the beginning of tom sawyer from the live in rio cd/dvd always gives me the chills. fourteen billion people singing along – even the melodies and drum fills, not just the lyrics – and the overall cheer. it’s just breathtaking. wow.

Muted track, with Neil Peart drumming …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsuvYqHZYNg

[27] yeah, it’s probably just muting of the other instruments. back then, it may have all been recorded live, but nowadays a lot of the times, drums are recorded first – separate and alone. the drummer is probably hearing “scratch tracks” of the other instruments. but, those are re-recorded later, on other tracks. i have a lot of recordings i’m on, with just isolated drum tracks. the above track had drums and percussion.

[26] agreed.

Pardon the naivete, but how is that “isolated drum” track achieved (in terms of its being saved for youtube)? Does he just record his own drum part on one track, or is it a “muting” of other instruments from the panel?

Much as I despise their “music”, one could not argue with the money-making abilities of Kiss, especially Gene Simmons.

Oddly, usually the people I find to be Charlie’s biggest champions are other drummers. (Same thing with Levon Helm.)

I’m looking forward to teaching a coupla old stones tunes to a young student of mine in two weeks. I always had fun playing stones tunes.

I’m not a big stones fan and don’t own any of their cd’s, but I like a lot of their songs and enjoyed seeing ‘em live on the steels wheels tour at shea stadium.

I’m not a charlie watts fan in the slightest, but he does the job for the group, just fine. I wouldn’t consider him a “big band” drummer playing rock, just ‘coz he put out a big band album. phil collins – who’s an amazing drumset player – put out a “big band” album also, but I wouldn’t consider him a jazz player, at all. I do, however, think it’s cool that these guys love & appreciate that style of music. it’s cool for them that they were in the position to take on a project like that.

the guiro on that track is awesome. i love me some guiro!

what?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj0kMvg-jhg

You want gymnastics, look elsewhere, but that’s about as solid as a drum take gets in the 20th century.

do you play professionally? study?

I actually think of it as “Roll”–not having lost the second half of “Rock ‘n’ Roll” like most folks seemed to in the 70s. But that’s just my own terminology.

[11] I think you’re right about the muddy sound factor. For the true Stones fanatics it’s part of the attraction of Exile. For others it may be off-putting.

[15] charlie watts is NOT a “big band” drummer! he happened to put out a “big band” record, that was just terrible. he’s a pretty horrible drummer all the way around, in any style. i like the stones okay, but he’s just not good.

it’s like calling phil collins a “big band” drummer, simply ‘coz he put out a big band album. thing is, phil is (well, was – he can’t physically play anymore, b/c of his back, i believe) actually a monstrously amazing drummer. watts, um, not so much…at all.

now, i’m saying he “sucks” or can’t play at all. he’s just not real good and tons of players could’ve given the same feel to the stones and played better, all around… perhaps, even Madonna! she actually got her start playing drums in bands in detroit and even some in nyc, methinks. seriously! : )

all this said, i still remember having a blast playing ‘jumping jack flash’ in high school and i always enjoyed playing ‘satisfaction’ and some other songs, in professional settings.

the steel wheels show at shea was good too, even if Living Colour blew ‘em off the stage!

Here’s a taste of what I meant about the Stones’ “swinging”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wIkPsotMMo

I think a lot of it comes from Watts – the guy is a big band jazz drummer in a rock band.

Here’s the relevant quote from the Ben Ratliff NYT article:

I asked Don Was what he thought. “There’s a sound that’s identified with ‘Exile’ that’s become part of the vocabulary for every rock ‘n’ roll musician subsequently,” he said. “And this is the ultimate track of the style that characterizes ‘Exile.’ It’s not sloppiness; it’s width, in terms of where everyone feels the beat. You’ve got five individuals feeling the beat in a different place. At some point, the centrifugal force of the rhythm no longer holds the band together. That ‘Loving Cup’ is about the widest area you can have without the song falling apart.”

Matt B: great meeting you at the J Wilker reading. Thanks for starting up the Banter movie “column”.

Oh yeah about the $ thing. I think Mick Jagger is perhaps a singular achiever in that he is a stellar musician and a shrewd, successful business person all within one human being. Can anyone come up with another. I used to think Madonna, but after awhile I realize she’s not really a musician so much as a “performer” (not meant as a diss. . . really–I even like some of her songs.)