Brian Jones's Psychedelic Toolkit: Theremin, Mellotron, and Percussion on 'Their Satanic Majesties Request'

Brian Jones’s multi-instrumental range found its fullest expression on Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967), the Stones’ dive into psychedelia. He played theremin, mellotron, and a variety of percussion—often all on the same track. The theremin’s eerie wobble opens “2000 Light Years from Home,” while the mellotron strings on “She’s a Rainbow” give the song its swirling, orchestral lift. It wasn’t just about picking up odd instruments; Jones used them to build atmosphere, not show off.

The album’s psychedelic direction was largely his doing. While Jagger and Richards leaned toward blues and pop, Jones pushed for the kaleidoscopic studio experiments that defined the record—tape loops, backward sounds, and free-form percussion. He studied Indian music, played the sitar on earlier cuts, and brought that same curiosity to Satanic Majesties. The result is a band trying on a sound that felt more like Jones’s personal mixtape than a group statement.

Jones’s contributions here mark the peak of his creative influence in the Stones. Within a year, his drug problems and growing alienation from the band would sideline him. But on this album, his theremin wails, his mellotron hums, and his percussion clatters like a one-man orchestra at the edge of sanity—a last full display of the multi-instrumentalist who helped define the Stones’ early diversity.