Honky Tonk Woman

 

His slinky, cowbell-driven groove on 1969's Honky Tonk Women is one of Watts most danceable drum tracks. He even pushes the tempo up in the final chorus to really set the dancefloor on fire.

Interestingly, the cowbell itself isn't played by Watts but by the Stones' producer Jimmy Miller - and the band could never replicate his slightly stumbled intro in concert.

"We've never played an intro to Honky Tonk Women live the way it is on the record," Watts said in the book According to the Rolling Stones.

"That's Jimmy playing the cowbell and either he comes in wrong or I come in wrong - but Keith comes in right which makes the whole thing right. It's one of those things that musicologists could sit around analysing for years. It's actually a mistake but from my point of view it works."