Blown Away
Hotchner interviewed many interesting people for this book including Marianne Faithfull, Anita Pallenberg, Andrew Loog Oldham and Ian Stewart (whom he calls Stew in that American way). What these people have to say is interesting. Ian Stewart’s comments about Liverpool musicians, “Liverpool never produced a decent musician and the Beatles were living proof of it” (p. 332 and others) are funny. It would have been more interesting if Hotchner wasn’t trying to tie everything they said to his pet theory.
Hotchner falls squarely into the “poor Brian Jones” school and claims to have come up with what “really” happened the night Brian died. He claims two the workmen hired to rebuild Cotchford Farm killed him because they were jealous of his wealth. I have to ask why, if Brian was struggling for his life were their no signs of that struggle after his death? Hotchner quotes people who were there but did nothing, for fear of their own lives supposedly. What is described is quite a struggle. If that was the truth, there would have been marks on the body showing the struggle. Hotchner also implies that there was a cover-up, that the authorities didn’t want to hear anything other than that Brian died from drugs and alcohol.
What Hotchner has to say isn’t new. Occasionally he will quote someone saying something interesting. Anita Pallenberg talks about the death of Tara and it’s effect on her relationship with Keith. She says, “…things took a turn for us and got better when I had our third child, the son Keith always wanted with me. Keith announced that we were going to be married and began making elaborate wedding plans. He was really happy when he took off on a European tour with the Stones, but while he was away the baby died, and, in a sense, we died, too (p.328 emphasis mine).
“The son Keith always wanted with me”? That implies that Marlon is not Keith’s son. Yet it does say that she and Keith had three children. Is this just Anita’s drug addled brain talking? Hotchner never picked up on it so we’ll never know. It might have been a change for the book to give some new information but it slips by without comment. I wonder what the book might have been like if Hotchner hadn’t been so intent on finding things that matched his thesis.
This book is currently out of print
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