I'm Going Back to my Hometown

I’m home this week-- or close to my hometown, to South Lake Tahoe. It's a place where I once saw Chuck Berry shake the rafters of an old Safeway store for two long sets. The building is still there. It seems so improbable now that it was home to raucous concerts by the fledgling Santana, a young Sly and the Family Stone, and our man, Mr. Berry.

A lot of Chuck Berry songs are about going home. The best known is “Back in the U.S.A.”

Oh well, oh well, I’m feeling so good today
I just touched down at an international runway
Jet propelled back home from overseas to the U.S.A.

Chuck Berry writes about it in his autobiography. He’d been to Australia, and hadn’t liked the food. (This was the 1950s. He wrote that he hadn’t even found a good hot dog.)

When I was younger I never cared that much for "Back in the U.S.A." because I am a person who’s always interested in going the other direction. Oh, I yearn for New York and Los Angeles as much as anybody, and even enjoy a few nights in Detroit or old St. Lou-- but I like going places where I don’t know the language or the customs, and where the food and buildings are different.

Then again, back home was an exciting place in the 1950s, and a pretty good place to go most anytime.

Did I miss the skyscrapers, did I miss the long freeways?
From the coast of California to the shores of Delaware Bay
You can bet your life I did, till I got back to the U. S. A.

Looking hard for a drive-in, searching for a corner cafe
Where hamburgers sizzle on an open grill night and day
Yeah, and a juke-box jumping with records like in the U.S.A.

It’s a song as energetic and enthusiastic as the Benny Goodman – Lionel Hampton – Charlie Christian classic “Flying Home,” which Berry recorded more than once and included on his “Live at the Fillmore” album. “Flying Home” is a deep vein of Chuck Berry influences. Goodman's guitarist, Charlie Christian, was one of his guitar heroes-- up there with T-Bone Walker and Elmore James-- and Berry also cites Hampton’s saxophonist, Illinois Jaquette, as a major influence. Jazz is a series of stepping stones. You can jump one artist to another as sidement turn into headliners. Hampton worked with Goodman, and then Jaquette did a stint with Lionel Hampton and is famous for his version of "Flying Home."

I bought a Benny Goodman sextet album of live performances from a radio show to hear Christian and Hampton play “Flying Home,” but wound up being most surprised by 8 bars of clarinet (from Goodman himself?) towards the end of the performance—translate it to guitar and you’d come close to one of Chuck Berry’s memorable guitar licks. I'd write it down for you if I knew how!

Chuck Berry reinterpreted the song a few years after he recorded it live at the Fillmore. This time he worked with Johnny B. Goode pianist Lafayette Leake, bassist Phillip Upchurch, and former Woolies leader “Boogie” Bob Baldori. (The sessions must not have been as much fun as some of the music that came from them. Upchurch doesn't even mention Chuck among the many people he lists as having worked with on his own website. But dang, they made a good bunch of songs together, including "Tulane," "Have Mercy Judge," and "Flying Home.") The song has the same “I got rhythm” chord changes as the original, but a distinct melody from Baldori’s wailing harmonica. My favorite moments come from Lafayette Leake, whose cascading piano notes reflect the the exhilaration of an overdue journey home. It’s right and fitting that the song is on Berry’s album “Back Home,” named for his return to Chess. In my mind, it’s the best Chuck Berry “album,” with a cohesive sound, and even a little theme hiding there. Home.

We're not done. “I’ve Got A Booking” has a disgruntled lover heading home.

I’m going back to my hometown
Where I’m better known
I’m gonna leave here by train darlin’
Cause railway is much too slow.

And one of my personal favorites is “Oh Louisiana,” about a sorry lover returning home, this time flying “right over St. Louis, high over Memphis Tennessee” to New Orleans.

Your beautiful delta
And bayous of green
Oh take me back
Oh Louisiana

All the songs are by Chuck Berry and published by Arc or Isalee Music Co.

Vacation Time

I'll be gone from the internet for a few days, so I'll leave you with some good ones that I haven't posted in a while, one that I've never seen, and my favorite.






One that I've never seen...



And my favorite all time...



A beautiful thing about this one is that in addition to the great T-Bone Walker, you'll catch glimpses of the Johnny B. Goode pianist, Lafayette Leake, and Chuck's old drummer, Fred Below.

I'm Through With Love

Couldn't find Chuck Berry's version from Hail Hail! (one of my favorite moments in the film)-- so I found this one. He'd probably like it well enough...

And They Said it Couldn't Be Done (part 50)

A really nice interview with Chuck Berry...

http://www.stlmag.com/media/St-Louis-Magazine/December-2008/A-Conversation-with-Chuck-Berry/

IMMORTAL! (Milo Berry was a beautiful man...)

There is evidently a movement to put a bronze sculpture of Chuck Berry on Delmar Street in St. Louis not far from Blueberry Hill. Read about it here:

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2009/07/movement_afoot_to_hoist_chuck_berry_statue_delmar_loop.php

The chosen sculptor is Harry Weber. You can check out his work here:

http://www.harryweber.com/

The address for donations:

"Chuck Berry Statue"
Mr. Charlie Brennan
c/o KMOX Radio
#1 Memorial Drive
St. Louis, MO 63102

I e-mailed KMOX asking for details, but alas, no response. Ask your tax advisor if your donation is tax deductible.

Uh One, And Uh Two, And, Uh, Top This for Weirdness

Chuck, a fan of Big Band, might actually like it. I sort of do. (I'm turning into my dad!)

I also like this minimalst Maybellene by Elvis.



And if you can't keep up with the lyrics, this one's got subtitles.

Chuck Berry on Soul Train 1973

It must be weird being Chuck Berry, whose career has taken him from small black and mixed race audiences at clubs in St. Louis, to the 1950s era rock halls divided into black and white by rope, to halls today that are divided more by musical taste and largely filled with white people.

And then, once in a while, back again.

In 1973 Chuck Berry was on the teenage dance show Soul Train-- a show where, that year, you'd be much more likely to see Barry White, Gladys Knight, The Jackson Five, James Brown or Earth Wind & Fire than an early rock and roller backed by a bunch of long haired white guys. (For a little time trip, check out the line dance to the O'Jay's "Love Train," from the same show, same year.)




When Chuck takes the stage, just about everybody looks a little nervous about this homecoming, including Chuck, who might be remembering that audiences at The Apollo were a bit tougher on him in 1955 than cross town audiences at The Paramount in Brooklyn. But it works. Little by little the dirty lyrics break the ice, kids laugh, Chuck scoots on the stairs-- and there's something just plain sweet and 70s about the sound of feet on the dance floor whenever the band stops for the vocals.




(In the movie "Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll!" Chuck went back to the wreckage of the Cosmopolitan Club and played to a group that were probably friends and family. Or maybe just the Soul Train kids grown up.)

A Good Review of the Complete Chess Recordings 1960-1966

...from Mike Aragogna at Huffingtonpost.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ragogna/huffpost-reviews-chuck-be_b_175187.html

Chuck Berry LIVE with the Motown Session Musicians

Hip-oSelect.com and Geffen records recently put out a four cd release called “Chuck Berry: You Never Can Tell: His Complete Chess Recordings 1960-1966.” It’s a follow-up to the 1950s edition. I’ve only just begun to listen—but for me the collection was worth its hefty $80 price tag just for the live recordings of a 1963 concert in Michigan.

The show has always been talked about. It was taped just days after Chuck Berry was released from prison for a trumped-up Mann act violation. The back up musicians are unidentified Motown session musicians. There was supposed to be a live album, but it was held up because of contract disputes between Motown and Chess. Time must heal all wounds, because here it is at last.

And worth the wait.

I first found Chuck Berry in 1969 or 1970, and I’ve always assumed that his live shows evolved and changed over time. And I’m sure they have. But this 1963 version shows that his best performances have been remarkably consistent—an amazing performer improvising over the bones of his classics.

He arrives on stage yelling “Oh Yeah!” and asking to hear his echo from the crowd. The lively crowd obliges before he jumps into the instrumental “Guitar Boogie.”

He must have been practicing in the penitentiary because the guitar playing is rough but wonderful throughout, exploding with “pent up” energy. My favorite is an extended solo on “Wee Wee Hours.”

The sound quality is not always perfect, but the sound is live and fresh, like it happened yesterday. The backup band (to the extent you do hear it) is the best I’ve heard on a Chuck Berry live album, chiefly because it just swings. On my first listen I was struck especially by the horn section and the drumming. The crowd is audible and lively. You can hear individual comments and requests.

Berry is hoarse during the performance-- but he was hoarse from road wear and tear most times that I saw him. (The freshest I've heard him was at age 82. He's probably travelling less. His voice sounded 32 again.) But throughout this performance he sounds exhillerated to be back in business. Freedom will do that, I guess.

Chuck plays “Almost Grown,” something I’ve never heard live except in the movie “Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll,” and does the back up vocals himself! “Wo-woah! You know I’m almost grown!” It’s a performance that completely renewed the song for me. (All I could think of was my teenage daughter.) On “Johnny B. Goode” and “Sweet Little Sixteen” the crowd sings along en masse. I always assumed that was a tradition that developed much later in the game than 1963. A lesson for me: these songs have always been loved.

When I saw him live the last time, in January 2009, at Blueberry Hill, Chuck stopped the show to tell a long story about a letter from his brother. When he first pulled the “letter” from his pocket, his son Charles, Jr., rolled his eyes and laughed—a signal that he’d heard this one before. Evidently! The same story got told in Michigan in 1963!

He ends with a tease, mixing “Good Night, Sweetheart” and jumping full force into bits of his bigger hits.

This one live set was worth the price for me. But if that doesn’t do it for you, there are a total of 107 cuts on the disks.


http://hip-oselect.com/

I Want Railroad Airhorns, and a Military Spot

And he got 'em! Can't resist posting this photo of Chuck Berry's Car, courtesy of Sky.

How to Play Guitar Like Chuck Berry

Well, it won't happen.

And you sure won't learn it from a book.

But I just finished reading "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" by author Bruce Pegg, and as someone who has wanted to sound like Chuck Berry for about 37 years now, I had a twinge of jealousy when I read how Chuck showed his friend and band member Billy Peek how to play certain licks. "[H]e'd sit in and I would see him do a lick and I'd go, 'Man!' you know. And he'd take the time, he'd say, "Here, Billy," he'd come over and show me the lick and say, 'Here's what you do.'"

Well, no such luck for me or probably you. But if you are having trouble picking out those notes, the book "Chuck Berry" in the "Recorded Guitar Versions" (ARC Music Group, Distributed by Hal Leonard)seems to give accurate tablature and useful tips for 17 different songs.

You can check it out here: http://www.halleonard.com/item_detail.jsp?itemid=692385&order=0&catcode=00&refer=search&type=product&keywords=chuck+berry++

As I say, I have wanted to sound like him for years. And I've seen lots of bad tablature. This stuff seems pretty danged good.

J. B. Hutto

In the late 1970s, when I first came to Seattle, the bluesman J. B. Hutto somehow got stuck here for a couple of months. I saw him a couple of times at a tiny dive bar in Fremont, and once at an arcade at Pioneer Square.

Sometimes a town just gets lucky.

(Not) Too Pooped to Pop (School Day)

A performance from 2007, with his St. Louis band-- Jim Marsala, bass; Robert Lohr, keyboards; Keith Robinson (I think!), drums; and Charles Berry, Jr., guitar. (Marsala is also playing in the 1979 clips, below).

It may not have the energy of the 1957 version-- but dang-- he's 80 years old here!



When I saw him in St. Louis he got a bit lost during "School Day" and said "I forgot the second verse, but I can still play the mother!"

Yep, he can.

Jean sois bien!

I added a nice clip of Chuck Berry playing "Bio" yo yhe piece about the album "Bio" below. Here's another clip from the same show-- evidently in Nice, France, in 1979. Note Jimmy Marsala on bass-- here and in the 2007 clip up above.

Way up there in Wisconsin after New Orleans

A day after banning cameras and not allowing fans to see a webcast of his performance at The Domino Effect benefit for New Orleans Chuck Berry headed north to Wisconsin where he played the following day. Here's a review-- a better one than he got going grumpy in Johnny's home town.


http://rocknrollgraffiti.blogspot.com/2009/06/chuck-berry-proves-ageless.html

This Day in Chuck Berry: June 3, 1973

June 3, 1973, (yikes--- that's 36 years ago!) is listed in “Chuck Berry: The Autobiography” as the recording date for the album “Bio.” I’m sure that doesn't tell the whole story, since the liner notes to "Bio" show there were two different groups of musicians on the record, and two recording studios. Most of the songs were recorded (presumably in New York) with members of the 1970’s group Elephant’s Memory. A couple—“Rain Eyes” and “Got it and Gone”—were recorded with Billy Peek, Ron Reed and Greg Edick in St. Louis. Chuck Berry plays piano on the latter two songs. Billy Peek, of course, played with Chuck Berry for years. I don't know much about the other two, but know that Edick played bass with Ingrid Berry at one point.

Elephant’s Memory probably backed Chuck Berry and John Lennon on the famous Mike Douglas appearance. Maybe that’s how this album came about. Thanks to them, the album has a good feel to it-- not the powerhouse of the early Chuck Berry recordings, or the elegance of "Back Home--" but it's a good sound.

But I'm easy. The album came out near the end of the first phase of my Chuck Berry fanaticism. He could do little that I considered wrong in those days. I owned whatever "Golden Decade" albums had appeared by that time. I had "Back Home" and "The London Sessions." I'd seen him live several times. I'd picked up a number of used Mercury recordings in the bargain bins. I had seen "Let The Good Times Roll" as often as my budget allowed. I'd shaken his hand.

(I haven't always been so easy. Five years later when “Rockit” appeared, I bought it, listened, and took it back for a refund. I considered it crap. I only learned to like that album when I bought an ATCO reissue a few months ago. I must have been in a very Un-Chuck Berry mood in 1979. It happens.)

“Bio” got a review in Rolling Stone. You can find it here.

http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/chuckberry/albums/album/163915/review/5946951/bio

The record's best feature might have been the inside liner, set up like an old photo album, with pictures from olden times. This was before "The Autobiography" and before the web, and I considered any clue to my hero's roots an important gift. There were interesting old pictures from before Maybellene, including shots inside the Cosmopolitan Club. And there was a great shot of Chuck Berry as a kid, looking down, leaning on the counter of what I am guessing is his photographic dark room, in front of a blurred portrait of Abraham Lincoln.

My favorite song was “Got it and Gone."

Then one day it happened
They called him off to war
Way over there in no man's land
Just him and his guitar
Nobody over there to love him
Nobody ever sent him news
What could a poor boy do at night
But sit and sing the blues?

I saw Chuck Berry perform in Monterey, California sometime in 1974 just months after this record came out. I was standing at the foot of the stage just beneath his sizeable, thin soled shoes. It was a great show-- long and leisurely, with a good backup band that specialized in 50s rock 'n' roll, called Butch Whacks and the Glass Packs. The show also offered my second direct communication with my adopted dad. I was looking out for his career. I didn't want him to just be an oldies act. So I passed him a note that said: “Play ‘Got it and Gone.’”

He read it, repeated it, and laughed.

He didn’t play it-- thus ending that short chapter in my life called: "My efforts to influence the Great Chuck Berry." (As Bob Dylan said recently, when asked if he'd thought about collaborating with Berry: "The thought is preposterous. Chuck doesn't need anybody to do anything with or for him.")

At least picked the right album. The title song “Bio,” a biographical piece built on an Elmore James riff, is one of the only post 1960s Chuck Berry songs to “survive” at Chuck Berry's own performances. (I don't count his Ding-a-Ling. Besides, it is a song he'd played for years.)

I’ve seen him play "Bio" in concert several times, most recently at Blueberry Hill in January 2009. And Berry played it in the opening scene of “Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll,” which was filmed in the wreckage of the old Cosmoplitan Club.

Here is a really nice version of the song:



Another song from the album that I liked was a kicked back instrumental called "Woodpecker." The lead guitar and saxaphone play together while another guitar weaves in a rhtyhm riff. There's laughing and talking throughout. To get a feel for "Woodpecker" without actually hearing it, watch Chuck Berry dance while T-Bone Walker plays guitar in "Every Day I have the Blues," posted below.

By the way, according to Sally Brompton's Daily Horoscope if today is your birthday:

"Your potential is almost unlimited and it's time you started to exploit the gifts you were born with. Yes, okay, you've done well enough in the past but compared to what you could have accomplished it's a drop in the ocean. Never mind, there's still time."

It's been 36 years since "Bio," Mr. Berry. I'm not trying to influence you, but I would like to hear the new stuff you've recorded!

Way Down in Louisiana: "Disagreable," "Weakest Set"

I didn't mind supporting a good cause by purchasing the webcast of "The Domino Effect" (a failed benefit concert designed to help kids in New Orleans) -- but I was pretty ticked when the picture and sound were shut off just as Chuck Berry came on stage.

I heard one double string lick from Mr. Berry and then something like:

WE REGRET THAT WE ARE NOT ABLE TO BROADCAST THIS PORTION OF THE PROGRAM.

What they didn't add was "BECAUSE SOMEONE IS TOO PERSNICKITY TO ALLOW IT."

Ah well. Love can be cruel. Chuck Berry sometimes sings the Elmore James song "It Hurts Me, Too," about a woman who takes abuse from her man but won't let go of him.

You're so unhappy
You've almost lost your mind
The man you love
He treats you so unkind...

Oh yeah! Sing it Chuck! Your fans know just how you feel!

It turns out, however, that we didn't miss much. (I love his music, but I can live without his Ding-a-Ling.) A story from the New Orleans paper tells how a camera man got bullied and makes it pretty obvious why internet ticket holders got slapped.

http://blog.nola.com/keithspera/2009/05/the_poorly_attended_domino_eff.html

B.B. King put on his usual great show. To my knowledge B. B. King has always and forever been great, gracious, generous and professional.

And though I was too discouraged by Mr. Mustard Seed and the blank screen to wait for wonderful people like Keb Mo and my lifelong hero Taj Mahal, I did see the opening act, someone notable that I'd never heard of, Junior Brown, a guitar genius playing a bizarre and wonderful mix of Country-Hendrix-Surf-Swing. Here's a bit of him off youtube-- though it shows only the upper part of his two part guitar in action.

Cottage For Sale

This is one of my favorite moments in "Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll!" and a good enough reason all by itself to buy that movie or the cd soundtrack.



Down below I talked about how Chess seems to have speeded up one of Chuck Berry's first recorded ballads, 'Together We Will Always Be." Slow it down from C-sharp to C and you'll find he sounds a lot like the guy singing this beauty.

The Joint was Rocking-- A Review of Blueberry Hill, May 13, 2009

It's nice to see a thoughtful review of a recent Chuck Berry show:


http://www.post-rockist.com/2009/05/22/chuck-berry-live-at-blueberry-hills-duck-room-in-st-louis-may-13-2009/

Check out my own visit to Blueberry Hill in an April posting below.

(Not) Too Pooped to Pop

Some of us were born too late for the digital age. If you go to youtube you’ll probably find something like a hundred films showing Chuck Berry in his musical prime. One of my favorites is this version of “Carol.” When I said you can’t play guitar like Chuck Berry, I wasn’t kidding. This is the song that he famously took Keith Richards to school on in the film “Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll!” after Keith suggested Chuck couldn’t play lead and rhythm at the same time. “Well, I did it,” said Chuck. Indeed he did. Chuck Berry can be many things, but in this 1972 clip from London, he is Chuck Berry guitar virtuoso. (The best parts are when the band quiets down and it's just Chuck Berry and his guitar. Watch.)



But youtube is more likely to give you a wiggly, lo fi cell phone video shot of Chuck Berry in his 80s, playing at some bar, with bad sound, (drunken) conversation (from the audience, not the stage,) and whole bars of missed notes on the guitar.

I think the reason people are filming and posting these events is that Chuck Berry shows are still real—even when Chuck’s fingers aren’t working.

Chuck Berry was never fastidious about his fingering. Even at his best if he missed a note he didn’t care because it was irrelevant to what he was doing.

But when I saw him in at Blueberry Hill in January 2009, he seemed to watch his fingers in disbelief. They didn’t do what he wanted. He started most songs without a guitar introduction—something almost unthinkable in olden times. His best guitar bits during that set were the funky rhythm chords like the one shown below. He thumped on his guitar like it was a talking drum-- more Bo Diddley than the Chuck Berry up above singing his refined and growling “Carol.” When he did play lead at BBHill there was something almost punk about it. He played like some of the people who’ve copped from him—thrashing, loud, careless and strong. If I’d pulled out my cell phone and tried to record it I’m sure it would have sounded as "bad" as what I sometimes see on youtube.

Which goes to show: you have to be there.

I have seen Chuck Berry live about 10 times. I’ve seen the guitar virtuouso and the great showman/dancer. But I liked the Blueberry Hill show as much as any show I’ve seen.

And that’s because he was enjoying himself—surrounded by fans, and by musicians who really care about him. (It’s a family affair. His son, Chuck Berry, Jr., backs him on guitar, has his back when fans jump on stage, and reminds him of the lyrics when the 82 year old brain loses track of a line. His daughter Ingrid is often on stage singing backup or blowing her harmonica.) It's thrilling and real—an 82 year old founding father who doesn’t need the money doing it in a small bar simply for the love.

My favorite song that night was a Ray Charles number called “Love in ¾ Time.” I didn’t know it and hoped it was a new Chuck Berry song. Three months later, someone recorded it.

In a Wee Little Room, I Sit Alone and Think-- Hey! Is this Weird?

So what makes a grown man obsess over Chuck Berry?

(It’s mostly men, by the way. Check out his fanatic followers at http://www.chuckberry.com/. And we are legion, as far as I can tell.)

I used to feel I was quite alone. I was his “biggest” fan. I had “all” his records. I saw him live a bunch of times. I thrilled over a stray picture in Cream or Rolling Stone. I searched out and read whatever was available at the public library. For God’s sake-- I drove an ailing Fiat 128 5000 miles and stalled it in the driveway of Berry Park!

All that, of course, was when I was young and impressionable—a mere teen. (Except for that Berry Park trip. I was an adult, that day.)

But earlier this year I travelled all the way to St. Louis to see an 82 year old Chuck Berry at Blueberry Hill. It was 300 degrees below zero the day I got there, and I walked from the light rail station to my truly weird hotel room and then back to Blueberry Hill, freezing my ears and ^&#% and burning through two straight work days just to see the 50 minute show.

When I was a kid I’m sure they worried about me. What is this weird obsession? Is treatment recommended?

I worried a bit myself. I rarely admitted the full depth of my derangement.

When I found www.chuckberry.com/forum I realized, finally, that I was not alone. (I’d suspected it at certain concerts. At Monterrey, and again at the EMP, I ran into people who seemed almost as messed up as I was.) On the forum there are a couple dozen contributors who seem to be in similar shape. One is a genius at finding interesting youtube movies of Berry. Another took photographs of historical buildings in Berry’s life—his early homes, his rock star homes, the Cosmopolitan Club. Several have made the pilgrimage to Berry Park. Many have made the more fruitful pilgrimage to Blueberry Hill. One flew from South America to see him play at B. B. King’s. Lots have myspace pages devoted to the man.

So what makes grown men act this way?

I have no clue.

But I felt a little better when I read in the current Rolling Stone that Bob Dylan somehow found and visited the childhood home of Neil Young. He wanted to see what young Neil saw.

I figure, if Bob Dylan can act that way, so can I.

So can we.

Roll Away the Stone...

Leon Russell just passed through Seattle playing his famous gospel-blues-rock-just-plain-amazing piano at a the Tractor Tavern in Ballard. I'm mad at myself 'cause I missed him. My sister Rooney first introduced me to the blue "Leon Russell" album when it came out about 40 years ago. It had a picture of Russell on the cover looking like a mix between Jesus Christ and George Clooney and was packed with great songs like "Hummingbird," "Masters of War," and my favorite, "Delta Lady." Russell was backed by a wall of sound and a cast of a thousand friends that included people like Bonney and Delaney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison. One of his songs was about Jesus; another was about Little Richard. It was the newest thing, and I felt "in the know."

But what did I know? Nothing. If the newest thing is worth it damn, you can bet that it probably took years to get so shiny.

Here's Leon Russell, forty FIVE years ago, looking more like Jerry Lee than Jesus, and playing classical music by our man CB...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUc9W7K-mi0

Heeeeeeere's Johnny! And Chuck!

A Chuck Berry fan from Iowa put me in the vicinity of this one. I think this may be the show where Chuck was the only guest on Johnny Carson's show. The two always seemed to get along well. Lots of great stories-- and great perfomances on other clips. This is part one of the interview...

Try This At HOME

I have read interviews where Chuck Berry talked about some songs being speeded up by Chess so that he would sound younger. (He was an ancient 29 or 30 years old.) Not long ago I was painting my living room and entertaining myself with old vinyl on a newly restored turn-table. I played the first Chuck Berry album, "After School Sessions." I was feeling like a good student that day, so, for the first time in 40 years of listening I began trying to figure out what keys these songs were recorded in. They all fell into what I consider the normal range-- G, E, F, Eb, etc., until I got to that wobbly old number, "Together We Will Always Be," which, on my turntable at least, was in the odd key of C sharp.

I never bought the Keith Richard line about Chuck Berry playing in odd keys. Half his songs were in the key of C— and for blues fans I'd point out that this is the same key Elmore James used for “Dust My Broom.” There’s nothing odd about F, G, B flat, C, E, or E flat. But in my limited experience (i.e., none to speak of,) C sharp would have been an odd choice.

I decided to do an experiment. My turntable allows me to slow songs down. I turned the knob slowly until the voice started sounding like-- well, Chuck Berry!

I'd always hated/loved "Together we will Always Be." Actually, I used to laugh at it. At best, I thought it was a young singer's attempt to find himself. The voice sounded strained—even a little embarrassed. But the song was catchy, so that if I heard it, it stuck at the back of my mind, driving me crazy.

But guess what? If you slow it down, it sounds GOOD. If you've got some way to repeat my experiment you'll find that Chuck Berry suddenly sounds like the older Chuck Berry who sang "Cottage for Sale" in the movie "Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll." In other words, pretty danged wonderful. And when I got to that point-- where the voice sounded familiar-- the song was in the key of C, a typical Chuck Berry key.

(I through this out for discussion on message board at the website www.chuckberry.com. It turns out that newly published outtakes of "Sweet Little Sixteen"show that it, too, was speeded up. And guess what? They pushed it from C to C sharp!)

I pulled out Chuck Berry's autobiography to see if it was one of the songs that he mentioned being speeded up. No-- but he said that “Together We Will Always Be” embarrassed him. He said that he wanted to buy back every copy, because he hadn't succeeded in sounding like his heros Nat King Cole or Frank Sinatra. p. 149.

Chuck-- it wasn't your fault! Chess did it!

Nobody sounds like Nat King Cole. But nobody sounds like you, either.

And in its natural key, "Together We Will Always Be" makes my hit parade.

Mo' Roots

Chuck Berry is always the first to acknowledge his influences-- Carl Hogan, T-Bone Walker, Charlie Christian, and on and on. I wrote about some of the others down below somewhere. Berry has always very specifically credited Louis Jordan's guitarist Carl Hogan for the famous intro to Roll Over Beethoven, Johnny B. Goode, and (just about every song at a live show!) You can find a nice version of Carl Hogan playing it on a 1946 cut called "Aint That Just Like A Woman," (Louis Jordan's Number Ones, 2005 Geffen Records). Hogan uses single strings for the intro, but you can hear the roots of CB in some of his solo stuff in the middle of the song. I couldn't find that on line, but here's a version from some sort of youtube copycat. The intro (on horns this time) might sound familiar!

Ain't that just like a woman - louis jordan
Uploaded by anabelasugarlee - See the latest featured music videos.

And The Winner (and still champion...)

As that guy with big pants said, "You can't top this!"

Battle of the Bands

Battle of the Bands

Battle of the Bands

80 F*&$*& Years Old!

This is wonderful-- with Bruce Willis and a cast of thousands at Planet Hollywood...