Rock Bottom: Dark Moments in Music Babylon by Pamela Des Barres & Paul Kemprecos

Author:Pamela Des Barres & Paul Kemprecos [Barres, Pamela Des & Kemprecos, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Music, Non-Fiction, Biography, History
ISBN: 9780312148539
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 226616
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 1996-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

The pool at Pooh Corner where Brian Jones drowned. (PA NEWS)

When Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards paid a visit to the farm one warm June night, Brian knew he was out of the Stones. Some reports have him begging and weeping, others that he felt relief and excitement about starting up his own band with the likes of John Lennon, Mitch Mitchell, Steve Marriott, and Steve Winwood. To Tony Sanchez, Brian said excitedly, “We’re going to be bigger than anyone would believe,” announcing that he wanted to “go back to real rock and roll, and cut out all the commercial crap the Stones are putting out.” Brian was offered a hundred thousand pounds on top of his share of Stones royalties, and it was reported that he left the band to work on his own solo projects. Then Brian Jones was replaced by John Mayall’s guitarist, twenty-year-old Mick Taylor. An announcement was made soon after that the Stones would play a free concert in Hyde Park. To Anna Brian said bitterly, “I’d probably be the only one they would charge to get in.”

On Tuesday, July 2, Frank Thorogood went to the Stones’ offices to pick up wages for himself and his workmen and found out a bit of bad news: Brian had requested that all payments to Frank and his builders cease immediately. True to form, Brian had someone else do his dirty work for him. When Frank confronted his boss at Cotchford, Brian made good on his decision to sack the builders, telling Frank that he and his girlfriend, Janet Lawson, were to start packing. Frank demanded that more money was owed him, and an uneasy truce was reached: He and his builders would be paid in full on the condition that they leave the next day.

That night, just before midnight, Brian Lewis Jones, age twenty-seven, drowned in his swimming pool at Pooh Corner.

Despite the fact that Brian was deemed to have drowned while swimming under the influence of alcohol and drugs—“death by misadventure”—the conflicting reports given by the three people with him have caused speculation for over twenty-five years. According to Anna, at about 10:15 Brian was keen to swim and went over to Frank and Janet’s to ask them to join him. At about eleven P.M. Brian changed into his trunks and, followed by Anna, got into the pool to swim. Frank swore in his police statement that “Brian was staggering, but I was not concerned because I had seen him in worse condition and he was able to swim safely.” Janet Lawson disagreed: “I saw that Brian had great difficulty in holding his balance on the springboard.” As to what happened next, none of the three statements confirms the exact sequence, except that the women left the pool area and went into the house before Thorogood, leaving him alone with Brian in the pool for more than a half hour. Then Anna claims that the phone rang and, as she answered it, “Frank came

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.