In the late sixties, Brian Jones became fascinated by the hypnotic sounds of Morocco’s Master Musicians of Jajouka. He dreamed of incorporating their trance-like rhythms into the Rollings Stones’ sound and thereby introducing it to the world at large. He desperately wanted the others to share this interest. While they did enjoy tripping the picturesque beauty of Morocco, and they freedom to trip that Morocco provided, they weren’t very motivated to learn more about the musical heritage. One planned road trip to Morocco resulted in Brian having a nervous breakdown while his girlfriend traipsed off with Keith. Their intermusical relationship wasn’t the same after that. It didn’t take long for Brian to become such a drug-sodden wreck he was barely allowed to enter the studio, let alone contribute ideas. Shortly, he was fired and shortly after that, he died. He did succeed in making several recordings, but the album he produced wasn’t released until after his death. It wasn’t until many, many years later that the Glimmer Twins decided to play him a small tribute and record a song with the Master Musicians. The result is Continental Drift (Steel Wheels, 1989) one of the Stones’ most exotic offerings. In the end, by opening the minds and ears of his friends, Brian did help to popularize the native music of Morocco.
Jul 01, 2010 @ 12:32:03
Correction: The famous Moroccan musical group who recorded “Continental Drift” with The Rolling Stones in Tangier in 1989 was the Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar (not “Joujouka”). Please correct your spelling error. This is misleading as there is another group called “Joujouka”. see: http://www.jajouka.com Thanks.