Kind of a Drag: Charlie Watts Drags The Stones' Rock 'n Roll Circus into the Crapper

Some of you may recall my work in exposing the so-called Charlie Watts hoax. Considering that the beats on Stones records have long been among my favorite beats of all time, I've always been disappointed whenever I hear the Stones play these same songs live. It's easy to point the finger at Mick Jagger for his shucking and jiving, which probably takes away from his already-limited ability to deliver the songs in his highly effective, super-cool, studio "head" voice, but I think Watts is the real culprit in the Stones rarely sounding - to me - like the supposed great live band that their vast team of publicists has spent 35 years promoting. The tempos are usually too slow, even by the standards of the original studio recordings. This breaks one of rock's most important unwritten rules of live performance, that is, that tempos should be sped up by at least 20%. Watts rarely throws in the trademark fills that "he" has crafted on the studio recordings. For a band whose best work on record is driven by the drummer's efficient beats (regardless of who the actual drummer might be), live Watts has to work his ass off to sound like your kid brother sitting in with your band on drums for a song or two before your real drummer shows up for rehearsal.