Sympathy for the Drummer
Why Charlie Watts Matters
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Narrated by:
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Mike Edison
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By:
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Mike Edison
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 & LittlefieldListeners also enjoyed...
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Despite an epic reputation for exhibitionism, drug taking, and drunkenness, through it all the Chili Peppers have continued to produce records that shock, challenge, and intrigue their fans. Jeff Apter tells the complete Red Hot Chili Peppers story, from their first meeting at a Los Angeles high school to the creation of such career-defining albums as BloodSugarSexMagik, Californication and By The Way.
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Cabron
- By Amazon Customer on 10-02-19
By: Jeff Apter
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Walk This Way
- Run-DMC, Aerosmith, and the Song That Changed American Music Forever
- By: Geoff Edgers
- Narrated by: Geoff Edgers
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Washington Post staff writer Geoff Edgers takes a deep dive into the story behind "Walk This Way", Aerosmith and Run-DMC's legendary, groundbreaking mashup that forever changed music.
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A MUST LISTEN/READ
- By Aron Teo Lee on 05-17-19
By: Geoff Edgers
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Chairman at the Board
- Recording the Soundtrack of a Generation
- By: Bill Schnee
- Narrated by: Bill Schnee
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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With over 125 gold and platinum records, and two Grammys for Steely Dan's Aja and Gaucho, Schnee has been called a living legend - recognized and respected in the industry as the consummate music man with an incomparable career that he lovingly shares with listeners in humorous detail.
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Worst narration ever!
- By Anonymous User on 01-26-23
By: Bill Schnee
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Goodnight, L.A.
- Untold Tales from Inside Classic Rock’s Legendary Recording Studios
- By: Kent Hartman
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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From behind the walls of a handful of well-hidden, unlikely recording studios in the Los Angeles area, legends-in-waiting created masterpiece albums. It was a time of astonishing creativity and unprecedented fame and fortune. It was also a time of unfettered excess that threatened to unravel everything along the way. With access that only a longtime music business insider can provide, Kent Hartman packs Goodnight, L.A. with never-before-told stories about the most prolific time and iconic place in rock 'n' roll history.
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great stories and insight into a miraculous time
- By RWM on 05-27-22
By: Kent Hartman
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Dreaming the Beatles
- A Love Story of One Band and the Whole World
- By: Rob Sheffield
- Narrated by: Rob Sheffield
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Dreaming the Beatles is not another biography of the Beatles or a song-by-song analysis of the best of John and Paul. It isn't another exposé about how they broke up. It isn't a history of their gigs or their gear. It is a collection of essays telling the story of what this ubiquitous band means to a generation who grew up with the Beatles' music on their parents' stereos and their faces on T-shirts. What do the Beatles mean today? Why are they more famous and beloved now than ever? Find out.
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Wonderful ramble
- By Tad Davis on 05-18-17
By: Rob Sheffield
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All These Things That I've Done
- My Insane, Improbable Rock Life
- By: Matt Pinfield, Mitchell Cohen
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Matt Pinfield is the ultimate music fan. He's the guy who knows every song, artist, and musical riff ever recorded, down to the most obscure band's B-side single on its vinyl-only EP import. As a child, music helped Pinfield make sense of the world. Later he would approach his music idols after concerts and explain why he loved their music. As an adult, rock music inspired his career, fueled relationships, and, at times, became a life raft.
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great listen
- By nilda v. on 08-28-20
By: Matt Pinfield, and others
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Your Song Changed My Life
- From Jimmy Page to St. Vincent, Smokey Robinson to Hozier, Thirty-Five Beloved Artists on Their Journey and the Music That Inspired It
- By: Bob Boilen
- Narrated by: Bob Boilen
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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From the beloved host and creator of NPR's All Songs Considered and Tiny Desk Concerts comes an essential oral history of modern music, told in the voices of iconic and up-and-coming musicians, including Dave Grohl, Jimmy Page, Michael Stipe, Carrie Brownstein, Smokey Robinson, and Jeff Tweedy, among others - published in association with NPR Music.
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Cool if you know all interviewed artists
- By Farfield on 12-05-16
By: Bob Boilen
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Everybody Wants Some
- The Van Halen Saga
- By: Ian Christe
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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How did a pair of little Dutch boys trained in classical music grow up to become the nucleus of the most popular heavy metal band of all time? What's the secret behind Eddie Van Halen's incredible fast and furious guitar solos? What makes David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar so wacky? And, are all those stories about groupies, booze bashes, and contract riders true? The naked truth is laid bare in Everybody Wants Some - the real-life story of a rock 'n' roll fantasy come true.
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Good details of albums and post-1984 career
- By IndyMATT on 12-30-18
By: Ian Christe
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Dig If You Will the Picture
- Funk, Sex, God and Genius in the Music of Prince
- By: Ben Greenman
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Ben Greenman, New York Times best-selling author, contributing writer to The New Yorker, and owner of thousands of recordings of Prince and Prince-related songs, knows intimately that there has never been a rock star as vibrant, mercurial, willfully contrary, experimental, or prolific as Prince. Uniting a diverse audience while remaining singularly himself, Prince was a tireless artist, a musical virtuoso and chameleon, and a pop-culture prophet.
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Reads like a indepth career review & analysis
- By herb on 05-18-17
By: Ben Greenman
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Keith Richards
- The Unauthorised Biography
- By: Victor Bockris
- Narrated by: Adrian Mulraney
- Length: 20 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1992, Victor Bockris' celebrated biography was the first to recognize Richards' pivotal role in the legend of the Rolling Stones. Now that book on rock's most incredible survivor has been expanded. Here are the true facts behind Richards' battles with his demons: the women, the drugs and the love-hate relationship with Jagger. His struggle with heroin and his status as the rock star most likely to die in the 1970s. His scarcely believable rebirth as a family man in the 1980s. Illuminated with revealing quotes and thoughtful insights into the man behind the band that goes on forever.
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doesn't comapre to LIFE
- By A. Garofalo on 02-20-14
By: Victor Bockris
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Rainbow in the Dark
- The Autobiography
- By: Ronnie James Dio, Mick Wall - contributor, Wendy Dio - contributor
- Narrated by: Daniel Thomas May
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Prior to his tragic death in 2010, Ronnie James Dio had been writing his autobiography, looking back on the remarkable life that led him from his hometown in upstate New York to the biggest stages in the world, including the arena that represented the pinnacle of success to him - Madison Square Garden, where this book begins and ends.
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Horns up!
- By Big Daddy on 02-10-22
By: Ronnie James Dio, and others
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The Never-Ending Present
- The Story of Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip
- By: Michael Barclay
- Narrated by: George Stroumboulopoulos
- Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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From our talent-rich neighbor to the north comes this biography of one of the most successful Canadian rock bands, The Tragically Hip, which announced a year-long tour after sharing the news of lead singer Gord Downie’s inoperable cancer. Now available to US listeners, The Never-Ending Present details what led up to the memorable night when music fans all over the world watched Downie’s heroic final performance.
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Hometown Heroes
- By Tommy Garou on 12-13-18
By: Michael Barclay
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High Voltage
- The Life of Angus Young – AC/DC's Last Man Standing
- By: Jeff Apter
- Narrated by: John Derum
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The first biography to focus exclusively on Angus Young - from his remarkable rise from working-class Glasgow and Sydney to the biggest stages in the world. Angus Young, the cofounder and the last remaining original member of AC/DC, has for more than 40 years been the face, the sound and sometimes the exposed backside of the trailblazing rock band.
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Excellent book
- By Anonymous User on 09-21-18
By: Jeff Apter
What listeners say about Sympathy for the Drummer
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- DanDrum
- 08-14-21
Charlie Watts gets some well deserved recognition.
I loved it!
I am a rock N roll info geek and enjoyed all the back stories with the surrounding bands, people studios, times, places, facts of that kind.
The reading is a bit fast when you are trying to take it all in.
I grew up buying most of those records as a kid and played drums 🥁 teaching myself and having a blast!
And it bears repeatin C.W. was an amazing, awesome mortar that held The Stones together ❤
Without Charlie there wouldn't be a band of that caliber
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- Emmett Hart III
- 04-15-21
FANTASTIC!!
Great story and obvious passion from the narrator/author. A nice drum history lesson, as well.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Professor Jacko
- 08-26-21
Arrogance, pretense and a hideous narration
There are good narrators and not-so-good narrators, narrations where the voice infuses eloquent subtleties and those that are overproduced with unnecessary music and effects. rarely do I hear one where I simply wanted to punch the reader right in the schnozzola. This author is filled with attitude and pretense, poorly formed opinions, and braggadocio. He makes judgments of musicians that are way out of line. This self-proclaimed “rock’n’roll renaissance man” who edited Screw Magazine and High Times styles himself hip beyond measure. Predictably, his observations on the art of rock are filled with drug and sex references that might charm a wannabe rocker or 12-year old.
His points are often reduced to “fuckin’ this or fuckin’ that’ or ’goddam this or that to emphasize that “'I’m as cool as my subject” bona fides. Attitude in rock and roll criticism is a thin line that he falls off and stumbles on to an embarrassing degree. I’d say he is a dime-store Lester Bangs but that would be a compliment. He’s more like a penny arcade version. It is attitude without art.
Some of his worst judgments concern pitting the Beatles against the Stones, an old and tired game. “The Beatles weren’t part of any counterculture - they came adult approved . . wholesale embrace of product … shaking their mop tops . . . cracking a few jokes for the Queen of England.” He claims that the Beatles lacked “a mojo” in other words “no pretty boy handling the mic like a hot cock”. “ In his hyperbolic opinion, the Stones were authentic sexy bad boys and that makes them superior rockers. Does that make Charlie more ‘authentic’ than Ringo? It a tired and woefully unnecessary. The Beatles changes music and Charlie knows that, too.
There is a perilous white insensitivity to discussions of black music as in the repeated and dated use of the word “negro” (“primal negro eroticism that Mick and Keith mainlined at least until the drugs took over). I imagine regressing to the traditional use of that word, skirting a more politically savvy term, is part of being hip and ‘in the know’. That is the kind of attitude that makes this so exasperating. He passes judgments from some lauded place of startling ignorance.
But to give him credit where it is due there are songs worth revisiting based on his descriptions. The history, particular the roots of lesser-known drummers, is interesting. A clever turn of phrase like the description that of Kiss - “a band so ugly they had to cover their faces with Spackle and great paint [with] more sexual conquests than Wilt Chamberlain and Satan combined” is accurate - but it begs the question “who cares”.
I got some information from the book but after a life spent as a professional musician (and drummer), I find this kind of fan perspective infuriating. Anyone who has put hours into the craft and the work, who has absorbed and experienced the world of popular music and its roots the nuggets will drown in arrogance and pretense.
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- Jennifer Burton
- 10-26-22
Drummers matter
I loved listening to the passionate history of drumming, and the full worshipful adjective rich adulation of the albums/periods of the phenomenal Rolling Stones, but unnecessarily critical of The Doors. Lol.. Love.
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- Brian Mayet
- 09-25-20
A MUST LISTEN
Mike Edison loves his work and it shows in spades!! This book wasn't long enough!!! He brings Charlie and The Stones to life with every line. This is not for the faint of heart. Edison has the throttle pushed to the limit and it makes for a fun ride.
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- Robdogg
- 05-29-20
Narrator is hard to listen to
I was looking forward to this book, what I heard was hard to listen to. The narrator has a great voice and pronunciation for doing introductions, but after about 5 minutes of this I wanted to puke. How can I return this book?
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- Glen Caplan
- 09-06-20
Wayyyyyy too long!!
A long book and I did not really learn much about Charlie other than he can play a great groove.
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