me holding a gun to a mushroom: tell me the name of god you fungal piece of shit
mushroom: can you feel your heart burning? can you feel the struggle within? the fear within me is beyond anything your soul can make. you cannot kill me in a way that matters
me cocking the gun, tears streaming down my face: I’M NOT FUCKING SCARED OF YOU
being so fr when I say that transmisogyny has put feminism back like 50 years
what i thought we had distanced ourselves from was the reduction of women to vaginas and wombs and the ability to bear children. i thought we had progressed past ‘dresses are for women and pants are for men.’ i thought we progressed past the idea that someone is less of a woman if she does not adhere strictly to beauty standards. i thought we progressed past the idea that naturally being comfortable adhering to highly feminine standards is vulgar. but i (sarcastically) guess no one could have predicted that trans-exclusive feminism would be the downfall of all the progress we’ve made
Your comment about Charlie being the one to save them from a fistfight reminded me the story of when Andrew Oldham was acting crazy and Keith and Mick were calling Charlie for help. Finally Charlie got up, knocked Oldham out, and then went back to watching tv. Of all the people in the band who would have thought Charlie is the one they call when somebody has to be knocked out. His childhood fighting skills never waned.
It actually explains some of Keith’s autobiography, though. No wonder he said he had witnessed those moves before when Mick almost went flying out a window:
“There was a rare moment, in late 1984, of Charlie throwing his drummer’s punch - a punch I’ve seen a couple of times and it’s lethal; it carries a lot of balance and timing. He has to be badly provoked.“
The bit about "balance and timing” certainly makes sense. I don’t think anyone would want the guy who handles the snare and tom on “Paint It Black” or “All Down The Line” laying into their skull:
Especially if him just picking up the pace playing a few songs produced this result:
(I do have to say; the MTV interview with Keith cuts off the full quote, where he compares Charlie to Mike Tyson and implies that he was drumming like that because he was “pissed off” and jealous that Keith had been playing with another drummer. Beyond the fact that Charlie set Keith up with Steve Jordan, the guy who heckled Dave Green at every Charlie Watts Big Band/Quintet/Quartet and Boogie Woogie group gig hasn’t got a leg to stand on when it comes to making fun of jealousy).
You’re not wrong, though. I doubt many of us would immediately think of Charlie when it comes to the need for violent action. Not that he couldn’t put some people (or at least someone) in their place when need be:
“In Montauk, when we were rehearsing, we’d be sitting there playing and he [Mick] would suddenly come up and kick me. And he tried it on Charlie’s drums - once. He never tried it again. Charlie did a mild flip-out, said: ‘Listen, I don’t unplug your mike lead, so don’t upset my drums. And while we are at it, don’t keep buggin’ Ronnie.’”-Ronnie Wood
Keith mentions a couple times in Life that he (and I think Mick as well) lost more fistfights than they won. So I guess it makes sense that they had the more qualified party handling things. Although it’s pretty impressive, and very sweet, that when someone threatened one of Charlie’s girls, Keith became Jackie Chan in no time flat:
“I remember a guy comes up and bothers Charlie’s wife and Keith smashes him over the head with a beer bottle, while holding a baby, as he pushes the guy down the stairs.”-Ronnie Schneider, 1972
I love that Mick and Keith doted relentlessly on Charlie, like he couldn’t possibly get off his kit without a hand down from Keith or around the stage without Mick holding his hand/dragging him around or zip up his own jacket, but when things went wrong, they relied on him to swoop in and fix it. Whether it be a fight between the Glimmer Twins or saving them from getting beat up. He wasn’t the type to enjoy hurting anyone at all, of course, but he’d come to their rescue in any disaster. They really looked up to him like little kids who think their dad is superman; unbeatable, the best at everything he does, and always there for them.
It’s no mystery why the kids thought Charlie was the coolest. After all, they’d learned about him from the most dedicated Charlie Watts fans in the world:
