{"id":727,"date":"2021-09-06T17:03:48","date_gmt":"2021-09-06T17:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gingerbaker.com\/blog\/?p=727"},"modified":"2025-06-09T09:06:29","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T09:06:29","slug":"a-family-tribute-to-charlie-watts-or-recollections-on-the-bakerloo-line-by-nettie-baker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gingerbaker.com\/blog\/a-family-tribute-to-charlie-watts-or-recollections-on-the-bakerloo-line-by-nettie-baker\/","title":{"rendered":"A family tribute to Charlie Watts (or Recollections on The Bakerloo Line) by Nettie Baker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo courtesy of Ingo Baron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know that my late father (Ginger Baker) would want me to pay tribute to one of his two most enduring friendships. Here is my personal account of a close, yet relatively little known relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From my earliest recollections of the early 1960\u2019s, I knew the name of Charlie Watts.  Apart from the fact that his mum knew my mum Liz\u2019s aunt Pamela in Kingsbury, North London (where Charlie grew up), his proximity to where we lived in Neasden and was then The Bakerloo Line tube (now The Jubilee Line). He was revered in our house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charlie was forever credited with playing a major part in helping dad\u2019s career on its upward trajectory. He had for some time very quietly admired dad\u2019s playing in the smoky  jazz clubs of late 1950\u2019s London, where many of the seeds of the 1960\u2019s pop culture revolution were being sown. In 1962, Charlie had secured a coveted place in the very happening Alexis Korner\u2019s Blues Incorporated, but he had heard about town that dad was at that time looking for a gig. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following legend was told to me repeatedly by both my parents for many years to come: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Charlie said \u2018Its not right me being in this band whilst such a great talent as Ginger Baker is out of work\u2019, and with that, he abdicated the hallowed drum chair to dad, even helping him set up his kit at the first rehearsal.\u00a0 \u2018I could hardly believe it!\u2019 said dad. \u2018On my recommendation\u2019 said Charlie. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Dad again expressed his gratitude to Charlie when they got on The Bakerloo Line together one night soon after.  Charlie replied that he wasn\u2019t even sure he wanted to follow a a career as a professional musician as there was no security in it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The  postscript to this is even better and set in the legendary damp and dingy Ealing Club. Brian Jones  (highly rated musically by dad) had got together with Mick Jagger and dad suggested to Brian they get a rhythm section. This they did, but in dad\u2019s words, \u2018the drummer was fucking awful\u2019 \u2018Why don\u2019t you get Charlie Watts?\u2019 he told them and the rest is history.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As The Stones began gigging on the same club circuit, mum & dad would often join Charlie on those little red Bakerloo Line trains to and from Town. Mum recalled Charlie\u2019s concerns that if he became well known, how would he be sure that a girlfriend would love him for himself? She assured him he\u2019d be fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years rolled by as they do and dad and Charlie bumped into each other many times. In the 90\u2019s, when The Stones played in Colorado, Charlie took the time to go and visit dad on his ranch there, making him laugh by saying \u2018I would give you tickets, but I know you won\u2019t come!\u2019 In 2008, Charlie presented dad with his Zildjian Lifetime Achievement Award at London\u2019s Shepherd\u2019s Bush Empire. On stage they mentioned the \u2018Bakerloo Line days\u2019 again and backstage mum joined in with more, like any old mates reminiscing. For dad\u2019s 70th<\/sup> birthday, Charlie sent an enormous white Orchid which still survives (flowering well) as \u2018The Charlie Watts Orchid\u2019. In early October 2019, as dad steadily declined, I reached out to a mutual friend to let Charlie know the lie of the land. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Soon after, my phone rang and a familiar voice asked \u2018Is this Nettie? Charlie Watt\u2019s here.\u2019 He spoke of his love and concern for dad and I gave him dad\u2019s number (\u2018have you got a pen?\u2019 \u2018hang on. Yes\u2019). Two days later, dad passed away. I rang Charlie with the news and he was so very sad, but glad also that he\u2019d managed to talk to him.\u00a0 (of course we had a chat about aunt Pamela, Kingsbury and The Bakerloo Line.)\u00a0 \u2018I thought the world of him.\u2019 said Charlie, \u2018and he thought the world of you.\u2019 I was pleased to reply. The human face of\u00a0 \u2018Rock and Roll\u2019\u2026. or was it Jazz?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo courtesy of Ingo Baron. I know that my late father (Ginger Baker) would want me to pay tribute to one of his two most enduring friendships. Here is my personal account of a close, yet relatively little known relationship. …<\/p>\n

A family tribute to Charlie Watts (or Recollections on The Bakerloo Line) by Nettie Baker<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Ep1h-bJ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gingerbaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gingerbaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gingerbaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gingerbaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gingerbaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.gingerbaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":862,"href":"http:\/\/www.gingerbaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727\/revisions\/862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gingerbaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gingerbaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gingerbaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}