Monday, December 15. 2008
Friends,
I have to get rid of some records to make space available for new ones
Therefore I decided to sell some of the duplicates. These offers will be placed on ebay some time in the near future. But if you read this, you're a true Berry collector. Therefore you get a first chance to buy these very rare Berries at whatever price you find reasonable and without fear of being overbid.
If you are interested in one of the following items, send a comment or a private email soon. Comments will not be published, so please include the item name, the price you're willing to pay, and the location you want me the item to send to, that's for postage calculation and payment options. If you have some interesting item in exchange, I would prefer that! If your offer is high enough in my eyes, or if you placed the highest offer during a reasonable period of time, I will let you know.
When an item is sold, I will add a comment to this blog article. Click on Comments below to see the comments if not already visible. Unless there are comments listed, the items are still for sale.
Now here's the list:
- Chuck Berry - Rare Berries - 12" LP - Kozmik Records KZ-501
one of the rarest Berry albums of all times - and a must for every Berry collector for details see here: Collector's Guide Description this is the second variant of this record, the one with the red-top label the disk is very nice without any scratches, the label unmarked the blank white cover has turned brown due to aging, corners have been bent the letter-size inserts (Berry image and track listing/discographical details) have been glued onto the front and back sides of the cover using both glue and Scotch tape
- Chuck Berry - America's Hottest Wax - 12" LP - reelin' 001
again a very rare Berry album - and likewise a must for every Berry collector for details see here: Collector's Guide Description as before, this is the second variant of this record, the one with the blue picture cover and the top sound quality the disk looks as unplayed, there ist a date written on one of the labels the blue cover has some very nice Berry pictures and shows very little wear, within the track listing on the back cover someone corrected one of the recording dates
- Chuck Berry - Die Autobiographie - Hardcover book - Verlag Arthur Moewig
this is the original first German printing of Berry's autobiography cover image and subtitle refer to the Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll! movie for details see here: Collector's Guide Description the book is still sealed, i.e. book and paper jacket are in perfect condition
Interested? Send me an offer by using the Add Comment feature below. You might click on Comments below to see the Add Comment feature.
Finally a legal comment: The two records listed above had not been licensed by the artist or the copyright holders. When produced in the 1970s the creators and dealers of this records did not pay a single cent to the artists. I do not indorse the creation and sale of these kind of records. However, today these records are collector's items. I sell or exchange these privately from collector to collector only for the sole purpose of documenting Chuck Berry's record output.
Thursday, December 4. 2008
This morning my radio clock woke me up with one of the more or less ubiquitous christmas songs. I did not listen until the song faded out with the singer reading from his wishlist:
Now let's see, I want:
a new Rickenbacker guitar
two Fender bassmans
a Chuck Berry songbook, ...
Hey, that guy is one of us, I thought. So I queried the radio stations website to find out singer and title. It's "Christmas All Over Again" written and sung by Tom Petty. Next I checked Morten Reff's new Chuck Berry International Directory, Volume 2: Chapter 13 lists Songs with lyrics that mention Chuck Berry. Unfortunately Petty is not listed there, probably because this is some kind of rare song. As far as a quick search turned out, the song has only been published on a charity album called "A Very Special Christmas 2" in 1992.
Tuesday, December 2. 2008
Two weeks ago German digital TV channel EinsFestival broadcast a half-hour show titled "Vinyl: The Lost Concerts - Chuck Berry". A fellow collector was so kind to send me a copy on DVD. Thanks!
It turned out that this lost concert has been used in part for various broadcasts, but also contained some unknown and interesting footage.
The "show" was recorded in Radio Bremen's TV studio on March 24th, 1972. Berry was touring England from 22nd to 29th March backed by Rockin' Horse. The band consisted of Mike Snow on piano, Jimmy Campbell on guitar, Billy Kinsley on bass and Dave Harrison on drums. On the 24th they flew over to the town of Bremen to record some songs for German TV station Radio Bremen. (I'm guessing here as the recording can also have happened in some studio in England.) They returned to perform in Liverpool the next day and ended the tour at the BBC studios in London to perform in front of TV cameras again, this time for BBC's Sound For Saturday show. This London show is best known for the Vinyl bootlegs called "Six Two Five" containing most parts of the excellent show.
In Bremen, Berry and the four-piece band performed in front of a blue screen and without audience. The Lost Concerts contained recordings of the following songs:
- Memphis, Tennessee
a previously unseen performance
- Let It Rock
this cut was first broadcast in show #78 of the famous German Beat-Club show on May 27th, 1972, two months after the recording. You can watch this segment on a brand-new DVD set "The Story of Beat-Club, Vol. 3"
- Carol incorrectly titled Oh Carol
has a false start and therefore remained unseen so far. A second reason might be that the cameramen were unaware of the duckwalk and could not follow Berry dancing along the studio stage.
- Wee Wee Hours titled with an extra In the
this song features a short introduction by Berry and some fine blues playing by the band. It has some distorted black and white copy of the camera input projected onto the blue screen. This recording was used in the Beat-Club show of May 27th, 1972 and is likewise available on the DVD set noted above.
- School Day incorrectly titled Ring Ring Goes The Bell
here the blue screen shows a moving image of the then current London Sessions album. This clip was not used in the Beat-Club show, but in another Radio Bremen broadcast called "Musikladen" on December 13th, 1972. You can get this clip on the DVD "Best of Musikladen, Vol. 13"
- You Never Can Tell obviously mislabeled as well: C'est La Vie
probably the best song recorded here, but unseen until now. Berry jokes around with the band, modifies the text at will, and inserts some nice guitar solo. Indeed a lost gem. Note: One of the first Beat-Club broadcasts already had a clip of You Never Can Tell, though just audio with Go-Go girls dancing and Berry record covers in the background.
- Johnny B. Goode
performed nicely including duckwalk, piano solo and all. This segment was used in the Beat-Club broadcast of May 27th and is included both in the full "The Story of Beat-Club, Vol. 3" DVD set as well as in a cheaper single DVD called "Beat-Club Best of '72"
The Lost Concerts broadcast end with another segment from School Dayseen before, though this time without the album cover projected onto the blue screen.
Missing from the new broadcast is an interview conducted with Berry while he was in Bremen. This interview has been used in a later Radio Bremen radio show. Read here the details about the CD set containing this interview.
Note: Torsten Schmitt's book "Beat-Club: Alle Sendungen. Alle Stars. Alle Songs" claims that the full set of songs has been broadcast on December 31st, 1972 as part of the show "Das ist Rock 'n' Roll". I have not read or heard this anywhere else. If it were, there would surely exist some bootleg tape or video of this, none I have seen so far. As Schmitt is also incorrect with the backing band here, we leave this open to further research.
Tuesday, November 25. 2008
If you ever see it, get it! That's what I wrote about the famous 9-CD box issued by Charly Records in 1991 containing a next-to-complete compilation of Berry's work for CHESS. Now here's a chance to get one:
Click here to see and bid!
Good Luck!
Saturday, November 15. 2008
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: You can click on the items to go directly to the corresponding eBay page. In case you bid: Good Luck!
Monday, November 10. 2008
[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)
Sunday, November 9. 2008
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:
Enjoy reading!
Monday, November 3. 2008
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.]
Monday, October 20. 2008
Surfing eBay, I found some items which you may be interested in. Rare stuff with small starting bids: You can click on the items to go directly to the corresponding eBay page. In case you bid: Good Luck!
Friday, October 17. 2008
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.
Thursday, October 16. 2008
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!
Thursday, October 2. 2008
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.
Saturday, September 27. 2008
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.
Wednesday, September 17. 2008
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: - The site's contents is useful.
- 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 print able 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.
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