A few years ago I stumbled across this biopic about The Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones: Stoned tells the story about the British rockers with an eye on their multi-instrumentalist and original leader. Before Mick and Keith became the Glimmer Twins, The Rolling Stones were Brian’s band. The story goes that Brian got deep into drugs before he was unable to call upon his preternatural musical talents in the recording studio. Add to Jones’ decline the emergence of Mick and Keith as an original songwriting team, and Keith’s stealing Brian’s girlfriend, Anita Pallenberg, and maybe it wasn’t very surprising that Brian Jones was found dead in his swimming pool after he was fired from the band.
Here are a few words from the Wiki…
Original Rolling Stones bass guitarist Bill Wyman said of Jones, “He formed the band. He chose the members. He named the band. He chose the music we played. He got us gigs. … he was very influential, very important, and then slowly lost it – highly intelligent – and just kind of wasted it and blew it all away.”
At around midnight on the night of 2–3 July 1969, Jones was discovered motionless at the bottom of his swimming pool at Cotchford Farm. His Swedish girlfriend, Anna Wohlin, was convinced Jones was alive when he was taken out of the pool, insisting he still had a pulse. However, by the time the doctors arrived it was too late and he was pronounced dead. The coroner’s report stated “death by misadventure” and noted his liver and heart were heavily enlarged by drug and alcohol abuse.
Here’s the thing: Stoned is a conspiracy movie at heart:
Stoned, also known as The Wild and Wycked World of Brian Jones in the UK, is a 2005 film about Brian Jones, one of the founding members of The Rolling Stones. The film explores the idea that Jones was murdered by Frank Thorogood, a builder hired to renovate Jones’s Cotchford Farm in East Sussex. The film also illuminates Jones’s use of alcohol and drugs, and his relationship with Anita Pallenberg.
Anita Pallenberg’s passing on June 13, makes Stoned‘s YouTube presence timelessly timely. Here’s Stoned…
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