Chuck Berry Singing Love in 3/4 Time

A really nice, old version of Love in 3/4 Time.  Thank you Doug!

Man I Had a Dreadful Flight! (The Chuck Berry St. Louis Band in Moscow)

I love this shot from CB fan Artev Vladimir.  I'm guessing it's from the dressing room in Moscow after I don't know how many hours of crunched up air travel.  (Hope to interview Artev soon!)

Copyright 2013 Artev Vladimir

Bob Baldori Speaks (Thanks to Johan for this One.)

Listen to Bob Baldori talk about his career, including work with Chuck, HERE.

Ida May!

I had my own moment with Chuck Berry.  You can read about it HERE.

Direto de Curtiba Brasil! Ingrid Berry and Keith Robinson

Photos by Robert Lohr

My Dream, a poem by Chuck Berry (And You Can Sign The Petition After You've Listened.)

Thanks to Doug for this one!



Doug and I got to see and hear Chuck recite this in February 2012 at the Argosy Casino.  That time it was inspired by an out of tune guitar, which can be a good thing every once in a while.

Meantime, if you want to hear him recite it at the White House, sign the petition!

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/honor-chuck-berry-founding-father-rock-roll-and-one-americas-great-folk-poets-medal-freedom/xymc55Lv

Goes Nice with a Captain's Hat

Okay, you've signed!  Thank you!  Now, corner your friends and make them sign the petition to award Chuck Berry the Medal of Freedom.

We the People: A Petition to Give Chuck Berry the Presidential Medal of Freedom!

Ask not what your country can do for you.  Ask what Chuck did for your country, wherever in the world it is, and then take a few seconds to click here and SIGN! the petition that asks President Obama to award Chuck Berry the Medal of Freedom.

What is the Medal of Freedom?  It's America's highest civilian honor.  Previous recipients have included Bob Dylan, Aretha, T. S. Elliott, Duke Ellington, Toni Morrison and B. B. King.  Time for Chuck Berry to get his!  

After all, any man who can do this at age 85 (he was younger then) deserves a medal!

What We Really Need

is a petition to the White House.  Chuck Berry's Facebook page could easily inspire 25,000 signatures-- all that's needed to get an official response from the White House.

My Latest. Send Yours Today!

Dear President Obama:

Here's an easy one.

Give the Medal of Freedom to rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry, 87 years old and still performing.

He's one of this country's greatest living poets and songwriters, a great performer, and a man whose musical performances helped bring down barriers between the races.  He's still working-- still here to appreciate the honor.

He inspired Bob Dylan and The Beatles.  His music was sent into outer space during the Carter administration.  He was honored at Kennedy Center by President Clinton, at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and more recently received the Pen New England Award for Lyrics of Literary Merit.

Yes, he got into some trouble over his life, but he made the best of it, studying business, writing a book, and always came back stronger than ever.

It's a no-brainer.  And it would be fun.  Hail to the Chief, followed by Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll!

Thanks.

(Invite me to the ceremony!)

Peter O'Neil

A Song

This has NOTHING to do with Chuck Berry.  But this morning I wrote this song and recorded it.  This afternoon I made the video.  I'd expect the royalty checks to arrive tomorrow, but it's gonna be Easter Sunday so no banks and no mail.  Have a good one!

I'm gonna guess and say 1974 or 1975.  (Thanks to Peter K. for the photo.)

Wentzville Slim

Photo and nickname provided by Robert Lohr, who's tickling the plastic here.  Taken about a year ago.

Gleason's Bar- First Big Gig after Maybellene

Thanks to Peter K. for this one.  The Kay guitar is too cool.

NOT Too Pooped to Pop!

Photo taken 3/23/2013 by TerryAnn Henke at Blueberry Hill.

Roxy, Revisited

So tonight I watched the Roxy show again, and I liked it.  Thank you Ida May and Dominic.  I especially liked the songs that come right after "Nadine," when he "begins" the show with "Let it Rock" and "Promised Land."  I like the interaction with the piano player, who seems genuinely delighted, and although I don't like his style so much, I like to see the delight of the guitar player, too, when Chuck Berry is swinging his arm in front of him.  It's fun.

I'd bet $5 I saw pretty much the same band at that casino show at Tahoe.  (I right about it HERE.)  Certainly I saw the same suit.  Jim Marsala had to be there.  There were horns.  Pretty much the same crowd, just not quite as 1980s Los Angeles hip.  It was a Tahoe casino crowd that might also have gone to see Liza Minnelli or Dean Martin, but it was Chuck's night.

It was good that he was there.  11 or 12 years earlier he would have been in the free lounge, where I saw B. B. King and Bobby Blue Bland, and Jerry Van Dyke.  (The free lounge was a strange place.  But it was free!  Two drinks got you in a tiny club with some extraordinary musicians.  And since I worked there, even the drinks were free!)

Chuck was in the main showroom-- the dinner club.  And I guess, for me, that was the problem.  I was used to old barns filled with teenagers and seeing Chuck winging it with a band that would never forget that hour.

Funny how we insist so often on having things just the way we want them.

Flashback to Tahoe, 1982

The whole thing, on Youtube.  Which made everything fall into place for me.



I own a copy of this show.  I think I watched it once.  I didn't think a lot of it.  I don't even like the sound of the guitar.  (The notes are fine-- it's the sound, which sounds like television and chintzy speakers.)

What's interesting is that other Chuck Berry fans (Ida May, Dominic) love it.  I'll have to watch again and see what I am missing.

But what fell into place today, for the first time, is the realization that I probably saw Chuck right about the time this was filmed, wearing the same white suit, in a similar setting.  Could even be the same band.

I didn't like that much either.

I was home from West Africa for a few weeks.  It was the summer of 1982.  I was visiting family and my sister Maggie and her husband Ty took a bunch of us to see Chuck Berry at a casino in Tahoe.

The setting was nearly identical to what you see here: elegant booths spreading out, with tables, and dinners and drinks.  A bunch of slightly older folks in leisure suits.  A band that had actually rehearsed.

It was not what I was expecting.  I was used to being at the foot of the stage, surrounded by long haired kids, watching Chuck in his red or purple pants and a print shirt lead a pickup band through its hour of glory.  The songs were often extended with long guitar solos.  I wasn't prepared for arrangements, horns, elegance, and older folk.

Decades later I figured out the problem was me, not the show. It didn't meet my expectations, so I didn't like it.

So I'll have to watch this one again, and see what I really think.

Just a Nice Picture

A snapshot by Patrick Rocher.  I'm told it was taken five or six years ago on an earlier trip to Moscow.  Evidently Chuck Berry didn't just invent rock and roll.  Apparently he invented cloning, too.

Chuck Berry in Moscow, Cont.

Photo stolen from Robert Lohr

Chuck Berry in Moscow!

The recent meteorites showed me that Russia is Youtube central.  Now, just a few hours after Chuck Berry's show in Moscow (tonight, last night?) you can already see just about all of it.  This rough and rousing piece will get you started.  (And as you watch it, remember, 86 1/2 years old, after God-knows-how-many-hours of plane flights and airports!  Pretty amazing!)



Also worth considering is how times have changed.  The guy started his career during the first, early blasts of the Cold War.

Back in the U.S.S., I Mean, Russia!

An Interview with Author Morten Reff: The Chuck Berry International Directory

(It seems worth repeating this interview in honor of the recent publication of Volume 4 of Morten Reff's The Chuck Berry International Directory.) 

For years I called myself the world's biggest Chuck Berry fan.  Boy was I wrong!  Here is a picture of Morten Reff,  author of a growing number of volumes of The Chuck Berry International Directory, surrounded by gazillions of Chuck Berry records, including the one that must be his favorite.  He kindly agreed to a short “interview” and when I got the picture I couldn't help but run it again.  Biggest Chuck Berry fan in the world?  My own collection consists of a dozen or so tattered LPs, a nearly unused Chess Box, four or five individual CDs, the Charley "poet" set, and the three boxed sets from Hip-O Select.  This guy, on the other hand...)

How did you first get interested in Chuck Berry and his music?

I heard his “Let It Rock” on Norwegian radio in the Autumn of 1963 ( I was almost 14). It was the swingiest music I have ever heard. The next day I ran down to the nearby shop and bought the Pye single, coupled with “Memphis, Tennessee”, and I was saved.

I grew up with swing jazz from my father’s collection. People like Benny Goodman (Charlie Christian), Lionel Hampton, Fats Waller (Al Casey) and Eddie Condon caught my attention. And my brother (6 years older) had singles with Eddie Cochran, Fats Domino, Little Richard and others, and this was something that appealed to me. I didn’t fancy the ‘60s beat stuff, never have, never will.

You must have a ton of his records. Can you tell us about your collection?

I have the most. Some 800 LPs, and about the same amount of singles and EPs, from all over the world. The latest achievement was an album from Hong Kong (1976), the very first I have seen.

The only important record I know I miss is the French EP on London from 1958. I have the vinyl but miss the EP cover. It’s a terrible situation.

But I also collect Berry cover versions and soundalikes. I have around 700 singles with different artists covering a Berry tune, and 100s of albums, both LPs and CDs, tributes and you name it. Berry’s music appeals to all kinds of artists and musical styles. That’s what makes it so interesting. I listen to music I am sure I would never have considered if it wasn’t for Berry’s music.

Can you describe what it is about the music that got you hooked?

The beat, the beat, the beat !

And of course his guitar playing and the lyrics. John Lennon said that Berry wrote intelligent lyrics when people were singing about “Be Bop A Lula”, “Long Tall Sally” and “Great Balls Of Fire”.

How many times have you seen him perform live? What are some of your best memories of that?

The first time was in 1975, in Paris at the Olympia (2 shows), which is also the most memorable moment. I thought he would never make it to Norway. Well he did, in 1977. He’s been to Norway another 7 times, and I have also seen him in Sweden once, in 1984, when Johnnie Johnson joined him for the very first time outside the US.

Who are some of your other musical heroes?

I am also a big fan of Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Jerry Lee Lewis, Narvel Felts, Tommy Steele (UK), Willy DeVille (bless his soul) and would you believe Garth Brooks. But I also dig Gene Vincent, Johnny Cash (before ’94), and Elvis (‘50s & ‘60s).

You keep churning out books about CB-- can you tell us how that started?

It began already in the mid ‘60s when I started writing down cover versions, soundalikes and everything that had to do with Berry’s music. I wrote small articles for various magazines both in Norway, UK and USA. In 1982 when US author Howard DeWitt wrote a book about Chuck Berry “Rock N Roll Music” (the very first) I found that it was quite defective so I sent him a heavy envelope with material and we collaborated on the second editon in 1985. It included a discography for 100 pages. Now when the new book titled “The Chuck Berry International Directory Vol.1” came out on Music Mentor Books (UK) in 2008 the discography had expanded to 500 pages, so the one I did in 1985 was quite defective too.

What's the next one?

In 2009 came Vol.2 of the CBID, and this year will see the publishing of Vol.3 and 4. All books will have around 500 pages. Check out the web site of Music Mentor Books for contents, http://musicmentor0.tripod.com

What do you do in your other life (when you're not writing about Chuck Berry?)

Besides being married, I work daily in a nearby building supply business. However, I did run a record company, Fox Records, here in Norway from 1991-1994. I released albums with 3 Norwegian artists, one Swedish and also with Linda Gail Lewis and Narvel Felts.

Have you ever met the man?

Yes once, in Paris in 1975. That was very quick(!) In any case I have the picture.

Let's imagine you had a chance to sit down to eat with him at Berry Park. What would you want to tell him? What would you want to ask him?

That’ll be the day! Anyway, this is a very hypothetical question, but I would at least have asked him about who actually wrote “Run Rudolph Run”?*

Anything else you want to say about him?

No, but I love the music.

*Editor’s note: I think there’s only one person who could write the lines “Run, run Rudolph, Santa's got to make it to town! Can't you make him hurry? Tell him he can take the freeway down!” Freeways were a big deal in the 1950s, and celebrated in at least a couple of other Chuck Berry songs. (”Did I miss the skyscrapers, did I miss the long freeways?” ”New Jersey Turnpike in the wee wee hours...”)

Why Beethoven had to Roll

This is somewhere back there in one of the old posts, but it's worth repeating. (Thank you Mr. Rothwell).

The House of Blue Lights

More precedent. The opening chatter might not be PC, but I'm betting Chuck Berry heard and enjoyed this one. The scat singing is identical. (Of course, Ella Mae may have learned it from someone else, too.)



recedents

Here's another blog's post on Ella Mae Morse: http://soulfuldivas.blogspot.com/2009/03/ella-mae-morse-barrelhouse-boogie-blues.html

Beauty: The Battered Guitar of Chuck Berry

Photo by Peter K.

There’s a great scene in the Chuck Berry movie “Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll” where he’s walking through an airport talking about how he travelled back in the day—i.e., toothbrush, guitar, and a roundtrip ticket. And when he’s asked if he checks the guitar he says something like:

“Oh yeah, each one about six months, then a new one. Deductible. Tools, you know!”

Years ago I used to see him with a cherry red Gibson, but for decades he’s often been seen with a "wine red" one.

I assumed it was one of many—tools, you know, deductible.

But if you look at http://www.chuckberry.com/forum, you’ll find wonderful details about that particular guitar—a beat up, scratched up, battle hardened, Gibson ES 355 with missing knobs, a missing tremolo bar, and duct tape (or something like it) stuck carelessly along the base. And the details come from "a reliable source"—his son and backup guitarist, Charles Berry, II (a/k/a CBII, a/k/a “Son of Rock and Roll.”)

You can and should go to the original sources on the forum—but I can't help sharing some of it here.  From what I gather, this particular old guitar is one helluva specimen. Says CBII: “It has a tone like very few Gibsons I have ever heard. They (Gibson) really built that Guitar to perfection! Other than an electrical conduit brace being added, the only things that have been done to it are string changes, setups, and me polishing it on December 13, 2008 before a show here in St. Louis.”

I can testify personally to this much—when Chuck Berry plays it, it has a sound of its own, like railroad airhorns, beautiful to hear.

In another post CBII describes the guitar in more detail: “It's a 1978 ES-355. My father bought it new here in St. Louis. It's a true work horse of a guitar. What's really special about it is the tone. For it to be from the 70's, it's one of the best sounding 355's made (excluding of course the one's made in the 50's - mid 60's). Yeah, it's been beat up but it has a really rich sound quality to it. The newer ES-345's have a REALLY, REALLY good tone to them as well."  He says a little later that it was a factory second, with blemishes of some kind, stamped "second" somewhere.

But first in our hearts.

My favorite story on the website is about a time when CBII tried to do his dad a favor, and fix up the old guitar just prior to a show at Blueberry Hill.  He put on new knobs and a new tremelo bar.

“They were off the guitar before we went on stage,” says Charles.

(You may have seen Berry react to someone's effort to adjust the sound on his amplifier in “Hail! Hail!” The man knows his mind.)

Read all about it here. And here. And here.

Guitars can be beautiful things.

I got my own guitar in about 1975—so evidently I've had it even longer than Berry's had his wine red one.  Mine is not a Gibson—but I bought it because it looks like a Chuck Berry guitar-- except prettier, maybe, with a light natural finish-- spruce up front, and maple in the rear.  It's pretty gorgeous, to tell you the truth.

But it's also one of the weirder guitars on the planet—an Ovation semi-hollow body called something like a “Thunderhead.” I have only seen two others outside the internet. One was held by David Cassidy of the Partridge Family in a publicity shot.  The other was played on stage by a guitarist for Zydeco star Queen Ida Gillroy at the Sacramento Blues Festival sometime around 1975 or 1976. The Partridge Family guitar made me feel pretty ridiculous, but the Zydeco blues guitar made me happy. I loved Queen Ida, I liked her guitarist, and he was a real musician playing my slightly unreal guitar.

Even if you’re not Chuck Berry guitars wear out, and after 34 years I’d worn certain frets on my Ovation down to the rosewood. And the action got bad, especially up high.  So a few months ago I took it to a Seattle luthier with the very contradictory but poetic name of Cat Fox.  (Find her here.)  Her initial plan was to file down the frets, but when she got started working on the guitar she realized there was no hope for the little filaments that remained.  She called me to say that we needed to replace them all.

I was happy.

I had an immediate vision: Chuck Berry’s beautiful yellow guitar encased in glass near the front door of Blueberry Hill.  The guitar that played Maybellene.  The guitar that rocked the Apollo and the Brooklyn Paramount.  I remembered staring at the fretboard and those beautiful frets, thinking what had come off them and how those sounds had affected my life.

“I want those big fat frets,” I told her.

When I picked up the guitar a few days later, it was better than it ever had been—the action low, the hardware tight, the neck straight! The jack slipped in with a hearty clunk and stayed put. The strings glistened millimeters above big fat frets.

Ah, ‘twas a joy.

(She even took out the Ikea battery that my youngest child had inserted into the guitar at some point long ago, and which had been clunking loudly and helplessly for several years!)

I’m not much of a guitarist. I have a certain feel for music, but not much technique or talent. But I love my guitar and play it all the time.  (Or one of them anyway.  There are others.)

And I love that Chuck Berry seems to love his guitars, too, and that he's kept the one so long. In an old interview in Guitar Player Magazine he fondly remembers one of his first electrics. In his book he talks about his first four string.  Somewhere else he talks about fat frets. In his “poem” he talks about playing his favorite old guitar to the sound of rainfall. (“Sometimes it will be classics, and sometimes lullabies. But mostly rock and roll, which I’ll surely improvise.”) In a song he sings a lot these days-- "Love in 3/4 Time"-- he mentions his liking “my best red guitar.” And as you'll see above, his son can go on and on about the details of various Gibsons.

If you play guitar, or want to, you probably understand.


(Hey, check out the rest of the blog by hitting the title, or you can read my book about a life infected by Chuck Berry starting HERE.  It's free!)

Write a Little Letter. HERE!

It's cool that they are finally starting to get it right, and in time.  The Pen New England Award for Literary Excellence in Song Writing; the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Master's Award; the Delmar statue; the St. Louis Blues Foundation; the Lifetime Achievement in the Arts award.  And it isn't new.  He got a lifetime achievement award from The Grammy's, as I recall; and was honored by the Kennedy Center.  He was the first inductee at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

St. Louis, more than anyplace, should do more.  Something permanent and visible.  There's a great column in The Ville honoring all of the heroes who came from that remarkable and neglected neighborhood.  I like that; I like the statue (even if it looks like Andy Griffith).  But St. Louis should name a street after the man-- a big one that people actually use.  St. Louis should name a concert hall after him.  (St. Louis should realize my vision and create a wall with EVERY SINGLE PERFORMANCE DATE AND CITY-- a list of literally THOUSANDS of performances by a single man-- a place where each of us could say "I was there!" back in 1956, or 1966, or February 13, 1971!)

But so should the country do more.

Write President Obama.  He's feeling his oats.  Tell him to give Chuck the Medal of Freedom while Chuck can still enjoy the honor.

It will only take a few minutes.  Do it HERE.

Chuck Berry and St. Louis Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award

Jan posted this on Facebook.

Hollywood, 1980

George Rose, Los Angeles Times

A cool little snippet from The Lost Angeles Times Here.

Chapter 9 - Why He Matters, Part Three: Chuck Berry as Performer

His performance skills are formidable. When he was younger he could do impossible things: low splits, the duck walk, the miraculous “scoot” (backward, forward, past the amp, around the mike), all the while playing patented riffs, sometimes behind his back or from his shoulder. There are limitations now, but decades of on-stage wisdom and a good band allow his performances to remain interesting and authentic. He still scoots when he’s in the mood, standing much taller now, but gliding across the floor in a way most of us could not manage.

Like so much of his art, his showmanship delivers us simultaneously to and from the days of old all. His “scoot” and “duck walk” were his own creations, but the splits came from T-Bone Walker, and the guitar slinging was at least as old as Charlie Patton, who was known to play behind his back and twirl his guitar mid song. Even the duck walk (where Chuck squats and waddles while playing) had a predecessor in something Sister Rosetta Tharpe used to do, squatting a bit and walking beneath her long, gospel robes and dresses while playing electric guitar. Chuck cites her as an influence, but invented his own duck walk in childhood to entertain grownups, improvising it the first time to dip under a table for a ball.

What I enjoy most at shows is his ability to charm and excite— that pure, powerful charisma. He’s got loads of it. He draws all eyes. My brother, a fan of contemporary dance, saw him perform at age 84 and was struck by the way he moved on the stage. Keith Richards says in the film Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll that Berry’s personal presence got by him by despite bad pickup bands, bad moods, badly tuned guitars, and no rehearsals. There’s truth to that—though you’d have to add skill, too. He has a thorough understanding of how to rouse a crowd.

I once saw him arrive at a performance in bad humor. For 20 minutes his performance was cranky and lackluster, but at a certain point professional responsibility kicked in and he got it going, like a master puppeteer, manipulating wires to make his audience laugh and dance and clap for more. It was both kill and charisma at that point—a showman’s knowledge of how to please all of the people some of the time.

In the early 1970s he used a giant sack full of tricks, mugging, joking, making faces as he strummed his guitar—but back then it was primarily the music. I’ve always believed that his guitar skills peaked around 1970-1972. He had 20 years of frequent one-nighters under his belt (undoubtedly his only “practice”) and, as demonstrated on “Back Home” and “London Sessions,” he could flat out play.

I was lucky to see him with good bands. At Lake Tahoe, and later at Monterey, he played for hours—and the shorter shows that were part of the Richard Nader Rock & Roll Revivals were concentrated frenzy. (He’d catch his breath with a blues, or a novelty song.)

Once I got to know his act I watched with a certain tension. There was ritual to it—the big eyes and fish-like mouth he made while he slowly strummed a chord; the way he “began” a show four or five songs into the performance; the response to “My Ding-a-Ling,” shy at first, and then roaring; the hilarious obscenity of “Reelin’ and Rockin’;” the bad French of “Goodnight Sweetheart” as he began to close; the frantic, climactic “Johnny B. Goode;” the way he backed off stage, bowing, holding his guitar like an icon while the band rumbled on; his quick disappearance. I focused my attention on him but watched his effect on the crowd from the corner of my eye. I wasn’t concerned that I would enjoy the show. I would. I did. But I wanted the rest of the crowd to enjoy it, and was never disappointed.

Some 1970s performances are still available. The film Let the Good Times Roll (lost commercially to contract disputes but available if you look) contains footage of Chuck Berry performing as part of a 1972 Richard Nader Rock & Roll Revival—the same basic show I saw twice at the Memorial Auditorium. I remember taking my mother to the movie. “I get it now,” she told me, after the opening number, “School Day.” The best moment in the film is one Berry shares with his buddy Bo Diddley at the finale. Chuck starts a familiar riff, Bo adds an unexpected bit of punctuation, and the two guitars merge into one just as Bo begins a split and Chuck launches his scoot. It is perfect rock, roll and rhythm, perfect timing, perfect comedy, and pure stage magic. I also loved a scene of Berry in his beloved Park, rubbing his hand across the crumbling paint of his old tour bus and reminiscing about days on the road with Johnnie Johnson and Ebby Hardy. That bus, purchased in San Jose, may have made it to my hometown of Sacramento and the Memorial Auditorium in 1957. He played there the day after San Jose.

There are other performances that remind me of the Chuck Berry I saw in Sacramento, Lake Tahoe and Monterey— clips available occasionally on YouTube of concert performances before hordes of long-haired teenagers. I was one of those kids, manipulated by that man running wide-eyed back and forth across the stage, making us jump and sing, then feigning disbelief when we did so. I also saw most of the television specials as they occurred. My timing was superb. I became a fan, and a year later my hero exploded in popularity again.

His best performance on film isn’t the 60th birthday concert that Keith Richards organized. My favorite is a quietly refined show on BBC filmed in 1972, just a month after the live recordings heard on “London Sessions,” just weeks after his famous appearance with John Lennon on The Mike Douglas Show, and a couple of months prior to the show filmed in “Let the Good Times Roll. (He was a busy man in those days.) On the BBC show there’s none of the hoarse shouting you hear in “Let the Good Times Roll,” or in the “London Sessions” concert. It is like a command performance. He is refinement itself. And really, there is no choice. He is in front of a small studio audience. There’s no reason to scream or shout, so he goes cool and elegant, sometimes whispering or growling his lyrics. The backup band, which had been with Chuck for about a week, and which had done what amounts to a dress rehearsal with him on German television just a few days prior, is mostly competent. They stay out of his way. He seems, nonetheless— or perhaps because of this— to enjoy working with them, especially the pianist, who lacked the blues chops of the great Chess pianists you hear on Chuck Berry records. But Chuck is at his best, singing, dancing, and playing sublime licks on the guitar. My favorite performance is “Carol,” where at times the band drops away discretely to leave just Chuck and his guitar. There’s a funny scene in the film Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll where Keith Richards suggests it would be too much for Chuck to play rhythm and lead guitar and sing “Carol” at the same time. “Well, it wasn’t,” says Chuck, dripping innocence and venom— and here is proof. It is perfect, perhaps the single best Chuck Berry performance I have ever seen.

Another amazing performance happened seven years before the BBC show, at the Salle des Fetes outside of Paris. This time he’s with a European pianist who channels Johnnie Johnson. Chuck goes crazy during “Wee Wee Hours,” jumping, shaking his long hair and playing blistering triplets on his guitar, hard blues by a rock and roller.

In his old age the performances are stripped down to essentials, but there isn’t a phony note in the show. When his fingers fail him he uses other skills, punching out weird rhythm chords to punctuate the lyrics, or mugging with the drummer. When he needs a break he pulls out shtick. And by the end of every show, a dozen women are on stage vying for his attention.

Which is, of course, another part of it: he is a brown eyed handsome man, for sure. The girls and women keep jumping on stage even in his mid-eighties. I’ve watched several times lately when a pert 22 year old has bumped her butt in the direction of this elderly man.

So like I say, he is a five tool player, the Willie Mays of rock and roll: a songwriter, poet, singer, guitarist and performer. Top that, anyone.

Like a Fading Memory, Let's Roll the Microfilm!

If you follow this blog you probably know that I first saw Chuck Berry at a sad, poorly promoted show at the Memorial Auditorium in Sacramento, California.  I was never sure exactly when that show was until I contacted an archivist for the City of Sacramento a few years ago.  She sent me this e-mail. 

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.

I knew who played-- a local group called Slo Loris, and a kid named Little Dion, who's show was sort of like The Jackson One.  You can read all about that show HERE, in Chapter Three of a book I wrote about Chuck Berry and my own personal madness.

 
Well, yesterday I was in Sacramento for business, so at the end of my stay I went to the downtown branch of the Sacramento library and asked for microfilm of the Sacramento Bee and the Sacramento Union for those months.  Because what you have to understand about this blog is that, while it might say a lot about Chuck Berry, it's real focus is ME. 

I'm not sure other people have the same problem as me-- the feeling that all memory is suspect.  Every moment I've ever known in life is "like a fading memory."  So I take comfort in corraboration.  I like to see that what I remember is true.  So you can imagine my delight when I stumbled across the following page of microfilm.

Although I mistrust memory, I trust mine enough to wonder if The Bantams actually performed.  We walked out during Little Dion's performance, so if they did it was after that.  (I would have remembered these guys If I'd have seen them.  They might actually have been younger than Dion!)



As for Little Dion, he's evidently now a pretty big Dion, and providing good times out there somewhere.  The man can still dance.



The rest of it all reeks of the Sacramento of my teen years.  Adult movies.  Vienna Choir Boys.  Perry Boys' Smorgy.  (Check the price there!  All you want for $1.75!  They even gave you a little bible with your fried chicken and spaghetti.  We ate there several times.) 

If you've read the story of that first Chuck Berry show you'll know two things: that we arrived late, figuring Chuck Berry was the headliner and would play last; and that when we arrived, he was already playing, first!

We figured this was because he took a look into the empty auditorium and said "Get me the #*%* out of this town."  But check out the ad more closely.  It says, albeit a bit vaguely, that Chuck Berry, the author of "Sweet Little 1," would appear at 8:00 p.m.  So maybe the promoter was telling the truth-- maybe Chuck Berry really was double booked that night, with a show later in Los Angeles.  But of course, I never saw this ad.  I learned about the show from my mother, who actually read the paper, and who'd probably heard the same stuff I had about Chuck Berry from my brother Stevo.

This ad is from a paper called The Sacramento Bee.  They didn't review much rock and roll in those days, but The Bee actually had an article about Chuck's appearance, on a page with stock market listings, news of an Illinois earthquake, vital statistics, and funeral announcements.  You can read it here.

The other paper, The Sacramento Union, didn't even mention Chuck Berry.  Maybe it's because the promoter didn't run an ad in The Union.  Maybe it's because The Union, once an employer of Mark Twain, was jealous of America's greatest poet.  Whatever the reason, The Union had a much better entertainment section than The Bee (even if one lengthy entertainment article was entitled "Why Men Cheat.")  Check out the blues listings in that day's Sacramento Union.  Lightning Hopkins and B. B. King!

As for the November show, I didn't find much-- just an ad.  This ad I probably saw.  By then I'd seen Chuck Berry again at Lake Tahoe, and I was on the hunt.  I remember the bad art, and the lineup.

Here the mushiness of my memory becomes a little more problematic, because I have always believed I saw two of these shows.  It's possible that I saw the second one years later, in 1975-- but my memory is that I saw it at about the same time as this one, and that there were a few small differences in the lineup.  The problem for me is that I don't have a clear memory of who was with me or where I was sitting for two different shows.  I remember being stage right, about ten rows back.  I don't remember seeing the show from any other location.  Or at least I don't think I do.  As I write this, I begin to see from a new perspective, closer in, more central. 

Which is why I'll have to search again someday.  Cause a fading memory can be a bluesy thing indeed.