Charlie Watts (born 2 June 1941) is an English drummer, best known as a member of The Rolling Stones. Originally trained as a graphic artist, he started playing drums in London’s rhythm and blues clubs, where he met Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards. In 1963, he joined their group, the Rolling Stones, as drummer, while doubling as designer of their record sleeves and tour stages. He has also toured with his own group, the Charlie Watts Quintet, and appeared at London’s prestigious jazz-club Ronnie Scott’s with the Charlie Watts Tentet. In 2006, Watts was elected into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame; in the same year, Vanity Fair elected him into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame. In the estimation of noted music critic Robert Christgau, Watts is "rock's greatest drummer." In 2016 he was ranked 12th on Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Drummers of All Time" list. (More from Wikipedia)
In 1962, Dick Taylor was in a band called Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Brian Jones was recruiting members for his own band, and these three joined up along with Ian Stewart. Jones came up with the name Rollin' Stones for the band; they went through several drummers before Charlie Watts joined the line-up.
Jack Bruce was the original bass guitarist for Blues Incorporated, which was founded by Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner as the first amplified R&B band in Britain; other bandmembers in the early line-up include Charlie Watts, the drummer for the Rolling Stones, and vocalist Long John Baldry. The band was never intended to have a fixed line-up and included numerous fine musicians over its life, among them the future drummer for Cream, Ginger Baker. Jack Bruce was also briefly a member of Manfred Mann.
During the 1950's, Ginger Baker was a member of several of what were known in England as "trad jazz" bands, i.e., Dixieland jazz. Charlie Watts recommended Baker as the drummer for Blues Incorporated after he left the band. Ginger Baker crossed paths with lead vocalist, saxophonist and organist Graham Bond and bassist Jack Bruce; together with another alumnus of the band, saxophone player Dick Heckstall-Smith, the four began jamming together before enthusiastic crowds while performing with a band called the Johnny Burch Octet. Bond initially formed the Graham Bond Quartet with Bruce, Baker and guitarist John McLaughlin (an important figure in jazz fusion who performed on Miles Davis's first gold record, Bitches Brew); when Heckstall-Smith joined up, the group was renamed the Graham Bond Organisation. It was in this period that Ginger Baker developed his signature drum solo, "Toad".
(May 2014)
* * *
The first performance by what was then called the Rollin' Stones – named after the landmark blues song "Rollin' Stone" by Muddy Waters – took place on July 12, 1962 at the Marquee Club in London. The line-up at that time was Mick Jagger (lead vocals, harmonica), Keith Richards (guitar), Brian Jones (guitar, harmonica), Ian Stewart (piano), Dick Taylor (bass) and Mick Avory (drums – Avory himself recalls that it was actually Tony Chapman). Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had known each other as children and were reacquainted by Dick Taylor, who was a mutual friend. Bill Wyman replaced Dick Taylor on bass in December 1962; Taylor then became one of the founding members of the Pretty Things, a band that is as long-lived and (in some circles) as beloved as the Stones, though with a significantly lower profile. When Charlie Watts joined the band on drums in January 1963, and with Ian Stewart removed from the official band membership (also in 1963), the classic line-up of the Rolling Stones was born.
* * *
The Crawdaddy Club was founded in early 1963 in the back room of the Station Hotel in Richmond, Surrey (a suburb of London). The owner was Giorgio Gomelsky, who had previously owned the Piccadilly Club in central London. The house band in the beginning was the Dave Hunt Rhythm & Blues Band, whom Gomelsky had known from the earlier club. Charlie Watts had sometimes played drums for this band, and one of their guitarists was Ray Davies, later the founder and bandleader of the Kinks.
The Rolling Stones first performed at the Crawdaddy Club in February 1963 as a replacement for the Dave Hunt Rhythm & Blues Band when they were snowed in and could not reach the club; this was the first time that the Stones had performed publicly with Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts. By April 1963, the Rolling Stones had taken over as the house band, with two gigs a week at the Crawdaddy Club plus a weekly date at another legendary music space in the Eel Pie Island Hotel in nearby Twickenham. (For years I thought that "eel pie" was some sort of slang for "ell-pee", or LP).
* * *
In June 1963, the Rolling Stones released their debut single, a cover of a Chuck Berry song called "Come On", which reached #21 on the UK charts. The flip side was Willie Dixon's "I Want to be Loved". Wikipedia reports about "Come On": "During the June 6, 2013 concert in Toronto, Canada, as part of the 50 & Counting Tour, Mick Jagger sang a few bars (with Charlie Watts drumming the beat) after mentioning the single being released exactly 50 years ago that day. It was the first time the song was heard in any capacity during a Rolling Stones concert since 1965."
(January 2015/2)
* * *
Hardly anyone knew the other three band members in the Rolling Stones; well, maybe multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones – unquestionably the most under-appreciated Stone (who was saddled with the title of "lead guitarist" while playing alongside Keith Richards) – who was the "cute one" with the blond hair. But the two men who are rightfully renowned as the greatest rhythm section in the history of rock music – bass guitarist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts – were virtually unknown to the American public. Or at least, until I saw that photo in Mad, I certainly didn't know their names or what they looked like.
(May 2015)
