Song of the Day 8/25: Charlie Watts Quintet, “What’s New”

Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, who died yesterday at age 80, was the unlikeliest rock star ever. He was the opposite of every rock cliche, which is more amazing when you consider that his bandmates were the ones who set the template for every form of excess that became associated with the music. Watts was never into sex or drugs or rock and roll. He liked jazz.

Mick and Keith dated models, and their road escapades made for an X-rated movie; Charlie married his girlfriend in 1964 and stayed with her until his death, and stayed away from groupies on the road. The band’s drug consumption was infamous; Watts didn’t dabble with substance abuse until a three-year period in the mid-’80s that Watts called his “midlife crisis.” He quit everything, including smoking, after a night when, already drunk, he fell down the basement steps while fetching another bottle of wine.

He certainly had his quirks. He collected antique cars but didn’t drive. He worked as a graphic artist and designer until the Stones got a recording contract, and he was involved in the stage design for most of their tours. When he got married he kept it secret from his bandmates and manager Andrew Loog Oldham because he thought it would be bad for the band’s bad-boy image. On the road, while his mates were out carousing, he was alone in his hotel room — sketching his bed. Every one of them since 1967. He kept a journal of them.

Watts did not consider himself a rock ‘n’ roll drummer — he always insisted the Stones are a blues band. He preferred tailored suits to flamboyant fashions. He didn’t care for drum solos, and while other rock drummers surrounded themselves with enough instruments to supply a marching band, Watts made do with a basic kit — three drums (eventually four), three cymbals and a hi-hat.

He he made no secret of the fact that his musical love was jazz — he learned drumming by playing along with big band and jazz records from the ’40s and ’50s. He indulged that passion in the ’80s by forming a 33-piece big band that recorded one live album of swing-era standards, such as “Stompin’ at the Savoy.”

In the ’90s, between Stones tours, Watts returned with a smaller combo, the Charlie Watts Quintet. They recorded a pair of albums, one a tribute to Charlie Parker, Watts’ particular favorite.

With the Stones, Watts never called attention to himself — a drummer’s role was as an accompanist, he believed. But in case you wonder how a drummer could be so influential when he played a basic kit and never took solos, here’s “Gimme Shelter” with all but the rhythm track turned way down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsuMuNu1CL8

Here he is on isolated camera playing “Monkey Man” at Madison Square Garden in 2003.