{"id":154282,"date":"2021-08-27T11:48:09","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T15:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=154282"},"modified":"2021-08-27T17:02:37","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T21:02:37","slug":"the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/","title":{"rendered":"The Shuffle and the Breath: On Charlie Watts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones during a concert at the Royal Lawn Tennis Stadium in Stockholm, 1965. Photo: Owe Wallin. \u00a9 Tobias Rostlund \/ Alamy Stock Photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

The drummer Charlie Watts died on Tuesday, aged eighty. Watts took up the drums as a child after cutting the neck off his banjo and converting it to a snare. Born in London during World War II, the son of a truck driver and a homemaker, he was a jazz aficionado from the age of twelve, and went to art school in his teens. In 1963, the Rolling Stones hired him away from Alexis Korner\u2019s Blues Incorporated, and Watts\u2014cultivating a stoic demeanor and known for his refined fashion sense\u2014remained a member of the band until his death. Mike Edison\u2019s 2019 biography <\/em>Sympathy for the Drummer<\/a> is a work of music criticism in the spirit of Lester Bangs. Watts did not speak to Edison for the book, but after its initial publication he called the author and left him a message: \u201cHi, you don\u2019t know me, my name is Charlie Watts, I want to thank you for writing this lovely book\u2026 and for having Charlie Parker on your voicemail\u2026\u201d Later they spoke, and Watts invited him to come see him when the Stones got back on tour. Unfortunately, the pandemic intervened and kept the band off the road. I spoke to Edison about Watts and the Stones on Thursday morning.<\/em><\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

What made you write a book about Charlie Watts?<\/p>\n

MIKE EDISON<\/p>\n

It took me forty-five years to write this book! In the interim I\u2019ve written thirty-something other books. But when I started playing the drums when I was a kid, I knew this was a cypher I had to crack. Charlie Watts is so special, and so deceptively simple, I knew it wasn\u2019t the kind of thing you can ever truly learn. It\u2019s the kind of thing you have to live with\u2014you have to breathe with it, you have to vibrate close to the frequency that he was working on. You know, you can go on YouTube and look up \u201cHow to play like Charlie Watts\u201d and you will find almost nothing, because you can\u2019t teach it. But search for \u201cHow to play like Rush\u201d and you\u2019ll find twelve thousand kids playing \u201cTom Sawyer\u201d flawlessly in their bedrooms, because you can learn how to do that.<\/p>\n

So, with Charlie Watts, listen to the hi-hats opening up in the weirdest places, the off-kilter rolls, an accent that in other hands would have been a mistake, things other people would never allow to make it onto a record. All those snare-drum riffs and tattoos he does at the beginning of songs where he\u2019s speeding up to catch up with Keith\u2014sometimes he even gets ahead of himself before Keith comes in. Some very professional drummers have told me they would get fired if they played like that, and they say that in awe. The sloppy-but-tight thing is what makes it work. So much of the personality of the Stones comes from the drummer\u2014you know it\u2019s the Stones from the snare drum, even before Mick Jagger starts his caterwauling.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

The Stones famously passed through different phases\u2014R&B, psychedelia, blues rock, disco, reggae. How are those phases reflected in Charlie\u2019s drumming?<\/p>\n

MIKE EDISON<\/p>\n

The stork didn\u2019t deliver Charlie Watts to the Rolling Stones\u2019 doorstep as a fully developed drummer. On the early records they\u2019re basically a talented cover band. On \u201cSatisfaction,\u201d he opens up and starts stomping\u2014that\u2019s the beginning of punk rock, at least in any mainstream sense. It\u2019s relentless and very aggressive, especially live. And that guy is not the same guy who\u2019s playing on \u201cStreet Fighting Man\u201d and \u201cGimme Shelter\u201d a few years later, where there\u2019s more nuance. \u201cRip This Joint,\u201d which opens Exile on Main Street<\/em>, is the fastest song in their whole catalog. It\u2019s like a splatter painting. He\u2019s gone from impressionism to extreme impressionism. The band has gone from playing songs to playing music. Charlie goes from just playing the drums to playing the band<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In the early seventies, the Stones are at their absolute pinnacle. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones<\/em>, the document of their 1971\u20131972 tour, is the apex. It\u2019s vicious. I sit and listen to it and reconsider everything I do. From there, it did roll off, there\u2019s no question. As Keith said, Mick had \u201ca ticket to Jetsville,\u201d and was busy falling in love with himself for the twenty-fifth time. He wanted to hang out in Hollywood. Keith had a ticket to Dopesville, the opposite direction. They weren\u2019t showing up for work at the same time, and Jimmy Miller, their great producer\u2014it\u2019s hard to hang around these guys and not pick up their bad habits. Goats Head Soup<\/em> suffers for it, It\u2019s Only Rock \u2019n\u2019 Roll<\/em> suffers. There\u2019s a murkiness to the recordings. Goats Head Soup<\/em> always sounds to me like there\u2019s dirt on the needle.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

Didn\u2019t they record that in the Caribbean?<\/p>\n

MIKE EDISON<\/p>\n

In Jamaica, because it was the only place Keith was allowed to go, drug addict and felon that he was. It was exciting because Dynamic Sound Studios, where they recorded most of The Harder They Come<\/em>, was the O.G. reggae studio. Going to Kingston, Jamaica, was not like going to Switzerland or Paris.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

How does Charlie figure in the moves they made toward reggae and disco?<\/p>\n

MIKE EDISON<\/p>\n

Mick always wants to make the record he heard in the club the night before. He loves chasing trends, and that\u2019s where they always step in it, like trying to copy the Beatles on Satanic Majesties Request<\/em>, trying to be au courant or some goddamn thing. But what people may not know is that Charlie loved dance music, too. He would go with Mick to discotheques in Munich. He loved the Sound of Philadelphia, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, all of that. He loved Motown. And you can hear how good he is at playing it, not just on \u201cMiss You\u201d but on all the disco songs on Emotional Rescue<\/em>, too. The drums sound so sharp. This is all part of Charlie\u2019s evolution. They\u2019d always been making dance music, it just wasn\u2019t called \u201cdisco\u201d yet, things like \u201cFingerprint File\u201d or \u201cHot Stuff.\u201d The big mystery is how they managed to put over \u201cMiss You\u201d at a time when rock \u2019n\u2019 roll fans were screaming, \u201cDisco sucks!\u201d For them to make a dance record was on brand, the Stones were all about great Black music, but it just happened to be at the same time when the Kinks and Pink Floyd had copped the disco beat, because that was what some suit told them they had to do to stay in business. That big hi-hat swoop of Charlie\u2019s is what seals it for the Stones disco records. He knew how to do it right.<\/p>\n

As a reggae player, Charlie doesn\u2019t really do the one-drop thing. It\u2019s reggae-like\u2014if you listen to \u201cCherry Oh Baby\u201d on Black and Blue<\/em>, he is really teasing all around it but the groove is still very deep. Black and Blue<\/em>, that\u2019s a very underrated record. There are some great songs like \u201cHand of Fate\u201d but a lot of it is just jams, like \u201cHey Negrita\u201d or \u201cCrazy Mama.\u201d It\u2019s not overproduced. It\u2019s just guys playing together.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

They were auditioning guitar players. Did you ever hear that Neil Young said he felt disappointed that he wasn\u2019t asked to try out?<\/p>\n

MIKE EDISON<\/p>\n

I had not heard that! I always thought Johnny Thunders would have been good for that role, but maybe two junkies in the same band wouldn\u2019t have been a such good idea. Ronnie Wood seems like the right guy, right? You know, by Some Girls<\/em>, a gauntlet had been thrown down by the Sex Pistols and others. And if you listen to that record, especially \u201cRespectable\u201d and \u201cWhen the Whip Comes Down,\u201d they\u2019re playing some very convincing punk rock, but if you unfurl it, it\u2019s all just country riffs. That tour was fantastic because it was the last time they felt like they had something to prove\u2014they really did not like being called old men. Remember, they were in their thirties! But no one could yet imagine a sixty-year-old Bruce Springsteen coming down the road. The 1978 Stones tour was brutal, they just said, Fuck you. After that things became more corporate.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

Is there any redeeming the Stones\u2019 output after Tattoo You<\/em> in 1981? Millennial fans seem to have rehabilitated all of Bob Dylan\u2019s late work, whereas there was a time when everything he did after Blood on the Tracks<\/em> and Desire<\/em> was considered dreck.<\/p>\n

MIKE EDISON<\/p>\n

No, no, no, no, no. Bob Dylan lost his way in the eighties, but the solo acoustic records of the early nineties got him back to his roots, which is a music-industry clich\u00e9 but true in his case, and much of what he\u2019s done since has been great.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

Can the same be said of any late Stones record?<\/p>\n

MIKE EDISON<\/p>\n

The last great Stones song is \u201cHad It with You,\u201d on Dirty Work<\/em>, generally considered their worst record. \u201cHad It with You\u201d is just nasty, primitive and raw, no bass, grinding drums, Mick pouring out the anger, the great trash cymbal Charlie Watts plays\u2014it\u2019s really mean and it\u2019s sleazy. It\u2019s punk rock.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

Steel Wheels<\/em>, Voodoo Lounge<\/em>, Bridges to Babylon<\/em>? I\u2019ll put my cards on the table, I think Bridges to Babylon<\/em>, from 1997, is a really good record.<\/p>\n

MIKE EDISON<\/p>\n

You can always find a moment, and largely because of Charlie. If you notice, over the years, he keeps getting louder in the mix. From Tattoo You<\/em> on, the snare drum starts to sound like a machine gun. It really becomes their signature sound, and they knew it.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/p>\n

What about Charlie\u2019s solo records where he returned to jazz?<\/p>\n

MIKE EDISON<\/p>\n

Charlie was the only one of the Stones who made perfectly lovely solo records that were beyond criticism. He was just pursuing his passion, and it was beautiful. Nobody\u2019s going to confuse the Charlie Watts Quintet with Charlie Parker\u2019s band or the Max Roach Quintet, but I saw him on tour and he had the biggest smile on his face, like the Cheshire cat. It took over the stage. But you know, even with a pretty good Keith record, you still wish you were listening to the Stones. When Mick started making his own records, Keith said, \u201cFuck off, disco boy. You\u2019re really gonna go play with the Schmuck and Balls Band when you could play with the Stones? If you wanna make an album of Irish ballads with Liberace, do it, but if you wanna make a lousy rock record, do it with the Stones.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s shocking, the last surprising thing, was the Stones\u2019 blues record from 2016, Blue & Lonesome<\/em>. I expected something kind of droll, maybe I would play it a few times\u2014but then I found myself playing it over and over again. Charlie\u2019s shuffles are impenetrable, and so hard to play. That\u2019s the genius of Charlie, and it goes back to when Brian Jones and Keith Richards sat him down in the early sixties and said, Listen to Jimmy Reed, you gotta learn this. They made him internalize it. It is repetitive, it is a tempo that almost drags but somehow never does. There\u2019s that extra breath between things, and it is so hard to play. This is the reason why most blues bands at the local bar suck. The Doors are like the worst thing imaginable. They\u2019re a blues band that can\u2019t play the blues. Despite all their bona fides and all the other things they might do well, their John Lee Hooker sucks, their Bo Diddley is craven, they ought to be arrested for their Howlin\u2019 Wolf. They didn\u2019t do their homework the way Charlie did. Somehow white guys got the idea that it was easy to play the blues, and it is not.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Christian Lorentzen lives in Brooklyn.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christian Lorentzen talks to the biographer of Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, whose \u201csloppy-but-tight\u201d playing could have got a lesser man fired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":827,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[67827],"class_list":["post-154282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-memoriam","tag-featured"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Shuffle and the Breath: On Charlie Watts by Christian Lorentzen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"August 27, 2021 \u2013 Christian Lorentzen talks to the biographer of Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, whose \u201csloppy-but-tight\u201d playing could have got a lesser man fired.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Shuffle and the Breath: On Charlie Watts by Christian Lorentzen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"August 27, 2021 \u2013 Christian Lorentzen talks to the biographer of Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, whose \u201csloppy-but-tight\u201d playing could have got a lesser man fired.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-27T15:48:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-27T21:02:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2gc2k8t.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Christian Lorentzen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Christian Lorentzen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Christian Lorentzen\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a57fc9deb2ade0c5ecd51bf74a4e5168\"},\"headline\":\"The Shuffle and the Breath: On Charlie Watts\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-27T15:48:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-27T21:02:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/\"},\"wordCount\":2078,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2gc2k8t.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Featured\"],\"articleSection\":[\"In Memoriam\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/\",\"name\":\"The Shuffle and the Breath: On Charlie Watts by Christian Lorentzen\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2gc2k8t.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-27T15:48:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-27T21:02:37+00:00\",\"description\":\"August 27, 2021 \u2013 Christian Lorentzen talks to the biographer of Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, whose \u201csloppy-but-tight\u201d playing could have got a lesser man fired.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2gc2k8t.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2gc2k8t.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Shuffle and the Breath: On Charlie Watts\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a57fc9deb2ade0c5ecd51bf74a4e5168\",\"name\":\"Christian Lorentzen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e05b7122e268886be4edb8d1aab9c073258ad2b7919db02e9e0cacdd3ec1916a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e05b7122e268886be4edb8d1aab9c073258ad2b7919db02e9e0cacdd3ec1916a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Christian Lorentzen\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/clorentzen\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Shuffle and the Breath: On Charlie Watts by Christian Lorentzen","description":"August 27, 2021 \u2013 Christian Lorentzen talks to the biographer of Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, whose \u201csloppy-but-tight\u201d playing could have got a lesser man fired.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Shuffle and the Breath: On Charlie Watts by Christian Lorentzen","og_description":"August 27, 2021 \u2013 Christian Lorentzen talks to the biographer of Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, whose \u201csloppy-but-tight\u201d playing could have got a lesser man fired.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2021-08-27T15:48:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-08-27T21:02:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":667,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2gc2k8t.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Christian Lorentzen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Christian Lorentzen","Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/"},"author":{"name":"Christian Lorentzen","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a57fc9deb2ade0c5ecd51bf74a4e5168"},"headline":"The Shuffle and the Breath: On Charlie Watts","datePublished":"2021-08-27T15:48:09+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-27T21:02:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/"},"wordCount":2078,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2gc2k8t.jpg","keywords":["Featured"],"articleSection":["In Memoriam"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/","name":"The Shuffle and the Breath: On Charlie Watts by Christian Lorentzen","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2gc2k8t.jpg","datePublished":"2021-08-27T15:48:09+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-27T21:02:37+00:00","description":"August 27, 2021 \u2013 Christian Lorentzen talks to the biographer of Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, whose \u201csloppy-but-tight\u201d playing could have got a lesser man fired.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2gc2k8t.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2gc2k8t.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/08\/27\/the-shuffle-and-the-breath-on-charlie-watts\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Shuffle and the Breath: On Charlie Watts"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a57fc9deb2ade0c5ecd51bf74a4e5168","name":"Christian Lorentzen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e05b7122e268886be4edb8d1aab9c073258ad2b7919db02e9e0cacdd3ec1916a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e05b7122e268886be4edb8d1aab9c073258ad2b7919db02e9e0cacdd3ec1916a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Christian Lorentzen"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/clorentzen\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/827"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154282"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154314,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154282\/revisions\/154314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}