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Golden Stone: The Untold Life and Tragic Death of Brian Jones
By Laura Jackson
As supremely talented as he was good-looking, Brian Jones rose from humble beginnings in the small English town of Cheltenham to conquer the fledgling blues scene of London in the early sixties. The brilliant, self-taught slide guitar player attracted the attention of blues greats like Alexis Korner with his passion and feeling for the music and his unrelenting pursuit of success. The fame Brian sought came quickly. In 1962 he formed the band that would become, with the possible exception of the Beatles, the most renowned rock 'n' roll band of all time, the Rolling Stones. Tragically, the very success he sought would ultimately destroy him. Although a man possessed of immense talent and inexhaustible energy, Brian was tormented by personal demons which would eventually lead him to abandon the group and retreat into despair. Like Janice Joplin and Jim Morrison, Brian Jones did not live to see his thirtieth birthday: On a warm summer evening in July 1969, he was found floating head-down in the pool of his beautiful fifteenth-century country estate. In this definitive biography, Laura Jackson rejects the simple stereotype of a rock star addicted to excessive drinking, unscrupulous womanizing, and reckless drug-taking. Instead, she went in search of the people who knew the real Brian: his family and friends in Cheltenham; two of his most serious girlfriends and the sons he had with them; his confidantes; and finally the musicians who best understood the man obsessed with the blues. Many of them have spoken for the first time and all of them have provided fresh, often startling information exclusively for a book that traces his rise to stardom and explores the mysterious circumstances surrounding his untimely and tragic death.
Brian Jones: The inside Story of the Original Rolling Stone
By Nicholas Fitzgerald
Brian Jones, founder of the Rolling Stones, died in a mysterious swimming pool accident in 1969. Four years earli er, Fitzgerald, a starry-eyed 17-year- old and a Guinness family heiras the reader is frequently remindedmet Jones. His reminiscences document the Stones' inner tensions, which were fu eled by the competition between Jones and Mick Jagger, who is pictured as the villain of the piece. Jones, by contrast, is portrayed as sensitive, creative, and unappreciated, while his notorious abuse of women and drugs is glossed over. Much of the narrative is more gossipy than revealing, although the ac counts of the Stones' performances are first-rate. Jones's demise, on the heels of his ouster from the band, provides Fitzgerald an opportunity to hint darkly at a murder conspiracy that seems far fetched at this late date. A more satisfy ing and comprehensive treatment is Mandy Aftel's Death of a Rolling Stone ( LJ 9/1/82). Paul G. Feehan, Univ. of Miami Lib., Coral Gables
Murder of Brian Jones: The Secret Story of My Love Affair with the Murdered Rolling Stone
By Anna Wohlin and Christine Lindsjoo
An inside look at the death of one the sixties' rock and roll icons, Brian Jones, by the woman who shared his life with him at the end.
Brian Jones, who started the Rolling Stones with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in the early 60's, was found dead in his swimming pool on July 3, 1969 after quitting the band only one month before. Ruled an accidental death at the time, some thought it was suicide and some had other suspicions.
"The Murder of Brian Jones" looks at the all the circumstances surrounding his untimely death and comes up with a startling conclusion!
Nicole's Review: This is a wonderful fiction book. The "book of lies" as many Brian Jones fans call it, was written by a woman who was with Brian for about six weeks. Anna Wohlin seems to be in a dream world, considering most of the book recalls how Brian supossedly told her they were to get married, and the greatest fantasy of all, that Anna was pregnant with Brian's baby when he died, but of course, she happened to miscarry.
Anna's account was extremely inaccurate, including how she claimed to have cut all of her hair off, but in pictures of her after Brian's death in 1969, her hair was clearly very long. She starts off with a bit of her life before Brian, but gets right to the point. She met him, and soon after took it upon herself to stop working, and move right in with him. She tells of the wonderful times that had together, how he was off drugs and alcohol(even though drugs and alcohol showed in his blood from the autopsy), and they were planning their life together. Funny how she doesn't include even one picture of her and Brian together.
So, in short, I would advise anyone and everyone not to waste their money on this piece of garbage. Anna clearly is living in a little fantasy world, when she just as well might have been Brian's flavor of the month. If you want to read a great fan fiction, then knock yourself out!
*All book summaries are from Barnesandnoble.com.
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