Blonde On Blonde

The first known picture of Anita and Brian, taken by early Stones photographer Bent Rej. Anita got backstage with him after a Stones show in Munich in September 1965; it was the fateful night that she entered their world:

At Tara Browne's 21st birthday party:

En route to Marrakesh:

ANITA ON BRIAN

"I decided to kidnap Brian. It sounds ridicuous... But they even made a movie about it, about kidnapping a pop star... 'Privilege'. That was the original story. It was supposed to be Brian. Brian seemed sexually the most flexible. Guys or girls? It didn't matter. The others all seemed to have a chick on their side with a toupee, false eyelashes, and all that. You know what I mean? And foam for the fanny and stuff for not getting pregnant and all that shit. Brian I knew I could just talk to him. As a matter of fact, when I met him I was his groupie, really."

"I met him first in the Oktoberfest circus. I got backstage with a photographer. I told him I just wanna meet them. I tell you I had a piece of hash and amyl nitrates. There were the Troggs, Spencer Davis, Steve Winwood. They were the opening act. Backstage, it was like where the horses walk, it was a beerhall atmosphere... I asked him if he wanted to smoke a joint and Brian says, 'Yeah, let's smoke a joint.' So he says, 'Come back to the hotel.' Then he sat and cried there all night long. He was my groupie, I had a fling. But it wasn't American-style 'Let's go and have a good time'. Brian was a pain in the ass, you know. He was so vulnerable, he was so upset about Mick and Keith. They had teamed up on him and I really felt sorry for him. Brian had everything going for him. Brian was FAN-TAS-TIC! He was a very complicated person, like he used to dye his hair, blonde it, and I used to cut it and he had like four mirrors all around him. Well, I used to dye it blonder, he was really into chicks. He was quite a bully, like small guys are. He's a small guy, like when he got drunk, like what he would do if he felt threatened -- that's when I knew trouble was coming. "

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Another part of Stones lore: I've read in several publications that the title of Dylan's masterful album Blonde On Blonde was (or indeed may have been) inspired by the coupledom of Anita and Brian, who circa 1966 looked like carbon copies of each other. Dylan was spending a lot of time in London then, and hung out with Brian quite a bit (although Dylan and his co-hort Neuwirth were supposedly quite mean to him at times). Dylan had a well-known nasty streak, and cut people down when he felt like it. He was so worshipped at the time that 'peasants' waiting to pay homage to their folk God often found his presence terrifying. For a character like Brian, who was so fragile and sensitive already, it wasn't exactly an easy friendship. Photos: my scans