Charlies Good Tonight

Featuring forewords from bandmates Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, this is the official and fully authorised biography of the world’s most revered and celebrated drummer.

The fully authorized and official biography of legendary Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, one of the world’s most revered and celebrated musicians of the last half century. Forewords by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Charlie Watts was one of the most decorated musicians in the world, having joined the Rolling Stones, a few months after their formation, early in 1963. A student of jazz drumming, he was headhunted by the band after bumping into them regularly in London’s rhythm and blues clubs. Once installed at the drum seat, he didn’t miss a gig, album or tour in his 60 years in the band. He was there throughout the swinging sixties, the early shot at superstardom and the Stones' world conquest; and throughout the debauchery of the 1970s, typified by 1972's Exile on Main St., considered one of the great albums of the century. By the 1980s, Charlie was battling his own demons, but emerged unscathed to enhance his unparalleled reputation even further over the ensuing decades. Watts went through band bust-ups, bereavements and changes in personnel, managers, guitarists and rhythm sections, but remained the rock at the heart of the Rolling Stones for nearly 60 years—the thoughtful, intellectual but no less compelling counterpoint to the raucousness of his bandmates Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood. And this is his story.

Mediados de 1962. Los Rolling Stones, recién constituidos, están buscando un batería permanente. Se fijan en Charlie Watts, un músico de jazz muy conocido en el ambiente de los clubes de rhythm and blues londinenses. Por suerte para los futuros seguidores de los Stones en todo el mundo, consiguen convencerle de que se una al grupo. Una vez sentado a la batería, Charlie ya nunca perdió el compás. Estuvo en los movidos años sesenta, cuando los Stones alcanzaron el superestrellato, también en los excesos de la década de los setenta, que cristalizaron en el mítico álbum Exile on Main Street. Durante los ochenta salió indemne de la lucha contra sus demonios personales, lo que cimentó su reputación de ser el contrapunto reflexivo y culto —aunque no por ello menos fascinante— de sus compañeros de banda más escandalosos. A lo largo de casi siete décadas —pese a las peleas, los altibajos y las vicisitudes de la banda, tanto en el escenario como fuera de él—, Charlie siguió siendo un pilar fundamental de los Rolling Stones. Al mismo tiempo, era la antítesis de la estrella de rock arquetípica: un hombre extremadamente discreto y reservado que valoraba a su familia por encima de todo. Basada en nuevas entrevistas con sus familiares, amigos y compañeros de banda —incluidos Mick Jagger y Keith Richards—, Charlie's Good Tonight es la biografía oficial y autorizada de Charlie Watts: el relato de una vida extraordinaria, contada como nunca antes. «Charlie era lo que se veía; o sea, Charlie. El tío más auténtico que he conocido nunca». Keith Richards «Nos reíamos sin parar. Le echo de menos por muchos motivos». Mick Jagger

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.

Mediados de 1962. Los Rolling Stones, recién constituidos, están buscando un baterista permanente. Se fijan en Charlie Watts, un músico de jazz muy conocido en el ambiente de los clubes de rhythm and blues londinenses. Por suerte para los futuros seguidores de los Stones en todo el mundo, consiguen convencerle de que se una al grupo. Una vez sentado a la batería, Charlie ya nunca perdió el compás. Estuvo ahí en los movidos años sesenta, cuando los Stones alcanzaron el superestrellato, también durante los excesos de la década de 1970, que cristalizaron en el mítico álbum Exile on Main Street . Durante los ochenta salió indemne de la lucha contra sus demonios personales, lo que cimentó su reputación de ser el contrapunto reflexivo y culto —aunque no por ello menos fascinante— de sus compañeros de banda más escandalosos. A lo largo de casi siete décadas �pese a las peleas, los altibajos y las vicisitudes de la banda, tanto en el escenario como fuera de él—, Charlie siguió siendo un pilar fundamental de los Rolling Stones. Al mismo tiempo, era la antítesis de la estrella de rock arquetípica: un hombre extremadamente discreto y reservado que valoraba a su familia por encima de todo. Basada en nuevas entrevistas con sus familiares, amigos y compañeros de banda —incluidos Mick Jagger y Keith Richards—, Charlie’s Good Tonight es la biografía oficial y autorizada de Charlie Watts: el relato de una vida extraordinaria, contada como nunca antes.

An intimate and comprehensive volume tracing the incredible musical career and creative life of the Rolling Stones. “As well as going back through our history we wanted everyone to experience and feel exactly what it’s like to be in the Rolling Stones.” For almost 60 years the Rolling Stones have helped shape popular culture around the world. Unzipped traces their impact and influence on rock music, art, design, fashion, photography, and filmmaking. Packed with evocative archive photos, artworks, outtakes, and memorabilia, this stunning book immerses readers in the world of the Stones. Peppered throughout with insightful new commentary by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Ronnie Wood, this volume also features a compelling introduction by Anthony De Curtis, as well as essays by Buddy Guy, Don Was, Anna Sui, John Varvatos, Martin Scorsese, Shephard Fairey, Patrick Woodroffe, and Willie Williams. In addition to stills from films, videos, and documentary footage, vivid photographic sections showcase the Stones’ musical instruments, their stage clothing, album cover designs, notebooks with lyrics, and tape boxes from the original recording sessions. Bold, glamorous, and captivating, Unzipped is the perfect showcase for “the greatest rock ’n’ roll band in the world.”

'It is the most singular of sounds, yet among the most ubiquitous. It is the sound of isolation that has sold itself to millions.' Miles Davis's Kind of Blue is the best selling piece of music in the history of jazz, and for many listeners among the most haunting in all of twentieth-century music. It is also, notoriously, the only jazz album many people own. Recorded in 1959 (in nine miraculous hours), there has been nothing like it since. Its atmosphere - slow, dark, meditative, luminous - became all-pervasive for a generation, and has remained the epitome of melancholy coolness ever since. Richard Williams has written a history of the album which for once does not rip it out of its wider cultural context. He evokes the essence of the music - identifying the qualities that make it so uniquely appealing - while making effortless connections to painting, literature, philosophy and poetry. This makes for an elegant, graceful and beautifully-written narrative.

(Book). This much sought-after work has been re-issued after years of being unavailable! In The Big Beat , Max Weinberg speaks to 14 pioneers of rock drumming. Included are fantastic interviews with Hal Blaine, Earl Palmer, DJ Fontana, Levon Helm, Jim Keltner, Charlie Watts, Ringo Starr, Roger Hawkins, Bernard Purdie, Dino Danelli, Kenney Jones, Russ Kunkle, Dave Clark and Johnny Bee. This book has been out of print and unavailable for many years. Hudson Music has located the last remaining supply. Highly recommended used copies are for sale on the web for more than $100! Order now, supply is limited.