Of course, there’s always the Keith Richards rebuttal.
I always kind of loved that video, and Charlie’s expression was right–it was silly. Between Mick’s facial expressions, and the way first Keith, and then Ronnie, kind of appear out of nowhere as the camera pans across, Charlie was right to smirk at it all.
I was never the biggest Stones fan, but even to a casual listener like me, Charlie’s skill and steadiness were obvious, and he always looked like the coolest guy among them.
I always like this image from the back cover of 1965’s “Got Live If You Want It.”
There’s Charlie, in a Fu Manchu moustache, and Weejuns!
What a fashion plate!
As for performances, I love his rat-a-tat-tat on the snare going. Into the choruses of “Ruby Tuesday” and his opening on “Paint it Black.”
He also did the little cartoons on the back cover of “Between the Buttons.”
RIP, Charlie. 
Yeap, the video’s as cheezy as anything that came up in that early MTV period, and Charlie knows it and is enjoying the silliness.
Wow. You’re right. He looks cachectic (i.e. terminal cancer) in that picture.
"Charlie was a truly great drummer, whose musical knowledge of drumming technique, from jazz to the blues, was, I’m sure, the heartbeat that made the Rolling Stones the best rock and roll band in the world.”
–Roger Daltrey
“I only played with Charlie once…His technique was obvious immediately, the hi-hat always slightly late, and the snare drumstick held in the flat of the left hand, underpowered to some extent, lazy-loose, super-cool. The swing on the track is explosive. I’ve never enjoyed playing with a drummer quite so much."
–Pete Townshend
I’ve been listening to that song for 40 years, and whenever I try to predict his switches from one-two-THREE-four to one-TWO-three-FOUR, i’m wrong.
Mr. Watts was a great drummer who understood less is more.
I’ve enjoyed listening to him as much as I’ve enjoyed listening to Philly Joe Jones or Jimmy Cobb or Art Blakey or Max Roach or Elvin Jones.
And I’d bet the rent that Charlie would have considered that the highest praise possible.
Not that I’m qualified to even mention those names. But still…
The big elephant in the room which nobody dared to ask so far is of course: will this be the end of the Rolling Stones? On the one hand, I can’t imagine them without Charlie, but on the other, they decided before that they’d play the tour with Steve Jordan, so of course there are contracts to be fulfilled and money to be made. I’d be glad if they played that tour in Charlie’s honor and remembrance, and then called it quits.
I read that. Apparently before Watts’ death, they’d planned to fulfill tour dates with another drummer.
Steve Jordan is a great drummer (and I’ve seen him in other contexts, and he really is good), but that just seems like blasphemy.
The Rolling Stones survived the death of Brian Jones, and the resignation of Mick Taylor, and (even more importantly, IMHO) the resignation of Bill Wyman, but there are no Rolling Stones without Charlie Watts.
A good drummer could no doubt ape Charlie’s sound, but that’s what it would be, just an imitation.
Time to hang it up.
I don’t know what Mick, Keith and Ronnie will have to say about that, but I’d bet that Keith is on board. Mick may overrule him. I hope not.
Yeah, I could see that. But if Keith says that’s it, then there are no Rolling Stones anymore, just Mick with a backing band.
As great a drummer as Charlie Watts was, Mick and Keith are really the only indispensable Stones. Moon and Entwistle had a much more distinctive sound than Watts and Wyman, yet the Who have managed a respectable career for nearly 20 years without them.
Disagree, strongly. Charlie Watts had a unique sound, not easily replicable, and his sound is an integral part of every song credited to Mick and Keith.
OBJECTION. Asserting facts not in evidence. Even Pete calls them “The World’s Most Expensive ‘Who’ Cover Band.”
I’m so glad I got to see them five times!
Me too! I think the track is Charlie’s masterpiece.
I hate to tell you that video miming notwithstanding, Charlie did not play the drums on that track.
To be fair, according to setlist.com he played it live almost 800 times. That’s gotta count for something,
Oh well, it doesn’t really matter. I still love the Stones and that video!
It’s fun seeing all their faces, including Charlie’s, as the tent is inundated with bubbles.
It supposed to be fun.
Some videos I came across the day the news broke:
At 0:55 this guy demonstrates a technique he’s observed in Charlie’s drumming. At around 1:50 he speculates as to the origins of the tecnique.
At 2:50, Charlie himself confirms the speculation: “I think the reason I did it is to, ‘cause, uh, to get the hand out of the way to do a bigger backbeat.”
A cool video of him dancing backstage. At first, I thought it was a montage of different performances, but it’s actually the same show seen through different cameras.
There’s also an interesting multi-part interview (I watched the first three) of him conducted by Chad Smith, who I think is a better drummer than interviewer.