July 5, 1969: A concert is held in Hyde Park, in London, in memory of Brian Jones, who had died 2 days earlier.
Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones was born on February 28, 1942 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, in England's West Country. In 1962, living in London, and already the father of 3 children by 3 different women, he placed an ad in a trade paper for musicians to form a band. It was answered by singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards. They later added bass guitarist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts.
They were all fans of American blues performers, including Muddy Waters, and Jones named the group after one of Waters' songs: "Rollin' Stone Blues." It was later adjusted to "The Rolling Stones." By 1963, they were having hits in Britain. By 1964, they were having hits in America, and touring there. In 1965, they topped the American charts with "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction."
They were promoted as the "bad boys" of "The British Invasion," as opposed to The Beatles being "good boys." It was closer to the other way around: The Stones were middle-class kids, poseurs, who became genuine bad boys, while The Beatles were already pill-popping womanizers, though this was hidden from the public.
Jones was the best musician in the band: A good guitarist, he played the sitar on "Paint It, Black," the recorder on "Ruby Tuesday," and the piano on "Let's Spend the Night Together." But he developed a serious drug problem, as marijuana use led him to try heroin, and he became addicted.
On June 9, 1969, he made a public statement that he was leaving the band. It wasn't his choice: Because of a drug conviction, he was denied a visa to enter the U.S. for the band's tour. He was replaced by Mick Taylor from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. (In 1974, Taylor was replaced, under far less controversial circumstances, by Ron Wood of The Faces.)
On July 3, 1969, Jones was found drowned in the swimming pool at his home at Cotchford Farm in East Sussex, formerly the home of Winnie-the-Pooh creator A.A. Milne. He was 27 years old, and this was before there was such a recognized thing as a "27 Club," making him one of the earliest rock stars to have died at that age.
Drugs were not a direct cause of his death, but an autopsy showed he had an enlarged heart and an enlarged liver, as a result of drug use. So he might not have lived a great deal longer, anyway. There is a theory that he was murdered, but this has never been proven.
The Rolling Stones had been scheduled to perform a free concert in Hyde Park two days later. The concert had originally been promoted weeks earlier as Taylor's public debut with the band. At the beginning of the concert, Jagger took the stage to read excerpts from "Adonais," a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1821 about the death of his friend and fellow poetic giant, John Keats. (Keats was 25. Shelley died the next year, at 29.) Stagehands then released hundreds of white butterflies from the stage area as a tribute to Jones.
A crowd of 500,000 is said to have attended the show. The same number that was alleged to have attended the Woodstock concert in New York State 6 weeks later. But, given the population difference between America and Britain, this was, proportionally, a far larger crowd.
When asked if he felt guilty about Jones's death, Mick Jagger told Rolling Stone magazine (named for the Bob Dylan song "Like a Rolling Stone," not the band) in 1995, "No, I don't really. I do feel that I behaved in a very childish way, but we were very young, and in some ways we picked on him. But, unfortunately, he made himself a target for it; he was very, very jealous, very difficult, very manipulative, and if you do that in this kind of a group of people you get back as good as you give, to be honest. I wasn't understanding enough about his drug addiction. No one seemed to know much about drug addiction."
Within the band, that would change.
*
July 5, 1969 was a Saturday. Hockey star John LcClair was born on this day. And these Major League Baseball games were played that day:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians, 4-2 at Yankee Stadium. Steve Hargan outpitched Stan Bahnsen.
* A doubleheader was split at Fenway Park in Boston. The Washington Senators won the 1st game, 6-2. The Boston Red Sox won the 2nd game, 11-4. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-8 with a walk and an RBI.
* The Montreal Expos beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-4 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Frank Robinson went 1-for-3 with 2 walks and 2 RBIs. Al Kaline went 3-for-4 with an RBI.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the California Angels, 4-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Oakland Athletics, 13-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew hit 2 home runs, and Rod Carew went 1-for-5 with a walk and 2 RBIs. The A's only run came on a home run by Reggie Jackson.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 5-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Ernie Banks did not play.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Pilots, 6-4 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Fans of Jim Bouton's book Ball Four, take note: Mike Marshall did not get out of the 4th inning. I guess he didn't smoke 'em inside. Bouton pitched a scoreless 5th and 6th innings. Mike Hegan and Don Mincher each had 2 hits.
* The San Diego Padres beat the Houston Astros, 9-8 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). The game went to extra innings, and each team scored a run in the 10th. The Astros scored 4 in the top of the 12th, but the Padres scored 5 in the bottom of the 12th. Walt Hriniak, later one of the game's great hitting instructor, singled home the winning run.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-5 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Pete Rose went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs, and Johnny Bench went 0-for-2 as a pinch-hitter.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Francisco Giants, 7-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Hank Aaron did not play. Willie Mays went 0-for-3 with a walk.
* And the New York Mets and the Pittsburgh Pirates were rained out at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 12. The Mets won each game by a 1-0 score. In the opener, Jerry Koosman pitched a 3-hit shutout. In the nightcap, Don Cardwell outpitched Dock Ellis. And each Met pitcher singled home the only run of the game. Roberto Clemente went 2-for-4 in the opener, and pinch-hit without reaching base in the nightcap.
