So, as Chuck Barry famously said, 'it goes to show you just can't tell'.
In this case, it's the split between a person's public persona and his or her private life. Specifically the news that rock'n'roll drummer Charlie Watts, whose passing left The Rolling Stones with only two of their original members,* turns out to have been a serious book collector. Among prize items in his collection are autographed copies of first editions of THE GREAT GATSBY, HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, Dylan Thomas's first book, as well as books by Agatha Christie, Virginia Woolf, and others. Here's the link:
--John R.
*Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. The other remaining member, Ron Wood, is a Stones-come-lately, having come on board in 1974. Surviving original member Bill Wyman retired in 1993, saying he was too old for the rock-n-roll lifestyle.
2 comments:
Watts was also an author himself: in 1960 he published a children's book that he wrote and illustrated called "Ode to a High Flying Bird," about Charlie Parker. Watts was a huge jazz fan, He didn't do very many interviews, but in the interviews I've read, he spends most of the time talking about his favorite jazz musicians (and not at all about himself, if he could help it). He was very humble about his own abilities as a drummer, and did not think that what he did with the Stones was anything special.
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