{"id":19345,"date":"2020-08-12T05:30:11","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T09:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=19345"},"modified":"2020-08-12T09:10:08","modified_gmt":"2020-08-12T13:10:08","slug":"album-review-rolling-stone-life-and-death-of-brian-jones-soundtrack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/12\/album-review-rolling-stone-life-and-death-of-brian-jones-soundtrack\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: ‘Rolling Stone: Life and Death of Brian Jones’ Soundtrack"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"There are at least three categories of film soundtrack albums. One is a collection of songs, scores, cues and the like, often by a single composer\/artist, music created expressly for a film or television show. Another is what my esteemed colleague Derrick Bang (author of the new two-volume book series on Crime and Spy Jazz) calls \u201cjukebox soundtracks.\u201d Those are merely a collection of songs, chosen seemingly at random (or with an eye toward the budget and\/or potential ancillary profits). The third fits in between: a collection of songs by various artists that fit somehow, some way, with the tone, scope, message or perspective of the film.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that third category into which Rolling Stone: Life and Death of Brian Jones<\/i> seems to fit. Not a collection of recordings by the Rolling Stones nor the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka, and not a collection of various-artists covers of that material, instead it\u2019s an album of songs by artists fitting into a kind of psych-revival bag. Considered in that light \u2013 as having no particular relevance to the film for which it\u2019s named \u2013 it\u2019s a solid set.<\/p>\n

The Proper Ornaments open the set with the somnambulant \u201c1969\u201d (not the Stooges song). It sounds quite a bit like the sort of thing Brian Jonestown Massacre might do, so there\u2019s a (tenuous) connection. On \u201cAin\u2019t Nothing Here to Change My Mind,\u201d Greg Prevost of The Chesterfield Kings does a fine imitation of The Chocolate Watchband\u2019s Dave Aguilar \u2026 okay, I\u2019m kidding, but just a bit. He sings in a Jaggeresque manner while the band plods along in a kind of early\u2019 70s junkie-era Stones manner.<\/p>\n

Dick Taylor, of course, has an actual connection to the Rolling Stones. The Pretty Things guitarist handled bass guitar duties in the early Rolling Stones before Bill Wyman came on board. With a group he calls The Red Squirls, he turns in a Stonesy instroblues on \u201cEdith Grove,\u201d and returns later on the LP with \u201c14A Chestnut Street.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Thee Hypnotics guitarist Ray \u201cSonic\u201d Hanson and his Whores of Babylon contribute a nearly static blues with \u201cDusted.\u201d The slide guitar is nice enough, but the tune itself is flat on its back. Much more successful is \u201cRiding the Dog,\u201d a track by the Deadbeat Poets featuring Frank Secich of underrated \u201870s midwest power pop legends Blue Ash. Yes, it\u2019s basically the 3,000th rewrite of \u201cI\u2019m a Man,\u201d but it\u2019s energetic and fun.<\/p>\n

Spanish multi-instrumentalist J.M. Baule \u2013 already known for his many previous tributes to both Brian Jones, the Rolling Stones in general and even Bob Dylan \u2013 creates an instrumental that evokes Satanic Majesties<\/em>-era Stones on the sitarfest \u201cThe Path of the Meeting.\u201d British rockabilly Steve Hooker contributes a thin rewrite of \u201cJumpin\u2019 Jack Flash\u201d with \u201cTighten it Rough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sounding a bit like Bert Jansch crossed with Jimmy Page, one John Perry (about whom I can find little) is represented well by an instrumental he calls \u201cBrian.\u201d And though they\u2019re known as an electronica band, British group Alabama 3 sounds like ZZ Top on \u201c(I\u2019ll Never Be) Satisfied.\u201d The title might be meant to suggest \u201c(I Can\u2019t Get No) Satisfaction\u201d but the tune does no such thing. Nor does it contain any discernible Stonesy sonic elements. Its greatest virtue its its brevity.<\/p>\n

Winning the award for longest title on the LP, The Bermondsey Joyriders turn in a tune called \u201cBrian Jones (The Real True Leader of the Rolling Stones).\u201d They sound a bit like New York Dolls, but the lyrics might be a bit too on-the-nose for some listeners. New York City outfit The Primadonna Reeds aim for a sound and feel halfway between Television Personalities and early Robyn Hitchcock on \u201cGlitter Girl.\u201d It might not have any particular relevance to Brian Jones, but it rocks, and may well be the catchiest thing on the entire soundtrack LP.<\/p>\n

The album concludes with a symphonic\/orchestral track called \u201cMuddy Waters.\u201d Even in the removed-from-context album, it seems out of place, a classical-leaning instrumental designed for the later half of end credits, one supposes. It\u2019s lovely, though, and perhaps unexpected from an artist (John Roome) more often associated with hip-hop, breakbeat and collaborations with The Orb.<\/p>\n

Though it\u2019s inescapably a strange, near grab-bag collection, Rolling Stone: Life and Death of Brian Jones <\/i>is an enjoyable listen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are at least three categories of film soundtrack albums. One is a collection of songs, scores, cues and the like, often by a single composer\/artist, music created expressly for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,49,62,65,70,73],"tags":[4283,503,4285,4284,3853,4282],"class_list":["post-19345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compilation","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","category-soundtrack","category-vinyl","tag-brian-jones","tag-chesterfield-kings","tag-deadbeat-poets","tag-dick-taylor","tag-proper-ornaments","tag-rolling-stone","cat-19-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","cat-70-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19345"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19425,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19345\/revisions\/19425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}