The Rolling Stones song written about the death of Brian Jones
There’s perhaps no experience quite as saddening as when a friendship goes sour. A distinct kind of heartbreak comes as two close friends drift away from each other. In The Rolling Stones‘ case, it was a heart-aching pain having to watch Brian Jones slip away down a rocky river of self-destruction. They tried to process it the only way they knew how: by penning a new song.
The relationship between Jones and the band he started is well-documented for being tumultuous. As The Stones hit the big time, all members hit the drugs hard, but Jones went to another level. While the others engaged in some hedonism, their original guitarist seemed to be going down a dark path. His drug habit was all-encompassing, making him a violent and challenging person as well as an utterly unproductive one. By the time the Let It Bleed sessions came around in 1969, their personal and working relationships were in tatters as Jones was relegated to a different studio without the mics turned on to allow the band to get on with it without him.
By June of that year, the group cut him loose as Jones could no longer contribute in any helpful way. Their friendship was also in bits after years of arguing and drug-fuelled fights. It was a classic case of being unable to help someone who won’t help themselves. When someone is in so deep, it is often impossible for anyone to help them out of the pit. As Jones had fallen so far into his addiction without recognising it, the band felt the only thing they could do was leave him behind. A few months later, he was dead.
On the surface, it looked like The Stones responded in a cold and uncaring way. Only two members even attended Jones’ funeral, while the others simply turned their next show into a kind of memorial while also debuting his replacement. They continued on their road to the top without much acknowledgement of their lost friend or seemingly much upset over the sad passing. Anyone would think that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards simply didn’t mind that he was gone.
That was until 1972 when one track on Exile On Main St sat as a sad ode to the souring of an old friendship. “May the good Lord shine a light on you, make every song your favourite tune,” Jagger sings on ‘Shine A Light’, a song that was started with Jones but came to be a kind of elegy to the musician.
The earliest version of ‘Shine A Light’ goes back to 1968 when Jones was still in the group. Jagger seemed to begin penning the track right as the guitarist was slipping away from them and becoming estranged from his old friends. The year prior, his girlfriend left him for his bandmate Keith Richards after a violent attack from Jones, making the dynamics even worse. As the situation grew uglier, the musician only spiralled deeper into his addiction, and his friends didn’t seem to know what to do about it. That’s where the song begins as Jagger describes a sad scene, singing, “Saw you stretched out in room ten o’nine, with a smile on your face and a tear right in your eye.”
The band didn’t finish the song for years as it seemed to get shelves for a prolonged period. After the death of Jones, however, Jagger returned to the track. As the piece goes on, the verses become more and more heavenly, almost following the timeline from Jones’ final days through to his passing. By the finale, Jagger is singing “come on up now” like a command from God, using the central image of the light as a comment on Jones going to some better place in the afterlife and hopefully finding a healthier and happier version of himself there.
While the Stones’ feelings towards Jones still to this day feel confusing, and the band members never really discussed their friend’s death with much kindness or care beyond cold, business-like statements as it was merely colleagues parting ways, this track feels like an insight into their true emotions. ‘Shine A Light’ stands as their eulogy to a friend and fallen legend who they couldn’t help but hope some power somewhere could after he’d found peace.
