Like a Fading Memory, Revived.

Part of the room where I first heard
Chuck Berry's Golden Decade

As I’ve worked on this blog, I’ve written a lot about my own experience as a Chuck Berry fan, and I’ve struggled to recreate some of that history. I don’t know why it is so important to me, but it is. For whatever reason, the man had a huge impact on me.

I “discovered” him as a young teenager. I’ve always remembered the broad outlines of that personal history. I remember first hearing about him from my brother Stevo. I remember first seeing him on a Mike Douglas show. I remember seeing him again on the Dick Cavett show. I remember that neither of those television performances turned me into a Chuck Berry fan—but I find it interesting that I remember them nearly 40 years later.

Then, of course, I remember seeing him for the first time at sad sort of show at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium. I wrote about it (with some innacuracies) HERE. I was mesmerized, and the next day I went out and bought the original "Golden Decade" album.  I was changed forever.

But whatever I wrote was done from memory—memory faded by 40 years of experience (and gently rinsed by 35 years of beer and wine).

Part of the mystery is that I probably remember more of my crucial Chuck Berry memories than other things arguably far more important. I remember those television shows. I remember other Mike Douglas Show appearances. I remember that first concert, and the second, at South Lake Tahoe. I remember hearing that first Golden Decade album and playing it again and again in the empty tower room of an old Victorian farmhouse that we lived in at the time. I remember going crazy with those songs, singing them as loud as I could with my awful singing voice. I remember soon after when I went to the suburban Sacramento Tower Records and found “Back Home,” and my delight in hearing a modernized but thrilling new version of Chuck Berry music. (Tonight the harmonica player on “Back Home,” boogie-woogie piano player Robert “Boogie Bob” Baldori is reportedly participating in the Blueberry Hill show in St. Louis. They are probably just finishing as I write this. I wish I were there!) I remember months later finding “San Francisco Dues” at that same branch of Tower (and finding an album by T-Bone Walker, that I still play from time to time, at the same store.) I remember seeing Chuck Berry a third and fourth time at “Rock and Roll Revival” shows at the Memorial Auditorium. Each time he ended the show with a rousing finale. Only Bo Diddley even came close.

I could go on and on, because by the time I was 16 there was a sudden burst of renewed interest in Chuck Berry. He had his first number one hit, and suddenly he was everywhere. I remember him on “In Concert,” and “The Midnight Special.” I remember a show where he played live on television with Bo Diddley. I remember when “Bio” came out, and then, seeing one last great Chuck Berry show at Monterey, California, where he played for hours and then disappeared into the sunshine in his rental car (or maybe just his own Cadillac for the relatively short drive to Los Angeles town).

As I say, I could go on and on.

Now, recently the magic of the blog has begun to pay off. One day I was googling for news stories and found a “Tahoe Tribune” story about the South Lake Tahoe concert that I saw at an old Safeway store turned rock hall. Suddenly I had a date for that show: July 4, 1971.

I don’t know if I believe it was July 4. I have no memory of the holiday, or fireworks. But July 1971 fits perfectly with my memory-- and let's give the Tahoe Tribune credit for journalistic accuracy.

I would have been 15 years old. I forget how I got to Tahoe, where my older brother was living, but I remember that a girl from my school met me there with her girlfriend and we went to the show, went crazy, and left, exhausted, before the second set was even done.

(Don’t tell my mother that Lara went to the cabin.  She found her in my room once—and believe me, we were just talking—and threw a fit.)

But I was still missing information about the first show. So I decided to try to figure out when it was.

I had tried looking at microfilms at the Sacramento library.   But without a date, that was a haystack. 

A few weeks later I e-mailed the Sacramento Convention Center and asked if they had information.

And guess what?  They didn’t. But a very nice man there told me who might. He told me the name of a researcher at the Sacramento Archives.  (He also sent me a very, very cool poster.)

It took me a few weeks to call the archives. (I actually do have a job and work to do.)  I asked for the archivist and told her what the man at the Convention Center told me—that she knew everything.

He was right.

Less than 24 hours after I called, she sent me an e-mail telling me that the first Chuck Berry concert I saw in person happened on February 13, 1971. And she confirmed something else I knew—that only 800 people attended.

Dear Peter:


I did find that Chuck Berry played Memorial Auditorium on February 13, 1971. Also on November 24th 1971 there was a “50s Rock & Roll Revival” but the listing doesn’t mention who played. I can also tell you that 800 people attended the Berry concert and over 4,000 attended the rock & roll revival.

Things were starting to fall into place.  Another bit of magic from the blog is that I was encouraged to buy a couple of Morten Reff’s books.  One of them gave me tantalizing tidbits—dates of television shows. Now, with these dates from the archives and Tahoe, they make perfect sense to me.

Chuck Berry was on the Mike Douglas show on October 22, 1970-- four months before I'd finally see him live. I can say with nearly absolute confidence that I first saw Chuck Berry on that episode of Mike Douglas. (I was expecting a blond version of Elvis!) All I can say is that I found him very interesting, and that I’ve never forgotten the experience. I was 14.  Here is that show.  (They made him perform in some awkard situations in those days.)


Two months later Chuck Berry was on Dick Cavett. I remember being asleep in bed in my room next to the television room. Something woke me. I went out, groggy, and watched with my brothers Stevo and Danny. No real connection yet, but again, I’ve never forgotten. (I didn’t know it at the time, but according to Reff’s book, that was the first time I ever heard the song “Tulane!” Oh, if someone has the tape I want it!)

Then, two months after that, the show in Sacramento.  (This isn't it, but this is what he looked like-- and the only time I saw him in Jeans.  I'm thinking this must be from "The Music Scene" hosted by David Steinberg.  It makes me wonder.  I used to watch that show.  It played December 22, 1969.) (Did they always make him play on raised platforms?)



And the next day, love! I bought the album Golden Decade. I played it straight through over and over in the empty upstairs room where I kept my drumset.  (I still have that drumset!  It's vintage now.) So pieces of my history are starting to fall in place.

In a wee little room...

It had to be Valentine’s Day, 1971. Start of a lifelong love of Chuck Berry’s music and the blues.

Part of why I was so profoundly touched by Chuck Berry is probably that accident of time: the accident of finding him just as I was becoming my own, independent self. (Except for the 1970-1971 yearbook photo at the bottom, the pictures on this page were taken about that same exact time, with an Exa IIA reflex camera that I bought mail order from the back of a magazine for $30. I had a little darkroom in my closet.  I recently found the negatives and had them printed because they contained photographs of a couple of high school events and we had a reunion last year.  The art photography career didn’t pan out, but the camera, though broken, is in my drawer.)

But I noted with interest recently that I found him about the time my own father died. Now I realize it was just one month prior to my father’s death. I’m sure that played a role, too.

And in his old age I’ve come to realize that as an adopted father figure he probably wasn’t such a crazy choice. I see him on stage with his son and daughter and grandson. I hear that he calls Jimmy Marsala and Robert Lohr his other “sons.” I see him in “Hail! Hail!” with his own dad and his other family members. I see him in Rolling Stone with his wife of 61 years. All rumor and story and silliness aside, you could do worse finding a father figure.

At any rate, writing about him, and searching for these bits of personal history is helping me make sense of faded memories.

Thank you again, Mr. Berry.

Sunday

Sunday evening will make it 40 years since I first walked into the Memorial Auditorium in Sacramento to see Chuck Berry perform live.  That evening we'll have some old friends over to meet the newest member of the family, granddaughter Leila Tulane.  I'll never forget that night 40 years ago, or the morning 39.8 years later when my little Tulane was born.  And both events changed my life forever!  (Funny thing about Tulane.  Before I saw Chuck Berry live, I saw him twice on television.  The second time was on Dick Cavett.  And guess what he played that night?  According to Morten Reff, it was "Tulane!"  I'm telling you, these events infiltrate my consciousness and change things!)

How to Drum Like Odie Payne

Ah well, you probably can't, and I definitely can't.  But with the internet, all things are at least THEORETICALLY possible.  And the two samples provided by Daniel Glass on this Drummerworld website give a really interesting nutshell lesson on how to play the Odie Payne doubleshuffle to Chuck Berry's "No Particular Place to Go."  Even if you can't or don't play drums (I can't but do) you should take a listen.  You'll hear more next time you play the song itself.

Now-- warn the neighbors!  I'm heading to my basement!

My Uncle Found the Color Version! (Well, Doug did.)

This is making sense to me now--- it's a companion to the great one with T-Bone.  (I've got it filed away as "video of the month."  Really video of the century.)  And check out the ruby, white and blue slippers!

Way Back In History 3000 Years

Or maybe just 52.

A couple of newspaper stories about getting arrested on charges of rocking while black back in the fifties.  I remember reading about the Mississippi incident in Chuck Berry's autobiography but didn't know it was a national story.  Here is an original newspaper account.  (If the tone sounds remarkably fair for a story from 1959, note the source.)  Read it HERE.

Here is a more "mainstream" version, with all ethnicities carefully observed and recorded.

Another story from the Afro American, this one about getting arrested on charges of changing a tire in the presence of a white woman:  Read it HERE.  Fortunately this one, at least, led to an acquittal.

What's amazing is how persistent it was.  Remember the drunk Keith Richards telling about getting punched in "Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll?"  Remember his comments, and his disapproving sneer?  No wonder he got his clock cleaned.

But Chuck Berry persevered through all this, and did his part to help change the world.  Thank you.  We're not there yet, but maybe someday.

Sugar Pie De Santo, San Francisco, 2007

A few weeks ago I posted a clip of Sugar Pie DeSanto in England in 1964. Here she is again, 43 years later!  Chuck, you're not the only good oldie!

Time Was

It’s pretty remarkable to me to think that it was 40 years ago that I went to my first Chuck Berry show.  I wish I could go back and see it again!  And all of the others that I was lucky to attend.

I’ve written about that first show plenty of times.  I only know the exact date (February 13, 1971) because of an amazingly helpful public employee in Sacramento-- a city archivist. 

By blogging for a couple of years (that anniversary is also approaching), searching the internet, and looking at books like Morten Reff’s “Directory” I’ve been able to reconstruct bits of my personal memory and build a chronology of my Chuck Berry addiction.  The first two exposures, in October and December of 1970, were on television.  They didn’t get me hooked, but for reasons I can hardly fathom they remained in my fading memory banks ever since.  Then the first live show in February, and then two more in July and November of 1971.  (There was another one stuck in there right about that time, but even the archivist couldn’t find it.  It was a Richard Nader Rock and Roll Revival-- one of two I attended in a matter of months.  Maybe the whole show was kept off the books!)

That was a lot of really good Chuck Berry in a short amount of time.  And then, of course, the splendid Mike Douglas show with John Lennon (total validation), the movie “Let the Good Times roll,” and finally the huge success of The London Sessions (more validation.)  And then he was everywhere-- on shows like “In Concert,” and “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert,” and the “Midnight Special.”  The only one I didn’t see at the time was his appearance on “Soul Train,” which I now find to be one of the most special.

It’s cool that so many of those performances are now on youtube.  If Chuck were Bob I’d even be able to get recordings of all those shows I saw.  There’s an incredible web of people recording and sharing every Bob Dylan concert.  Someone even gave me a copy of one I saw in 1978.  Pretty neat to hear it again.  I'd love to hear the early Chuck Berry shows that I attended with my more expert ears and see how good they really were.  (I think some of them were pretty danged good!)

That won't happen--but tidbits of history remain.  So if anyone wants to give me a 40th anniversary gift, (a sentiment I recommend!) I know what I want.  I have a hankering to see the television special he did with Bo Diddley and Ingrid and her band on ABC.  I only saw it once, laying on my stomach in a room crowded with in-laws.  At the time I loved it-- especially a segment with Bo and Chuck together that I recall as just as sweet as the wonderful scene in “Let the Good Times Roll.”

Later day reviews of the show, including Chuck’s own review in his Autobiography, suggest that it wasn’t his best performance.  Oh well-- at least one person is sure to enjoy it.

Oops!

Thank you Wolfgang for spotting the DATE on that last article!

Charlie Louvin and The Louvin Brothers

I read somewhere recently where CBII said that Chuck Berry is a big fan of the Louvin Brothers.  Charlie Louvin died January 26 at the age of 83.  He performed at The Tractor Tavern a few years ago and I remember considering getting over there, but I didn't.  Just goes to show.  Anyway, no real surprise that Chuck is a fan.  It's hard to listen to this one without thinking of Chuck Berry's harmonies on the song "Rain Eyes."

Dang! Sugar Pie's a Honey Bunch all Right, (With Hubert Sumlin on Guitar)

I was looking up who this "Sugar Pie" was who was on the bill with Louis Jordan and Chuck Berry at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium in August 1957.

Marshall Chess on Chess and Chuck

Bob Lohr posted the interview on facebook.  I stole it.

JW: Chuck Berry has a reputation for being difficult. Was that your impression of him?

MC: I met a lot of eccentric people working at Chess but Chuck was by far the most extreme in that sense. He has lived life by his own rules and doesn’t really care about other people’s rules. In a way you have to respect that. But it’s hard to deal with at times. He’s a true outlaw and laid the foundations for that rock’n’roll lifestyle. He went to jail for a second time in 1979 because he refused to pay his taxes. He could have paid up and avoided prison. But he didn’t care. I didn’t personally have any problems with him. It helped that I didn’t have to deal with the business end of his career.

Me and Chuck go back a long way. I was thirteen when he signed to Chess, having been recommended by Muddy Waters. He’d stop over at our house. He’d sleep in my bedroom. I used to take him out for breakfast and he’d always amaze me by ordering a strawberry shortcake as a starter. Chuck did everything differently to other people. Mostly we talked about cars and girls. He especially loved girls. He had one of the world’s first Polaroid cameras and had hundreds of pictures of beautiful girls. He was a creative guy. A poet. A genuine artist. He was a great musician and an inspired lyricist. He really understood the psychology of white teenagers. The teenage revolution began in 1955. Suddenly kids were driving around in flash cars, going to drive-in movies, drive-in hamburger joints. This was a whole new crazy cultural shift in America. It wasn’t happening in the black population but Chuck instinctively understood what was happening with the white kids and he captured that entire upheaval in his songs.

Chuck revolutionised the fortunes of Chess Records. From 1950 to 1955 we’d had blues hits. But even a number one record on the blues chart sold no more than 20,000. Then we signed Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. Suddenly it all changed. I met Chuck recently in New York, hadn’t seen him in twelve years. I was telling him about the time in 1955 when my dad was driving through Chicago and we heard Maybellene being played for the first time on the biggest white radio station. My dad was so happy at that moment because he knew he’d got his first crossover hit. Life was different for us after that. We’d always been poor. Any profits from Chess were ploughed back into the label. My mother didn’t have a dollar to buy me a water pistol when all the other kids in the neighbourhood had them. As soon as Chess were having hits on the pop chart, my parents got lavish in terms of buying stuff for their kids. I was telling Chuck all this and saying that he’d radically changed my life. He said, “It wasn’t one-way traffic, Marshall. You guys made my life great. I couldn’t have gone anywhere without Chess Records.” That was an emotional meeting for me. I think it was emotional for Chuck too.

Read the rest of it HERE.

Shopping

Out at the Apple store.  I think people are just happy to know he's doing so well.

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/atoz/2011/01/chuck_berry_st_louis_apple_store_spotted_galleria.php

18 Days Later?

Looks like the same shirt.  What a great photo!  My thanks to whoever took it, and to Ida May for sharing it with us.

18 Days Later: Chuck Berry and Family at Blueberry Hill

Thank Bob Lohr for the entire succession of links I've just put up-- and for this wonderful review of the show from St. Louis's Riverfront Times.  And thank Ida May for the photograph (taken by an unknown photographer I also thank!)  According to Lohr: "The show was cool and Chuck played well. Chuck said earlier that he was getting tired of people calling him and asking him how he was feeling...LOL..."enough is enough!!!" he said."

A Story

Here's a great writeup in the Chicago paper:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ae-0123-chuck-berry-20110120,0,343682.story

Photos

Here's a LINK to some great shots of the January 19 show by photographer Todd Owyoung.

"One and Only" is Right

And Yet Chuck Made it Sound So Easy!

Chuck Berry at Bumpershoot, September 1980

Today a brown package arrived from distant lands with local sounds from distant times-- an 80 minute Chuck Berry show at the Seattle Bumpershoot arts and music festival from September 1980.  I missed it.  I wasn't in Seattle in September 1980-- I was somewhere between Sokode and Kougnohou, Togo when this show took place-- but I'd heard about it in the local press from time to time.  It was rumoured to be a good one.  And guess what?  It was.

And so is this recording-- so clear it sounds like it came straight through the soundboard.

Which makes me think someone was naughty!

The recording is almost all vocal, guitars and bass, with just enough drums a few (mercifully) short keyboard solos.  I read somewhere that Chuck kicked Heart's bass player off stage at this show.  If true, I'm betting that it was because Jimmy Marsala travelled with Chuck to do this show.

There are 16 1/2  songs ("Reelin' and Rockin'" becomes "House Lights" at times) including most of the big ones, plus "Bio" and a good version of "Promised Land."

Once upon a time I was able to find pictures from that show on line, but this time I came up blank.  I'll keep looking.  And listening.

So THANK YOU!

Go Daryl, Go! Go!

Davis and a 16 year old named Andy Poxon play a number by Daryl's friend.

Johnnie Johnson Duet

Jan (or John-- our other J.J.) posted this on facebook.  What a treat to hear Johnnie Johnson without all the other instruments.  And a double treat when they switch sides and you hear him attack the lower keys.  Danke, Jan!



My musical education has major holes, so I had to google David Krull.  Here's a link:  http://www.davidkrullblues.com/.

From the News Wires...

I love when old theaters get used.  Here's an interesting story about The Congress Theater in Chicago where Chuck Berry had such a rough time.  The theater is a year older than Chuck and is working as hard as he is.  Read about it HERE.

Of course, Blueberry Hill is in an old building, too-- but it's in much nicer shape.  And Chuck plans to do his January show there next Wednesday.  I'd like to see that one.  Read about it HERE.

He May Go Down Sometimes but he Comes Back a Rock and Roller

My 40th anniversary is coming up.

Don’t tell my wife. She and I have a much shorter history. I’m talking about the fortieth anniversary of my first Chuck Berry show—which was about 20 years after Chuck Berry’s first Chuck Berry show.

In those days people already thought he was an old guy.

He was 44! He’d been a star (a variable star) for about 15 years. Even though they were nearly brand new, I purchased the albums “Back Home” and “San Francisco Dues” in the Oldies section.

But he was “old,” and he called us all his children.

Flash forward 40 years. He’s still an old guy—just an old guy who’s in better shape than his “children.”

I’m not talking about his real children, of course. They benefit from the same genes that have their parents getting ready for a 70th anniversary sometime not to far from now.

I'm talking about the kids like me, who've got the rolling arthritis big time, and maybe an extra chin or two.

But even though he’s in good shape we can see that time marches on. He began his 70th year in show business by collapsing with exhaustion after attempting three shows and who knows how many flights in two cities in 24 hours. And he still insisted on “scooting” off stage.

Bob Dylan called him a “force of nature.”

I remember finding my own 80 something mom on a step ladder changing the lights at her house. Her bones were like eggshell but her will was like iron.

I’ve said before that I adopted Chuck Berry as a sort of spiritual father soon after I first saw him. It was only last year that I was able to put the timetable together and see that my first Chuck Berry show came about three weeks before my father died. So it all makes sense now.

And I don’t think I’m the only one who’s done something like that. When the young Chuck Berry walked back and forth across the stage feigning surprise at an ovation and hollering “all my children!” at the screaming hordes a lot of us accepted the gift. He’s the Father of rock and roll.

And his fans are younger. If he’d been strictly a blues musician he would have attracted fans his own age. That’s undoubtedly who came to the Cosmopolitan and the Crank Club. And his first few recording sessions didn’t really tip the scale one way or another. But as his recording career progressed he began singing more and more about and for the kids who came to his shows.

(By the time I found him he was singing to grown ups again—at least on records. I always thought “Lonely School Days” sounded a little funny on “San Francisco Dues.” Turns out it was an old recording of an old song.)

When he had trouble a few weeks ago in Chicago my little blog felt the uptick in googling about his condition. People were worried.

We’re all caught in a funny place. We want to keep seeing and applauding the man we love, and we want him to slow down and take care of himself. I posted a vision about a Chuck Berry show that included a chair on stage, lots of stories and poems, and maybe a few ballads or blues numbers. A friend just pointed out that this is what B. B. King’s doing these days.

But what makes Chuck Berry great is that he’ll do it his way and always has.

He started his career with an argument over lip-synching. He didn’t want to do it. And he’s kept it real ever since. Raggedy at times-- but real.

And 40 years after I first saw him he’s gearing up for his regular Wednesday night gig at Blueberry Hill.

Dang!

A Show Stopper!

Chuck coaxes his son into doing the "scoot" in this clip from April of last year.  Thanks to Jean Million for posting this on on facebook-- I'd never seen it, and it's a lot of fun. 

Ringing Clear as a Bell

This is what it looks like when you're sitting up front at Blueberry Hill.  What's amazing, besides the clarity of the video, is the clarity of the sound mix.  The guitar is clear as a bell, and when he lets Bob Lohr take over on the solo, so is that.  Pretty nice.

Carmelo, Chuck and Billy Peek (e molti bambini italiani)

Doug found it for you to dig.  (But is that a Confederate flag they're waving?  And Why?  Could give "Go" a whole new meaning!")

Ronny Elliott talks about working with Chuck Berry

Ronny Elliott is a Tampa, Florida musician who recently posted that Chuck Berry is "the greatest living American."  That's my kind of thinker!  If you've read this bog you've seen my interview of him, which I can probably dig up and repeat.  But here he is, almost "live," answering questions about his work with Chuck Berry and a host of others.

This is for every critic or commentator who ever said he "doesn't care" or that he "mails it in."  After attempting three shows in 24 hours in two cities Chuck Berry collapsed at his piano and was seen by medics.  Then he insisted on coming back on stage.  In this clip he talks to the fans afterwards.

We Love You Chuck

Our prayers and thanks to Chuck Berry, who apparently had a very hard time at the Congress Theater in Chicago.   Here's a link to an article from the Chicago Sun Times.    Here's another version of the story from NPR.  For those that don't know, Mr. Berry--84 years old-- was doing his third show in 24 hours.  (A short piece in the Chicago Tribune on December 30 said he'd been out pushing wheelbarrows and building a concrete walk at Berry Park a few days before these shows!)

Hope he feels better soon or sooner.  We love you Chuck!  And please-- take it easy!

(The articles mention a "scoot" when he finally left the stage.  Here it is.)

Wee Wee Hours of New Years Eve

This is what I wanted to see!