![]() ![]() “Satisfaction” (1965) Sure, Keith Richards’ riff and the risqué-for-the-time lyrics are most remembered, but Watts’ complex, un-obvious rhythm, punctuated with stabs of tambourine, is what gives this all-time classic rock and roll song its pulse. It’s impossible to pin down Charlie Watts’ best moments because he rarely missed a beat, let alone played badly, but below are 10 of his greatest and most versatile performances. ![]() Sadly, we won’t be hearing it happen again, but there are thousands of hours of Rolling Stones studio recordings and concerts where you can. You can hear it on the 1 971 concert included with the ultra-deluxe edition of “Sticky Fingers”: The group is barely two minutes into the opening “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” before it sets in - the inimitable laid-back tension that is at the heart of the Stones’ magic, which is largely due to the telepathic interplay between Richards’ rhythm guitar and Watts’ loose-but-tight drumming. Minuscule.” On tour, the Stones rarely change their setlists after the first couple of gigs, so the quality of the show depends on the degree to which they attain that groove. So the drums are very slightly behind Keith. We don’t follow Charlie Charlie follows Keith. Former bassist Bill Wyman explained it to the New York Times: “Every band follows the drummer. The core of Watts’ and the Stones’ greatness as a band lies in the primal groove they attained on their best performances, a powerful, larger-than-life swing where the rhythm section and the guitars lock in and the entire sound seems to lift off. It sounds like me anyway.’ He’s a lovely guy, Charlie. Jones said in 2015, “I called Charlie up and said, ‘I didn’t mean to play drums on your album.’ He said, ‘That’s okay. Keith Richards added his guitar parts later, but the group never replaced the drum track. The best-known of those, 1974’s “Its Only Rock and Roll,” features Faces/Small Faces drummer Kenney Jones, who played on the jam session that spawned the song (which also featured Mick Jagger and future Stone Ron Wood, along with David Bowie on backing vocals). The Stones have played exactly one gig without him in fifty-eight and a half years - in March of 1964, because he was on vacation with his future wife and had gotten the show’s date wrong - and released just a handful of songs recorded with a different drummer. Yet his steadiness and low-key demeanor masks the complexity of his work: A lifelong jazz enthusiast - he led several jazz bands over the years during downtime from the Stones - his playing bears a groove and a subtlety that marks the greatest drummers of that genre, along with a disdain for the clichés that many rock drummers fall prey to. Never a flashy drummer - he always used a small kit - his whipcrack snare, driving rhythms and preternatural sense of swing powered the band from the day he joined in January of 1963 until his death earlier today at the age of 80. ![]() Watts was wry and rock-steady in both his playing and his personality. Without stretching the comparison too far, Charlie Watts was the Elvis Presley of rock and roll drumming: There was BC (Before Charlie) and after, and he can’t be compared realistically with anyone who followed because he’s an integral part of the foundation not just of the “World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band,” but rock and roll itself.
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