Before Brian got into the exotic instruments he's more known for with the Stones, he was the Stones' lead guitarist...But I was wondering:
What exactly was his guitar style/technique like? Unlike the later records, I honestly can't tell who is playing the solos and majority of the parts on the early records when Brian was solely a guitarist. I can't tell in many of the songs if Keith is handling most of the guitar and solos, or if it's Brian, and thus I've never really been able to determine just how good he played as a guitarist or what his flavor was--Was he choppy and raw like Keith and Ronnie Wood, more melodic like Mick Taylor, or what? I know from No Expectations he seemed to be a superb slide guitar player, but that's about it.

What are some great examples of Brian's guitar talents?

Also, do you believe Brian deserved credit of some kind for his contributions to songs like Lady Jane, She's a Rainbow, Ruby Tuesday, Paint it Black, 2000 Light-Years from Home, Street Fighting Man, etc?

He may not have been a songwriter in the traditional sense or a lyricist, but I HIGHLY doubt Keith wrote the dulcimer parts in Lady Jane, or the sitar parts in Paint It, Black and Street Fighting Man or the mellotoron and strings in She's a Rainbow, etc, or even the slide guitar in No Expectations....And in all of those cases, Brian's contribution defined those songs. What would Paint it Black be without Brian's sitar? Or Lady Jane without the dulcimer?

IMO again, Brian gets the shaft by Mick and Keith for his importance in and his contributions to the Stones. He might've been a real nutcase in terms of his personality, but still talent is talent regardless and it's unfair that it's been swept under the rug and kind of ''erased'' by Mick and Keith. As much as I love them, I do find them kind of reprehensible.

Every musician who has worked with them--From Brian, to Ry Cooder, to Mick Taylor, to Ronnie Wood--gets undercut and goes without credit for whatever they contributed. It's not so much a band as it is the Mick & Keith Show, and that's wrong because Brian, Ry Cooder, Mick Taylor, Ronnie and plenty of others all put something into the Stones, all helped shape a lot of their most memorable songs. In terms of creativity and musical input, the Stones has ALWAYS been more than just Mick and Keith--especially in the band's glory days in the 60s and 70s--but they'd never humble themselves to admit it.

Would it REALLY, at this stage in the game, be that horrible to amend some of the song credits to "Jagger/Richards/Jones", "Jagger/Richards/Taylor", "Jagger/Taylor", "Jagger/Richards/Wood", etc? Do they have to carry their hubris and their self-centered obsession with every song being credited solely to "Jagger/Richards" to the grave with them?

And who knows? Maybe without Brian's hustler-like leadership of and dedication to promoting the band and his showmanship in the early days, Mick and Keith might've never made it big....

I'm afraid you are completely incorrect when you state that Brian Jones was ever for a moment the Stones' lead guitarist.  

It was actually this guy.  


Sure, Brian played some killer slide on stuff like I Wanna Be Your Man and I Can't Be Satisfied, and added exotic flourishes to later tracks (Mellotron on We Love You being a personal favorite), but Keith carried the water almost all of the time.  

Make no mistake, I love the Brian-era Stones and am sure he deserved credit in more than a handful of instances where he didn't get it, but while he had a facility for picking up an instrument and learning how to play it competently in a short period of time, Keith was actually the musical architect of the Stones from the get-go.  

the soft parade wrote on Feb 16^th, 2011 at 11:51am:


Brian added a lot to the soundof the those Rolling Stones recordings circa 1966-67, but it those who create the lyrics and basic melody that get the writing credits: Jagger/Richards. Brian's recorder contribution was nice, but it was only added to a melody that Keith had already composed. That doesn't warrent a songwriting credit, surely?

Honky Tonk Man wrote on Feb 16^th, 2011 at 12:57pm:


I thought that I read in Life that Keith heard Brian playing the recorder section of Ruby Tuesday, and from that he then wrote the rest of the song around it. If that is the case, shouldnt Brian have gotten some credit?

Also kind of remember from reading Stone Alone that Bill and Brian came up with the basic riff for Jumping Jack Flash.

uncleson wrote on Feb 16^th, 2011 at 4:03pm:


Brian did add many little touches to songs during that period to perfect them (and even  I would have asked for credit for that) but the fact that Mick pretty much did NOTHING except sing on the song (which he does well) and yet the song still gets the "Jagger/Richard" credit. It's irritating. The song wouldn't have had strings in it without Brian, I'm sure. The song probably wouldn't exist without Brian, but Mick still got the cash and recognition from it. Who knows how much more Brian did to songs that Mick/Keith don't mention?

Sioux wrote on Feb 16^th, 2011 at 11:46pm:


Look, I don't mean to slag Brian.  He was a true rock and roll hero without whom the early Stones would have lost a lot of their magic.  But apart from his slide work (and I have a deep, deep love for Little Red Rooster that I forgot to mention), and his minimal lead lines in songs like Get Off My Cloud and The Last Time, there is very little of what we would term lead guitar from him.  Major Stones freaks who are serious musicians and much more adept at divining who played what, down to with what guitar and amp, like Mathijs from IORR for example, say this.

Please do share any youtube links that show Brian as a lead guitarist.  I'm all eyes (and ears) and will be happy to stand corrected if the evidence suggests so.

Sioux wrote on Feb 17^th, 2011 at 8:48am:


Well said.  And Brian deserves recognition as a harp player too.  I was just reading where his harmonica on Going Home inspired Mick's three years later, on Midnight Rambler.
There would not be a Rolling Stones had it not been for Brian. He deserves credit and recognition.

Focusing solely on guitar playing...

I think we should keep in mind what was considered rhythm and what was considered lead guitar in early 60's. Strict rhythm guitar was played by the likes of Bruce Welch from The Shadows, you know he strums rhythms whilst playing chords, Hank Marvin handled the lead guitar, riffs and motifs. There's a clear and distinct difference between the two forms of playing in that band.

The stones sound is a combination of lead and rhythm a lot of the time, ie both Brian and Keith would play chords, little single string runs, fills and riffs etc within the same song. Not always of course, but as a generalization it's valid. The IBC track Bright Lights, Big City is a perfect example of this approach.

Within this merged approach Brian played slide guitar solo's and Keith played non slide solo's.

Brian's liking for playing other instruments even early on meant Keith had to play parts that were more involved than when Brian was also playing guitar because Keith tried to maintain some form of this merged approach with one guitar. This is the real making of Keith as a guitar player, it's the reason I think they could play without Brian during the few gigs he missed etc. Keith already had experience playing as the only guitarist in the band right from the beginning. 

Had Brian focused solely on playing guitar the need for what became Keith's signature sound, a unique merging of both lead and rhythm, simply wouldn't have had to be worked on by Keith, he probably would have been a very different player even in 60's.