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Charlie Watts, drummer for the Rolling Stones, dies at 80 | CNN Charlie Watts, drummer for the Rolling Stones, dies at 80 | CNN

In the 80s and 90s, as the Rolling Stones’ tours became ever-more extravagant son-et-lumière displays involving pyrotechnics, huge inflatables and cantilevered bridges, the vast screens at the side of the stage would occasionally focus on Watts.And sometimes, his playing seemed to show an innate understanding of what the song was about. On Get Off Of My Cloud, he plays exactly the same fill every two bars throughout the song’s verses: there’s something relentless about it, which fits perfectly given Get Off Of My Cloud is about frustrated anger. This video has been removed. This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason. Charlie Watts: Rolling Stones drummer dies at age 80 – video obituary

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Eventually, his reticence became something of what would now be called a brand, his unruffled, beautifully tailored calmness and detachment as characteristic in its own way as Richards’ dissolution.Almost invariably stone-faced as he played, he seemed to give off an ineffable air of slightly aloof bemusement, as if he thought it was all completely ridiculous and might have been more content pursuing his love of jazz, something he confined to downtime between grossing hundreds of millions in the world’s arenas and stadiums.

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Unruffled amid excess, personality clashes and musical disputes, the Rolling Stones’ exceptional drummer used technique to deepen the meaning and power of their songs His reticence also worked in his favour. Married since 1964, he seemed largely uninterested in the kinds of excesses that his fellow Stones tended to revel in, whether chemical or sexual.