 27.

Early life

Jones was born in the Park Nursing Home in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, during World War II. Supposedly he suffered from asthma all his life. His middle-class parents, Lewis Blount Jones and Louisa Beatrice Jones were of Welsh descent. Brian had two sisters: Pamela, who was born on 3 October 1943 and who died on 14 October 1945 of leukemia; and Barbara, born in 1946.^[1]

Both Jones's parents were interested in music — his mother Louisa was a piano teacher — and this had a profound effect on him. In addition to his job as an aeronautical engineer, Lewis Jones played piano and organ and led the choir at the local church. Jones eventually took up the clarinet, becoming first clarinet in his school orchestra at 14.^[2]

In 1957 Jones first heard the music of jazz musician Cannonball Adderley, which inspired his lifelong interest in jazz. Jones persuaded his parents to buy him a saxophone, and two years later his parents gave him his first acoustic guitar as a 17th birthday present.^[3]

Jones attended local schools, including Dean Close School, from 1949 to 1953 and Cheltenham Grammar School for Boys, which he entered in September 1953 after passing the Eleven-plus exam. He was an exceptional student, earning high marks in all of his classes while doing little work. He enjoyed badminton and diving but otherwise was not skilled at sports. In 1957, Jones reportedly obtained nine O-levels passes. Despite academic ability, however, he found school regimented and he refused to conform. He was known to eschew wearing the school uniforms and angered teachers with his behaviour, though he was popular among students. His hostility to authority figures resulted in his suspension from school on two occasions.^[4] According to Dick Hattrell, a childhood friend: "He was a rebel without a cause, but when examinations came he was brilliant."^[4]

In the spring of 1959, Jones's 14-year-old girlfriend, a Cheltenham schoolgirl named Valerie Corbett, became pregnant. Supposedly Jones encouraged her to have an abortion, but she placed the baby boy up for adoption with an infertile couple.^[3] Corbett later married one of Jones's friends, author Graham Ride.^{[citation needed]}

Brian quit school in disgrace and left home, supposedly traveling through northern Europe and Scandinavia for a summer. During this period, he lived a bohemian lifestyle, busking and playing guitar on the streets for money, living off the kindness of others. While Jones was fond of telling others about his trip throughout Europe, it remains uncertain how much of his descriptions were embellishment. Other friends claimed Jones merely stayed with friends and relatives outside the UK.^{[citation needed]}

Jones grew up listening to classical music, but he supposedly always preferred blues, (particularly Elmore James and Robert Johnson). He began playing at local blues and jazz clubs in addition to busking and working odd jobs. He was also known to steal small amounts of money to pay for cigarettes, which tended to get him fired.^[5]

In November 1959, Jones went to the Wooden Bridge Hotel in Guildford to see a band. He met a young, married woman named Angeline, and the two had a one-night stand that resulted in a pregnancy. Angeline and her husband decided to raise the baby together.^[6]

In October 1961, Jones fathered a third child, Julian Mark Andrews, with his girlfriend Pat Andrews.^[7] Jones sold his record collection to buy flowers for Pat and clothes for the newborn and lived with them for a while

Forming The Rolling Stones

Jones left Cheltenham and moved to London where he became friends with fellow musicians Alexis Korner, future Manfred Mann singer Paul Jones, future Cream bassist Jack Bruce and others who made up the small London rhythm and blues scene that the Rolling Stones would soon come to dominate. He became a blues musician, for a brief time calling himself "Elmo Lewis", and playing slide guitar.

In spring 1962, Jones and pianist Ian "Stu" Stewart joined forces, while later singer Mick Jagger was added into his band — who, with Jagger's childhood friend Keith Richards, met Jones when he and Paul Jones were playing Elmore James' "Dust My Broom" with Korner's band at The Ealing Club.^[8]

Jagger brought guitarist Richards to rehearsals; Richards then joined the band. Jones' and Stewart's acceptance of Richards and the Chuck Berry songs he wanted to play coincided with the departure of blues purists Geoff Bradford and Brian Knight, who had no tolerance for Chuck Berry.^[5]

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 obviously said, 'What are you called?' Panic. The Best of Muddy Waters album was lying on the floor — and track one was 'Rollin' Stone Blues'".^{[9][page number needed]}

The Rollin' Stones played their first gig on 12 July 1962 in the Marquee Club in London with Jagger, Richards, Jones, Stewart, bass player Dick Taylor (later of The Pretty Things) and drummer Mick Avory (later of The Kinks)^[10], though some sources say Tony Chapman.^{[citation needed]}

From mid-1962 to late 1963 Jones, Jagger and Richards shared an apartment (referred to by Richards as "a beautiful dump")^[11] in Chelsea, London at 102 Edith Grove, Chelsea, with James Phelge, a future photographer whose last name was used in some of the band's writing credits. Jones and Richards spent day after day playing guitar while listening to blues records (notably Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, and Howlin' Wolf). During this time, Jones taught Jagger how to play harmonica.

The four Rollin' Stones went searching for a bassist and drummer, finally settling on Bill Wyman on bass because he had a spare VOX AC30 guitar amp and cigarettes. After playing with Mick Avory, Tony Chapman and Carlo Little, in January 1963 they finally persuaded jazz-influenced Charlie Watts to join them. Watts was considered by fellow musicians to be one of the best drummers in London; he had played with (among others) Alexis Korner's group Blues Incorporated.

Watts described Jones's role in these early days: "Brian was very instrumental in pushing the band at the beginning. Keith and I would look at him and say he was barmy. It was a crusade to him to get us on the stage in a club and be paid a half-crown and to be billed as an R&B band".^{[9][page number needed]}

The group played at local blues and jazz clubs, gaining fans despite resistance from traditional jazz musicians who felt threatened by their popularity. While Jagger was lead singer, Jones, in the group's embryonic period, was leader — promoting the band, getting shows, and negotiating with venues. Jones played guitar and harmonica. During performances, and especially at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, Jones proved to be a more animated and engaging performer than even Jagger.^{[citation needed]} Jagger initially stood still while singing — mainly by necessity, as their early stages hardly provided enough room to move.^{[9][page number needed]}

While acting as the band's business manager, Jones received £5 more than the other members, which did not sit well with the rest of the band and created resentment

Songwriting credits

Unsure and insecure as a composer, Jones was not a prolific songwriter.

According to Andrew Oldham the main reason for Jones not being able to write songs was that Jones simply didn't love simple pop music enough, as Jones was too much a blues purist. Oldham tried to establish a songwriting partnership between Jones and Gene Pitney after "becoming bored senseless by Jones' bleating about the potential of half-finished melodies that by no means deserved completion" but after two days of sessions "the results remain best to be unheard, even by Stones' completists".^[24]

Bill Wyman has stated in interviews that although Jagger and Richards were protective of their role as writers, they would be open to ideas, and he names his "In Another Land" and "Downtown Suzie" as examples. Wyman commented that Jones was "an incredibly gifted musician, but not a song writer". On the other hand, Ron Wood commented in interviews that he is proud that he was able to get about two dozen songs recorded and released by the Stones, and Wood also mentioned the protective nature of the Jagger/Richards partnership.

Only one officially released song is credited to Jones, the 30-second "Rice Krispies" jingle for Kellogg's, co-written with the J. W. Thompson advertising agency in 1963 and which the group performed incognito. The fact that Jones took sole credit did not sit well with the rest of the Stones, who felt it was a group effort and all should benefit equally. ^[25] Fourteen Stones songs were credited to "Nanker Phelge", a pseudonym indicating that all members of the group including Andrew Loog Oldham had a share in the songwriting royalties. They dropped this pseudonym after 1965 (a "nanker" was a strange face Jones and Richards would often make, and "Phelge" came from their former roommate James Phelge).

A second song, "Sure I Do", reportedly written, recorded, and sung completely by Jones in 1963, remains unreleased. A vinyl disc with a label containing the title remains in Wyman's "Sticky Fingers" restaurant; it is unclear whether the song exists or not.

When asked in 1965 if he had written songs, Jones replied: "Always tried. I've written quite a few, but mostly in blues style".^[26] Keith Richards stated: "No, no. Absolutely not. That was the one thing he would never do. Brian wouldn't show them to anybody within the Stones. Brian as far as I know never wrote a single finished song in his life; he wrote bits and pieces but he never presented them to us. No doubt he spent hours, weeks, working on things, but his paranoia was so great that he could never bring himself to present them to us".^[27] However, he did compose the soundtrack to a German film, A Degree Of Murder; this soundtrack is the only thing the public has heard of a Jones solo recording.

In 1990, Carla Olson was given permission from Jones's estate to put one of his poems to music and thus created the Jones/Olson song "Thank You For Being There". It appeared on the album True Voices, performed by Krysia Kristianne and Robin Williamson.