The Rolling Stones have posted a two-minute video tribute to Charlie Watts, their drummer since 1963, who died Tuesday from an undisclosed illness at age 80.
It’s set to “If You Can’t Rock Me” off of 1974’s It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll, which starts with the line, “The band’s on stage and it’s one of those nights, oh yeah / The drummer thinks that he is dynamite, oh yeah.” It shows a montage of photos, performance videos, an interview clip and off-stage moments with Watts.
It ends with the photo Keith Richards posted earlier this week, of Charlie’s drum kit with a “closed” sign on it.
— The Rolling Stones (@RollingStones) August 27, 2021
Keyboardist Chuck Leavell, the Stones’ touring musical director, has also paid tribute to one of his four bosses.
Pete Townshend, after posting a tribute earlier this week, has followed up with another one.
He says, “I only played with Charlie once, when he drummed for Ronnie Lane and me on our Rough Mix album. We did two faultless live takes (no overdubs at all) of my song ‘My Baby Gives It Away.’ His technique was obvious immediately, the hi-hat always slightly late, and the snare drumstick held in the flat of the left hand, under-powered to some extent, lazy-loose, super-cool. The swing on the track is explosive. I’ve never enjoyed playing with a drummer quite so much.
“Of course that brings up Keith Moon, who was so different to Charlie. At Keith’s funeral Charlie surprised me by openly weeping, and I remember wishing I could wear my heart on my sleeve like that. I was tightened up like a snare drum myself.
“Charlie lived a quiet life in the English countryside. He had a London bolthole in St James’s for many years which I think he used mainly to visit his tailor and buy paintings. He is the exemplar of the perfect marriage, still married to his art-school girlfriend who he married secretly in 1964. I understand he lived a quiet and respectable life on the road as well. I know that like me he wasn’t mad on touring, but that wry smile of his – that hid a mischievous side to him that few us saw – could turn into the most beautiful wide-mouthed laugh at very little urging. I could make him smile simply by talking about growing up following my father Cliff’s post-war dance band. Charlie loved the ‘real’ music of that era.
“I’ve said here that his playing on ‘My Baby Gives It Away’ was flawless. I have suddenly remembered that he had trouble with the clipped ending. On the second take he nailed it, but was so shocked he had managed it that he burst into laughter and fell off his stool. That was a Keith Moon stunt, ask any drummer what they most dread doing and they will probably reply that they never want to fall off their stool.”
