Foundation Stone: The Legacy Tracks

By Graham Ride

This E-book, Foundation Stone - The Legacy Tracks, covers just the chapters of the paperback, 'Foundation Stone - The Influences & Shaping of Brian Jones - Founder of the Rolling Stones' which are devoted to various LPs and blues which we played and which influenced Brian and hence the Rolling Stones. It also includes my own musings on Brian’s role in the Stones and some of their output during the formative first six or seven years of their existence.
The original dedication and quotation remain, along with the acknowledgements.
The ‘POTTED BIOS’ chapter of the original book is included and has been updated to cover the ravages of time.
Some minor emendations have been made.
Edition Three of the original paperback, Foundation Stone is still available — search web for Brian Jones Foundation Stone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Graham Ride
• Release date: Sep 12, 2015
• ISBN: 9781904221036

Graham Ride

Born in Liverpool in 1942, Graham Ride describes himself as an autodidactic polymath or, as his late father put it, a jack of all trades and a master of none. He studied building and architecture in Liverpool and Cheltenham where he met and shared some of his life with Brian Jones before the Rolling Stones were a glint in the eye. In his business life he worked in architecture for twenty years before turning to running his own businesses in computer aided design and software programming. During this time he has erratically pursued his love of electronic music, poetry and writing. In 2002 he fulfilled some of this latent side by completing and publishing his memoir; 'Foundation Stone - The Influences and Shaping of Brian Jones - The Founder of the Rolling Stones'. More writing is in the pipeline and due to squeeze its way out pseudonymously in 2014.

Book preview

Foundation Stone

The Legacy Tracks

by

Graham Ride

Foundation Stone —The Legacy Tracks

E-Book edition published 2014

ISBNs 978-1-904221-03-6 for .epub format and

978-1-904221-04-3 for .mobi format

Published by Graham Ride at Smashwords.

E-mail: [e-mail]

Web: http://www.broad-brush.com

© Graham Ride 2014

The right of Graham Ride to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy or any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.

Cover design, G. Ride, using a previously unpublished photograph of Brian Jones taken in 1958/59 in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England,. Photographer - L. Corbett,. © Graham Ride.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person,please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Preface to this E-Book partial edition. (2014)

This E-book, Foundation Stone - The Legacy Tracks, covers just the chapters devoted to various LPs and blues which we played and which influenced Brian and hence the Rolling Stones. It also includes my own musings on Brian’s role in the Stones and some of their output during the formative first six or seven years of their existence.

The original dedication and quotation remain along with the acknowledgements.

The ‘POTTED BIOS’ chapter of the original book is included and has been updated to cover the ravages of time.

Some minor emendations have been made.

Edition Three of the original paperback, Foundation Stone is still available — see www.foundationstone.co.uk. and is due to be launched as an E-book (at a lower price) in April/May 2014.

CHAMPION JACK AND THE BLUES

In the stuttering beginning was 'The Blues'… a compilation disc with some instant gems and some that grew on you. But Brian dismissed Side One with a bored and cursory toss of the head. We'll come back to it when he has seen the light I thought. Brian sat cross-legged on the floor waiting expectantly to see what I had next.

So then in the real beginning there was Champion Jack Dupree with 'Blues From The Gutter' on Atlantic LTZ-K-15171. This starts off with 'Strollin' with some great Champion Jack piano and words that are different, humorous, worldly-wise words that you just had to chuckle over. Brian chuckled too as Jack poked some gentle fun at the hoodoo mythology. We're making progress I thought. Champion Jack has lost his girl, see, and he is trying everything to get her back…. he gets some goofer dust to help bring his girl back but then he says I'm gonna see the Seven Sisters… or the Eight Brothers or somebody sacrilegiously breaking the uniqueness of the Seven Sisters and the spells they can weave. Then Jack declaims that he can pay for this, there is no problem on that score, he sings I'll pay….Any time you see me I'm always loaded….I always have thirty-five, forty or fifty cents in my pocket…. Big deal! Even in the late fifties when this was recorded 50 cents was some big fortune: I don't think! Anyway then we get to this gentle guitar solo and Brian starts smiling and mumbling not bad, not bad. I'm thinking good, good, good, I have a convert here because I know what else there is to come on this record and 'Strollin' is just the gentlest of starts.

Now Jack moves on into 'T.B.Blues' and the anguish in his delivery gets the loneliness and hopelessness message across, there is no escape and death is just a matter of time. No humour in this one. The guitar intro has a Lowery taste of things to come and Brian is all ears. All of a sudden in cuts this guitar solo with such dynamics that you just have to sit up and take note. Brian sat up and took note! Great solo from Ennis Lowery (who later used the stage name, Larry Dale). Later on we reckoned he must have hawsers for strings to get that tone out of his electric guitar. As well as Ennis's solo there is some excellent counterpoint between him and alto saxophonist, Pete Brown, backing the vocal.

Track three is 'Can't Kick the Habit'. Now Champion Jack is nothing if not a purveyor of the various blues genre, we're only on track three and we've had unrequited love, unremediable sickness and now we have unavoidable drugs. A second great Lowery solo has Brian smiling and animated now but he doesn't leave his cross-legged position on the floor. Jack sings …this junk is killing me. Also important on this track is the fact that Lowery plays a mix of gentle chords as well as his fiery solo. This role of rhythm guitarist was something that later enabled Brian to see that the typical jazz dual role of soloist and group member was easily attainable in urban blues as well. Champion Jack continues ….it don't pay nobody to live their life so fast. This track could almost have been about Brian in the coming years.

After the lost babe, lost life, and lost reason Champion Jack gives us a surfeit of sex with 'Evil Woman'. This is not your typical 'evil-hearted woman', who is a familiar blues, character but the original 'I can't get no satisfaction' evil woman. This gal is too much for Jack she takes away his appetite and he ends up by singing the way you been lovin' me baby I swear you're killing me. What a way to go! We learned the rapid downward glissando¹ from Ennis Lowery's background intro on this track. There's a great Pete Brown solo in the middle, then sax and guitar swap chases² and Lowery does another cutting solo before they settle down to weave behind Jack for the final chorus.

So Side One starts off with some whimsical Dupree humour and ends up with a whimsical-worded boogie-woogie romp that leaves you realizing from which style raw Bill Haley style rock and roll originated. Pete Brown has another burst and then Wendell Marshall on bass (string, not bass guitar) has a spot and Lowery exhibits some more of his rhythm playing.

Who's the guitarist? asked Brian.

Ennis Lowery, I said.

Never heard of him… but he's great.

Yeah, but also it's Pete Brown on sax, he played with Coleman Hawkins... and Benny Carter. He's been going for decades, played with the John Kirby band and Freddie Newton in the thirties, in the Jump Bands, he even played with Joe Turner with Freddy Green on guitar.

I remember Pete Brown, yeah, Freddy Green you say.

As Brian had 'The Atomic Mr Basie' LP I already knew he was a Freddy Green fan, Good move I thought. I carried on…

Wendell Marshall's on bass, he's been with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Duke Ellington of course.

Yeah, I know Wendell Marshall, Brian responded.

And then Willie Jones is on drums, he played with Thelonius Monk and even Mingus. These are a solid bunch; you can't dismiss them like you did the last LP.

Let's read the sleeve notes.

I got up from the armchair that I was occupying by the window, took the record cover over to Brian, then turned Champion Jack over and set Side Two on the go. It was clear to me from early on that Brian was a bit of a jazz snob. If a player's credentials were not immediately traceable back to a solid jazz status then it was hard for him to entirely accept the musicianship. These three sidemen that Champion Jack had on his record sealed his and Ennis Lowery's credentials, they were okay with Brian now… as I was, the owner of the record. He could be musically shallow at times.

Side Two starts with 'Junker's Blues' another of Jack's observations from the drug-infested waters of his gutter. Champion Jack Dupree was born in