Posted by Ben on June 23, 2000 at 16:18:24:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Drugged out scene of Brian in 25X5 posted by Fleabit Peanut Monkey on June 23, 2000 at 16:09:52:
: : Well R&R Circus wasn't a great performance by him, but he wasn't out of it either. His slide on "No Expectations" is impeccable. I think he was out of it emotionally, not out of it from drugs. Just my opinion.
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: It seems that there are only two schools of thought on Brian Jones - either he was a total waste, or he was a genius who wrote EVERYTHING and then got stabbed in the back. The truth is somewhere in the middle. But the staunch Brian supporters who try to say that Brian DIDN'T have a drug problem are sadly deluding themselves. I've worked with several musicians who abused prescription drugs and can easily put myself in the place of the other Stones as far as wanting to wash my hands of the problem and move on. And I say this as a big fan of Brian's. The truly unfair part of the Stones' treatment of Brian is that they had a double standard - when Keith became a worse liability than Brian ever was, they stood by him until he got better.
: You know, WHENEVER that scene of Brian was taken, a guy who was getting THAT out of it AT WORK is someone who can't be too startled at getting a pink slip.
I agree with you totally. There's an interview with Marianne Faithfull in which she says something like "Brian was way, way too into drugs," and I believe she's a credible source and not someone with a huge axe to grind. Brian took way too much LSD in '67 at a time when he was already unstable and the results were disastrous. But that double standard was in full effect with Brian, which is the sad thing. But I'm also one of those people who don't view him as a total waste. I think he was murdered in that swimming, a result of mean-spirited rough-housing perhaps, but he didn't have much in his system (5 pints of beer and some diet pills--nothing for a veteran like him). It's definitely a sad case, but you know that live film of them on Dutch TV in March '68 doing "Jumping Jack Flash," man, his playing is really good and he and Keith sound as great together as ever. So go figure. And ultimately somebody like Mick who was so good at keeping it together was the one who always kept it together, which is admirable.