Charlie Watts

by Alan Clayson

Often appearing as a mere onlooker who didn't really want to be there, Charlie Watts, 'the silent Stone', embraced fame reluctantly. Yet, ironically, if any one of the Stones could have made it big without the rest, it surely would have been Watts, who showed as much early promise as an artist as he did a jazz drummer.
Understated and seemingly underwhelmed, Watts provided a stark contrast to the brash Keith Richards and the bohemian Brian Jones, and was, in some ways, an unlikely candidate for the drummer's stool. Forty years later, however, he is regarded by many as the one factor that has kept the band going, bringing vitality to their music as well as artistry to their album covers.

Genres: Music, Biography

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 3, 2004

About the author

Alan Clayson (Dover, England, 1951) is of a late 1970s vintage of composer-entertainers that also embraces the likes of Wreckless Eric, Tom Robinson, Elvis Costello and John Otway. While he is still making regular concert appearances, he has become better known as an author of around thirty books - mostly musical biography. These include the best-sellers "Backbeat" (subject of a major film), The Yardbirds and The Beatles book box.

He has written for journals as diverse as The Guardian, Record Collector, Ink, Mojo, Mediaeval World, Folk Roots, Guitar, Hello!, Drummer, The Times, The Independent, Ugly Things and, as a 'teenager, the notorious Schoolkids 0z. He has also been engaged to perform and lecture on both sides of the Atlantic - as well as broadcast on national TV and radio.

From 1975 to 1985, he led the legendary Clayson and the Argonauts - who reformed in 2005, ostensibly to launch Sunset On A Legend, a long-awaited double-CD retrospective - and was thrust to 'a premier position on rock's Lunatic Fringe' (Melody Maker).

As shown by the existence of a US fan club - dating from an 1992 soiree in Chicago - Alan Clayson's following grows still as well as demand for his talents as a record producer, and the number of versions of his compositions by such diverse acts as Dave Berry (in whose backing group, he played keyboards in the mid-1980s), New Age Outfit, Stairway - and Joy Tobing, winner of the Indonesian version of Pop Idol. He has worked too with The Portsmouth Sinfonia, Wreckless Eric, Twinkle, The Yardbirds, The Pretty Things, Mark Astronaut and the late Screaming Lord Sutch among many others. While his stage act defies succinct description, he has been labelled a 'chansonnier' in recent years for performances and record releases that may stand collectively as Alan Clayson's artistic apotheosis were it not for a promise of surprises yet to come.

Reviews

[Pete daPixie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The books most redeeming feature for me was that it only took a few hours to read. As a biography, I felt it was quite shallow. 'Charlie Watts' published 2004 maintains the image of the man as the silent Stone.
There were the odd revelations for me. Watts began a heroin habit in middle age after being 'straight' through the maelstrom years. He was also a castaway on BBC's Desert Island Discs.
On the periphery, Blues Incorporated's sax player Art Themen is today a surgeon at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading. Also, Graham Bond, from Alexis Korner's stable was fascinated by the occult, and prone to bouts of dependency on hard drugs. On 8th May 1974, he either slipped or was overcome by an urge to end it all, and died under the wheels of a tube train at Finsbury Park underground station.
As for the prose, I found Clayson's tendency to insert the odd French or Latin phrase (no matter how au fait) to be somewhat pretentious and unnecessary.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book collects all 6 of Charlie Watts' quotes to the press over the last 45 years, it seems to be more about the milieu preceding the Stones in the London traditional jazz scene and so forth, than about the man himself. Which is okay, but this really isn't much of a biography. Some ineteresting bits on Watts' continuing jazz interests and projects, but . . . pretty thin on the guy himself. I suppose that's to be expected since he's not particularly talkative, to put it mildly.

[Chris Allan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Liked the book because it was a fans effort at portraying the man, but kind of reads like that too, which is good as it is touching, but a more in depth biography is needed about the 'wembley whammer' and this isn't it but it is likable. I don't really like biographies generally but I do have a soft spot for Charlie.

[Glorianne Roccanova · Rating 4 out of 5]

i enjoyed this book, because there is so little written about Charlie. the best jazz drummer in a rock and roll band.....