Charlie Watts died on August 24.  He was eighty.  Watts played drums for the Rolling Stones since 1963.

Is it trite to say that Watts passing marks the end of an era?  There, I have said it and will say it again.  A great deal of what we’ve taken for granted and relied upon is changing, passing away before our eyes.  An end is also a beginning.  But we must mourn the end, the finish of our generation.

I can think of no better tribute to Watts than to offer this performance of Moonlight Mile.  For the backstory on the song lyric CLICK HERE.

This morning on Fabyan Parkway looking eastward over the Fox River, cloud formations glowed smokey yellow, illuminated by a fiery ball of the rising sun.

Moonlight Mile

When the wind blows and the rain feels cold
With a head full of snow
With a head full of snow
In the window there’s a face you know
Don’t the night pass slow?
Don’t the nights pass slow?

The sound of strangers sending nothing to my mind
Just another mad mad day on the road
I am just living to be lying by your side
But I’m just about a moonlight mile on down the road

Made a rag pile of my shiny clothes
Gonna warm my bones
Gonna warm my bones
I got silence on my radio
Let the air waves flow
Let the air waves flow

Oh I am sleeping under strange strange skies
Just another mad mad day on the road
My dreams is fading down the railway line
I’m just about a moonlight mile on down the road

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

I’m hiding sister and I’m dreaming
I’m riding down your moonlight mile
I’m hiding baby and I’m dreaming
I’m riding down your moonlight mile

I’m riding down your moonlight mile
Let it go now, come on up babe
Yeah, let it go now
Yeah, flow now baby
Yeah move on now yeah

Yeah, I’m coming home
‘Cause I’m just about a moonlight mile on down the road
Down the road, down the road
Yeah, yeah, baby

Composed by Mick Jagger

Arrangement by Bill Wyman, Mick Taylor, and Charlie Watts