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Brian Jones: To Be On Your Own Like A Sinking Stone · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis.
0:18
Speaker 2: The stories about Rolling Stones founding guitar player Brian Jones
0:23
Speaker 2: are insane. He was a serial abuser of women. He
0:27
Speaker 2: bragged of sleeping with sixty four women in nineteen days,
0:30
Speaker 2: fathering and estimated, though precisely unknown, six illegitimate children. He
0:36
Speaker 2: dressed in full Nazi regalia, a solid decade before the
0:39
Speaker 2: punk movement and only fifteen years removed from World War Two.
0:44
Speaker 2: He sacrificed goats. He was the electric kool Aid acid
0:47
Speaker 2: testing ground. He was Bob Dylan's and Jimmy Hendrix's favorite
0:51
Speaker 2: guitar player, and he was in part, if not almost entirely,
0:54
Speaker 2: responsible for young London's obsession with the Blues. He was
0:59
Speaker 2: also paranoid, wildly insecure, and an incredibly weak man, all
1:03
Speaker 2: traits that would eventually lead to his downfall, but no
1:07
Speaker 2: doubt about it for a moment there. Brian Jones made
1:10
Speaker 2: great music. That music you heard at the top of
1:13
Speaker 2: the show that wasn't great music. That was a preset
1:16
Speaker 2: loop for my mellotron called slow Waltz Celeste Low MK one.
1:23
Speaker 2: I played you that loop because I can't afford the
1:25
Speaker 2: rights to get back by the Beatles, and why would
1:28
Speaker 2: I play you that specific slice of preston Esque Jojo Fire?
1:32
Speaker 3: Could I afford it?
1:33
Speaker 2: Because that was the number one song in America on
1:36
Speaker 2: July third, nineteen sixty nine, And that was the day
1:40
Speaker 2: that Brian Jones decided to go for a swim in
1:43
Speaker 2: Winnie the Pooh's Pool and never came back. On this episode,
1:48
Speaker 2: slow Waltz seems Celeste Jojo Fire, Winnie the Pooh's Pool
1:52
Speaker 2: and Brian Jones, I'm Jake Brennan and this is disgrace slam.
2:21
Speaker 3: The crowd was uneasy.
2:22
Speaker 2: The clientele on July eleventh, nineteen sixty two, at the
2:25
Speaker 2: dimly lit Marquee Club in London's West End was strictly
2:29
Speaker 2: trad goateed, bespectacled, diehard jazz and blues officionados who took
2:34
Speaker 2: themselves way too seriously and who were dubious at best
2:38
Speaker 2: about R and B. The more bourgeois among them sipped
2:41
Speaker 2: matouse and look down their noses at the clocked out
2:44
Speaker 2: laborers pulling on Pilsner's. The one thing they all had
2:48
Speaker 2: in common was a curiosity about this evening's act. A
2:52
Speaker 2: scruffy mishmash of art school kids and middle class wise acres,
2:56
Speaker 2: billing themselves as the Rolling Stones, who were waiting out
3:00
Speaker 2: their pre first show jitters in the back room while
3:02
Speaker 2: being aired out by the club's promoter, Brian Jones. The
3:06
Speaker 2: group's leader, didn't understand what the argument was all about.
3:10
Speaker 2: Mick was just the singer. No one was going to
3:13
Speaker 2: be paying attention to him anyway. The audience was there
3:16
Speaker 2: to see the band, to hear Brian's bottleneck slide slip
3:19
Speaker 2: down the neck of his harmony stratotone, not to watch
3:22
Speaker 2: the singer move the songs from the verses to the choruses. Besides,
3:26
Speaker 2: Brian would look good, he always did. The promoter was
3:31
Speaker 2: demanding the band change into more suitable attire, something matching,
3:35
Speaker 2: like a proper group, like those nice boys from Liverpool,
3:38
Speaker 2: the Beatles. But the Stones weren't having it, eskewing the
3:42
Speaker 2: safe matching stage attire for their street clothes, tight gaucho
3:46
Speaker 2: trousers tapered at the ankles, ties optional, cuban heeled boots
3:49
Speaker 2: and crew collared swede jackets that died at the hips,
3:52
Speaker 2: and of course long hair. It was subversive for the
3:55
Speaker 2: time and went a long way in contrasting the Stones
3:58
Speaker 2: with the Beatles. These guys didn't want to hold your
4:01
Speaker 2: hand or let you drive their car. They wanted to
4:03
Speaker 2: get your daughter pregnant and steal your vespa. The Rolling
4:07
Speaker 2: Stones were a serious R and B group, at least
4:10
Speaker 2: in Brian's mind, even though they yet to play a show.
4:14
Speaker 2: The drummer Charlie he could swing and plus he had
4:17
Speaker 2: a Cherry Ludwig kit in a van to transport it.
4:20
Speaker 2: And the bass player Bill he could play, but more important,
4:24
Speaker 2: Bill had a vox amp with two inputs, which meant
4:27
Speaker 2: Brian could use it too. And the young second guitarist, Keith.
4:31
Speaker 2: He was a wild card, but Brian knew there was
4:33
Speaker 2: something there, and whatever it was, it scared Brian. Regardless,
4:38
Speaker 2: Keith was worth keeping around. He was just nineteen years old,
4:42
Speaker 2: timid yet brimming with fuck all confidence and obsessed with
4:46
Speaker 2: Chuck Berry. The piano player stew with the heavy left
4:50
Speaker 2: hand and heavier jawline. Now that dude could play, even
4:53
Speaker 2: if he looked more like he was about to unload
4:55
Speaker 2: boxes from a lori than he did someone about to
4:58
Speaker 2: unload Johnny Johnson riffs from a piece. His playing made
5:01
Speaker 2: up for his looks but the singer Mick, the verdict
5:05
Speaker 2: was still out. He claimed he was in the Little Walter,
5:08
Speaker 2: but to this point has shown little to back that up.
5:11
Speaker 3: And he was good.
5:12
Speaker 2: Looking in a way that annoyed Brian. Mick made little effort.
5:16
Speaker 2: He rolled out of bed and threw on whatever clothes
5:18
Speaker 2: he'd find on the floor, managed to look good. Plus
5:21
Speaker 2: he was a charmer, young, yes, shy even to a point,
5:25
Speaker 2: but still he commanded the attention of everyone. Brian suspected
5:29
Speaker 2: he was half a puff whatever. So long as he
5:31
Speaker 2: didn't steal the spotlight from Brian, there'd be no problem.
5:35
Speaker 2: So Brian committed to keeping making the band only until
5:37
Speaker 2: a better, less threatening option presented itself together. Even in
5:42
Speaker 2: those early days when they played, it just worked, and
5:46
Speaker 2: Brian Jones's Rolling Stones had something. It wasn't songs, because
5:50
Speaker 2: they couldn't write a song to save their lives, not
5:53
Speaker 2: yet at least, But when they broke off of Fred
5:55
Speaker 2: McDowell or Bo Didley tune, whatever room they were in
5:58
Speaker 2: would just come alive.
6:00
Speaker 3: Their appeal was intense.
6:03
Speaker 2: They seemed less like a group and more like a
6:05
Speaker 2: gang six brothers clearly pulling on the same rope in
6:08
Speaker 2: the same direction at the same time, and not a
6:11
Speaker 2: weak link among them. On this night, the night of
6:15
Speaker 2: their first ever performance at the Marquee Club, they took
6:18
Speaker 2: the stage in their street clothes as they'd wanted. The
6:21
Speaker 2: jazz and blue snobs and the crowd looked upon the
6:23
Speaker 2: Stones with barely containable contempt, standing on stage, tuning their
6:28
Speaker 2: instruments loudly without regard for the audience or proper showmanship,
6:32
Speaker 2: Pulling on cigarettes to calm their nerves, they steeled themselves
6:36
Speaker 2: to bust.
6:36
Speaker 3: Into Little Willy Littlefield's Kansas City.
6:40
Speaker 2: Stu banged out the intro and sixteenth notes on his piano,
6:43
Speaker 2: and the band roared out of the station straight ahead
6:46
Speaker 2: with power like a locomotive, all six members working their
6:50
Speaker 2: parts for all they could, trying to keep up with
6:53
Speaker 2: each other to not get overrun by the giddy excitement,
6:55
Speaker 2: bubbling with their chests to keep the train room, and
6:59
Speaker 2: the crowd started booing loudly. With the exception of a
7:03
Speaker 2: small group of Mods who muscled their way into the
7:05
Speaker 2: dance book, they weren't having the booze from the stuffy
7:08
Speaker 2: Marquee Club regulars. This band hit the Mods in their
7:12
Speaker 2: sweet spot with high energy, black music from the American South,
7:16
Speaker 2: and the Rolling Stones, despite their scruffy, irreverent look had
7:20
Speaker 2: the stylish Mods gripped the Mods with their immaculate attire
7:25
Speaker 2: and perfectly quaffed hair. The regulatory quarter inch over the
7:28
Speaker 2: ear and block backed the nape at the neck served
7:31
Speaker 2: as an extra affront to the Marquee Club regulars. What
7:34
Speaker 2: do these hooligans know about American music or proper jazz?
7:38
Speaker 2: So they let the Mods and the Stones know about it,
7:41
Speaker 2: and the booze continued louder. It made it near impossible
7:45
Speaker 2: to hear the band. Look this, the Mods turned and
7:48
Speaker 2: attacked the Marquees regulars, violently punching, kicking and spitting. For
7:53
Speaker 2: a moment, mayhem overtook the club, but Brian and the
7:56
Speaker 2: Boys played on in order resumed. The beat back regulars
8:00
Speaker 2: took their seats, the Mods took back the dance floor,
8:04
Speaker 2: and the Rolling Stones took their first steps toward becoming
8:07
Speaker 2: England's newest hit makers. It didn't take long the Rolling
8:28
Speaker 2: Stones were off. Their debut album went to number one
8:31
Speaker 2: on both the UK and US charts. In their next
8:34
Speaker 2: nine studio albums released throughout the sixties would all cracked
8:38
Speaker 2: the top five. The early albums rose to the top
8:41
Speaker 2: of the charts in the backs of tunes written by
8:43
Speaker 2: American blues musicians. But in no time Mick Jagger and
8:47
Speaker 2: Keith Richards realized that to make real money they needed
8:51
Speaker 2: to learn how to write their own songs. In the beginning,
8:54
Speaker 2: Brian tried his hand at writing two, but he was
8:57
Speaker 2: quickly discouraged by his lack of lyrical prowess. Amongst the
9:01
Speaker 2: squalor of their cold water flat at Edith Grove were
9:04
Speaker 2: the garbage piled high and the rats roamed freely. Mick
9:08
Speaker 2: and Keith busied themselves with learning how to write. Brian
9:12
Speaker 2: showed little interest. Why did he need to write songs
9:15
Speaker 2: for the Stones? He invented the Stones. With his growing
9:18
Speaker 2: fame and ego he hit the town. His drinking and
9:21
Speaker 2: drugging quickly became excessive, most likely a distraction from his responsibilities,
9:27
Speaker 2: depending on how you counted them, for illegitimate children from
9:30
Speaker 2: four different women by this point, as well as dealing
9:34
Speaker 2: with the ongoing drama of his current girlfriend, whom he'd
9:37
Speaker 2: beat savagely whenever she'd get out of line. With little
9:40
Speaker 2: regard for the thin walls at Edith Grove, an act
9:43
Speaker 2: that drove Mick and Keith mad. The Last Time was
9:48
Speaker 2: the third Stone single to go to number one on
9:50
Speaker 2: the UK charts, but more importantly, it was the first
9:53
Speaker 2: single written by Jagger Richards. They followed it up with
9:57
Speaker 2: a genre de fining Satisfaction, then it Off of My Cloud.
10:01
Speaker 2: Suddenly there was no longer any need to split the rent.
10:05
Speaker 2: Making Keith were happy to bail on Brian and Edith Grove. Brian,
10:09
Speaker 2: feeling marginalized by the songwriting success of Making, Keith, focused
10:13
Speaker 2: on his new twin obsessions getting wasted in the model
10:17
Speaker 2: Anita Pallenberg. However, his relationship with Anita wouldn't last. By
10:24
Speaker 2: the time the Stones entourage landed in Morocco on February
10:27
Speaker 2: of nineteen sixty seven, Brian was convinced Keith and Anita
10:31
Speaker 2: had been fucking behind his back. He could tell by
10:34
Speaker 2: their body language. Keith, normally a bit of adult around
10:37
Speaker 2: the ladies, suddenly had an unexpected ease around Anita, and
10:41
Speaker 2: Anita showed a casual openness with Keith. Brian's heart sank,
10:46
Speaker 2: his insecurity sword, his paranoia stung. Wandering through the Moroccan bazaar,
10:52
Speaker 2: Brian pulled a handful of mandres from his trousers pocket
10:56
Speaker 2: and swallowed them. The pills, along with the LSD he'd
10:59
Speaker 2: dropped earlier, were sure to push whatever it was Anita
11:03
Speaker 2: and Keith were up to out of his mind. When
11:06
Speaker 2: they arrived at the home they were staying at Marrakesh,
11:09
Speaker 2: Brian went.
11:10
Speaker 3: Straight for the liquor cabinet.
11:12
Speaker 2: He then stumbled into his bedroom, fell onto a dirty mattress,
11:15
Speaker 2: and zonked out. Anita and Keith and the rest of
11:18
Speaker 2: the crew left him to sleep it off and headed
11:21
Speaker 2: out to explore.
11:22
Speaker 3: Brian stayed in.
11:23
Speaker 2: The house in a near paralytic state, while Anita fell
11:26
Speaker 2: for Keith hard. Some days later, Brian emerged from his
11:31
Speaker 2: haze hungry for more drugs and sex, so he arranged
11:36
Speaker 2: for two berber horse When they arrived, there were more
11:39
Speaker 2: than Brian could have bargained for him, exotic, dark skinned,
11:43
Speaker 2: erotic looking, one with green eyes and the other incredibly
11:47
Speaker 2: with two different colored eyes.
11:49
Speaker 3: Long thick black hair spilled out.
11:51
Speaker 2: Over their shoulders and down their backs, and, of course,
11:55
Speaker 2: as was the tradition in the Middle East to warn
11:57
Speaker 2: the men away from diseased prostitutes, their curvy, full bodies
12:01
Speaker 2: were covered in tattoos. The similar body art on both
12:05
Speaker 2: women gave Brian, in his LSD. Hayes illusion that he
12:09
Speaker 2: was sleeping with twins, and the enchanting ink was a
12:13
Speaker 2: giant turn on for the proper white English boy from
12:16
Speaker 2: the firm in the middle class Sheltingham. The tattoos started
12:20
Speaker 2: at the top of their feet and wrapped around the ankle,
12:23
Speaker 2: ran up the side of the thigh, curved over the hip,
12:27
Speaker 2: criss crossed the belly and over alongside of the abdomen
12:30
Speaker 2: to the back, up around the shoulder, down the bicep,
12:34
Speaker 2: and around the forearm, to the wrists, the.
12:36
Speaker 3: Hand, and finally over their long.
12:38
Speaker 2: Spidery fingers with bedazzled stone chokers tied around their necks
12:43
Speaker 2: in gold colored bangles, running up both sets of wrists
12:47
Speaker 2: that jangled loudly as the two women took turns riding Brian,
12:50
Speaker 2: who was in his sweet spot, too high to come
12:53
Speaker 2: but not stoned enough to go soft and he lay back.
12:58
Speaker 2: The green eyed ones slithered on top of him and
13:00
Speaker 2: bit softly at his ear lobe, and the heterochromatic one
13:04
Speaker 2: kneeled on the bed alongside Brian with her head bowed
13:07
Speaker 2: to his other ear, whispering something wicked and wonderful in Arabic.
13:12
Speaker 2: And then it started to happen again. The idea of
13:15
Speaker 2: Anita fucking Keith crept into his head. The thought of
13:19
Speaker 2: the two of them roused something primal and triggered his
13:21
Speaker 2: deepest insecurities, rousing them in the darkest corners of his
13:25
Speaker 2: sexual psyche.
13:26
Speaker 3: And that did it. He was going to come.
13:29
Speaker 2: But then, over the sounds of both women in his ears,
13:33
Speaker 2: he heard Anita's voice. He blinked his eyes open and
13:36
Speaker 2: looked up through the candle light and saw Anita's face.
13:39
Speaker 3: Though it was no illusion.
13:40
Speaker 2: It was her, his cheating lover in the flesh in
13:43
Speaker 2: this dank Moroccan hovel, watching them get worked over good
13:46
Speaker 2: by two prostitutes. Brian gently pushed the green eyed woman
13:51
Speaker 2: off his chest and rose up to his knees in
13:53
Speaker 2: the bed. He reached out to Anita, opened his mouth
13:56
Speaker 2: and did a slow stream of molasses sounding words spill
14:00
Speaker 2: out into the squalid bedroom air.
14:03
Speaker 3: Come join us, won't you?
14:07
Speaker 2: Anita disgusted, thought otherwise, and spit in his face something,
14:11
Speaker 2: and Brian snapped. He leaped to his feet and into
14:14
Speaker 2: Anita's face, grabbed her by the neck and threw her
14:16
Speaker 2: heart into the dresser next to the bed. The prostitutes
14:19
Speaker 2: split and Brian proceeded to do what only the weakest
14:22
Speaker 2: of men do in moments of desperation, beat his woman,
14:27
Speaker 2: and it was a savage beating. Anita would never forget
14:30
Speaker 2: or forgive. Neither would Keith. It marked the end of
14:34
Speaker 2: their relationship. It was the beginning of the end of
14:37
Speaker 2: Brian's tenure in the band he'd created and named The
14:40
Speaker 2: Rolling Stones.
14:42
Speaker 3: We'll be right back after this word word word.
14:48
Speaker 2: After Morocco. Brian was shattered. His interest in being the
14:52
Speaker 2: guitar player for the Stones was little to none. Anita
14:56
Speaker 2: tossing him off for Keith meant he'd never be able
14:58
Speaker 2: to really work with Keith again, and Mick had used
15:01
Speaker 2: Brian's disinterest in writing songs and deep descent into substances
15:06
Speaker 2: as a way to wrestle control of the band from him.
15:09
Speaker 2: Brian could feel his band slipping away, but he was
15:12
Speaker 2: too weak to do anything about it. So again, with
15:15
Speaker 2: his weakness getting the best of him, he ran. Specifically,
15:20
Speaker 2: Brian Jones ran to the countryside. Sitting at his dining
15:25
Speaker 2: room table at Cochford Farm, the estate once owned by A. A. Milne,
15:29
Speaker 2: author of the Winnie the Pooh books. Brian was quiet
15:32
Speaker 2: Amongst his guests, his new girlfriend Anna Wolean, his living
15:36
Speaker 2: handyman Frank Thoroughgood, and friend Janet Lawson. Brian was feeling melancholic.
15:42
Speaker 2: He ignored his kidney pie and took stock of where
15:45
Speaker 2: he was at the moment. On the outs, he was
15:48
Speaker 2: no longer welcome in his band and contemplating a lucrative
15:51
Speaker 2: cash buyout from Mick Keith and Stone's management. To go
15:55
Speaker 2: away quietly to four of the five illegitimate children that
16:00
Speaker 2: I knew about. He was a ghost. Some friends would
16:03
Speaker 2: come visit, most didn't. Life, it seemed, was passing him by.
16:08
Speaker 2: But his life, he thought, despite his complications, did have
16:11
Speaker 2: its perks. He'd basically been partying non stop and reveling
16:15
Speaker 2: in stardom for the past seven years. Thinking about this
16:19
Speaker 2: made him feel better. He'd had some times, and now
16:22
Speaker 2: his head was clearer than usual. He'd been abstaining from
16:26
Speaker 2: LSD lately, However, this afternoon he'd been starting coke gone
16:29
Speaker 2: and off again with Frank and the other laborers working
16:32
Speaker 2: on his estate. Frank wanted to know why Brian was
16:35
Speaker 2: so quiet and what was on his mind. Brian could
16:38
Speaker 2: feel his heart begin to race, an effect of the
16:41
Speaker 2: blow in his system, and the memories flooded back to
16:44
Speaker 2: the time when his life first began to spin out
16:47
Speaker 2: of control. He began to recount for his guess how
16:50
Speaker 2: he derived at this point in the epically debaucherous trip
16:53
Speaker 2: he'd been on since joining the Rolling Stones. For Brian,
16:57
Speaker 2: it all started on that trip back to the UK
17:00
Speaker 2: from the States. Took a track, a flight out of
17:03
Speaker 2: seven and forty seven in the London, landed and Heathrow
17:05
Speaker 2: took a cabin in the city center. Don't like Mick
17:06
Speaker 2: Jagger Lattie being famous is not for the ugly. I
17:09
Speaker 2: was staying at Kensington House, the most beautiful hotel in
17:11
Speaker 2: the world. Dylan a Robbie are two. We smoke hash
17:13
Speaker 2: jam call a couple of friends who take me to
17:14
Speaker 2: all places den Mark Street. I've put a bit insenails,
17:16
Speaker 2: buy some books and then fall some girls.
17:18
Speaker 3: With mod here. I wandered around trying to get laid
17:20
Speaker 3: until it started rating them.
17:21
Speaker 2: Went back to the Marquis trad night is dead, so
17:22
Speaker 2: I go to Bag of Nails, but it's all guitarists.
17:24
Speaker 2: I find the one American Jack and we dry up
17:26
Speaker 2: on the dance floor. We cab it back to Kensington house,
17:28
Speaker 2: had strip of clothes, house sucker toast and we fuck
17:30
Speaker 2: hung out for four or five days. Met the world's
17:32
Speaker 2: greatest guitarist, Jamie Hendrix. Kept missing calls from mckon Keith,
17:35
Speaker 2: wrote my dad a post curtain and ever Sin stood
17:37
Speaker 2: trial for last year's drug bust in front of a
17:38
Speaker 2: judge with hard eyes.
17:39
Speaker 3: Smoked a lot of hash in the truck.
17:40
Speaker 2: It's postpone got paranoid, got weird, traded, jumping out of window,
17:43
Speaker 2: got committed.
17:43
Speaker 3: It was boring. I'm annoyed.
17:44
Speaker 2: I split for the US with Hendricks. His band doesn't
17:46
Speaker 2: do acid, so I dosed no Redding on the plane.
17:48
Speaker 2: He loses his mind on a flight to California. We land.
17:50
Speaker 2: I insisted on visiting his sex show. Smoke a lot
17:52
Speaker 2: of hash. I meet an American TV actress who drink
17:54
Speaker 2: Absent at a bar called Absent.
17:56
Speaker 3: Monterey.
17:57
Speaker 2: Pop was cool, lots of stones. Fans in the backstage
17:59
Speaker 2: was intents around trying to pick up graces like I
18:01
Speaker 2: ended up with Nico. Snort coke with Dennis Hopper and
18:03
Speaker 2: Peter Fonda until I found some blot of the big
18:04
Speaker 2: tits that reminds me of Anita. I gave her one
18:06
Speaker 2: hundred dollars. In the end, she pulls me out and
18:08
Speaker 2: I come between your tits. Even though I'm so high,
18:09
Speaker 2: I'm fairly hard. Afterward we mix them. I'll talk about
18:11
Speaker 2: venereal disease or pimp and herself. I waited the sound
18:14
Speaker 2: of Jerry Garcia singing It's eight am and hottest places.
18:16
Speaker 2: I pretend to like it, but Jerry sounds like piss.
18:18
Speaker 2: Trade songs to Jane's joblod and split for the London
18:20
Speaker 2: by plane. Wander around the airport before locating my driver.
18:23
Speaker 2: It's only seven pm. My relationship with Keith is broken.
18:25
Speaker 2: Got the hang of copping heroin is everywhere. Went to
18:28
Speaker 2: a Ford model party, hooked up with a Romanian model
18:29
Speaker 2: named Karina and she chugs my cock back at the Hilton,
18:32
Speaker 2: which is good played billiards when shopping. I think she
18:34
Speaker 2: gave it crabs, drove an Aston Martin that belonged to
18:36
Speaker 2: George Harrison, made out with an Apple secretary from Abbey Road.
18:39
Speaker 2: So I'm making the live broadcast of All You Need
18:40
Speaker 2: Is Love with the beatles. Alan Klin invites us to
18:43
Speaker 2: New York. Roofly commercial and stay at the waldor Off.
18:45
Speaker 2: New York swings like you can't imagine. Hendrix lets me
18:47
Speaker 2: jam with them in the village. New York girls are
18:49
Speaker 2: top like berber whores. I saw pickies with a drunk woman.
18:52
Speaker 2: After brushing my hair and calling me mister UK, she
18:54
Speaker 2: stirs for me in the bathroom of the club, sneaking
18:56
Speaker 2: to a cathedral and steel show. True's so good. My
18:58
Speaker 2: dick goes hard. I fled to Barcelona, which is the
19:00
Speaker 2: little rent bus. Too many fat American tourists, too many
19:02
Speaker 2: lane pencil necks that dropped acid. The sager to have Emilia,
19:05
Speaker 2: which is a trip to say the least cruise of
19:06
Speaker 2: the coast with Salvador Dolly, but had no more acid,
19:09
Speaker 2: which sucked Suki from London wires my hotel. I tell
19:11
Speaker 2: her to ignore making keys calls. Can't ta cruise is beautiful,
19:14
Speaker 2: but there are no girls. There are just young hippies.
19:15
Speaker 2: So I went to Switzerland, where ironically I couldn't find
19:17
Speaker 2: anyone with the time. Took fo railway to the shild Tone,
19:20
Speaker 2: which is beautiful in a way I can't describe.
19:21
Speaker 3: Took a train in Italy and ended up in.
19:23
Speaker 2: Ventice, where I met a hawk girl who looks like
19:24
Speaker 2: Mary and faithful and speaks better English than I do.
19:26
Speaker 2: She's living for a year only one dollar a day.
19:28
Speaker 2: We gondola around by some hash. She thinks of a
19:30
Speaker 2: capitalists because my hotel room costs more for one night
19:32
Speaker 2: than she's spending her entire trip. She doesn't mind so
19:34
Speaker 2: much when I pay the bills. I did surely hook
19:36
Speaker 2: up with a couple of obviously one of the threesome
19:38
Speaker 2: too much at tension there with the geek officer driving
19:40
Speaker 2: to Rome and offer I jump bat. I'm too stone
19:42
Speaker 2: to arrange for travel. The wife turns out to be
19:43
Speaker 2: a freak, the guy starts to freak out on me.
19:45
Speaker 2: It's like a Polanski film. We stopped for a while
19:47
Speaker 2: in Florence before I see some big domee. I'm so
19:49
Speaker 2: high and I lose the weird couple, which is probably
19:51
Speaker 2: for the best. Ended up in Morocco, which is hot,
19:53
Speaker 2: sexy and dirty, just like Roambo with music. I tracked
19:55
Speaker 2: down to jukea players who are ridiculously good. I tried
19:57
Speaker 2: to record them for two hours, but it's too hot
19:59
Speaker 2: in the tape machine.
20:00
Speaker 3: More work.
20:00
Speaker 2: I meet two hundredge Italian girls, so I tried to
20:02
Speaker 2: talk into fucking want of jack off and then order
20:04
Speaker 2: to buy them some hash.
20:05
Speaker 3: Instead.
20:05
Speaker 2: My drug trials coming up, so I do more drugs.
20:07
Speaker 2: I bump into some guy from Dartford. WO says he's
20:09
Speaker 2: a big jagger, but I'm sure he's a post So
20:11
Speaker 2: I go to London. The band is surprised to see me.
20:13
Speaker 2: The music they're working on is a shit Pepper's repot.
20:15
Speaker 2: I passed out and dream about Elmore James. When I
20:17
Speaker 2: wake up and propped on pillows sittar in my lap,
20:18
Speaker 2: I tell him making go fuck Keith. I don't know
20:20
Speaker 2: what it means, but I shake with paranoia, strum the
20:22
Speaker 2: sittur in the booth and check out. I make my
20:24
Speaker 2: way back to Tangiers with Suki, hang in the hills,
20:26
Speaker 2: sacrifice a goat with the locals that a pan rights vest,
20:29
Speaker 2: get annoyed with Suki and beat a near death. Flew
20:31
Speaker 2: back to London to a way trial for possession and
20:32
Speaker 2: pleaded guilty.
20:33
Speaker 3: Judge has mercy. He fined fifty pounds.
20:35
Speaker 2: Attend the Rock and Roll Circus filming and get lost
20:37
Speaker 2: in wardrobe for a full day, and I can't pump
20:39
Speaker 2: my way out. I watched John Lennon's New girl Friend
20:41
Speaker 2: freak Out, Chuck Berry mixed scraps, the whole thing we
20:43
Speaker 2: get stored, and a recorporcushion on Midnight Rambler, and the
20:45
Speaker 2: next morning I'll wake up talking to myself. I retired
20:47
Speaker 2: at Christopher Robbinson's home in the country. I get my drugs,
20:50
Speaker 2: but barely making new music. Back here without a band,
20:52
Speaker 2: I no longer know who I am, and I feel
20:54
Speaker 2: like a ghost of a total stranger. Yan's guest stared
21:00
Speaker 2: at him across the table. Brian took a swig of
21:03
Speaker 2: his wine and said, so then I ended up out
21:06
Speaker 2: at Winnie the fucking Poo's house, and now I'm gonna
21:09
Speaker 2: go for a swim.
21:26
Speaker 3: You're only as good as your weakest link.
21:28
Speaker 2: Mother nature knows this, which is why fratricide exists. Fratricide,
21:33
Speaker 2: when one sibling kills another, is a characteristic of life
21:37
Speaker 2: in the wild. Hyenas, sharks, eagles all practice fratricide as
21:42
Speaker 2: a way of weeding out the weakest among them. It's
21:45
Speaker 2: Darwinian and crucial to the survival of some species, and
21:49
Speaker 2: this is what happened with the Rolling Stones. Brian Jones
21:52
Speaker 2: was the weak link. He couldn't write songs, he couldn't
21:56
Speaker 2: stay sober, he refused or was unable to keep himself
21:59
Speaker 2: together to contribute to the growth of the band, to
22:03
Speaker 2: their evolution, and ultimately to their survival. Think of it.
22:07
Speaker 2: If the Rolling Stones it kept Brian around back in
22:10
Speaker 2: the sixties, would they have done so much to transform culture?
22:13
Speaker 2: Would classic records like Sticky Fingers Exile on Main Street
22:17
Speaker 2: or Some Girls Ever have been made? And would Brian
22:20
Speaker 2: Jones have been able to contribute to the Rolling Stones
22:22
Speaker 2: in the nineteen eighties, nineties and beyond touring stadiums, playing
22:27
Speaker 2: snl making movies with Martin Scorsese.
22:30
Speaker 3: Doubtful.
22:32
Speaker 2: More likely than not, Brian's behavior would have caught up
22:35
Speaker 2: to and handcuff the group, halting their ascent to world's
22:39
Speaker 2: greatest rock and roll band. The Rolling Stones, back in
22:43
Speaker 2: the early days of Edith Grove were brothers, but as
22:46
Speaker 2: they evolved from shodoby pub band into mold shattering rock stars.
22:50
Speaker 2: To sustain their status in the pecking order of pop stardom,
22:54
Speaker 2: to survive, the weakest among them, Brian Jones had to go,
23:00
Speaker 2: so that's what happened. Brian was ousted from the band
23:03
Speaker 2: by his rock and roll animal brothers, Micking Keith, the
23:06
Speaker 2: stronger of the brood, who'd seized control to survive, and
23:10
Speaker 2: Brian's survival without the identity that being in the Rolling
23:14
Speaker 2: Stones had allowed him would be short lived. He'd created
23:18
Speaker 2: the band, so he'd taken his place at it. For granted,
23:22
Speaker 2: without being a rolling Stone, there wasn't much to live
23:25
Speaker 2: for to hang out on your own with no direction
23:28
Speaker 2: home like a complete unknown, but decidedly not like a
23:33
Speaker 2: rolling Stone. That night, after recounting his epic flame out
23:39
Speaker 2: to his cotch for firm guests, Brian went for a
23:41
Speaker 2: swim in his pool and he never came back. He
23:45
Speaker 2: was found shortly after by his guest Janet Lawson, dead
23:49
Speaker 2: as a stone at the bottom of the pool, drowned.
23:53
Speaker 2: There was a rumor about Brian Jones' death. I think
23:56
Speaker 2: goes like this. Brian's living handyman and Frank Thoroughgood was
24:01
Speaker 2: taking advantage of Brian overstaying his welcome, milking the job
24:05
Speaker 2: for more than it was worth, using his time away
24:07
Speaker 2: from home while working on Brian's estate to party and
24:10
Speaker 2: cheat on his wife with the local girls. And Brian
24:13
Speaker 2: wanted him gone, but was of course too weak to
24:16
Speaker 2: get him to go away, and Frank believed Brian owed
24:19
Speaker 2: him money. Besides, the job wasn't done, so Frank wasn't
24:23
Speaker 2: going anywhere. Fucked that little moon faced junkie cherub. That night,
24:28
Speaker 2: after dinner, Frank and Janet hung by the pool while
24:31
Speaker 2: Brian swam. Janet left Brian and Frank to go inside
24:35
Speaker 2: to grab it inhaleer for Brian, and before she could return,
24:38
Speaker 2: minutes later, Frank was in her face inside the house,
24:42
Speaker 2: shaking and yammering on about how something had happened to Brian.
24:46
Speaker 2: Janet ran for the pool, Frank did not. Janet dove
24:49
Speaker 2: into the pool to pull what looked like a dead
24:52
Speaker 2: stone from the bottom. Frank stood by idly. Janet pulled
24:56
Speaker 2: Brian from the pool by herself. She tried reviving him
24:59
Speaker 2: and Frank did nothing. Call the damn police, Janet shouted,
25:04
Speaker 2: Frank stood still. Janet ran to make the call herself.
25:08
Speaker 2: Authorities arrived shortly after, but it was too late and
25:11
Speaker 2: Brian Jones was dead. The official cause of death death
25:15
Speaker 2: by misadventure. Janet Losson in recent years claimed that she
25:20
Speaker 2: believed an altercation between Frank and Brian took place while
25:23
Speaker 2: she'd gone to grab Brian's in hailer, and that Frank,
25:26
Speaker 2: either unintentionally or on purpose, did something to cause Brian
25:30
Speaker 2: to drown, and, allegedly, years later, on his deathbed, Frank
25:35
Speaker 2: Thoroughgood confessed to Tom Keylock, the Rolling Stone chauffeur, the following
25:40
Speaker 2: it was me, I did Brian do.
25:43
Speaker 3: I believe this? Maybe? Does it matter?
25:46
Speaker 2: Not really whether it was drowning or murder, one way
25:49
Speaker 2: or the other. Brian Jones died because he was weak.
25:53
Speaker 2: Either he was too weak to fend off his attacker
25:55
Speaker 2: or two weak to stay sober enough to not drowned
25:58
Speaker 2: in six feet of water, or two weeks to live
26:00
Speaker 2: life without abusing substances and women, behavior that led to
26:04
Speaker 2: being alienated from his band, his friends, and his loved ones,
26:07
Speaker 2: who had they been in his life, likely would have
26:10
Speaker 2: been able.
26:10
Speaker 3: To keep him upright and alive.
26:13
Speaker 2: Anyway you cut it, Brian Jones was responsible for the
26:17
Speaker 2: demise of Brian Jones, which is a shame and some
26:20
Speaker 2: would say a disgrace.
26:23
Speaker 3: I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland.
26:37
Speaker 2: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
26:40
Speaker 2: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
26:43
Speaker 2: found on the show notes page at disgracelamdpod dot com.
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27:27
Speaker 3: Rock a roll up.
27:30
Speaker 2: He then man