The Rolling Stone, Brian Jones
There were many conflicted and evasive accounts of what really happened that warm summer night of July 3, 1969. Jones was discovered faced down at the bottom of the swimming pool in his home. Jones' then girlfriend, Anna Wohlin, along with a house guest pulled him out of the pool and administered CPR on him. She claimed that he briefly grabbed her hand and still showed signs of life. However, the medics found him dead by the time they arrived. Brian Jones' death was later reported by the coroner as "death by misadventure". Though alcohol and drugs were never directly contributed to the causes of his death, it's been speculated that he had a few drinks on that unfortunate evening.
In 2009, forty years after Jone's death, Sussex police decided to review the case following new information that the death could be more than accidental.[2] The move came after journalist Scott Jones' (not related) investigation claiming that builder Frank Thorogood who worked on Jones' house was responsible for the death. Wohlin said Jones had a huge argument with Thorogood over the poor construction works done in his home that night and implicated Thorogood in the murder of Jones out of a rage. The rumor has it that Thorogood allegedly confessed to killing Jones on his deathbed in 1994.
There are countless books being written and documentaries and television shows being made about Brian Jones. The recent notable one is 2005 film, Stoned, which details Brian Jones' sordid life story. Here is a video of The Rolling Stones performing Little Red Rooster in 1964. This clip showed Jones' influence during early Stones days.
Mr. Mojo Risin'
After being hit with the indecent exposure charge from the notorious 1969 Miami concert, Jim Morrison was frustrated and left emotionally drained. He wanted to get away from all the oppressing hostility around him. He flew to Paris in March 1971 to write poetry and reclaim a breeze of tranquility. He seemed to enjoy his new found sanctuary and became artistically productive shortly after his arrival. He wrote a few poems, shaved off his beard, and lost some weights. Who would have though that the trip would soon turned out to be a tragic end to his life.
On July 3, 1971, Morrison's long time girlfriend, Pamela Courson, discovered Morrison's body in their apartment bathtub. The official coroner's report listed Morrison's cause of death as heart failure. An autopsy was never performed by French authority, which further fueled the conspiracy theories. In a 2010 CNN interview, Ray Manzarek said The Doors manager flew to Paris but never saw Jim Morrison's body instead a sealed coffin. Some reports claimed Morrison and Courson had been doing heroin and Morrison like Brian Jones who long suffered asthma coughed up blood early that tragic day.
Some conspiracy theorists suggested that Morrison was actually died of heroin overdose in famous Rock 'n' Roll Circus night club and later his body was moved to his apartment. Some speculated that Morrison faked his own death. Some suggested that Cousron murdered Morrison. She encouraged Morrison to pursue writing poetry in Paris. A month before their departure, Morrison signed a bequest granting all his estate to her. Unfortunately the few people with Jim Morrison during his final hours were reluctant to speak out on what really happened that night. Courson died of heroin overdose three years later.
Jim Morrison's Ode to Brian Jones
In a series of twisted and ironic life events, Brian Jones and Jim Morrison shared more than just the glamorous rock star status adored by millions. They were both incredibly talented musicians who lived different lives across the Atlantic Ocean but traveled in an eerily similar path. They died on the same day July 3rd at the age of 27. Supposedly both died of drug related causes. Both were living in exile at the time of their deaths. Jones was expelled from The Rolling Stones, the band he founded. Morrison was persecuted by the authority. Jim Morrison even wrote a tribute poem, Ode to LA While Thinking of Brian Jones, Deceased, after Jones' death. While composing that heart-wrenching poem, did Morrison apprehend his own road parallel to that of Jones'? Could he foresee his future demise?
News clipping from Disc magazine [3]
This Is The End, Beautiful Friends
Brian Jones was a complex being with vibrant charisma that could even eclipse that of Mick Jagger and musical talents that amazed millions of fans and peers like John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix. He lived a life without inhibitions. However, expulsion by his fellow band mates and his girlfriend and pride being stolen from him drove him into a recluse and propelled him further and deeper towards drugs that eventually led to his tragic downfall.
The Rolling Stones' managers commented in a documentary that Brian Jones did not have the recklessness to stay in the game. That statement revealed that Brian Jones was not a bludgeoning spoiled rock star; he was human after all. A sane human with charms and flaws like everyone else. He was simply a young lost kid who sought attentions that he never got and was used up in a cruel and brash show business world.
Jim Morrison shared a similar charismatic charm like Brian Jones' but with a poet's sensibility. He unknowingly became rock n' roll poster child - full of idealism, anti-authority, excess, and more excess. Underneath those tight leather pants and provocative stage performances, Morrison was a passionate troubadour with an enormous appetite for life, the good and the bad of it. Rock n' roll eagerly helped him to feed that propensity with plenty of alcohol, drugs and sex that one delicate soul could hardly handle.
The legal woes hit Morrison like an apathetic hurricane. The rock icon realized that idealism stood small next to the ugly reality of the system. The frustration led him further down the dark path of substance abuse. Finally his young life came to an abrupt end when he sought complacency in Paris.
No one here gets out of alive. Jones and Morrison traded in their youths with a handful of dimes. They made it, they were drown in it. In their primes.
Poor Ophelia
All those ghosts he never saw
Floating to doom
On an iron candle
Come back, brave warrior
Do the dive
On another channel
- Jim Morrison
References
[1] Scott Jones, Has the riddle of Rolling Stone Brian Jones's death been solved at last?, November 2008, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1090439/Has-riddle-Rolling-Stone-Brian-Joness-death-solved-last.html
[2] Daily Mail, August 2009, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1209906/Police-review-Rolling-Stone-Brian-Jones-death-MoS-reveals-new-evidence.html
[3] http://crossfirehurricane.tumblr.com/post/1059997553/jim-morrisons-poem-in-response-to-brian-joness
