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hbwriter
That was said to me this week by a friend - who then went on to support his case that while Brian showed great intuition in formulating the band, that his strengths were limited beyond that and that his greatest legacy was creating an environment that allowed Mick and Keith to thrive.
I vehemently disagreed - we debated - (I argued that while Brian's personality may not have been strong enough to survive the cyclonic fury of the Jagger/Richards storm, that musically, his instincts and exquisite musical flair/talents gave the Stones their original soul)
anyway - anyone care to debate?
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leteyer
I think that without Brian the Stones would have been buried by the Beatles. The "coloring" that he added put them in another league regarding those other British blues bands coming out at the time.
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leteyer
I think that without Brian the Stones would have been buried by the Beatles. The "coloring" that he added put them in another league regarding those other British blues bands coming out at the time.

Finally someone who can put 1 and 1 together and see the context! Cheers!Quote
24FPS
That's an astute observation. Many of the Rolling Stones singles from the golden pop period of the mid-60s owe their exalted status to Brian's contributions. Everybody was picking up new instruments as fast as possible in a very competitive environment. George picked up a sitar and came up with a folky, nice sounding Norwegian Wood. Brian picked one up and came up with a dark, exotic Paint It Black. Brian was essential to that period. Unfortunately everything turned back to guitars by 1968 and he was flummoxed.

I don't think Keith arranged many songs on his own since the albums say "Arranged by the Rolling Stones". However in 68 the arrangement bit seems to have been taken over by the glimmers and Jimmy Miller.Quote
pinkfloydthebarber
depends how you look at it, i guess. brian's 'couring' was a prototype of the times and of the sounds of the time. the basic root of the stones sound, for me anyway, was always keith and charlie, even if brian 'founded' the band. and keith wrote (most of) the stuff. and probably arranged it. brian's job was 'to add colour' to keith's sketches. you could argue all day long about whether those colourings ot texturings are over rated or not, but they certainly were imaginative and tasteful. you could open a whole other debate on the question 'what do you think was most important, brian's legacy on 'colouring' or his legacy with keith with 'weaving'? the weaving came first.
Brian was probably too much of a musician to write commerical tunes like the glimmers. But to say he wasn't a writer or arranger is absolute bullocks.Quote
pinkfloydthebarber
i don't think anybody 'gave' brian the role of colour, but lets face it; he wasn't a writer or arranger. so colouring is what he fell into, at least by 66. he had drifted off and away from guitar into these exotic intruments and sounds. a band is the sum of its parts; brian added what the others couldn't. but he got there because he wanted to present himself as the stones' leader, initially, but basically used his "leadership" status to take extra gig money off the top. once oldham took over the hustling of gigs brian began to be marginalized by his inability to compete with Mick and Keith as songwriters.
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pinkfloydthebarber
***But to say he wasn't a writer or arranger is absolute bullocks.
He wrote the score for a movie and produced an album in his short time.***
-- i mean with the stones. he wrote a movie score for some movie that had anita pallenberg in it, yeah, but nothing with the stones. least not that i've ever heard. never released any solo record, either.
We are many who feel that Brian's soundtrack for A Degree of Murder deserve an official and proper release but sadly this was never done at the time and seems impossible to do today for various reasons. That would have been a solo album to be proud of. Let's just say that if Brian had been a beatle - that score would have just as available as Wonderwall and The Family Way.Quote
pinkfloydthebarber
-- i mean with the stones. he wrote a movie score for some movie that had anita pallenberg in it, yeah, but nothing with the stones. least not that i've ever heard. never released any solo record, either.
...and he was also involved in the Nanker/Phelge songs.Quote
DandelionPowderman
Didn't he write the Rice Krispies-jingle?
You can argue that without the sitar noone would care much for NW today. George sitar makes it into something else than Lennon wanting to be Dylan.Quote
KeefintheNight82
He may have added 'color'and played weird instruments but without the songs, you got nothing.
George playing sitar on NW means nothing without Lennon and McCartney's song.


For starters the tapes are gone. Noone knows where they are. Then there is this legal jungle regarding rights and and who's going to get paid. It's said that there have been attempts by fans to sort it out and have it released but no luck so far.Quote
pinkfloydthebarber
that would be cool. what reasons? legal?
Since we know he wrote a score for a soundtrack I think it's safe to say that he could write music. But writing music for a film and writing a pop song are two different things.Quote
pinkfloydthebarber
- i read some where too that even Ian Stewart said Brian couldn't write - does that mean at all? or just to the others liking? who knows

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Reporter: Who is the author of your songs?
Mick: No one of us in particular, and all of us at the same time. We usually sign Jagger and Richards but Brian is the one that knows music best and, in short, one cannot be distinguished by the other. We are all necessary.
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KeefintheNight82
He may have added 'color'and played weird instruments but without the songs, you got nothing.
George playing sitar on NW means nothing without Lennon and McCartney's song.


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pinkfloydthebarber
It's also impossible to say if Brian actually wrote anything for the Stones. Bill has said that both him and Brian showed up with songs but that they were pretty much ignored by Oldham, Mick and Keith. Maybe they sucked - who knows?
