He’s Gathering Moss

UK police are going to re-examine the death of Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones who was found tits down in his pool in 1969. The story was always a typical late ’60s drug/alcohol accidental suicide, but apparently an investigative journalist — also a dying breed — has given information to the police that warrants further investigation. From the New York Times Arts Blog:

Jones, a bohemian blues musician who helped create the Rolling Stones in 1962 (and is said to have come up with the group’s name, taken from the Muddy Waters song “Rollin’ Stone Blues”), was found dead on July 3, 1969, at a home in East Sussex that once belonged to A. A. Milne. At that time, Jones had recently left the band, and a coroner’s report gave the official cause for his demise as “death by misadventure,” though subsequent films and books (including “The Murder of Brian Jones” by Anna Wohlin, a girlfriend of Jones who was with him when he died) have suggested that foul play was involved.

I’ve almost died by “misadventure” a few times. My favorite part of this whole story is to discover that “misadventure” used to be an official cause of death. Can I choose “death by whimsy” when the time comes?

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