Tag: Rolling Stones

THE ROLLING STONES Share Video Tribute To Drummer CHARLIE WATTS

THE ROLLING STONES have paid tribute to Charlie Watts with a two-minute video featuring various photos and footage of their late drummer over the years.

The clip, which was uploaded to the band’s social media accounts on Friday, is set to the 1974 track “If You Can’t Rock Me”and concludes with a photo of Watts‘s drum set that has a “closed” sign hanging on it.

Watts‘s publicist said that he “passed away peacefully” on August 24 “in a London hospital surrounded by his family.”

Charlie‘s death came just weeks after THE ROLLING STONES announced that Wattswould be missing several U.S. tour dates while he was recovering from an unspecified medical procedure.

The 12-date “No Filter” tour will reportedly take place as scheduled, with Steve Jordan taking Watts‘s place.

Although Watts wasn’t a founding member of THE STONES, he had been with the band since January 1963.

He battled throat cancer in 2004 but got the all clear after undergoing two operations.

Following Watts‘s death, THE ROLLING STONES guitarist Keith Richards shared the same drum set photo that closed out the video, while singer Mick Jagger posted a smiling picture of Watts. Guitarist Ronnie Wood shared a photo of him with his late bandmate, writing, “I love you my fellow Gemini ~ I will dearly miss you ~ you are the best.”

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Remembering Icon And Legendary Rolling Stones Drummer Charlie Watts

Written By Braddon S. Williams

Elegance…grace…style…serenity. These are not words that automatically come to mind when thinking about The Rolling Stones, and yet Charlie Watts had all of that and much more. He was the very personification of the eye of the storm. Charlie was the pulse, the heartbeat, the foundation upon which the Stones built their entire history. By cultivating a minimalist approach and steadfastly serving the songs, Watts garnered nearly unanimous respect from musicians (particularly drummers) and fans on a global scale. His career in music spanned nearly sixty years, but his legacy will cast an enormous shadow. Charlie Watts was a true icon and the world is a better place due to his contributions.

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Psychedelic Lunch

Welcome to our “Psychedelic Lunch Series,”where we find out how deep the rabbit hole really goes and explore music from the 60’s to today. Weekdays At Noon EST. Enjoy the trip!

Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, actor, and one of the original members of the rock band The Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone Magazine credited Richards for “rock’s greatest single body of riffs” on guitar and ranked him 4th on its list of 100 best guitarists. Fourteen songs that Richards wrote with the Rolling Stones’ lead vocalist Mick Jagger are listed among Rolling Stone magazine’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”. The Stones are generally known for their guitar interplay of rhythm and lead (“weaving”) with Brian Jones, Mick Taylor and Ronnie Wood over the years. In spite of this, Richards plays the only guitar tracks on some of their most famous songs including “Paint It Black”, “Ruby Tuesday”, “Sympathy for the Devil”, and “Gimme Shelter.”

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Psychedelic Lunch

Rolling Stones Circa 1964

Welcome to our “Psychedelic Lunch” series where we find out how deep the rabbit hole really goes and explore psychedelic tunes from the 60’s and 70’s. Weekdays At Noon EST. Enjoy the trip!

With a trippy, playful sound, this song wasn’t typical of The Rolling Stones, but it endured as a fan favorite. It is a rare pure love song by The Stones, whose songs about women tended to be much more libidinous.

The distinctive string section was arranged by John Paul Jones, who was doing session work two years before he joined Led Zeppelin.

This was one of the first songs The Stones produced without manager Andrew Loog Oldham. They wanted to get rid of him, so they angered him away by going against his wishes in many aspects of Their Satanic Majesties Request.

Apple used this in 1999 commercials for their colorful iMac computers. Over the next few years, the company would change the dynamics of the music industry with the introduction of iTunes and the iPod. Nicky Hopkins played piano on this song. Hopkins, along with Ian Stewart and Billy Preston, played on Stones albums from Between The Buttons in 1967 until Black And Blue in 1976. Preston usually played on the more gospel-sounding songs where an organ was required; Stewart played boogie-woogie on the fast songs, and Hopkins played on the ballads.

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On This Day in History

Written By Braddon S. Williams AKA “The Concert Critic”

On this date in history, 6/25/2019, my bucket list was shattered…Shattered! Shidoobee, shidoobee, shidoobee…but I digress…I saw The Rolling Stones! The World’s Greatest Rock ‘n Roll Band! I never thought this would happen in my lifetime, but I finally got to witness these legends.

As fate would have it, Mick Jagger endured a heart surgery and the entire tour had to be rescheduled over his recovery, resulting in my friend and I getting to see just the second show on the tour!

We traveled through the insanity of Chicago traffic, through an intense hail storm, through being directed to 3 different entry gates before we finally arrived at our excellent seats. At this point I allowed myself to realize it was really going to happen!

I shot some video of Soldier Field steadily filling up with hordes of Stones fans, many of whom probably were feeling the myriad of emotions I was experiencing at the exact same moments.

The opening band, Whiskey Myers, played a good set of rocking Southern tinged Country Blues, and were well received.

Finally, as dusk was giving way to darkness, the lights and video displays started flashing and a booming voice announced the famous words, “Ladies and gentlemen…The Rolling Stones!” Keith Richards was launching into the high octane guitar riff of Jumping Jack Flash; Charlie Watts a millisecond behind him, already steadying the beat and propelling the engine that is the most iconic pure rock and roll band in the history of this universe.

Mick Jagger, 75 years young and fresh from heart surgery, was singing and gesturing, gyrating, displaying moves like, well…JAGGER…and Ron Wood was there with that big lovable grin, and the rest of the extended band were in lock motion with the four mains…and it was absolutely breathtaking!

I have seen the setlist from the Friday night show, and am impressed at how many songs were changed out for our show. The Stones are not a cookie cutter group that plays the same show in every city.

We got a different opening song, and a different acoustic set on the extended stage. Our acoustic songs were a rare Play With Fire, and a killer Sweet Virginia; proving beyond a doubt what I have said for decades;

The Rolling Stones are the best country band on the planet!

A sizzling Miss You midway through the show proved they are also the best r&b and disco band on Earth, too.

Bassist Darryl Jones was featured in an extended bass solo that showcased his funky side without being too flashy; in other words, classy perfection. The horn section had moments to shine, too.

As a former trumpet player I was happy to see an actual French Horn on You Can’t Always Get What You Want, instead of a trombone.

The sax player who took over from the late great Bobby Keyes delivered a sizzling solo on Brown Sugar, as did longtime keyboard guru and band director, Chuck Leavell.

The band introductions were super entertaining, displaying the adoration the fans feel for Ron Wood and Charlie Watts. The biggest love was shown to the immortal Keith Richards, who displayed his rogue pirate persona before he sang the soulful Slipping Away (one of my personal favorite Keith vocal songs) and the wonderful Before They Make Me Run. Keith made a mistake and started Midnight Rambler on the wrong guitar, resulting in Jagger stopping the band and proclaiming they were in the wrong key! Mick said it was still early in the tour and that they still had time for a fuck-up or two! Of course, the crowd loved his candor, and the Stones proceeded to play a blazing Paint It Black.

After a quick guitar change, Keith launched back into Midnight Rambler with a vengeance, and the band matched his intensity, delivering what for me was the highlight of a concert that was totally full of highlights…a stunning 11:30 worth of blazing, muscular, menacing blues…proving that these guys are most certainly not doing this for the money. That type of hunger and passion simply cannot be faked.

Each of the four primary Stones filled me with awe, from Jagger’s nonstop moving (the man literally never stopped for a moment), to his phenomenal harmonica playing and solid rhythm guitar work, Richards and Wood displaying what Keith lovingly describes as “the ancient art of weaving”, guitar lines playing cat and mouse between the two venerable masters, and of course the economy and rock solid dominance of Watts’ sublime drumming.

The sound was pristine (especially considering it was in a football stadium with an open roof) and the lights and video screens were state of the art.

I’m kind of bouncing in and out of the actual timeline, but some other highlights were an astonishing Tumbling Dice, Bitch, Honky Tonk Woman, Start Me Up, It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll, and Sympathy For The Devil.

There had been an online vote for a song and the winner for our show was Monkey Man…and it was a swaggering gem!

The encores were an incendiary Gimme Shelter and the finale of (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (complete with fireworks…a LOT of fireworks)!

For nearly 2 hours, these legends proved without a shadow of a doubt why they are simply the best at what they do. My bucket list is shattered…Long Live The Rolling Stones! Thank you Mick, Keith, Ronnie, Charlie…and all the rest. You guys are the soundtrack to my life…I got Satisfaction last Tuesday…if you try sometimes, you get what you need!

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Influences And Recollections of a Musical Mind

Written By Braddon S. Williams

ROLLING STONES: EXILE ON MAIN STREET

Exile On Main St. (1972) by The Rolling Stones is one of the most celebrated albums of all time, and signaled the end of their golden age.

This double album of blues drenched decadence was recorded primarily in a makeshift studio in the basement of a house that Keith Richards was renting in France while the Stones were tax exiles from their native England.

It was a dark time for the band in more than just financial terms, as Keith was addicted to heroin while the sessions were taking place. The Stones didn’t all make it to the studio at the same times, so the tracks were put together in pieces and the resulting chaotic circumstances fueled the passions and drug dependent desperation of the songs.

I can’t even make a list of favorite tracks for Exile, because the entire collection is just pure bliss for my ears and spirit. I originally bought it on vinyl, and each side of the album kind of had its own the me. Side two in particular had this acoustic country blues swagger that was just irresistible. Sides one and four were more rock, blues, and swing (more pure Rolling Stones style), while Side three delved into some gospel and a little more experimental edge to the blues.

No doubt about it, from roughly 1968 to 1972, The Rolling Stones recorded some of the most inspired and monumental music in the history of rock ‘n’ roll.

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