Culture Charlie Watts, drummer and engine of the Rolling Stones, dies at 80
Direct The Rolling Stones announce a virtual concert in 2023
Tour The Rolling Stones quit 'Brown Sugar' because they "don't want to mess with that shit" of political correctness
Charlie Watts died at the age of 80 and the Rolling Stones, his group for half a century, went on a new tour,
the No Filters Tour
.
Far from giving in to laziness, they offered sparkling concerts, with a partner of Keith Richards, the protean Steve Jordan, in the place of the quiet man who dreamed of having seen Louis Armstrong with the
Hot Five
and
Seven
and Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club of old Harlem.
To celebrate the memory of the essential ingredient in the Stones' machine room, dedicated to songs and the nemesis of so many drummers obsessed with fireworks, it is worth recovering two recently published books.
One of them,
Charlie's Good Tonight
.
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Music.
The last miracle of the Rolling Stones in Madrid
Drafting: PABLO GILMadrid
The last miracle of the Rolling Stones in Madrid
Music.
You don't go to see the Rolling Stones to listen, you go to be there, you go to live
Writing: IÑAKO DÍAZ GUERRAMadrid
You don't go to see the Rolling Stones to listen, you go to be there, you go to live
(HarperCollins Ibérica), by
Paul Sexton
, is
no more than a conventional, whitewashed and slightly bland biography
, without much to add to the knowledge that any self-respecting rock and roll fan hoards.
All in all,
it's worth it, even if it's for remembering the most decisive milestones
.
The other artifact,
Sympathy for the drummer.
Why Charlie Matters Matters
Mike Edison
's Charlie Watts (Books of Kultrum)
is a different animal altogether:
a delicious volume dedicated to trying to unravel the arcana and mysteries of the great Charlie
from an encyclopedic knowledge of the art and history of drumsticks in the jazz, blues and rhythm and blues.
The writing that Edison spends, nursed in reading the classics of gonzo journalism and the classic rock of the first Rolling Stone, from Lester Bangs to Greil Marcus, helps greatly.
"Without Charlie, there are no Stones
," Richards often repeated.
As Edison explains, "there was an ancient wisdom in his sense of rhythm, even as he instilled jazz in the most unlikely place of all: the world's most dangerous rock 'n' roll band."
And later: "A bad drummer can sink a song in a few bars (...). A
big part of a drummer's success consists in resisting temptation, another reason why Watts is so important: he never exaggerated
"He never looked for flashy changes in excess, never competed with the rest of the band for air space, never played anything just because he wanted to. He knew how to graft nuance onto music that often provided little room for it."
He knew how to graft nuance onto a music that often provided little space for it
Mike Edison
The Stones will keep spinning as long as Jagger and Richards hold their own
.
The holy scriptures were written, sealed and lacquered long ago.
Jordan, with years of experience at Keith's side when he rides on the sidelines of the Stones, has plenty of respect for the ABC written by his predecessor.
A calligraphy on the back of the vintage and schematic Gretch that drinks from the teachings of colossi such as
Clifton James
and
Jerome Green
, drummer and maraquero respectively for Bo Diddley, and
Ebay Hardy
and
Fred Below
, drummers for Chuck Berry,
Muddy Waters
and
Howlin' Wolf
, among others.
Shuffle Warlocks.
Capable of squaring the telephone book without ceasing to carry the shops of the tempo or abandoning themselves to the ease of the virtuoso without a compass.
And there was jazz: for years the suspicion circulated that Watts swarmed in the three-track rock and roll business in order to pay for the vintage cars he collected but did not drive (he did not have a license) and the impeccable suits,
of an amateur English lord. to Egyptology and single malt whisky
.
To understand their sound we can never underscore their adoration enough and hang out with New Orleans pioneers and
swing
guides , with early
bebop
wizards and custodians of hot, velvety jazz,
from thunderous, sylvan Gene Krupa alongside Benny Goodman
, to very young Tony Williams next to Miles Davis and, already in the waters of primitive r&b and the first r&r,
of the exploits of DJ Fontana with Elvis Presley
, of Milt Turner, Bill Peebles and Connie Key with Ray Charles and the savages of Charles Connor and Earl Palmer next to Little Richard.
But you don't go on tour with the Stones for 50 tacos or record dozens of records if you're just there for the money.
One does not investigate and dialogue with the percussions of
reggae
, dig into the beats of
funk
or obtain a doctorate in
disco music
without professing an unconditional, sober and deep love for commoner, amphetamine and visceral rock.
Your secret?
The taste for silences, a necessary counterpoint for percussive blows
.
His absolute rapport with the other two rhythmic pillars of the group, the solid and rocky Bill Wyman and the wonderfully intuitive and sharp Richards.
All rock drums should sound like the one played by Charlie Watts on the most rubbery and seething Rolling Stones songs
.
His subtle, fast-paced and strangely lubricious pulse was the hammer the British group needed to forge the bible of rock and roll crossed with steamy boogie, viscous country and unorthodox gospel.
"As Albert Einstein and Charlie Watts have successfully demonstrated," Edison writes, time is a fungible commodity.
In more pedestrian terms, let's say you would
n't want to make love to someone who fucks like a metronome
, so why would you want to play rock 'n' roll like one?
And therein lies, precisely, the most important part of the equation: in rock 'n' roll, as in love and sex, roll is the most important ingredient because that's where swing, seduction and fat come from. for the engine".
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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