Progression was Coltrane, but you can’t do that in rock.” It was only rock & roll. Progression was Miles Davis playing modals. “But it hasn’t really progressed musically. “It’s dance music,” he told Rolling Stone in 1978. Charlie took pride in being a jazz fan, not a rock fan. His marriage to Shirley lasted longer than the combined marriages of most bands. He was a no-bullshit non-rock star, holding it down behind the Glimmer Twins. At one point, he shakes his head in bemusement at Mick’s dancing. For Eighties kids, the Tattoo You Charlie was the one we grew up with - keeping his stone face in the videos for “Start Me Up” and “Hang Fire,” utterly unfazed by the rock stars posing up front. He died on the 40th anniversary of Tattoo You, the Stones’ 1981 mall-rat classic. (As far as some fans are concerned, there are certain Stones recordings where making dead men come is Charlie’s job description.) He cannot understand what people see in his drumming.”Ĭharlie is why you still hear “Start Me Up” on the radio, and why it never gets faded out early, even though the ending is Mick yelling, “You made a dead man come!” Nobody notices the dirty words, because you can’t take your ears off Charlie, and he’s driving every second of the groove to the final seconds. But Keith insists, “There’s nothing forced about Charlie, least of all his modesty. Keith told Rolling Stone in his 1981 cover story, “As far as I’m concerned, I’d just say that I’m continually thankful - and more so as we go along - that we have Charlie Watts sittin’ there, you know? He’s the guy who doesn’t believe it, because he’s like that.” The interviewer finds it hard to believe. Charlie wasn’t even impressed by himself, let alone his bandmates. The other Stones found Charlie impossible to dazzle. He made the Stones great by conceding nothing to them. Mick just tries to keep up with him, while the guitars try to keep up with Mick, but Charlie is the guy everybody else is working hard to impress. For me, the Charlie mystique is all there in his five-second drum intro from “Let It Bleed.” It’s one of the Stones’ best tunes, yet it’s nothing but the band listening to Charlie play. The Rolling Stones’ legendary drummer got away with nothing but boss moves, for just about 60 years. There will never be a world without Charlie Watts, because his backbeat changed how the world sounds.