FORGOTTEN HISTORY: Wizz jones obituary - Caught on Camera

When Bruce Springsteen played the Berlin Olympiastadion in May 2012, he began with a powerful song about an East Berliner celebrating freedom. Few, if any, in the crowd would have realised that the original version of When I Leave Berlin was written in 1971 by an English guitarist and singer-songwriter, whom Springsteen failed to mention.

Wizz Jones, who has died aged 86, never did enjoy the success of many of his contemporaries, but was a folk scene hero with a dedicated following, particularly among other musicians. In his 2010 autobiography, Life, Keith Richards describes meeting Wizz while he was at art college, before joining the Rolling Stones: “Wizz Jones used to drop in, with a Jesus haircut and a beard. Great folk picker, great guitar picker … I think I learned Cocaine from him – the song and that crucial fingerpicking lick of the period, not the dope …”