Of Course...

I've been paying attention first to all the stuff we've never heard-- but the real beauty of this collection is that it brings back the material from albums like Back Home, San Francisco Dues, The London Sessions, Bio, and Chuck Berry, and puts it all up for reconsideration.  I've always loved those albums.  They were part of my original "discovery" of Chuck Berry.  But recently I played them more in memory than on disk because my copies were battered, worn and a bit troublesome (I hardly use a turntable anymore).  But today I drove around town listening to "Flying Home," and "Fish and Chips," and "Oh Louisiana," and it made my commute that much sweeter.  Even some of the songs I thought I no longer cared for ("Festival?"  "I'm a Rocker") were suddenly new again.  (When have I heard them in my car?  Some of these-- never!)  A few weeks ago I said I didn't like the album called Chuck Berry that much.  But I'm reconsidering-- especially having heard some of the stuff that was recorded but wasn't put on the record-- like "Jambalaya," and "Dust My Broom."  My brain is rolling all over this stuff.  I ponder the way I would have packaged it.  (I would have put two more songs with Elephant's Memory on Bio and slid some of the small group stuff to another record.

In other words-- Have Mercy is a blessing.