Brian Jones

The Making of the Rolling Stones

By: Paul Trynka

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Brian Jones was the golden boy of the Rolling Stones - the visionary who gave the band its name and its sound. Yet he was a haunted man, and much of his brief time with the band, before his death in 1969 at the infamous age of 27, was volatile and tragic. Even now the full story of his downfall is still largely untold.

Brian Jones is a forensic, thrilling account of Jones' life, which for the first time details his pioneering achievements and messy unraveling. With more than 120 new interviews, Trynka offers countless new revelations and sets straight the tall tales that have long marred Jones' legacy. His story is a gripping battle between creativity and ambition, between self-sabotage and betrayal. It's all here: the girlfriends, the drugs, and some of the greatest music of all time.

©2014 Paul Trynka (P)2015 Tantor

Critic reviews

"An intimate portrait of the multifaceted and beguiling Jones, who forever changed popular music and culture." ( Kirkus)

Very detailed story

I'm a Rolling Stones fan, but to not hard core. This book went into extensive detail and name dropping. I was familiar with maybe 50% of the names.

Ode to the_

The Brian Jones of long ago.....before the criminals also known as the 'Rollin Stones' wrecked the Rhythm and blues scene that was just catching fire in England and abroad. The overpowering need for greed, fame, wrath, pride and of course massive amounts of criminal activities (murder included) took over the original intent of musical companionship...

Here the young, talented, handsome, musical prodigy named Brian Jones is revealed... who like the many of us, got lost down the rabbit hole.
In this audible, traces of him still exist and are brought to a new light in clarifying proper ways.
An absolute must in the collection of the dark and mysterious, shrouded in utter chaos and sadness known formally as Rolling Stones legacy.

An intellectual perspective on the founding Stone

Paul Trynka wrote a very smart, and as far as I can tell a very well researched book on one of the most fascinating and original rock stars to have ever existed. It's a largely tragic story, but compulsively readable and filled with surprising perspectives on all the members of the Rolling Stones and those that were close to them. As a fan of the band I couldn't put it down, and it only strengthened my admiration for Brian Jones and his contributions. My only complaint is that I wish it delved a bit more deeply into Brian's processes and skills as a musician. If you were wondering why Brian thought to use a sitar on "Paint it Black" or an autoharp on "You Got The Silver," you won't find much here, but you'll sure learn a lot about the personal drama surrounding the making of such songs.

Well Written and a fair perspective On The Brian Jones

I'm a fan of the 60's and 70's era Rock N Roll era. This is a well written book which gives you different perspectives based on interviews from the people and friends that surrounded Brian.

It is well read. I really like the narrator. Very well done. If you have any interest in the Stones and Brian Jones, I recommend this book.

Very biased

I get it, Mick & Keith are bad people and Brian was a genius. Repeated agaian, again and then again. Narrator is excellent but I did not bother to finish it.

best rock and roll history.

I always liked the brian jones version of the stones. after brian left, their sound changed and I lost interest.

Best Jones Bio, in my opinion

Paul Trynka did a very fine job with this book. It lacks the murky sensationalist crap that so obviously plagued previous accounts of one of Rock's earliest pioneers, Brian Jones. This was finally about Brian Jones; an insightful, open look into everything about Brian. The good, the bad and the all-too-famous ugly. The good, at long last, outweighs the bad. At the end of the day, this is a character study. If you were to pretend you knew nothing about Mr. Brian Jones - that he wasn't a Rolling Stone, just some guy - you would come away with a clear understanding of this person's contributions to the most important period in Popular Music; his very human shortcomings; the dynamics of his most important personal relationships; the monumental impact his austere upbringing had on him, culminating into the tragic end we all knew was coming. Paul Trynka's account is not glamorized. It's factual.

This was about Brian Jones' extraordinary talent, often forgotten or uncredited. It's about time. I learned some things I never knew before. That's the best kind of book in the world.

Sympathy and due for the Devil

Well researched and proudly written, this book finally wrests the majority of the ownership of the Rolling Stones back to Brian Jones. Exciting, frustrating, sad and satisfying. The narration is well done, although he sounds a bit like a dissatisfied schoolmaster.
Still, highly recommended for any Stones fan. Essential material for the library.

Great story, exceptionally well narrated

What did you love best about Brian Jones?

First, this is one of the VERY few pop music biographies that is appropriately narrated. I've listened to countless audiobooks about famous musicians, and, with the exception of the wonderfully written and narrated Tune In (first volume of Mark Lewisohn's biography of the Beatles), they have been disappointing. Unfortunately, American narrators seem to be the worst: either pretentious in diction or remarkably "off" in tone and pace. They never match the spirit of the books OR the spirit of rock music.

At first I thought the narrator might grow tedious (he sounds like an old-fashioned school master in the beginning), but as the story went on, I thought he captured exactly the right archness and irony that many of the incidents and quotations call for. AND: So far (I'm almost finished with the recording), he hasn't mispronounced a single foreign (or American) proper name (something every other recording, even the Beatles' biography, is flawed by, almost to the point of hilarity).

Well written, quite balanced look at the musical roots, inspirations, and rip-offs that have marked the Stones' career.

Any additional comments?

PLEASE urge the producers of audiobooks to choose narrators who can capture the tone and spirit of the stories they read. This audiobook, and Lewisohn's audiobook, are models of how rock stories should be told.

Rolling Stones' founder and visionary musician

Brian Jones may have been a less than matey band mate. He may have been a sucky boyfriend with a trail of illegitimate kids. He may have been a druggie and charter member of the 21 Club.

But he founded the Rolling Stones and defined its mood and sound and image in the early period. And maybe he wasn't all those other things listed above, or was them but not to the degree handed down by posterity and people with axes to grind. So this author suggests and sets about retrieving Jones from the swirl of myth.

The book is not as entertaining as Keith Richards' stunning memoir, Life. It is after all a history and always keeps you outside Jones' head and looking at him through the eyes of others.

The book will reignite your interest in the earlier Stones albums, before the Big Bang of Exile on Main Street. It will also give you a greater appreciation for this multi-instrumentalist and musical visionary who came out of London's blues revival, exemplified by Alexis Korner, and which gave rise to Cream among others in the early 1960s.