Charlie Watts Donkey Ride Promo Shoot for the album "Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out"

Charlies best moment is an abortive photo shoot for the album cover on a foggy, deserted stretch of English motorway in winter, somewhere outside of Birmingham, weeks after the tour ended. Its the same shoot that briefly opens Gimme Shelter, but here we get much more of a sense of what actually went on. Gamely dressed up in medieval garb, Charlie totes guitar cases while astride an adorable donkey. A small photo crew and Mick Jagger look on. "Get rid of the elmet," Jagger commands. Along for the ride is American journalist Stanley Booth, who would go on to write one of the definitive books about the band and a classic of rock journalism, The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones. It begins raining and they beat a hasty retreat to Micks white Bentley. The scene is bleak, pathetic and funny, like something out of Beckett, but it wouldnt have worked in the film. Its also revealing to note the songs they perform: "Im Free," "Under My Thumb," and "Satisfaction," all of which didnt make the album, probably because those early pop songs didnt quite fit the new, hip-rootsy Stones that Get Yer Ya-Yas Out sought to portray.