With the passing of Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, Right Angle brings in our favorite sticks-master Alfonzo Rachel to sub for Scott Ott.
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Right Angle: Backstage (08-24-2021)
With the passing of Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, Right Angle brings in our favorite sticks-master Alfonzo Rachel to sub for Scott Ott.
35 replies on “Right Angle: Backstage (08-24-2021)”
I have loved the Stones all my life. And I know about some of the jazz drummers: Billy Cobham, Jack de Johnette, Philly Joe Jones, Art Blakey, Max Roach. Everyone knows Charlie loved them. Steve is mistaken to say Charlie didn’t like rock – he always loved playing with the Stones. My own take is that Charlie wasn’t technically good enough to do what the jazz guys did but, thanks to his love for jazz, he brought a swing to rock ‘n roll unmatched by his peers. You can’t pick one track out of a 60-year career, but listen to the drums on the Exile version of Tumbling Dice. His fills in it are – not always, but at times – just a little late. It makes the whole wonderful song languid and flowing. Nobody else in rock would have played it like that. And he did it for 60 years. Keith said if he ever got lost on stage, he’d just check in with Charlie’s left arm and he’d be ok again. The world is a better place for having had Charlie Watts in it.
Oh, and the Ringo story is true. Ringo was a left handed guy who had to learn to play a right handed kit because his grandmother wanted to “correct” his left handedness. He was a great drummer – totally unique and perfect for the Beatles’ complex rhythms. But Paul played drums on Back In The USSR.
And I like this joke: “What do you call someone who hangs around musicians?” “A drummer.”
Eight, Steve, “and DC.” Hopefully, DC will never BE a state!
Ginger Baker.
I’ve seen Sammy Davis, Jr. sit in with the band on Johnny Carson.
On another bright note –
Curtis Sliwa recorded and presented a street speech for his run for Mayor of NYC.
What a man.
A true American hero.
The drummer is the one who loses 8-10 pounds in a concert.
Just like boxers.
Phil Collins and the inimitable Don Henley: both sing and nail the riff.
“I can feel it comin’ in the air tonight..” & “Get the widow on the set, we need Dirty Laundry!”
Danny from tool is the best drummer. Scientist use him to calibrate their atomic clocks
Neil Peart from Rush. Hands down!
Neil Peart, Phil Collins
Best drummer? Phil Ehart from Kansas. Hands down!
Neil Peart from Rush
But everyone is certainly entitled to their opinion, and Phil Ehart is no slouch.
So I guess I’m showing my age, but besides Zo, my favorite or maybe most memorable drummers are Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich.
The one thing I most loved about Charlie Watts was, no matter how frenetic the song, no matter how the rest of the band were ripping it up, Charlie sat there looking bored.
All the while laying down the most awe-inspiring licks of any drummer in the business.
This.
Never understood the ones who moved all over the place. Before I gave up on all instruments after high school (loved playing just wasn’t good enough or dedicated enough to keep going) I found drumming to be the most challenging. Band teacher told me to stop playing like a sax player or bass player. Stop moving and lock in. Even young, the workout was tough. Much respect to drummers. Guys who can lock in and be loose at the same time, very impressive. And to make it look easy. Yikes.
“There’s a lot of feral Karens here in California.”
One of the many, many reasons I was so glad to escape from the Soviet Socialist Repooblik of Kalifornia. I’ve never seen such a concentrated conglomeration of prosecutorial people anywhere else on the planet.
We are getting an influx of people in to SW VA from out west. You can tell pretty easily if they escaped to freedom or if they should be considered hostile invaders. It’s in the eyes and attitude (by which I mean posture). Surprisingly easy to tell.
Yeah, I see that here too. We have a new neighbor that moved in from CA. She’s about my age and all by herself, she moved here to be closer to her daughter who has a horse farm about two miles down the road.
At first the major vibe I got from her was “fear and amazement”. She had come from CA so that’s understandable. She was looking around like “I just can’t believe people here are so nice and I’m safe. When does the other shoe drop?”
I tilled up her garden with my tractor, my buddy’s wife asked me if I would and I said “Sure, be right over”. I do this for all the neighbors, I only put the tiller implement on the tractor in the spring, till up anything anyone wants me to and then take it back off for the year. It’s a PITA to swap with the finish mower deck, takes two people and so if you want your gardens and flowerbeds tilled you’d better speak up so I know to do them while I have the tiller hooked up.
(The same goes for winter if we get snow, which we rarely do. I go around and plow the neighbors driveways. I love playing in the snow on my tractor …)
When I got done with her garden she wanted to pay me. It was my turn to look at her like she had two heads.
“Pay me? Hell no you can’t pay me to be a good neighbor. You couldn’t afford my time if I was charging for it and I used about 50 cents worth of diesel fuel so just what is it you think you need to pay me for? You’re home now and welcome.”
She almost cried and I’m pretty sure it was something I said.
There’s three families on this road that all get along real well. One of those is mine. So we “adopted” her and drag her/invite her/cajole her into coming along to whatever skulduggery we’re perpetrating at the time. We have get-togethers, pool parties, occasionally a Saturday afternoon shooting handguns, rifles or trap, fires (in a fire pit while we sit around drinking and talking) and there will be my huge bonfire this fall as every year. That draws about 50 people usually. When the weather cools and the skeeters taper off I’ll set up my outdoor theater a couple times before it gets too cold and have everyone vote on a movie. More drinking of course. She fits in real well and we’re just as happy to have a new “good neighbor” as she is to have and be one.
The Golden Rule isn’t just about how you treat other people for some namby-pamby virtue signalling nonsense. You’re showing them how you want to be treated too. I’m pretty sure we got the new neighbor broken in right.
Makes me feel like I need to move a couple hours up the road into horse country. Getting too close to the Chardonnay sippers at Scott stadium gives me the willies, though. Does she come over for the target practice? You may need to get out your trainer hat, I suspect.
I’d like to be adopted. I think.
I’m with you, Bill, I lost my palms in a freak boating accident.
More seriously, I hadn’t heard of this palm thing with Amazon that Zo is talking about.
Biometric access control has been around for a long time though, so depending on the application it might not be anything new or remarkable tech-wise.
I use biometric access control on some of my more vital systems. Fingerprint readers are common today and my main computer system/server uses facial recognition to log me in … It’s kind of cool.
I don’t understand why Amazon would want an entire palm scan for anything though, that seems a bit overmuch.
A palm scan can be used to control a smart weapon, like a pistol, so it won’t fire unless you are the person holding it. The only problem with this is you can’t switch hands to shoot from behind limited cover. In my opinion, the technology is too expensive to be practical.
“I’ve got the gray, you need the gray”.
Or, as I always told my kids —
“Age, experience and treachery will overcome youth and enthusiasm every time.”
Bill – it’s actually quite simple. You needed to spend the first 20 minutes talking about your latest device, or trip with your lovely wife, or changing the oil in your car. Then, after 20 minutes of chat where we all get to know you guys better, you start to talk about episodes.
But for someone whose idea of a “short” episode of TSL is an hour and a half, you could fill an extra 20 minutes on one breath.
Buddy Rich was incredible. Saw him in college toward the end of his career. Wow.
What ever happens, the day after the election, Gavin will punish California for being so uppity. He will punish you people hard. Count on it.
Because in the Democratic mind, if masks aren’t mandated then it’ll be illegal to wear a mask,
I’m glad the Russians are getting the hang of capitalism. I wanna be able to escape to a free country.
F-35ski
You guys talking about music, I feel like Scott when you guys talk about Star Trek or aircraft carriers.
OK, I’m gonna break out my drummer jokes.
-Whaddya call someone that hangs out w/ musicians? A drummer.
-Whaddya call a drummer w/o a girlfriend? Homeless.
He’s here all week, try the veal.
Not just California but the entire Democrat Party and MSM bet the farm on fear of Covid and the world is cooperating.
That was a darn good bet they made.