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Rolling Stones Quotes: Mick Jagger on Brian Jones’ Moroccan tapes
BRIAN JONES GETS TRIPPY WITH SOUND Long before “psychedelic” was the buzzword, Brian Jones was out there bending sound into something wild. Teaming up with engineer George Chkiantz, he ran Moroccan field recordings from the Master Musicians of Joujouka through early phasing effects. The result? A mind-bending mashup of ancient tribal beats and futuristic studio wizardry. Jones wasn’t just experimenting—he was straight-up inventing vibes that would shape the entire psychedelic rock movement before most people even knew it was coming.
“I remember Brian playing his Moroccan tapes in the ’60s. We had this engineer we were working with, George Chkiantz, and George was one of the first people to be heavily into phasing, which was like the scratching of the middle ’60s. So Brian took all of the Joujouka tapes and put them through phasing, which was really quite before its time. I always felt the Stones were quite adventurous that way.”
In the mid-1960s, as psychedelic music began to ripple through the rock scene, Brian Jones was already pushing boundaries with sound experiments that would later be seen as visionary. While working with engineer George Chkiantz—an early pioneer of phasing effects, a technique that became emblematic of the era—Jones brought in field recordings he had captured during his trip to Morocco with the Master Musicians of Joujouka. Instead of simply archiving them, he filtered these rich, rhythmic tapes through Chkiantz’s phasing magic, blending ancient tribal sounds with cutting-edge studio techniques.
The result? An otherworldly fusion that predated many similar East-meets-West experiments by years. Mick Jagger would later reflect on this moment, recognizing how ahead of the curve Jones was. His sonic curiosity revealed an adventurous side of the Rolling Stones that often gets overshadowed by their more mainstream hits—one that embraced global music long before it became fashionable. These experiments didn’t just enhance the band’s sound—they hinted at new musical frontiers, showing that rock and roll could be both rebellious and deeply exploratory.
A Trailblazer in the Shadows
Jagger’s memory of those sessions is tinged with admiration: “I always felt the Stones were quite adventurous that way,” he noted, underlining Jones’ forward-thinking contributions. Though not widely known outside of die-hard fan circles, these Moroccan tapes hinted at Jones’ potential as a producer and global music ambassador. They were less about pop appeal and more about cultural immersion—layering hypnotic rhythms with studio wizardry. The Joujouka sessions became a sonic symbol of what could have been had Jones lived longer. They didn’t just stretch the Stones’ sound; they reshaped the concept of what rock could embrace. In revisiting those tapes, Jagger wasn’t just reminiscing—he was acknowledging a moment when one Stone stepped out ahead, carving a path that music would follow for decades to come.
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