Play with fire

JONES, TAYLOR AND Wood… It sounds more like the name of a law firm than the surnames of the three phenomenal guitarists who have served alongside Keith Richards during the Rolling Stones’ six-decade-plus career. Now that they’ve announced and teased Hackney Diamonds, their first album of orignal material since 2005’s A Bigger Bang, it’s an ideal time to reflect on the contributions that Brian Jones, Mick Taylor and Ronnie Wood have made to the evolution, vitality and uncanny longevity of the Stones. Each guitarist’s tenure with the group — seven years for Jones, five for Taylor and an amazing 48 for Wood — serves to define and delineate three key phases in the Stones’ stellar career. Here’s how it all happened.

1962-1969

BRIAN JONES: THE ROCK STAR AS TRAGIC HERO

IT’S NOT JUST that Brian Jones founded and named the Rolling Stones in 1962 — giving birth to one of the most important groups in all of rock history. That alone secures his place of high honor in the rock pantheon. But Jones also was an archetype and icon in so many other ways. One of the first young, white Britons to play blues-style slide guitar, his role in bringing the venerable, African-American blues idiom (and blues guitar particularly) to the forefront of rock makes him the godfather of a tradition that includes British guitar greats like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Alvin Lee and so many others.

With his impeccably coiffed blond mane, boldly extravagant fashion sense and dazzling arsenal of ultra-flash guitars, Jones was one of the Sixties’ most influential guitar heroes. He consorted with Swingin’ London’s glamorous models and actresses, hung out with Bob Dylan and journeyed to Morocco in 1967 to smoke hash and pioneer the world music scene. The Pied Piper of the psychedelic explosion, Jones adorned the Stones’ mid-Sixties oeuvre with a rainbow orchestra of harpsichords, flutes, sitars, dulcimers and Mellotrons. In this, he played a key r