Charlie Watts has passed

[Nuuska]

 

[The Guilds of Grot]

 

[Canard]

More tributes:

‘Not just a drummer – a genre’: Stewart Copeland and Max Weinberg on Charlie Watts

The Police and Bruce Springsteen drummers share memories of their late Rolling Stones counterpart, explaining his technical brilliance, his verve – and his clothes-folding skills

www.theguardian.com

 

[Nuuska]

"The biggest thing I learned from him is volume – he plays very quietly. Very early on, he discovered this wonderful device called the PA system: five billion watts of PA means that the drummer doesn’t have to work all that hard after all. When I was a young drummer, I was out there trying to kill every drum in sight, and it’s through watching Charlie that I realised: you know what? You can actually get a better sound out of your drums, and a better groove, if you relax."


That is so true - when you start hittin the drum - first very softly - increasing power measure by measure - you reach the point where the volume does not get any louder - and the sound becomes just a blow.

 

[Canard]

Another example of Charlie's wonderful minimalism is Beast of Burden from Some Girls, a song that is very eccentric under the hood. Charlie moves the song forward, keeping it focused, without getting in the way of the eccentric interplay of the guitar parts. Charlie and Keith together were magic.




The song is Keith's, BTW, apparently written about his relationship with Anita Pallenberg. Here is a bootleg of it in very, very rough form:

 

[Canard]

I went and looked up the Modern Drummer interview of Charlie in which Max Weinberg was one of the interviewers. Charlie was very self-effacing.

A Conversation With Charlie Watts - Modern Drummer Magazine

SF: How much did the Chess blues records influence you when you were growing up? CW: I never heard them until I met Keith and Mick. My whole block used to

www.moderndrummer.com

 

[Canard]

I found this deconstructed version of Beast of Burden on Youtube, or rather it found me by appearing in the coming-up queue.

The presenter of the video clip has gone through the song multiple times to try to isolate different sections of the music by filtering out everything else. The effort is somewhat successful, but there is some bleed-through, and the sound is a little odd.

The clip starts by isolating Charlie's drum track. You can hear how simple it is and also how slightly warped it is. Charlie's playing is the core around which the rest of song dances.

 

[Sal]

The Rolling Stones shared this video tribute to Charlie.

 

[Canard]

Where Charlie would often have rather been:

 

[Canard]

Charlie Watts at the BBC

A nice compilation of BBC footage featuring Charlie.

BBC Two - Charlie Watts at the BBC

Cerys Matthews takes us through the archives to celebrate one of Britain's great drummers.

www.bbc.co.uk

If you don't live in the UK, you will need some nefarious skills to watch it.

 

[Canard]

Keith's tribute clip:

 

[Westerly Wood]

and what about these drums? such a classic.

 

[DrumBob]

Usually, I can deal with rock 'n roll hero deaths well in stride, but this one has been really hard. Charlie was a major influence on my drumming, going back to Get Your Ya-Yas Out. I had the opportunity to meet Charlie around 1990 when he brought his quintet to the Blue Note in Manhattan. I gave him a copy of my book which included a chapter on him, and he was very gracious. We chatted abut drums for a few minutes, and then he was on his way.

I can't imagine the Stones without him, but I'll reserve my final opinion after the tour starts and I have a chance to watch videos.

RIP, Charlie. Thanks for all the great drumming and good vibes.