The Chuck Berry Collectors Blog

A CD released this month requires us to add yet another session to Fred Rothwell's sessionography as it contains tracks available on record (CD or vinyl) for the first time.
Here are the details for this session to be placed between sessions 85 and 86:

Date:	25 October 1985
Location:	Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, USA
Personnel:	Chuck Berry (vcl, gtr on My Ding-A-Ling and Bio) Ron Wood, The Rolling Stones (gtr) Carl Wilson, The Beach Boys (gtr) John Paul Hammond (gtr, harm on Bio) Carmine Grillo (gtr) Kenny Jones, The Who (perc, dms on Rock And Roll Music) Mick Fleetwood, Fleetwood Mac (dms) Carmine Appice, Vanilla Fudge (perc, backgroud vcl) Bill Champlin, Chicago (organ) John Mayall, Bluesbreakers (kbd, harm on Rock And Roll Music) John Lodge, The Moody Blues (perc, background vcl) Phil Chen, Rod Steward Band (bs) Rudy Sarzo, Quiet Riot (bs) Chuck Norman, Three Dog Nite (vcl on Rock And Roll Music) Barbara Paine (perc, background vcl) Aniyah Shockley (perc, background vcl) Bobby Keys (horns) Phil Kenzie (horns) Mike Chicowitz (horns) Lee Thornberg (horns) Jimmy Zavala (sax) Jim Ladd (announcer)
Songs:	My Ding-A-Ling Bio (incorrectly titled Destination) Rock And Roll Music
First published:	Pepper Cake 2042-2

The concert this CD is taken from was to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Rock'n'Roll - well, at least the 30th anniversary of Bo Diddley's and Chuck Berry's first hits. Recorded for TV broadcast, the concert was shown on HBO in late 1985. In 1989 parts of the concert were published on video tape, less the Berry tracks, though. Since 1999 the show is available on DVD. And since November 2008 the same concert can be found on an audio CD. As this site is concentrating on audio releases, we note this as a new release, then.
In this case it makes a lot of sense to watch the DVD in addition to listening to the CD. Just have a look on Ron Wood's face when Berry selects My Ding-A-Ling as his first song. Having top names and top musicians in one of the best backup bands in his whole career, Berry performs the silliest and musically simplest of all his songs. Sigh! On the DVD Chuck's segment is introduced by Carl Wilson saying "Chuck Berry is the reason I play guitar!" He can not have meant Berry's intro to the second song here, Bio, which is just one thing: BAD! After this botched start, the song runs fine, though. If you listen to the CD only, be aware that the nice guitar solo near the song's end is not Chuck but Ron Wood playing. And lets not talk about Rock And Roll Music, the show's finale. Berry does not even sing his own lyrics. Look at the DVD to see Ron Wood chasing Berry trying to give him his guitar to play. The audience is complaining loud as Berry refuses to touch it.
As you see, this audio CD is one you don't want to have, unless you're a completionist such as I am. The audio CD is available here, one version of the DVD can be ordered here.

Again here are some items currently offered on eBay which you might be interested in. Currently on sale are some nice picture sleeves offered very seldom. And you can get one of the rare radio station interviews never released anywhere else:

• Picture Sleeve CHESS 1898 No Particular Place to Go


• Picture Sleeve CHESS 1906 You Never Can Tell


• Picture Sleeve CHESS 1912 Little Marie


• Picture Sleeve CHESS 1916 Promised Land


• Picture Sleeve Funckler 45.088 Memphis, Tennessee


• Picture Sleeve Funckler 45.096 I Got to Find My Baby


• Picture Sleeve Funckler 45.097 Jaguar And Thunderbird


• Picture Sleeve Funckler 45.098 Maybelline


• Picture Sleeve Funckler 45.111 Nadine


• and finally a Chuck Berry recording never released on any commercial album: This Unistar Radio Station record containing A Chuck Berry Birthday Bash to be broadcast on Oct. 18th, 1988 contains some interview segments exclusively recorded for Unistar

You can click on the items to go directly to the corresponding eBay page. In case you bid: Good Luck!

[Updated 11.11.2008]
Despite all the rumors and discussions happening in various online forums Chuck Berry's European Tour started today. Here is the schedule as officially published:

• 10.11. - Hallenstadion, Zürich (CH)
• 11.11. - Cirque Royal, Brussels (B)
• 13.11. - Club Ludre, Nancy (F)
• 14.11. - Le Zenith, Paris (F)
• 15.11. - Le Zenith D' Amiens, Amiens (F)
• 16.11. - Muziekcentrum Schaaf, Leeuwarden (NL)
• 17.11. - Jazz Cafe, London (GB)
• 18.11. - Jazz Cafe, London (GB)
• 19.11. - Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam (NL)
• 20.11. - Grugahalle, Essen (D)
• 21.11. - Olympiahalle, Innsbruck (A)
• 22.11. - SAP-Arena, Mannheim (D)

While shopping in second hand record or book shops I tend to buy items related to 1950s music in general or Chuck Berry in detail, as long as they are cheap.
So a 1973 paperback called "Any Old Way You Way You Choose It" grabbed my attention. I had read Robert Christgau before, but not this specific book with its Berry-related title. There's also a newer, expanded edition of this book available.
The book contains a reprint of Christgau's October 1972 Newsday article on Chuck Berry which is very fine contemporary reading covering Berry receiving the Golden Record for My Ding-A-Ling. In his writings, Christgau praises Berry as "the greatest rock lyricist this side of Bob Dylan". And since it is Christgau who wrote "the standard text of sorts, the Berry entry in The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll", his word should be trusted.
Christgau is famous for his often hard critical reviews of recent records. Him praising a musician means a lot. But all in all, you should not expect him to write purely positive on Berry. Quite the contrary! Just read this review of Bio, the album: "Willie Mays was the greatest baseball player who ever lived, but he just can't cut it anymore. He reminds me more of Chuck Berry every time out." Ouch!
If you are interested in Christgau's writing about Berry (and others), you will be astonished to learn that his personal web site www.robertchristgau.com contains many if not all of his writings!
Here are the most interesting things he wrote about Chuck Berry:

• Newsday article "Chuck Berry: Eternal Rock and Roller": http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-aow/berry.php


• Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll 1976 article "Chuck Berry": http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/music/berry-76.php


• Reviews of Berry's 1970s and 1980s albums: http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=2421&name=Chuck+Berry


• Review of Berry's "Autobiography" for Village Voice 1987: http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bkrev/berry-87.php

Enjoy reading!

I have not seen it yet, but according to George Groom-White of Music Mentor Press, the second volume of Morten Reff's Chuck Berry International Directory is out now.
This volume covers Chuck Berry Bootlegs and Radio Station Albums, Berry in the movies, TV, and DVD, Berry tours and awards. Also included are tributes and related recordings.
If you read this site, you have to have this book. Get it!
More about this volume as soon as I read it. [Update 19-12-2008: My review is now online here.]

Surfing eBay, I found some items which you may be interested in. Rare stuff with small starting bids:

• Concerto in B. Goode on CD-reissue by Mercury Germany - extremely hard to find


• More Chuck Berry, rare Dutch album on Chess International


• Another rare Dutch album, this one is on Funckler Records: Chuck Berry On Stage


• You will have Sweet Little Sixteen/Rock And Roll Music, but not on this rare German London 45


• This item has just ended, but you might be interested in it anyway as this Australian EP is very seldom seen: Reelin' and Rockin' To The Fabulous Chuck Berry


• While we're at EPs, this is one you may want to own: Rock and Roll Music on CHESS 5119 in what the seller calls a 'marvelous' condition


• And finally, from the same seller (which I do not have any relation to) a 'superb' condition CHESS EP 5121 Sweet Little Sixteen

You can click on the items to go directly to the corresponding eBay page. In case you bid: Good Luck!

Kultur International Films recently published a series of 12 DVDs named Songs That Changed The World. Each DVD covers one particular song, e.g. I Want to Hold Your Hand, Heartbreak Hotel, Stayin' Alive or Like a Virgin. Whether these or any other song in fact "changed the world" is strongly doubted ...
The DVDs come from a TV series of same name, according to the Net shown in various countries such as Finland, Australia, Mexico, and on various cable channels such as Discovery Channel. The series was originally produced for Country Music Television (CMT) in Canada and premiered January 2003.
The interesting thing about this DVD series is that one disk concentrates on Chuck Berry's Maybellene. It's interesting to note that the makers of this TV series found that Maybellene as a birthsong to Rock&Roll had more impact than, let's say, Rock Around the Clock or Johnny B. Goode.
As the other disks in this series, Song That Changed The World: Maybellene is a documentary consisting mostly of very brief comments by famous people about Berry, about the song, or about the 1950s at all. Some spoken introductions are underlaid with 1950s footage: cars, people, city views.
You do not see Berry perform the song in question. Instead while the song is playing you see segments from Berry's 1950s movies such as Go, Johnny, Go! or Jazz on a Summer's Day. Included are segments from an interview with Berry, though. I think I have seen this interview somewhere else before, but I don't remember where. It must have been recorded sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s, I guess.
Berry makes some interesting comments on his view of how Maybellene did not change the world: "We played Rock&Roll long before ...", "That's just a label ...", "I had a producer who was a marketing genius ..."
The comments from all the other people interviewed are less interesting, although there are many of them. Next to historians, university professors, and music publishers you see and hear B. B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Paul Anka, Randy Bachman, Mike Love (Beach Boys), Joe Mauldin (Crickets), Bob Weir (Grateful Dead), Robbie Krieger (Doors), Justin Hayward (Moody Blues), Steve Howe (Yes), and very briefly Ron Wood. All this is not of any importance. The only one who really has something to say is director Taylor Hackford (Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll!) who unfortunately did not direct this series.
The DVD is not very expensive and can be purchased here. Buyers should be aware that the running time is just 35 minutes of which more than 10 minutes are excerpts from the remaining DVDs in this series. The documentary alone is no more than 25 minutes, i.e. very short. Fortunately it is not region coded even though offers may tell different.

Michel Ruppli, author of the famous book on Chess, was so kind to provide us with data from his upcoming Atlantic/Atco discography. According to Michel's research, the master numbers for the songs listed in sessions 75 and 76 of Fred Rothwell's Long Distance Information are as follows:

37306	Oh what a thrill	Atco SD 38-118, 7203
37307	California	Atco SD 38-118, 7203
37331	Move it	Atco SD 38-118
37340	Pass away	Atco SD 38-118
	Boogie tonight	unissued
37333	I need you baby	Atco SD 38-118
37334	If I were	Atco SD 38-118
37335	House lights	Atco SD 38-118
37336	I never thought	Atco SD 38-118
37337	Havana moon	Atco SD 38-118
37338	Wuden't me	Atco SD 38-118

According to Michel, no other masters are listed for Chuck Berry.
Thanks, Michel!

A Chuck Berry recording available on record or CD for the first time? Sounds interesting, doesn't it?
Browsing the Net I recently found out about this CD:

Rock n' Roll Commercials of the 1950s was published by Lady Goose Productions of Inverness, Florida in 2007. Catalogue number is 32105. The item is labeled Volume 1, but the second volume is about the 1960s thus having a different title (#32106). The 1950s CD has 50 radio commercials sung or spoken by 1950s artists such as Sinatra, Crosby, Cole and so on. Despite the title, most are not Rock'n'Roll at all, but among the artists are Little Richard, Elvis, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley and Alan Freed.
Track 49 is a radio commercial for Applebee's Restaurants and is sung by Chuck Berry - as the track listing makes us believe. Indeed this spot includes a version of No Particular Place to Go with modified text to fit to the restaurant. It has a Chuck Berry beat, but no lead guitar and the voice does not sound like Berry at all. So I asked around and none of the Berry experts believed this to be Berry singing.
If you want to check out by yourself: The only place I found listing the CD was this eBay offer. Amazon is selling the CD contents as MP3 files. Go to this page to listen to almost the complete commercial.
The CD sound quility is pretty bad, but there are some very interesting commercials by your favorite artist which you haven't heard before. And, with most tracks the artist is correctly listed, indeed.

By accident I recently found a book on Rock music published in 1977 which has some interesting comments about Johnny B. Goode.
Rolling Stone Magazine recently voted it the Greatest Guitar Song of All Times. See here: http://www.crlf.de/ChuckBerry/blog/archives/40-The-Greatest-Guitar-Song-of-All-Times.html. What a difference...

In Rockmusik (ed. Wolfgang Sander) the editor himself and his three co-authors each wrote a one-page academical review of the song. As the book is in German language, here's what you can read:

• Tibor Kneif (musicologist, author of various books on rock music, professor FU Berlin): ... unoffending-lighthearted text ... artless music ... not bad, but no better than any other mass-produced title
• Hans-Jürgen Feurich (musicologist, professor Universities Hildesheim, Chemnitz, Leipzig): ... not a number on the playbill, but a closing ritual ... simple identification mark [Prof. Feurich reviewed the abbreviated version at the end of the Live at the Fillmore album.]
• Wolfgang Sandner (musicologist, professor University Frankfurt, journalist, FAZ): ... unpretentious rock and roll ... a rude blank mould for rock art ... coarse, raw ... prototype of rock and roll
• Ulrich Olshausen (journalist, FAZ): ... agitated, but monotonous beat ... no dynamics ... instrumental break which does not add anything new other than some rhythm intermissions ... out of the ordinary only due to the text

To me this only proves that as with any art form, critics can have a huge variety of opinions. So let's get back to the facts. And there are two undisputed facts about Johnny B. Goode:

• The guitar intro to Johnny B. Goode is one of the main themes every guitar player has at least tried to reproduce.
• Its guitar licks and the text telling a poor guy's way to become a rock star have made Johnny B. Goode one of the most covered songs of all times.

And if you need another proof, look here: http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=lfiTeaZjAvQ&feature=related - thanks, Carmelo.

You may or may not have noticed, but for many months the pages of the website this Blog belongs to (http://www.crlf.de/ChuckBerry/) all ended with a question:

Would you be interested in buying a printed version of this website's contents?

Many readers clicked on this question and reached a poll questionary asking whether they would be interested and if, what they would be willing to pay for it. Over 150 readers filled the form with reasonable answers. Thanks to all of you!
In the meantime I had to remove the poll because 95% to 99% of the entered data came from automatic Spam-Bots entering random data just to see what it may be good for. Well, it was good for shutting down this kind of poll
Anyway I would like to summarize the results of the poll as those who entered their opinions might want to know what others thought.
As I said, in total there were some 150 useful replies. About 75% would be interested in buying a book version of this website. This corresponds to the opinions expressed in personal communication:

1. The site's contents is useful.
2. The site contains too much information to read it online, so you want to be able to read it offline while checking your record collection.

The second question asked how much you would be willing to pay for a printed version. The replies indicate that you have a reasonable knowledge of book prices and that you would be willing to spend a reasonable amount getting a book documenting Chuck Berry's complete recording output:

• The average suggested price for a black&white version is between US$20 and US$25.
• The average suggested price for a color version is around US$40.

About 5 readers suggested a price of US$75 or more. Thanks for the compliments! And about the same number suggested less than US$10. Hmmm....
Unfortunately printing a book is expensive. This site's contents adds to some 150 to 200 pages in print. Selling such a book for US$25 would require that at least 1.000 copies could be printed and sold at full price. This is not to expect, though, unless it would come from a mayor publisher. And printing the book for the 100 of you who already said they would buy it rises the price to the US$100 range.
Therefore unless a professional publisher approaches me covering most of the investment, I do not see a printed version offered in a bookstore ever. Sorry!
However, what I can envision to create is not a printed, but a printable version. I already experimented with creating a nicely laid out booklet. If I ever find the time I will put all of this site's contents into a document which prints clean and readable. I will then offer a version of this document for download so you can read it offline and print for yourself.
Such a printable PDF file will not be available for free, though. I will have to charge some amount to cover the effort spent. How much would such a printable version of this site's contents be worth to you? Let me know.

While I write a lengthier article for this blog (stay tuned), here's another list of rare Berry items which you may not have and would like to get:

• GET OFF 2: One of the rares Berry recordings to get on Vinyl is this 1975 LP release by the NAPRA (National Association Of Progressive Radio Announcers), featuring Anti-Drug radio spots and messages including a radio spot by Chuck Berry


• a Unistar network radio show on Chess Records, an original Vinyl album sent out for broadcast


• Not by Chuck Berry, but a result of Berry's 60th birthday concert: Keith Richard producing and playing with Berry piano player Johnnie Johnson on Johnnie B. Bad


• Here's a magazine ad for the famous 1972 Lancaster Arts Festival performance: the London Sessions concert


• Finally an album not often shown due to it's unusual (for Berry records, at least) cover: Sweet Little Rock&Roller

You can click on the items to go directly to the corresponding eBay page. In case you bid: Good Luck!

Hi everybody!
All of August not a single blog message was posted here. The reason was simple: I was traveling Denmark for some weeks - on a bike. A report will be posted soon at a different place on this site.
What did we miss in terms of Chuck Berry recordings? Nothing I know of. No new releases, no strange items found. So you did not miss anything.
Something you may have missed is Berry's performance at the U.S. TV show hosted by Jay Leno. You can view the segment on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVYh8i4_gh0. There's a discussion taking place at chuckberry.com about the quality of the performance with most forum writers highly praising Chuck. My view is a bit different:

Chuck's guitar 'playing' is next to inexistent. Whatever comes out of his guitar has nothing to do with the song - And I really LIKE the original recording! Also his singing misses all of the melody of the original. So just like Chuckie Boy I am disappointed when Chuck acts as a parody of himself such as in this show. Sorry!
Chuck created some of the nicest recordings of the rock music and authored a number of its greatest songs. But seeing him downplay these songs worse and worse over the last 40 years really hurts.
There's an old story about Chuck refusing to "dance" (playback) to his music in Dick Clark's Bandstand show. But seeing a performance like the one at Jay Leno's I wish he'd learned better.

In addition what you may have missed are the problems with Berry's last European tour where he missed some shows and the uncertainties about his upcoming European shows. I will not comment on those here as this site is dedicated to Berry's music - only! But I recommend you read some of the other Chuck Berry sites on the net before spending too much money on tickets.

Willing to spend $200 or $500 on Chuck Berry memorabilia? I'm certainly not. But it's interesting to see which amounts eBay sellers demand (or try to demand) for Berry items. Here are some of the more expensive Chuck Berry items currently on offer at eBay. Judge for yourself whether the price asked for is reasonable:

• a clay figure of Chuck used in filming an episode of Celebrity DeathMatch, one of the stupidest TV series of all times. Bidding starts at USD 499.99


• a hand painting of Berry as he looked like during his 1970s concerts. Directly offered by the artist Brian Tones. Price is UKP 395 or whatever you are willing to offer.


• or how's about a lot of Mexican Chuck Berry memorabilia? This set of lobby cards and records goes for USD 199.99


• and aside from various autographed items, this is currently the most expensive Chuck Berry record for sale at ebay: CHESS EP 5121 Sweet Little Sixteen with picture cover at USD 175.

You can click on the items to go directly to the corresponding eBay page. I don't expect you to bid, but in case you do: Good Luck!

This is a site about music. But up to now it does not let you hear music.
However, shops such as amazon.com not only sell music as MP3 files, they also provide samples for you to listen to before you buy. Each sample is a 30 seconds excerpt from the middle of the song. Thus it does not give you the full song, but at least you get something you can check and compare.
I am wondering if I should add such song samples to this site. This would allow you to click on a song title and listen to it. It needs some re-writing of the site's pages, but if you're interested, I'd do that over the next weeks. So please let me know if you think this is worth the effort.
Here's a sample of how the end result may work: the complete contents of Berry's last studio album:

In total amazon.com offers MP3 downloads (and samples) of more than 200 Berry recordings, from his complete 1950's stuff to obscure live recordings.
Click here to see and listen to all Chuck Berry MP3s at amazon.com