must persevere

diary found


------------------- [excerpt, Life, Keith Richards' autobiography] ---------------- If I'd had the choice of finding a diary of any three-month period of the Stones' history, it would have been this one, the moment the band was hatching.  And I did find one, covering January to March of 1963. 


The real surprise was that I kept any record of this period.  It covers the crucial span when Bill Wyman arrived, or, more important, his Vox amplifier appeared and Bill came with it, and when we were trying to snare, to coin a phrase, Charlie Watts.





...January 1963
Tuesday  15


All group money to be given up for at least 2 weeks to buy amp & mikes.


Ealing -- Charlie


Maybe due to my cold but didn't sound right to me, but then Mick & Brian & myself still groggy from chills and fever!!!


Charlie swings but hasn't got right sound yet.  Rectify that tomorrow!


Poor crowd.  No money, chucking it.  Have a day off.  Rick & Carlo to play sat & mon.


...Everybody was learning.  Nobody had any firm ideas of what they wanted to do and everybody came from a slightly different background.  Charlie was a jazzman.  Bill was from the Royal Air Force.  At least he'd been abroad.


Charlie Watts has always been the bed that I lie on musically, and to see that note about how to "rectify" his sound seems extraordinary.  But like Stu, Charlie had come to rhythm and blues because of its jazz connection. 


A few days later I write, Charlie swings very nicely but can't rock.  Fabulous guy though....He had not got rock and roll down at that time.  I wanted him to hit it a little harder.  He was still too jazz for me.  We knew he was a great drummer, but in order to play with the Stones, Charlie went and studied Jimmy Reed








and Earl Phillips, who was the drummer for Jimmy Reed, just to get the feel of it.  That sparse, minimalized thing.  And he's always retained it.  Charlie was the drummer we wanted, but first off, could we afford him, and second off, would he give up some of his jazz ways for us?


...Number one with Charlie





is that he's got great feel.  ...If you look at the size of his drum kit, it's ludicrous compared with what most drummers use these days.  They've got a fort with them.  ...Charlie, with just that one classico setup, can pull it all off.





...Thursday 24
No Marquee
Cyril's scared of the applause we get according to Carlo & Rick.  Laid off for month.  ...Spent day practicing.  Worthwhile, I hope!  Must persevere with fingerstyle....


Wednesday 13 (February)


Rehearsal
Got new gitty from Ivor's!  Lovely instrument!!  What a sound!!!  New nos "Who Do You Love?" & "Route 66"


And the venues were beginning to jump.  ----------------------- [end excerpt] -------------


I walk 47 miles of barbed wire
Use a cobra snake for a necktie
Got a brand new house on the roadside
Made from rattlesnake hide...








-----------------------


If you ever plan to motor west:
Travel my way, the highway that's the best.
Get your kicks -- on Route 66!


It winds -- from Chicago to L.A.,
More than 2 -- thousand miles all the way.
Get your kicks --
On Route 66.


Now you go through Saint Looey -- Joplin, Missouri!
And Oklahoma City looks --
Mighty pretty,


You'll see Amarillo,
Gallup, New Mexico.
Flagstaff, Arizona:  don't forget Winona,
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino,


Won't you -- get hip to this timely tip:
When you make --
That California trip,
Get your kicks --
On Route Sixty-six...


--------------------
{"Route 66," written by Bobby Troup.
"Who Do You Love," written by Bo Didley}


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