“Death and taxes” is going to get us all. There’s no escaping that grim reality.
But, gosh, it’s hard to imagine a Rolling Stones without drummer Charlie Watts’ heartbeat driving its rhythms. The jazz-influenced, steady drummer, who died last week at 80, has been the accent to Mick and Keith’s greatest riffs since joining the group in January 1963.
Sure, Keith Richards’ guitar riff has been hailed as the greatest in rock and roll and the electricity charging the Stones’ breakthrough No. 1 hit, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” But, c’mon, you are compelled to sing along to the song’s lyrical hook, “Hey, hey/ That’s what I say,” thanks to the thrust of Watts’ drumming.
We are sure the following list of some of our favorite Charlie Watts drum tracks will spark arguments but let’s have a go at it, anyway. Drum roll, please ...
Charlie Watts’ greatest beats
1. “Street Fighting Man” (1968). The off-kilter drumming on this edgy, definitive late-’60s Stones classic reportedly resulted from Watts’ decision to play his parts via a 1930s practice drum kit, according to education technology group, Shmoop. In the studio, Watts is said to have mounted the small skins — about the size of tambourines — to small brackets and when he locked into the song’s aggressive, sweaty sounds in that tumultuous summer, he delivered a massive, yet distinctively hollow, tone. The drum pattern proved so influential, Fleetwood Mac songwriter/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham tried to coach bandmate Mick Fleetwood to replicate it for his song “Go Your Own Way” on 1977’s “Rumours.” Partly recorded at North Miami’s Criteria Studios, Fleetwood couldn’t exactly figure it out but came up with his own off-the-beat approximation.
2. “Sympathy for the Devil” (1968). There’s a lot going on in this song but you really respond to the cavalcade of drumming lacing through its six minutes and 18 seconds. Watts isn’t even the only percussionist. The Congo drumbeats were played by Rocky Dijon and the Stones’ then-bassist Bill Wyman added the African shekere, which resembled maracas. But Watts’ Latin jazz flavoring was the sinister special sauce.
3. “Honky Tonk Women” (1969). The opening cowbell almost seems to catch Watts off guard as he opens the single’s tempo with a staggered one, two, three fill before locking in to the steady groove. Quintessential Watts. So is “Brown Sugar,” from 1971. Feel free to swap that “Sticky Fingers” classic in this slot.
4. “Miss You” (1978). You gonna do a disco song in the ‘70s you better have a premier rhythm and for one of the most influential rock-disco hybrids, “Miss You,” from the “Some Girls” album, you had Wyman and Watts at their best. Watts has said “Miss You” was informed by going to the discos of the era in Europe and North America with bandmate Mick Jagger. “You can hear it in a lot of those four-on-the-floor rhythms and the Philadelphia-style drumming. ... It sounded great on the dance floor.” “Some Girls” is also home to more of Watts’ greatest hits on songs like “Shattered” and the R&B-flavored “Beast of Burden.”
5. “Neighbours” (1981). Sometimes you just feel like bashing on a garbage can lid to get your aggression out. Call it therapeutic. Call it undisciplined. But Watts’ energetic crash, boom, bam on this deep cut from “Tattoo You,” which is getting a 40th anniversary expanded remastering on Oct. 22, is exhilarating.
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