Sympathy for the Drummer cover art

Sympathy for the Drummer

Why Charlie Watts Matters

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Sympathy for the Drummer

By: Mike Edison
Narrated by: Mike Edison
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £10.99

Buy Now for £10.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Sympathy for the Drummer: Why Charlie Watts Matters is both a gonzo rush - capturing the bristling energy of the Rolling Stones and the times in which they lived - and a wide-eyed reflection on why the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World needed the world's greatest rock 'n' roll drummer.

Across five decades, Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has had the best seat in the house. Charlie Watts, the anti-rock star - an urbane jazz fan with a dry wit and little taste for the limelight - was witness to the most savage years in rock history, and emerged a hero, a warrior poet. With his easy swing and often loping, uneven fills, he found nuance in a music that often had little room for it, and along with his greatest ally, Keith Richards, he gave the Stones their swaggering beat. While others battled their drums, Charlie played his modest kit with finesse and humility, and yet his relentless grooves on the nastiest hard-rock numbers of the era ("Gimme Shelter", "Street Fighting Man", "Brown Sugar", "Jumpin' Jack Flash", etc.) delivered a dangerous authenticity to a band that on their best nights should have been put in jail.

Author Mike Edison, himself a notorious raconteur and accomplished drummer, tells a tale of respect and satisfaction that goes far beyond drums, drumming, and the Rolling Stones, ripping apart the history of rock'n'roll, and celebrating 60 years of cultural upheaval. He tears the sheets off of the myths of music making, shredding the phonies and the frauds, and unifies the frayed edges of disco, punk, blues, country, soul, jazz, and R&B - the soundtrack of our lives.

Highly opinionated, fearless, and often hilarious, Sympathy is as an unexpected treat for music fans and pop culture mavens, as edgy and ribald as the Rolling Stones at their finest, never losing sight of the sex and magic that puts the roll in the rock - the beat, that crazy beat! - and the man who drove the band, their true engine, the utterly irreplaceable Charlie Watts.

©2019 Rowman & Littlefield (P)2019 Rowman & Littlefield
Entertainment & Celebrities History & Criticism Celebrity Warrior Witty
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The 100 Greatest Rock Bassists cover art
Sex, Drums, Rock 'n' Roll! cover art
Doomed to Fail cover art
Under the Big Black Sun cover art
Glam! cover art
Bring That Beat Back cover art
Grebo! cover art
Have a Little Faith cover art
The Yacht Rock Book cover art
Huey Morgan’s Rebel Heroes cover art
Our Band Could Be Your Life cover art
Shiny and New cover art
Eruption cover art
Crossroads cover art
Bruce Springsteen cover art
Total F*cking Godhead cover art

What listeners say about Sympathy for the Drummer

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Unexpectedly Great!

I came to this with uncertain expectations, and was pleasantly surprised. (I still can't believe I binged the whole thing in one five hour go). Edison is a drummer himself, and he really seems to know drumming, both in a historical and hands on sense. It's very refreshing, in that vein, that's he's not afraid of getting technical, and, while he explains, he never dumbs down. Although this is a book that would presumably attract mostly Stones fans, he does pause, when necessary, to provide a bit of background. But he's not afraid of mixing opinion with fact. He's got something of a musical Anthony Bourdain thing going on, both with his style and the strength (as well as the sometimes in your face nature) of his views, and that's what makes the book truly worth a read/listen. All throughout, his love for the music, and genuine appreciation for Charlie, as a drummer and as a person, shines through.

Word to the wise, though. Listen to a sample of the audiobook before you buy, and be sure that you can live with Edison's voice, and often bombastic style of delivery, for nearly 5 hours. Plus a good amount of drumming and riffs inserted to prove points.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!