Charlie Watts: Rolling Stones drummer dies: BBC News Review

Charlie Watts, the drummer from the legendary British rock group

the Rolling Stones, has died at the age of 80.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil and joining me is Tom. Hello Tom.

Hello Neil and hello to our audience.

Don't forget – if you want to test yourself on today's vocabulary,

there's a quiz at bbclearningenglish.com.

Now, let's hear about this story from a BBC radio report:

So, Charlie Watts, drummer of the Rolling Stones, has died.

Newspapers in the UK and abroad

have paid respect to the late drummer.

Watts died at the age of 80

and this was shortly after cancelling his appearance

on the most recent planned tour.

Yeah. Sad news for fans of the Rolling Stones.

You've been looking at this story and you've picked out

three words and expressions that we can use to talk about it.

What have you got?

I have three words and expressions: 'backbone', 'rock' and 'pay tribute'.

'Backbone', 'rock' and 'pay tribute'.

Let's start with your first headline then please, Tom.

My first headline, Neil, is from the Miami Herald in the US – it says:

And that word is 'backbone'.

'Backbone' – meaning main support.

Now, 'backbone' – that word made up of two words: 'back' and 'bone'–

I know what that is. That's... that's your spine, isn't it?

Yeah. You know the medical use – so, the spine is...

is your 'backbone'. And what does it do, Neil?

What is the purpose of this spine or 'backbone' in the body?

Well, it supports everything else: all of the other main bones come off it

and it's really central. Without it, the body would collapse.

Yeah. It quite literally holds everything together,

and it's in this way that this use is similar.

We're not talking about an actual bone in your body, but when we say,

'Charlie Watts was the backbone of the Rolling Stones,'

we mean that he helped to keep the group together.

This could be because of his personality

or, as a drummer, he helps to keep other musicians in time.

Yeah, that's right. And we use that expression

'to be the backbone of something' precisely like that –

to say that something is really important

in terms of supporting something.

Yeah, and it... it's quite a positive thing to say.

There's another use of 'backbone',

which refers to, kind of, strength of character.

If someone 'displays backbone'

or you could say if they 'have a lot of backbone',

it means they display great strength of character

and they're a, sort of, strong person.

OK. So, that's a slightly different meaning to the one in this headline then,

where we're saying that somebody is important for supporting.

This is about the strength, or how brave somebody is.

Yeah, precisely. So, imagine... one day, Neil,

if I didn't want to do News Review and I said,

'Oh, I'm tired. I don't feel like it.

I don't know if I can do it.'

And you said, 'Tom, come on! Show some backbone. Do the job.'

It means, kind of, be strong.

Yeah. And interestingly, we talk about 'spine' in a...

in a similar way to mean, sort of, being brave.

We can say that somebody who isn't brave is 'spineless'.

Exactly. Yeah. So, almost the opposite of having 'backbone'

is being 'spineless', which – if you say to someone, 'Don't be spineless,'

it means: 'Don't be a wimp.'

You know, you need to be brave.

Yeah. That's right. OK. Shall we get a summary?

Let's do that.

If you like stories about music, we have the perfect one for you

about whether or not music's getting faster.

What do our viewers have to do, Tom?

They just need to groove on down the page

and click the link in the video description.

Let's have a look now at your second headline.

Of course. My second headline is from

the Financial Times in the UK – it says:

And the word is 'rock'.

So, 'rock' – strong, reliable person.

Yeah. 'Rock' – strong, reliable person.

Now, I've chosen this today, Neil,

because lots of people know what a 'rock' is,

and it relates to a stone, actually.

But there are all these other uses of 'rock' that we use in English as well.

I thought this would be a good opportunity to look at these.

Yeah. And in this headline the use of the word 'rock'

has multiple meanings and that's very typical of a headline.

We call these puns. They are plays on word... on words.

They are, of course, yeah, because Charlie....

Charlie Watts was a 'rock musician'. He played in a 'rock band'

and to describe him as the 'rock' of a band is quite appropriate.

The meaning is almost similar: if you think of a 'rock' –

it's strong, you know, it's hard

and these are adjectives we could use to describe 'rock music' as well,

which has a sort of strong, hard and powerful sound.

Yeah. And if we describe someone as 'your rock' or 'my rock',

we're talking about the strength that they give you.

Yeah. So, this is more in a, sort of, emotional context.

If you have a husband or wife or partner and you say,

'You are my rock,' or, 'This person is my rock,'

it means you are my, sort of, person that I depend on.

You're my number one person that I rely on for support.

Yeah, OK. What else can we say about this word?

About 'rock'. So, in the headline, what it's saying is that

Charlie Watts was a strong and reliable band member.

It's quite, actually, similar to the... to the first headline.

It's a respectful play to the late drummer.

OK then. Let's get a summary:

So, we've had stones, rock and now we have metal –

all about music.

We've got a 6 Minute English programme about death metal

and whether it can bring people joy.

Where can our viewers find that, Tom?

Our viewers can find that, Neil, again

by scrolling down the page – clicking the link.

I'm a big death metal fan and I personally really enjoyed this episode.

It's given you plenty of joy.

Yes. Always.

OK. Let's have a look at your next headline.

Great. OK. Our next headline, appropriately,

is from Rolling Stone magazine – it says:

There's that word 'rock' again,

but our expression here is 'pay tribute'.

'Pay tribute' – honour someone or something.

'Pay tribute' – so, in history, 'tribute' is money

that you would pay to a king, a queen or a ruler of somewhere.

And you did this to show respect.

It was a form of respect.

So, it has this figurative usage of paying respect.

Obviously, in the modern times,

when people 'pay tribute' to someone, they don't give them money;

they're more likely to give them a nice statement,

or write a song,

but the idea of money is where you get the verb collocation 'pay'.

So, 'pay tribute to someone' means show respect to somebody.

And this is really, really common when somebody famous dies.

We see this expression to 'pay tribute' to someone all the time.

Yeah, definitely. So, as a... we'd normally do it

through statements, or acts,

or it's very popular with artists as well.

In fact, if you have a song,

you can say that a song is 'a tribute to someone'.

You can use 'tribute' as a noun.

So, if we were to play a song now, Neil, we could say:

'This is a tribute to Charlie Watts.'

It means it's intended for his memory.

Yeah. And also that word 'tribute' as a noun

can be modified by an adjective connected to the type of tribute.

So, for example, if you wrote a song

about someone that you wanted to honour,

it would be called a 'musical tribute'.

A 'musical tribute', yeah. Or in fact, Neil, there are actually bands

that just copy the song in the style of other bands –

do you know these bands?

Yeah, they're called 'tribute bands'.

They are 'tribute bands', yes. So, they're just the people who copy it,

and play much smaller venues and just don't write their own songs.

So, if we formed a Rolling Stones 'tribute band' – what could we...

we could call ourselves the 'Rolling Rocks',

because 'rock' – 'stone'...

...kind of similar. I think we should do it.  

We should definitely do it! I think we should do it as well.

Let's get the guitars down!

OK. Let's get a summary:

Time now then for a recap of the vocabulary please, Tom.

Of course. Today's vocabulary: we have 'backbone' – main support.

'Rock' – strong, reliable person.

And 'pay tribute', which means honour someone or something.

The best way to learn vocabulary is to test yourself

and you can do that by visiting our website bbclearningenglish.com.

You'll find a quiz on the words that we talked about today.

And don't forget we're also all over social media.

Thanks for joining us. And goodbye.

See ya!