Nights At The Roundtable with the inimitable Brian Jones, founding member of The Rolling Stones whose birthday is today (February 28, 1942) - yes, it would have been Number 69 . . .but who's counting?
February 28, 2011

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Brian Jones - source of arguments over his contribution to The Rolling Stones but the sound was never the same after.


If, by some strange reason you may have forgotten, today marks what would have been Rolling Stone founding member Brian Jones birthday - Number 69 to be exact. Those of us who were fans since Day One remembered how much the sound had changed when Brian left the band (actually kicked out over his drug excesses which, for The Rolling Stones was really saying something). And how saddened we all were when we learned of his death some weeks later (a death disputed over the years as either overdose, suicide or murder). Little did we know it would be the start of a trend that also saw the untimely deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison - all going down that same road. Things just up and changed in a very short period of time.

But that's another story.

Tonight it's celebrating the work of an incredible talent whose contribution to Rock will never be short-changed, despite what's been said over the years and all the rumors to the contrary. He did some great work and he was one of the masterminds, if not the mastermind behind what The Rolling Stones were all about.

Because their history goes back such a long way, and because there have been so many albums released by them over the decades, it's possible, if you've come to their music the past twenty years, that you may have missed the formative period of The Rolling Stones. Those early years when they were raw and knee-deep in Chicago Blues.

To give you an idea of what they sounded like in 1965, here's a track from one of their milestone albums, Out Of Our Heads, and a song made popular in 1962 by Solomon Burke, but given the distinctive Mick Jagger touch and the inimitable Brian Jones accompaniment, Cry To Me.

Happy Birthday Brian Jones. You're still missed.

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