And then there was Watts, never less than crisply dressed, a ramrod presence at his stripped-down kit. “Mick and Keith write the songs, the music is theirs,” he said decades later in an interview. And when Jagger and Richards began writing their own songs, Watts figured out how to turn their meanings into rhythm. The essential tastiness of Watts’ playing — and his eagerness to let others in the band do the peacocking — allowed the Stones to adapt their approach to whatever was happening in pop. You start off playing a hundred, then get it down to 25.”As usual, he was forgoing the whammity-whammity-bam.

Source: Los Angeles Times August 24, 2021 22:07 UTC