Sympathy for the Drummer: Why Charlie Watts Matters

by Mike Edison

Overview

Sympathy for the Drummer: Why Charlie Watts Matters is both a gonzo rush—capturing the bristling energy of the Rolling Stones and the times in which they lived—and a wide-eyed reflection on why the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World needed the world's greatest rock 'n' roll drummer. Across five decades, Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has had the best seat in the house. Charlie Watts, the anti-rock star—an urbane jazz fan with a dry wit and little taste for the limelight—was witness to the most savage years in rock history, and emerged a hero, a warrior poet. With his easy swing and often loping, uneven fills, he found nuance in a music that often had little room for it, and along with his greatest ally, Keith Richards, he gave the Stones their swaggering beat. While others battled their drums, Charlie played his modest kit with finesse and humility, and yet his relentless grooves on the nastiest hard-rock numbers of the era ("Gimme Shelter," "Street Fighting Man," "Brown Sugar," "Jumpin' Jack Flash," etc.) delivered a dangerous authenticity to a band that on their best nights should have been put in jail. Author Mike Edison, himself a notorious raconteur and accomplished drummer, tells a tale of respect and satisfaction that goes far beyond drums, drumming, and the Rolling Stones, ripping apart the history of rock'n'roll, and celebrating sixty years of cultural upheaval. He tears the sheets off of the myths of music making, shredding the phonies and the frauds, and unifies the frayed edges of disco, punk, blues, country, soul, jazz, and R&B—the soundtrack of our lives. Highly opinionated, fearless, and often hilarious, Sympathy is an unexpected treat for music fans and pop culture mavens, as edgy and ribald as the Rolling Stones at their finest, never losing sight of the sex and magic that puts the roll in the rock—the beat, that crazy beat!—and the man who drove the band, their true engine, the utterly irreplaceable Charlie Watts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493059812
Publisher:	Backbeat
Publication date:	08/01/2021
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	1,065,890
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Mike Edison is the former editor and publisher of High Times magazine. His books include the celebrated memoir I Have Fun Everywhere I Go, the sprawling social history of sex on the newsstand, Dirty! Dirty! Dirty! and the deliciously filthy political satire Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie. Edison is also a noted musician who spent much of the 1980s and '90s seeing the world from behind a drum set, opening for bands as diverse as Sonic Youth, Sound Garden, and the Ramones. He has written extensive liner notes for, among others, Iggy Pop, and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and has contributed to numerous magazines and websites, including Huffington Post, the Daily Beast, the New York Observer, Spin (writing about the Rolling Stones), Interview, and New York Press, for which he covered classical music and professional wrestling. He speaks frequently on free speech, sex, drugs, and the American counterculture. Edison lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones 8

1 All That Jazz 18

2 The Devil's Music 28

3 Not Fade Away 50

4 Charlie's Good Tonight 74

5 Rip this Joint 100

6 The "V" Word 122

7 The Harder they Come 134

8 Respectable 158

9 Hang Fire 188

10 Where's My Drummer? 202

11 Bridges to Nowhere 220

12 Blues in the Night 240

Acknowledgments 250

Select Bibliography 256

Index 263

About the Author 270

Editorial Reviews

Proof positive that one can be both edgy and erudite, lowbrow and literate, and take joy in the unbridled pleasures of the id without sacrificing the higher mind.” —PopMatters

“Charlie Watts lays it down, and the others follow. He is the Law. This book explains why.” — Clem Burke, Blondie

“Required reading for any Stones fan.” — Bun E. Carlos

“The most colorfully graphic and, arguably, the most accurate description extant of the Rolling Stones at the absolute pinnacle of their career.”— All About Jazz

“[Edison] shoots from the hip from the first line to the last in this extremely entertaining celebration...  Edison’s frenzied, gunned up prose repeatedly reminds one and all of exactly why Charlie Watts Matters... Stones fans and jazzers, bluesers and rockers alike all owe Mike Edison a massive thank you.” ★★★★ — Shindig

“Sympathy thankfully is not a ponderous academic treatise, and while Edison occasionally leans into gonzo flights of fancy, he takes the reader on a grand tour of forty years of Watts’ contributions to the Rolling Stones... As Keith Richards has said, “No Charlie, no Stones,” and Edison wrote the book to prove it.”— Modern Drummer

“Sympathy for the Drummer is so much more than an incisive appreciation of Charlie Watts, it is an effusively infectious tribute to art in all of its myriad forms. Edison’s insights into the Rolling Stones are backed up by a fluent scope of cultural historicity, and peppered with an array of no-nonsense broadsides. Compelling evidence to convince even the most non-partisan reader that Charlie is indeed the WORLD’S GREATEST ROCK’N’ROLL DRUMMER!” — Jim Sclavunos, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

 “It’s not hard to fathom why a former editor of both Screw and High Times magazines would find writing about the Rolling Stones, one of the most dissolute champions of sex and drugs, right in his conceptual wheelhouse. But Edison takes a unique approach by focusing his investigation on Charlie Watts, the woefully underappreciated lynchpin of the Stones sound. This book is a delightful look at the Stones through the eyes and the beats of their most reticent member. Finally someone gave this drummer some.” — Larry “Ratso” Sloman, author On the Road with Bob Dylan

 “A great voice of authority and knowledge, dispensed with free-wheeling fluidity. Super entertaining, and right on.” — Katherine Turman, coauthor, Louder Than Hell: The Complete Oral History of Heavy Metal 

“A wild ride through six-plus decades of music history... An illuminating and massively entertaining book.” — Dan Epstein, author Big Hair and Plastic Grass

“Mike Edison’s libertine prose swings and hits like Charlie Watt’s right hand.” — Meredith Ochs, author Rock-and-Roll Woman

“Charlie Watts is the backbone of the Rolling Stones. In this affectionate yet unflinching biography, Mike Edison shows how integral his jazz sensibility makes them a true band: keeping time, creating space, and hitting the crash cymbal at just the right moment.” — Lenny Kaye, guitarist, author of You Call It Madness: the Sensuous Song of the Croon

“An imaginative consideration of the Rolling Stones, one which will let you hear utterly familiar tracks with entirely fresh ears." — Ira Robbin

“Rollicking ... highly engaging ... essential.” — Classic Rock

“A marvelous snare-crack of a book.” — Hot Press (UK)

“Exhilarating... magnificent insouciance... Edison writes like Charlie Watts drums: with panache.””— Planet Rock

“A remarkable achievement... insightful, passionate, knowledgeable, funny, fresh and astute... Sympathy for the Drummer is hard to beat.” — International Times

“Edison’s style captures the effortless nature of Watts’ drumming... you come away with new respect for the man behind the small kit, and I guarantee you’ll blast a Stones cut when done. Highly recommended.”— The Big Takeover

“Fanf**kingtastic.”— Kenny Aranoff

"The most fun and evocative Stones book since Keith Richard's Life." — Record Collector (UK)

"Flamboyant, funny, and frisky... supremely entertaining." — The Stranger

"A verbal roller coaster ride through rock and roll, blues, jazz, drums, voodoo, sex, magic, and everything else that's truly important in life... insightful passion that jumps off the page... irresistible and infectious, and essential." — Culture Sonar

"A remarkable achievement." — Pop Matters

"Utterly fascinating... Edison's words go way beyond the norm of rock and roll writing... it is impossible not to be moved by all Edison believes." — Americana Highways (Book of the Year)

"Edison is a gifted writer with a deft hand for making complex musical ideas relatable and enjoyable for the non-musician rock fan, and Sympathy for the Drummer is not just an interesting read, it's also often quite a funny one as well." — The Recoup

“Sympathy thankfully is not a ponderous academic treatise, and while Edison occasionally leans into gonzo flights of fancy, he takes the reader on a grand tour of forty years of Watts’ contributions to the Rolling Stones... As Keith Richards has said, “No Charlie, no Stones,” and Edison wrote the book to prove it.”— Modern Drummer“

“Fanf**ckingtastic.” — Kenny Aranoff

From the Publisher

Animaginative consideration oftheRolling Stones, one whichwill letyou hear utterlyfamiliar trackswith entirelyfresh ears.

Ira Robbins

Charlie Watts is the backbone of the Rolling Stones. In this affectionate yet unflinching biography, Mike Edison shows how integral his jazz sensibility makes them a true band: keeping time, creating space, and hitting the crash cymbal at just the right moment.

Lenny Kaye

It’s not hard to fathom why a former editor of both Screw and High Times magazines would find writing about the Rolling Stones, one of the most dissolute champions of sex and drugs, right in his conceptual wheelhouse. But Edison takes a unique approach by focusing his investigation on Charlie Watts, the woefully underappreciated lynch pin of the Stones sound. This book is a delightful look at the Stones through the eyes and the beats of their most reticent member. Finally someone gave this drummer some.

Larry "Ratso" Sloman

Sympathy for the Drummer is so much more than an incisive appreciation of Charlie Watts, it is an effusively infectious tribute to art in all of its myriad forms. Edison’s insights into the Rolling Stones are backed up by a fluent scope of cultural historicity, and peppered with an array of no-nonsense broadsides. Compelling evidence to convince even the most non-partisan reader that Charlie is indeed the WORLD’S GREATEST ROCK’N’ROLL DRUMMER!

Jim Sclavunos

Mike Edison’s libertine prose swings and hits like Charlie Watt’s right hand. Bouncing from dusty anecdotes to deft music critique, he builds an unassailable case for the distinction of Watts, not only in the Stone’s hegemonic rock but also in the pantheon of modern drummers.

Meredith Ochs

A wild ride through six-plus decades of music history, vividly demonstrating why there would be no Rolling Stones without the great Charlie Watts. An illuminating and massively entertaining book.

Dan Epstein

A great voice of authority and knowledge, dispensed with free-wheeling fluidity. Super entertaining, and right on.

Katherine Turman

Of all the books on the Rolling Stones, this is my favorite — Edison hits all the sweet spots and gets to the heart of what the Stones are all about. Required reading for any Stones fan.

Bun E. Carlos

Charlie Watts lays it down, and the others follow. He is the Law. This book explains why.

Clem Burke