Topic: Charlie Watts Blasts Beatles and Elvis (Read 9518 times)

I am the Paulrus · « **on:** January 29, 2010, 11:18:39 PM »

Charlie Watts Blasts Beatles and Elvis

Jan 29th 2010

by Julian Marszalek

http://www.spinner.com/2010/01/29/charlie-watts-blasts-beatles-and-elvis/

Charlie Watts and Paul, 1967

What's up with the Rolling Stones? As they fast approach the anniversary of their half century of playing together, guitarist Keith Richards recently hopped on the wagon after decades of pummeling his body and now drummer Charlie Watts has told an Austrian newspaper that he's always hated the music of Elvis Presley and 60s rival the Beatles.

The drummer, who is currently playing a series of concerts in Austria with blues-jazz ensemble The ABC&D of Boogie Woogie (named after the musicians in the band - pianists Axel Zwingenberger and Ben Waters, drummer Charlie Watts and bassist Dave Green), said, "I've never been a big Beatles fan.

"Of Ringo, yes, but not of the music. And I've always hated Elvis. He was the last one I wanted to use as a guide. Miles Davis and Fats Domino, yes, but Elvis, no."

The legendarily non-plussed Watts also said the he wouldn't be bothered if the Stones stopped rolling. "Honestly, I couldn't care less if it were over."

He added, "Jazz is my passion. This is the music that I really want to do. The Stones are merely an annoying pastime."

However, the Austrian tour's promoter, Willi Turk, was adamant that the Rolling Stones would be back in action soon.

He said, "The ABC & D concerts are only possible because the Stones are just taking a break. But when Mick Jagger calls, Charlie is ready. "

nufc · « **Reply #1 on:** January 31, 2010, 06:11:23 PM »

sounds bitter... beatles were better then stones anyways... elvis was crap I agree with him there.

cubanheel · « **Reply #2 on:** January 31, 2010, 09:12:55 PM »

The Stones are an annoying pastime ... yeah, that PAYS HIS BILLS!!! :

Bitter or what?? I my opinion, Stones were pants. So was Elvis, he makes me itch. Hooray for the Beatles forever!

nufc · « **Reply #3 on:** January 31, 2010, 09:30:18 PM »

I love the stones though too just saying I think the beatles are better but I don't rate elvis probably because how he treated john lol.

Joost · « **Reply #4 on:** January 31, 2010, 10:19:27 PM »

He's always been a jazz guy and isn't really that much into pop music. Big deal. People want to see him keep playing in the Stones and apparently he enjoys it enough to keep doing it. So that's cool.

I've also played in a band that made music that I personally would never listen to at home. But I was making music, recording albums and vinyl singles, playing really cool shows and touring in countries that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to go to. The fact that I wasn't a huge fan of our own songs was a very minor detail.

AngeloMysterioso · « **Reply #5 on:** February 03, 2010, 04:28:54 PM »

At least, he’s honestly stating what he thinks. The Beatles were never unanimously loved by everyone in the universe.

However, I wonder what would have happened if he had voiced the same opinion about The Beatles before they gave the Stones their first commercial hit in late 1963.

Joost · « **Reply #6 on:** February 03, 2010, 05:13:23 PM »

Quote from: AngeloMysterioso on February 03, 2010, 04:28:54 PM

However, I wonder what would have happened if he had voiced the same opinion about The Beatles before they gave the Stones their first commercial hit in late 1963.

My guess: "Either way, thanks for the royalties!"

Mairi · « **Reply #7 on:** February 03, 2010, 07:49:42 PM »

Different strokes for different folks.

At least we know one thing: everyone loves Ringo!

breedofrandy · « **Reply #8 on:** February 03, 2010, 07:58:26 PM »

Quote from: Mairi on February 03, 2010, 07:49:42 PM

At least we know one thing: everyone loves Ringo!

yeah at least we know that!

Joost · « **Reply #9 on:** February 03, 2010, 08:03:46 PM »

Quote from: Mairi on February 03, 2010, 07:49:42 PM

At least we know one thing: everyone loves Ringo!

Everyone except Piers Morgan.

fanofthefab4 · « **Reply #10 on:** February 04, 2010, 10:38:32 PM »

This is totally ludicrious! First of all there used to be an online interview with Charlie Watts called The Drinking Man's Rolling Stone from a 1973 magazine called,Zig Zag in which he said The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were friends and a lot alike as people. He also said what made The Beatles so great was they made 1 great album and great single after the next!

The Rolling Stones were good friends with and fans of The Beatles and Mick Jagger was at 4 Beatles recording sessions and Keith Richards was at 2 of them with him. Mick Jagger also went up on the train with them to Bangor in August 1967 to study meditation with the Maharishi for the first time and he was with them there when they got the call their manager Brian Epstein was found dead. :

fanofthefab4 · « **Reply #11 on:** February 04, 2010, 10:41:17 PM »

A few days ago I got an email back from Tony Keys of a web site called,rocksbackpages and he said he does have a December 1973 ZigZag Charlie Watts interview. He said if I want it he would scan it and send it to me for 30$ British $. But I don't want to buy it I thought that they posted old rock interviews on their site for free.

Also,

on a fan site for the rock group Yes, called, Yesfans.com ( who are also big Beatles fans themselves and they recorded and played live several Beatles songs and member Rick Wakeman did a whole Beatles tribute album in 2000) they had a topic called Are The Beatles Overrated? from 2004-2008 and over 74% of the Yes fans voted the first choice, No Of Course Not They Were Not Overrated How Can You Even Ask This Question.

And one of the Yes fans posted in early 2008," The Greatest Band of all time overrated? Phuck no!"

And another Yes fan quoted him and said I second what he said! Another Yes fan quoted his own post from a year before when he had said he thought The Beatles were overrated and he now quoted his old post with an I'm stupid emoticon and he said how could I have been so stupid,of course The Beatles are not overrated.

Also, guitarist Frank Marino of the hard rock group Mahogany Rush said in several online interviews that he hates The Rolling Stones but he likes The Beatles,Jimi Hendrix,and The Doors etc. And Dave Navarro of the rock group Jane's Addiction said in Guitar World in 1991 and 1996 that he has always hated The Rolling Stones and he will never play one of their records.

fanofthefab4 · « **Reply #12 on:** February 04, 2010, 10:44:57 PM »

Also Mick Jagger was such a big Beatles fan that in May 1967 when The Beatles were recording their song Baby You're A Rich Man he came there and stood on the sidelines to watch and listen to them recording it. His name is also on the tape box and he likely sang at the end verses.

fanofthefab4 · « **Reply #13 on:** February 04, 2010, 10:49:41 PM »

As The Rolling Stone Album Guide said,not liking The Beatles is as perverse as not liking the sun. And Ozzy Osbourne said not loving The Beatles is like not loving oxogen. And a guy who runs Keno's Classic Rock n Roll Site and who runs a Rolling Stones and John Lennon fan site says in his review of The Beatles 1967-1970 Red Album damn The Beatles were one great group and he said in his great review of The Beatles 1962-1966 Red album, that if you don't love or at least like The Beatles and their music then you are not a true rock fan and more than likely will never ever get it.

He also says that John Lennon showed on Paul's rocker Get Back why he should have played lead guitar more often because he did such a good job of it. He also said he played a pretty good slide guitar on George's For Your Blue and he said John also played one of the first and best acid guitar parts on his great rocker Revolution.

fanofthefab4 · « **Reply #14 on:** February 04, 2010, 10:55:49 PM »

I don't any Rolling Stones albums I had Hot Rocks on an 8 track when I was 13 but I never liked The Rolling Stones that much at all. I started to collect Beatles albums when I was 9,I got my first Beatles book for my 11th birthday and I had every Beatles album by age 13. I was born after 1964 too.

Also Mick Jagger said that Keith Richards loved The Beatles and loved their beautiful melodies and harmonies and that Keith and Brian Jones tried to equal them but he said Brian couldn't sing good enough!Charlie is obviously envious with sour grapes,The Beatles remastered albums sold much more 40 years after their break up than The Rolling Stones remastered albums and they are still together! The Beatles have the best selling album of the last decade with their CD 1.

fanofthefab4 · « **Reply #15 on:** February 04, 2010, 10:56:37 PM »

As this guy Sal66 who has also posted on sites debunking ignorant cr*p about The Beatles has rightfully pointed out, The Beatles wrote,played and recorded I Feel Fine (which The All Music Guide says has brilliant,active ,difficult guitar leads and riffs) in the Fall of 1964 which was the first use of feedback guitar on a pop rock record and it also had a prominent guitar riff throughout this very good song almost a year *before* The Rolling Stones's Satisfaction came out.

And on John's great Norwegian Wood recorded in the Fall of 1965,George Harrison was the first to play a sitar on a pop rock song and it was released on their great album Rubber Soul in December and then in May 1966 The Rolling Stones song Paint It Black came out with Brian Jones playing a sitar!

And in Paul McCartney's authorized biography Many Years From Now, Mick Jagger's former girlfriend singer Marriane Faithful says that she and Mick used to go over to Paul's house a lot and hang out in his music room. She said he never went to see them at their house they always went to visit him because he was Paul McCartney.She also said that Mick was intimidated by Paul but that Paul was totally oblivious to this.

Paul also says in this book that he turned Mick on to pot in his music room and he said which is funny because a lot of people would assume it was the other way around. John and Paul also wrote 1 of The Rolling Stones first hits, the rock n roll song I Wanna Be Youre Man in late 1963 right in front of them and Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were really impressed and were like wow how can you write a song just like that and it inspired them to start writing their own songs.

fanofthefab4 · « **Reply #16 on:** February 04, 2010, 10:57:26 PM »

NME.COM
HOME
NME News

Bob Dylan talks of Beatles friendship

Legend admits: 'I'm in awe of McCartney'

May 16, 2007

Bob Dylan has spoken in depth about his longstanding friendship with The Beatles and his particular bond with George Harrison.

Talking to Rolling Stone magazine, Dylan talked freely about Harrison’s struggle to find his voice within the songwriting collective of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

"George got stuck with being the Beatle that had to fight to get songs on records because of Lennon and McCartney. Well, who wouldn’t get stuck?" he asked.

Dylan highlighted the writing talents of Harrison, saying: "If George had had his own group and was writing his own songs back then, he’d have been probably just as big as anybody."

Speaking against popular belief, the singer also denounced any rumours of competitiveness towards Lennon and McCartney, asserting, "They were fantastic singers. Lennon, to this day, it’s hard to find a better singer than Lennon was, or than McCartney was and still is."

Nodding his cap to McCartney in particular, Dylan concluded: "I’m in awe of McCartney. He’s about the only one that I am in awe of. He can do it all. And he’s never let up... He’s just so damn effortless.

fanofthefab4 · « **Reply #17 on:** February 04, 2010, 10:58:01 PM »

I'd say Bob Dylan's praise means a hell of a lot more than drummer Charlie Watt's any day!

And Brian Jones played the saxaphone on the strange Beatles song, You Know My Name Look Up The Number and he and Mick Jagger's girlfriend at the time Marriane Faithful contributed sound effects on the song Yellow Submarine.

fanofthefab4 · « **Reply #18 on:** February 04, 2010, 11:17:29 PM »

I also have been posting on message board Beatles discussions about this 1973 ZigZag Charlie Watts interview since 2005,I just posted about it last month on a post on The Huffington Post in an article by writer William Bradley called,The Band Of The Decade:The Beatles? and he said he had liked their music before but he never had been a big Beatles fan and that they were somewhat before his time and he said he never listened to all of their albums all together. He said listening to their remasters including their early music like the A Hard Day's Night album got him to become a big Beatles fan.He said the movie and album are also great.

Also back in September 2001 when I first found the 1973 Charlie Watts ZigZag interview when it was still online, I emailed a DJ who is a huge Beatles fan and expert and who had hosted a 2 hour Breakfast With The Beatles radio show in my city in the late 80's to early 90's and then he moved to New York to host it,(and now he's back hosting it for 7 years in my city again) and I told him about this 1973 ZigZag Charlie Watts interview where he said what The Beatles great is that they made one great album and single after the next,and he emailed me back and said that,that Charlie Watts interview was very interesting and good!

Almighty Doer of Stuff · « **Reply #19 on:** February 05, 2010, 03:44:45 AM »

Oh my FSM, can you rant and ramble, and for no reason at that! Charlie never said he disliked the Beatles themselves! He just meant he doesn't like their music. Nothing wrong with that. He's primarily a jazz fan who just happens to be most famous for playing rock. Calm down!

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Author Topic: Charlie Watts Blasts Beatles and Elvis (Read 9518 times)