Saturday, March 17. 2018Chuck Berry's Chess Albums - How they could have been
Arian Collins is a Chuck Berry fan like us. He recently wondered about the strange release strategy Chess showed with the first ten years in Berry's carrier. Songs were left on the shelf, placed on albums years after recorded or even released as singles only.
Thus Arian imagined how Berry's early albums would have looked like if Chess did release all recordings in time. On his blog "Albums Back from the Dead - Recreating albums that never actually existed" Arian shows us Berry's Chess albums he imagined, including track listings which follow the recording dates and imaginary covers. Look, read and enjoy Chuck Berry 1955-59: https://albumsbackfromthedead.blogspot.com/2018/02/chuck-berry-discography-1956-59.html Chuck Berry 1960-66: https://albumsbackfromthedead.blogspot.com/2018/03/chuck-berry-discography-1960-66.html
Posted by Dietmar Rudolph
in Chuck Berry Recordings
at
17:31
| Comments (0)
| Add Comment
| Contact Webmaster
Wednesday, March 14. 2018CBID - Twenty-eight and some
CBID is the Chuck Berry International Directory, a 2.200 page pile of Chuck Berry records information published in four volumes between 2008 and 2013. For details see the bibliography section of this site.
CBID is never complete as new records and CDs appear and some old rarities are discovered. This section presents interesting additions and corrections to CBID. Today: The re-issue of the Great 28 album comes in a box with three bonus records. USA THE GREAT TWENTY-EIGHT â SUPER DELUXE [4-LP] THE GREAT TWENTY EIGHT (2-LP) Reissue of the original 1982 album set Chess CH-8201 (see page 86). MORE GREAT CHUCK BERRY Wee Wee Hours / No Money Down / Drifting Heart / La Juanda (Espanol) / Blue Feeling (instr) / Vacation Time+ / Joe Joe Gunne / Too Pooped To Pop+ / Our Little rendezvous / You Never Can Tell / Promised Land / Little Marie / Dear Dad / My Ding-A-Ling (live, single edit) OH YEAH! LIVE IN DETROIT Guitar Boogie* (instr) / Let It Rock / Almost Grown / Chuck Berry dialogue 1 / Too Much Monkey Business* / Johnny B. Goode / Introduction â instrumental / Sweet Little Sixteen / Wee Wee Hours / Chuck Berry dialogue 2 / Maybellene / Medley: Goodnite Sweetheart Goodnite +-Johnny B. Goode-Let It Rock-School Day BERRY CHRISTMAS Run Rudolph Run / Merry Christmas Baby+ / Spending Christmas / Christmas Now this came as a surprise to most people. A 4-LP box set with Berry in 2017, however, the first time I saw it turn up on eBay was in February 2018. It contains the original double album from 1982, same fold-out cover and even the label is the same. More Great Chuck Berry contains B-sides and more hits. Same label as above. The front cover has some resemblance to the original More Chuck Berry Chess LP-1465. The Live In Detroit album is surely a collectors item, first time on vinyl. It contains the first and second set from Saturday 26 October at the Walled Lake Casino in Detroit, except the two tracks marked * which are from the first set on Friday 25. The thing is that this particular Guitar Boogie is the best version from the shows. The first time these songs came to light, except for Monkey Business that was included on the Bear Family box set, was on the US Universal box âYou Never Can Tellâ in 2009. So if you wanna get the songs in correct sequence you better stick to the Bear Family box set. As you can see the LP number is following the âAfter School Sessionâ LP-1426. The label here is the old black one with vertical silver Chess logo. (1427 was actually a Muddy Waters album. It should have followed the âOn Stageâ album, however, this is also wrong as LP-1481 was really a Slappy White album. Chess LP-1466 was not issued so that could have been used, but the compilers probably didnât know.) Finally we also get the names of the musicians who played behind Berry, plus a story on the background for this special event. The 10â Berry Christmas album comes in red vinyl with a green Chess label that makes it look like a 78rpm except for the colour that is. The credits for Run Rudolph Run reads C. Berry-M. Brodie. Thereâs a 36 page booklet in LP size with liner notes by Alan Light, a lot of colour and black & white images, a US discography and recording details. Bear Family, Fred Rothwell and Morten Reff are credited. Thanks. Addition by Arne Wolfswinkel: The box version sold by uDiscover is a limited edition of 500 copies where the four LPs are made of blue Vinyl. Addition by Dietmar Rudolph: Since the booklet finally tells the name of the five musicians who backed Berry in Detroit, we have updated the database accordingly. The band consisted of: Monday, February 26. 2018Where have we heard this interview before?
This site's section on Radio Show and Promotional Records has a description of the most interesting Chuck Berry records which were not available for public sale. This includes the so-called Radio Show albums which are LPs (later CDs) containing pre-produced radio shows to be broadcast by radio stations nation-wide. Some of these albums contain interviews or even music not available anywhere else.
I recently received another of these radio albums containing five segments of 5 to 7 minutes each to be broadcast as House of Blues Breaks on CBS stations. The segment for Thursday, 21 April 1994 concentrates on Louis Jordan but holds an interview segment by Chuck Berry related to Jordan. Berry says: They say that's a Chuck Berry song because it goes 'da-da-bi-da-bi-da-bi-du-a-da-bi-du-a'. Well, the first time I heard that was one of Carl Hogan's riffs in Louis Jordan's band. We have T-Bone Walker - I love T-Bone Walker and his blues. So you put a little Carl Hogan, a little T-Bone Walker, and a little Charlie Christian, the guitarist in Tommy Dorsey's band, together. Look what a span of people that you will please. And that's what I did in Johnny B. Goode, in Roll Over Beethoven. And making it simple is an important fact, I think, that resulted in a lot of the artists understanding, being able to play my music. If you can call it my music. But there's nothing new under the sun. This does sound very well-known. We have heard Berry tell this in multiple interviews before. However, I checked the remaining radio station albums and did not find this specific segment. Do you remember where we have heard this specific interview segment before? Let me know.
Posted by Dietmar Rudolph
in Chuck Berry Recordings
at
15:06
| Comment (1)
| Add Comment
| Contact Webmaster
Friday, February 16. 2018No Chuck Berry on CHESS 2CH-60015
As you know, this site's database is a complete list of each and every Chuck Berry recording which has ever been published on a mass-produced record or CD.
Some people have noticed that various web sites list Chuck Berry recordings which are not in our database. All these contain "alternative facts" and it's in no way our job to correct those. One error, which even made it to Mike Callahan and David Edwards' excellent Both Sides Now website, continues to be repeated over and over, though. Time to get the facts right: In June 1972 Chess recorded several of their main artists at the Montreux Jazz Festival. This included Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Koko Taylor and T-Bone Walker. Most were backed by The Four Aces, i.e. Lafayette Leake, Dave & Louis Myers, Fred Below. Some performances including Berry's were also broadcast on TV. From these broadcasts and from audience tapes we know it's been a poor Berry performance despite Walker and Dixon as guest artists on some tracks. Chess decided to release the best recordings from the various shows on a two-LP set numbered 2CH-60015. Berry's complete performance seems to have been mastered for release, as both Michel Ruppli and Fred Rothwell report the master numbers CH2440 to CH2453 containing the songs from Berry's Montreux performance. The double album was initially announced under the title "The Blues/Rock Cookbook - Volumes 1 & 2" to be released by Chess/Janus in September 1972. The track listing seems to have included Let It Rock (master CH2448) and School Day (master CH2453) from Berry's performance. [I haven't seen the original announcement yet, but I found a note in Cash Box which lists the artists, though not the songs.] Those who know tell that the masters of these two songs have been cut from the master tape residing in the Chess vaults which otherwise still has the complete stereo recording. Thus it looks as if a master tape for the Blues/Rock Cookbook album had been created. However, we have never seen a copy of this album nor any image thereof. It seems that it never made it to the stores. Strangely, many online discographies list 2CH-60015 under this title - and list Berry among the artists. Correct is instead, that the final release of CHESS 2CH-60015 in February/March/April (?) 1973 has the title "Blues Avalanche" on the cover and "Blues/Rock Avalanche" on the label. The "Avalanche" album has the exact same tracks as the planned "Cookbook" album except for the two Berry tunes. There's no trace of Berry on the disk or on the cover. It is completely unknown why this change happened? Fred Rothwell writes that Berry had a dislike for compilations. Another wild guess could be that Berry demanded additional cash for the publishing of his recordings. Or someone had noticed that Chess had just released a Chuck Berry live album (The Chuck Berry London Sessions, CH-60020). It even could be that Chess officials finally noticed that Berry's performance in Montreux was poor. Who knows? In case you wonder, yes, there is another album missing Chuck Berry live performances. The soundtrack album for Richard Nader's movie "Let The Good Times Roll" (Bell 9002, 1973) has the best live performances by old-time rock'n'rollers such as Fats Domino, Bill Haley, and Little Richard, but misses the Berry part from the film including a performance together with Bo Diddley.
Posted by Dietmar Rudolph
in Chuck Berry Recordings
at
16:18
| Comments (0)
| Add Comment
| Contact Webmaster
Saturday, January 13. 2018Chuck Berry live 1965 and 1980
There are hundreds of audience tapes containing Chuck Berry shows from all over the world. Few of them are worth listening to and even fewer are worth releasing.
A couple of weeks ago a new CD called Hail! Hail! Chuck Berry! Live! became available containing two shows which are really worth listening to. Although the CD says "This CD-R is a non commercial product and is for private use only", it is professionally made with a printed cardboard envelope. The label is called ROUGH. There is no catalog number, but the barcode reads 640509040147, so we take this as the catalog number. The two shows included are well known. Seven tracks come from a show recorded in February 1965 at the TV studios of Radio Télévision Belge in Waterloo, Belgium. This show was broadcast under the title "Face au public". It's available in very good quality on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhoyMlX5avU It's interesting to note that Berry is backed by professional Jazz musicians from Belgium: Willy Donni on guitar, Willy Albimoor (Willy Noël De Moor) on piano, Ed Rogers (Roger Van Hoverbeke) on double bass, and Eddie Hunton on drums. Besides his greatest hits, Berry also performs his latest singles and The Things That I Used To Do, a blues by Guitar Slim. Further 14 tracks on this new CD come from a September 1980 show at the Seattle Arts Festival "Bumbershoot". Again this recording is of highest sound quality. It probably was recorded and broadcast by Seattle radio station KSIW. At least KSIW DJ Gary Crow introduces Berry and the band and promotes the radio station. Fred, Thierry and myself spent some time trying to find out who backed Berry at this show. Crow introduces them as the "Northwest All Stars" and they are much better than the average pickup band Berry used to play with. The guitar player and the piano player both get time to solo which is a strong indication for Berry really liking their play. With the help of Eric Predoehl and Ned Neltner we finally got into contact with guitarist Barry Curtis (ex-Kingsmen) and drummer George Rudiger (of Jr. Cadillac) from the band. Both Barry and George remember the show well. They report that the electric piano was played by Tom "Cadillac" Katica (Jr. Cadillac as well), who died in 2010. They didn't know the bass player who was traveling with Berry. This indicates that here again we hear Jim Marsala playing. Eric has a great photo shot on his louielouie.net site showing Chuck, George, and Barry during the Bumbershoot show: http://www.louielouie.net/blog/?p=9074 Besides all his greatest hits, the show includes nice versions of You Don't Have To Go and Baby What You Want Me To Do written by Jimmy Reed as well as Lousiana Blues written by Muddy Waters. Note that in contrast to the known audience tapes, the show on this CD has been shortened. Due to time limitations, Johnny B. Goode was excluded, Reelin' And Rockin'/House Lights was shortened by two minutes. Also missing is the introduction by Gary Crow and an initial guitar instrumental based on Rockin' At The Philharmonic. Right now we haven't seen this CD offered in stores or mailorder catalogs. It is offered on ebay, though.
Posted by Dietmar Rudolph
in Chuck Berry Recordings
at
18:51
| Comments (0)
| Add Comment
| Contact Webmaster
Sunday, January 7. 2018Yet another Carol
While Carol is one of Berry's best-known records, the recording itself is kind of a mystery. This starts with two different master tapes which have been used to create the hit single vs. the LP release. Most readers will know the LP master originally created for the 1959 album Chuck Berry Is On Top (CHESS LP 1435). This has a wide range of loudness throughout the song and is used for almost all LP or CD re-issues. In contrast, the master used for the 1958 single (CHESS 1700) is much more compressed to give a more leveled sound. To many people this variant sounds much more vivid and overall better.
The single master is more difficult to get as it was used only for the hit single and the follow-up EP. According to Thierry Chanu, the single master has been used only once since then, on the British album More Chuck Berry (PYE NPL-28028). In the US this master seems to have been lost which is why Bear Family in 2014 reconstructed it from a Vinyl single to re-issue it on their 16-CD box set. Also lost are session tapes showing the development of the recording as well as the overdubs tried. So it came out as a surprise when in April we found a variant of Carol having an additional piano overdub which is not on the original single or LP release. This piano overdub version has been published only once: on the 1973 double album Chuck Berry's Golden Decade, Vol. 2. This made us listen to Carol in greater detail trying to find a second release of this piano overdub. We didn't. But in December Thierry Chanu found something else: On the Japanese 1983 box set Very Good!! (CHESS PLP 834-6) there is a third variant of Carol!! Again it sounds almost the same as the hit version but has additional piano playing. And this is a different piano overdub than the one on Golden Decade. The piano overdub on this version is much more audible, but concurrently it's also worse. It doesn't fit the song very well. And the master runs approximately 5% faster than the hit version, whether on purpose or not. According to Morten Reff, this second piano overdub was also used on a second Japanese box set called From The Beginning 1955-1960 (CHESS SJET 9523-5) released probably in 1973. And Thierry found it on a strange European CD called Greatest (Goldies GLD63035, Portugal 1991). Given these results we have to state that session tapes of the Carol overdubs must still have existed in 1973 as two alternative overdubs were used on compilation albums both in the US and in Japan. As these seem to have been lost in MCA's archives, one wonders if master tape copies still exist in Japan or elsewhere.
Posted by Dietmar Rudolph
in Chuck Berry Recordings
at
13:05
| Comment (1)
| Add Comment
| Contact Webmaster
Sunday, December 31. 2017Chuck Berry over Bissingheim - review
Does it make sense to write a review of a book you'll never read? Maybe. I got this nice little book for Christmas and would like to share it with you. It's about Chuck Berry, kind of. But unfortunately it's available in German language only.
Bissingheim is a suburb of Duisburg which itself is a suburb of the largest megacity in Germany, the Ruhrgebiet. Duisburg is best known for having the world largest in-land port. "Chuck Berry over Bissingheim", subtitled "The true story of rock and roll", is a 2017 book by Frank "Zepp" Oberpichler. Oberpichler is a German musician and writer. He played guitar in various cover bands such as "Ten Beers After", "Substitute" or "Freeway Cash" and published some CDs alone and with US or German musicians. His homepage is at http://www.oberpichler.de. In "Chuck Berry over Bissingheim", the first-person protagonist tells about his Grandpa ("Oppa") Wallusch, an electrical engineer working at the railroads. Oppa Wallusch just passed and his grandson remembers the stories they shared. So we learned that while Bissingheim was never on the tour plan of any famous rock band (or any unknown highschool band either), Bissingheim was indeed the birthplace of Rock'n'Roll. Oppa Wallusch learned to play guitar in the early 1940s while staying in England during the war. He got friends with an American Blues musician by the name of Big Joe Turner. Back home Wallusch formed a band which on weekends played at weddings and barn dances near Bissingheim. Here Oppa Wallusch merged Blues with Polka dance music and created what he called "Ruck und Roll". Over the years, his employer sent Wallusch to England and to the States several times and wherever he went, Oppa Wallusch left his traces by educating young musicians or helping them write famous songs. Together with Jim Marshall he invented the guitar amplifier and taught Jimi Hendrix and Pete Townshend how to use it. Wallusch met Woody Guthrie and Jerry Garcia, was on stage at Woodstock and shaped rock music as we know it. A whole chapter covers Wallusch's stay in Chicago in the late 1940s where he met and educated Chuck Berry on how to do the "Ruck und Roll", how to play guitar and how to write story songs. The book is a report of Wallusch's talks with his grandson. But concurrently the book is its own soundtrack album. The chapter headings read Track 1 to Track 11 (along with run-in and run-out). Each chapter starts with a quote from a famous railway song (which Wallusch might have been involved in). And each chapter includes the lyrics of a German-language song Wallusch wrote and which is very close to a hit you might remember. Unfortunately no recordings of Wallusch's originals survived. Track 11 is a song about a guy trying to get a number from the operator to get his loved-one on the phone. The lyrics end explaining that the guy is trying to phone his daughter, not his girl-friend. Wallusch's song is called "Meiderich - Kennen Sie?". (Meiderich is another suburb of Duisburg, "Kennen Sie" is German for "Do you know".) And, believe it or not, Chuck Berry took Wallusch's idea and melody to create a famous English-language version. Oberpichler's book is a nice read. It could have used less slang, though. I guess even many Germans will not fully understand Wallusch's recollections. But mainly I wish the book would have been longer: Just eleven tracks are much too short for a soundtrack album nowadays. It's a pity nobody else remembers Oppa Wallusch, this hero of Rock'n'Roll. Even in Bissingheim he is long forgotten, as Oberpichler shows in this nice video trying to find the roots of rock music in Duisburg: https://youtu.be/45WnyUKgkzY If you can read German, get yourself a copy at your local bookstore using the ISBN 9783942094726. The book is also available at amazon.com or amazon.de. Recommended. Wednesday, December 13. 2017CBID - Renewed CDs, old Vinyl, and a postcard
CBID is the Chuck Berry International Directory, a 2.200 page pile of Chuck Berry records information published in four volumes between 2008 and 2013. For details see the bibliography section of this site.
CBID is never complete as new records and CDs appear and some old rarities are discovered. This section presents interesting additions and corrections to CBID. Today: Universal Japan re-issued their Mini-LPs, some singles were found or newly released, there's a postcard from Poland, and some bootlegs of unknown origin. JAPAN In June 2017 following the death of Chuck Berry, Universal Japan re-issued their 2010 package of 16 original US Chess albums with bonus tracks (page 2007). All had new catalog numbers as follows: AFTER SCHOOL SESSION - Universal (Chess) UICY-78357 • June 2017 ONE DOZEN BERRYS - Universal (Chess) UICY-78358 • June 2017 BERRY IS ON TOP - Universal (Chess) UICY-78359 • June 2017 ROCKINâ AT THE HOPS - Universal (Chess) UICY-78360 • June 2017 NEW JUKE BOK HITS - Universal (Chess) UICY-78361 • June 2017 TWIST - Universal (Chess) UICY-78362 • June 2017 CHUCK BERRY ON STAGE - Universal (Chess) UICY-78363 • June 2017 ST. LOUIS TO LIVERPOOL - Universal (Chess) UICY-78364 • June 2017 CHUCK BERRY IN LONDON - Universal (Chess) UICY-78365 • June 2017 FRESH BERRYâS - Universal (Chess) UICY-78366 • June 2017 BACK HOME - Universal (Chess) UICY-78367 • June 2017 SAN FRANCISCO DUES - Universal (Chess) UICY-78368 • June 2017 LONDON SESSIONS - Universal (Chess) UICY-78369 • June 2017 BIO - Universal (Chess) UICY-78370 • June 2017 CHUCK BERRY - Universal (Chess) UICY-78371 • June 2017 HAIL! HAIL! ROCKâNâROLL - Universal (Chess) UICY-78372 • June 2017 And in July 2017 Universal Japan finally released the 5 Mercury CD albums with the extra tracks that came out in the US in 1989 (pages 102-104). As with the 16 Chess albums each CD is packaged in a replica mini LP sleeve. GOLDEN HITS - Universal UICY-78376 • July 2017 CHUCK BERRY IN MEMPHIS - Universal UICY-78377 • July 2017 LIVE AT THE FILLMORE AUDITORIUM - Universal UICY-78378 • July 2017 FROM ST. LOUIE TO FRISCO - Universal UICY-78379 • July 2017 CONCERTO IN B GOODE - Universal UICY-78380 • July 2017 CANADA Rock And Roll Music / Blue Feeling (instr) The label says âDeep Feelingâ but plays âBlue Feelingâ. Nadine / OâRangutang (instr) âNadineâ is in stereo, and âOâRangutangâ is the complete three-minute version. This is astonishing as according to common belief the unabridged version was first released on a British CD in 1998. Further research then revealed that there was an even earlier release in the late 1960s. See the US single below. Reelinâ And Rockinâ (1957) / My Ding-A-Ling (single edit) See pages 273 and 1993 for the other singles in this series regarding especially the year of all three releases, as the labels on the above singles say 1981. US Nadine / OâRangutang (instr) The original 1964 release exists with three different labels. Page 29 shows these labeled first to third pressing, though it seems that these labels were used concurrently in different pressing plants. All had âNadineâ in mono and âOâRangutangâ faded at 2:18. On this light-blue label re-release âNadineâ is in stereo, and âOâRangutangâ is the complete three-minute take heard here for the first time! NEW ZEALAND SAN FRANCISCO DUES Same cover as US album from 1971. UK School Day / Sweet Little Sixteen This is record no.3 in a series of 10 7â singles released as a box-set by Demon Records in the UK, titled âRock ânâ Roll Classic 45sâ Classic-45001. The two songs are the original classic Chess cuts. The other greats are Bill haley & His Comets, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, The Everly Brothers, Carl Perkins, Fats Domino and Gene Vincent. Talking about the Golden Era of rockânâroll from the â50s, two are missing, Elvis and Bo Diddley. They should have made 12. POLAND Guitar Boogie (instr) Polish sound postcard, 15x11 cm, colour picture of flowers in a vase and the grooves pressed onto it. The card says it plays âThings I Used To Doâ but it doesnât. BOOTLEGS - EUROPE (?) These are two bootlegs which combine sides from past records including their original labels each.Havana Moon / El Loco Cha Cha (Rene Touzet) This is a reissue combining Havana Moon (1956) by Berry on one side and El Loco Cha Cha (1955) by Rene Touzet on the other. It is advertised as being the roots of âLouie Louieâ. The song by Rene Touzet has actually nothing to do with Havana Moon but the opening of El Loco Cha-Cha has something to do with Louie Louie. It has the same riff, so to speak. You Can't Catch Me / The Downbound Train This is a repro (bootleg) since the two songs were not on the same single back then in '56. Anyway, there's no matrix numbers either, just the title on each side written by hand in the dead wax. I bought it from a seller in the UK so it was released in Europe, probably pressed in Kroatia or something like the Berry/Touzet one. Monday, December 4. 2017Cover and label variants of CHESS LP-1480 'Chuck Berry On Stage'[This article first appeared here on December 16, 2014. Just recently Thierry Chanu found yet another cover variant of LP-1480. Therefore I re-post this blog entry with Thierry's addition edited in below.] [Now that was fast: A week ago we proudly presented our finding of the very rare sticker version of CHESS LP-1480. And we asked some questions which this finding opened. Immediately I received several emails from our French reader Thierry Chanu which not only answered our open questions but also contributed much much more. Thus we have to re-write the story of 'Chuck Berry On Stage'.] When you read about the 'Chuck Berry On Stage' album released as CHESS LP-1480 in August 1963, such writing often comes with a photo of the album cover looking like this: This is typically considered to be the original cover of CHESS LP-1480. As such for instance it was used for the Japanese mini-LP replica Universal Music Japan UICY-94630 we wrote about in October 2010. While this is the best known cover for this album and certainly is the variant sold most often, it is not necessarily the 'original' album cover — if you define 'original' as the first version of this cover. The interesting thing to look at is the line saying including "MEMPHIS" & "SURFIN' USA" above the artist name. It is printed in black letters and refers to the then current famous cover versions of Memphis, Tennessee and Sweet Little Sixteen (as Surfin' USA). When Morten Reff described Berry's seventh CHESS album on page 60 in his Chuck Berry International Directory, Volume 1, he noted: The original pressings of this LP had a sticker on the front cover saying 'Including "MEMPHIS" & "SURFIN' USA"'. Thus there was no printing, just a sticker containing the same wording as the printed text, though 'Including' is written with a capital I. The text on the sticker is in blue instead of black and it uses a different font. The sticker version is very rare. We were happy to finally get one and we proudly presented it here last week. (Click for a higher resolution image.) A contemporary ad from Chess showed a black and white image of the sticker version of the album. And the sticker seems to be applied hastily just before the photo shooting as crooked as it is. Thierry Chanu then wrote that he as well has a version of this album having the sticker. Though his has been sent out as a promotional advance copy to DJs and marked as such. Here's the back of Thierry's copy: Given that the sticker is both on the advertisement and on the advance copies, we can state that the sticker version existed before the printed version. It must have been commercially available as well, since Morten's copy is not a promotional one. [Addition 04-12-2017: There seem to have been two variants of this sticker. The images above show that the sticker contains just the incorrect song title "Surfin' USA". There's a second version of the sticker which adds the correct song title "Sweet Little Sixteen" in small print below "Surfin' USA". Here's a photo of the second sticker version: end addition.] What may be under the sticker, we then asked, as it would be logical that there was no printed text there. So last week we wrote this request to all Chuck Berry collectors reading this site: Do you have a copy of CHESS LP 1480 which has no sticker and no printing of the 'including' text? If you do, send us an image and we would be happy to show it here. Again Thierry: Yes, the cover exists without the sticker. I have one and the record label is black with the golden CHESS on top. It has the same label, writing, and matrix as the DJ copy. Here's the proof from Thierry's collection: The second part of Thierry's reply refers to the other question we had wondered about: When receiving the sticker version album, Morten had found "The copy I bought features the second label, the black label (repress) image on page 60." Thierry's two records make clear that the label with the golden logo is not from a later re-pressing such as Morten's book had suggested. Obviously this is the original label (left: non-sticker version, right: DJ copy), at least for the early copies. As this was the brand-new CHESS label containing the new multi-colored logo, it's safe to assume that CHESS wanted at least the DJs see this new logo and label. Thierry however makes clear that one has to be careful to distinguish CHESS records just by their label into 'original' and 'later' pressings. Chess used three or four pressing plants at the same time, so we can find an original record with different labels. These are additional early labels of CHESS LP-1480. All came in the third variant of the cover, i.e. the one with the printed text. Even though these look like earlier CHESS labels, we probably shall regard them as used interchangeably at the same time. Once more Thierry: Here's one more regular copy with the black label and vertical Chess logo (different than the other black). This one though has been pressed using a different matrix. It was pressed by the Monarch pressing plant in July 1963. This can be told by the etching located in the run-off (dead wax) area of the record. The Monarch pressing plant is identified by an MR inside a circle, always in the trail-off area. The numbers following this symbol tell the date of mastering. Thus we can sum up the history of CHESS LP-1480 as follows:
To show just a few of these variants, Thierry arranged this photo: Many thanks to Thierry Chanu for providing all the additional information about the 'Chuck Berry On Stage' album. If we ever find the time, we'll continue this story with the international releases of this album which have different overdubs, longer fades, completely different covers (in multiple variation) and so on... [Done: http://www.crlf.de/ChuckBerry/blog/archives/235-Vinyl-variants-of-CHESS-LP-1480-Chuck-Berry-On-Stage.html]
Posted by Dietmar Rudolph
in Chuck Berry Rarities
at
13:49
| Comment (1)
| Add Comment
| Contact Webmaster
Monday, November 6. 2017Variations of the CHUCK album - round 2
[Editors note: Thierry Chanu owns one of the largest collections of Chuck Berry records I know of, maybe the second largest world-wide after Morten's. For some time Thierry has provided us with many details about Berry recordings and releases. You've seen his name mentioned in various blog posts lately. As this entry is based solely on Thierry's work, it's only fair to list him as the author. Please welcome Thierry to the team of writers of this blog!]
In June we started to make a list of variations of the CHUCK album we had found by then. Here's a second, more complete list. It's still not exhaustive, so if you have additions, let us know. For those of you who want all the different releases of the CHUCK album, this is your shopping list. Let's start with the Vinyl releases. The same gatefold cover is used for the US and EUROPE markets. The records are different, though: EUROPE Decca 00602557561241, black wax etching in deadwax on side 1: BH 73415-01 A1 HL 5575 612, on side 2: BH 73415-01 B1 HL 5575 612 US Dualtone 80302-01793-18 etching in deadwax on side 1: DUAI-1793A 5-99804 carl-JLM, on side 2: DUAI-1793B 5-99805 carl-JLM black wax clear red wax white wax (Barnes&Nobles exclusive edition) NOTE: Black is the rarest, red is for audiophiles, white is for the beauty. The CD album comes in a lot more variations: EUROPE Decca 00602557561142, digipack with lyric/photo book inside matrix print on CD: 5756114 15A00IFPI L555 SONY DACC universal ifpi 948t UK - Promotional Copy Decca no number, single sleeve, watermarked and traceable matrix print on CD: Z.... might be traceable thus excluded here US Dualtone 80302-01793-25, digipack with lyric/photo book inside matrix print on CD: V30432 CRT DUA1793 3/27/17 10:21:36 AM BRAZIL Decca 060255756114 AA0001000, digipack with more glossy paper, lyric/photo book inside matrix print on CD: /#/ NOVODISC CD /#/ 060255756114 49353 JAPAN Decca UICO-1293 in jewel case with book + obi, eight pages in Japanese matrix print on CD: IFPI LT46 UICO-1293 MT 262 THAILAND Decca 00602557561142, digipack with lyric/photo book inside matrix print on CD: universal 0 51 00 317 universal IFPI LK76 5756114 AUSTRALIA Decca 5756114, digipack with lyric/photo book inside matrix print on CD: universal ANZ ifpi lv90 5756114 A0101090118-0101 15 RUSSIA Decca 00602557561142, in jewel case with lyric/photo book The cover say Decca, the CD says Dualtone, so this might be a bootleg matrix print on CD: IFPI LP7612 V30432 CRT DUA 1793 While you can buy digital downloads of every single song from the album, there haven't been any physical singles (CD or Vinyl) available in stores. There have been several physical promotional singles, though: US - Big Boys Dualtone DUA-1793-S1, jewel case, back insert only matrix print on CD: ZIE.... individual UK - Big Boys Decca no number, single sleeve matrix print on CD: ZIE.... individual UK - Wonderful Woman Decca no number, single sleeve matrix print on CD: ZIE.... individual NOTE: If you have a friend who works for a media press agency or on the radio market THIS IS THE ONE TO HAVE. This edited version is 3:38 minutes instead of the album version which runs 5:19 minutes. See the database for details. UK - Lady B. Goode Decca no number, single sleeve matrix print on CD: ZIE.... individual Friday, November 3. 2017How much is a Chuck Berry collection worth?
We often get the same kind of questions:
I have this and this Chuck Berry record or a whole collection of Chuck Berry records. How much is it worth? Most askers are disappointed with our reply. There are a very few records which value a significant amount. For all others the main problem is not the value but to find a collector interested who doesn't already own it. Less and less collectors exist and for records which you paid $100 some years ago you're lucky if someone pays $10 today. A good example is last month's auction of records and memorabilia from the collection of BBC's famous DJ "Dr. Rock". The auction company was wise enough not to offer each record on its own. Instead they created a lot of all the Berry albums. So they offered a Collection of 36 Chuck Berry LP records including Chuck Berry The Chess Box Set, The Latest and The Greatest, I Am A Rocker, New Jukebox Hits, One Dozen Berries, Greatest Hits, After School Session, Rockit, Chuck Berry at the Fillmore Auditorium, The London Chuck Berry Sessions x 2, The Greatest Hits Spot Records, Golden Decade Volume 3, Concerto in B Goode, You Never Can Tell, Golden Decade Volume 2, San Francisco Dues, You Never Can Tell Diploma For Two Marble Arch Records, Back in the USA Live Everest Records, Bio, Hail Hail Rock & Roll, Greatest Hits Marble Arch Records including Roll Over Beethoven, Rock & Roll Rarities from the Golden Era of Chess Records, Back Home, Chuck Berry's Golden Decade, The Blues Volume 1, Chuck Berry in Memphis, Fresh Berries, Hail Hail Rock & Roll MCA6217, Rock & Roll Rarities, Jukebox Hits, In London and Chuck Berry Americas Hottest Wax, many with copies of photographic prints of Chas White and Chuck Berry This is an almost complete collection of Berry's UK albums from the 1960's onwards, mostly unplayed. See here. The estimated value was 80 to 120 UK Pounds, i.e. $100 to $150. It sold for 85 UK Pounds, i.e. approximately $110 or $3/record. Go figure.
Posted by Dietmar Rudolph
in Buy and Sell Berrys
at
11:39
| Comments (0)
| Add Comment
| Contact Webmaster
Tuesday, October 10. 2017The KBCO Show Mystery Solved - It's KMET 1981
The previous blog entry was about a newly released Chuck Berry live recording which was said to stem from a KBCO broadcast in the early 1990's.
We finally found out when and where this was recorded. And the interesting thing is that it comes from a show which is in our sessionography database already. The hint to solve the KBCO show mystery came from Thierry Chanu who saw a YouTube posting called Chuck Berry at Wolf and Rissmiller's. Poster markbrow explains that this one-hour audio is from a live broadcast on 94.7 KMET recorded at Wolf & Rissmiller's Country Club in Reseda, CA. You hear the KMET DJs introduce and sign-off the broadcast. Listen to the recording of Bio halfway in the show. This is the exact same recording used on the new ROXVOX album where it is labeled as "KBCO-FM, Early 90s". Also the other four songs from the so-called KBCO tape are on markbrow's tape as well. But there's more: Listen to Sweet Little Sixteen and the Carol / Little Queenie medley. Have you heard those before? Yes! They are on the famous Westwood One radio station album, the only one containing Berry live recordings not published otherwise. The tracks were re-released on the Sheik of Chicago CD last year. Thus thanks to markbrow's tape we now know the origin of the mystery KBCO recordings. All three recordings (YouTube, radio station album, and KBCO tape) are from the same show. The show was recorded on January 17th, 1981 at Wolf & Rissmiller's. Berry performed two sets this day using the same backup band consisting of Jim Marsala on bass, Johnny Rivers on guitar plus unknown pianist and drummer. Some source talked about the "Billy Ciofe Band", but this is unconfirmed. Rivers is introduced by name but doesn't sing, not even Memphis, Tennessee. Read markbrow's description on YouTube and you already see it was a great show even before listening to it. Mark Brown of the Orange County Register remembers it in an 1999 article: Today, he barely tours, and when he does it's a short, routine set as part of some oldies package. Compared to other audience tapes from the late 70s, early 80s, the Reseda show is nothing special. Berry plays his greatest hits and leaves the stage after exactly 60 minutes. The main difference is the very good backing band, especially Johnny Rivers and the unknown piano player. Strangely, reader Jeff told us in 2004 about the second set he attended: I remember the line being around the block to get in. I was 21 at the time, and had been into Chuck since I was about 12. This was the first time I had a chance to see him, although I've seen him numerous times since. Talking about the second show is of interest as well: The recording of Maybellene on the Westwood One radio station album is NOT the same as the one from markbrow's YouTube posting. Both sets have been recorded. The first one was broadcast live on KMET (as the DJ comments on YouTube prove). The second show (or at least part thereof) was recorded but not broadcast directly. Segments of both shows were kept for re-broadcast. CBS's Westwood One distributed Maybellene from the second show along with Sweet Little Sixteen and the Carol / Little Queenie medley from the first show on an album to radio stations nation-wide. The album was filled with recordings from a George Thorogood live show at Wolf & Rissmiller's, probably recorded a month later, February 19th, 1981. According to Wikipedia, the Chuck Berry show was the first of many live shows owner Norman J. Pattiz recorded for Westwood One. Also the so-called KBCO tape is NOT from the KMET live broadcast. It is the same show, but in markbrow's posting on YouTube at the end of Bio there is a station identification from KMET which is not on the KBCO tape. Thus this tape was recorded from a re-broadcast, maybe on KBCO. It only has the last 30 minutes of the show though it's unclear if the first part was not broadcast or not recorded from radio. The complete set of recordings from January 17th, 1981 thus consists of: Maybellene (1st set) - 3:33 - KMET Memphis, Tennessee - 3:38 - KMET School Day - 1:59 - KMET Roll Over Beethoven - 3:17 - KMET Sweet Little Sixteen - 2:02 - Westwood One, KMET Carol / Little Queenie - 7:06 - Westwood One, KMET You Don't Have To Go / Lousiana Blues - 7:00 - KMET, last 3:27 only: KBCO Bio - 5:27 - KMET, KBCO Nadine - 5:45 - KMET, KBCO Johnny B. Goode - 4:58 - KMET, KBCO Reelin' & Rockin' / House Lights - 12:25 - KMET, KBCO Maybellene (2nd set) - 2:15 - Westwood One The recording descriptions in our database have been updated accordingly. Thanks to markbrow, Thierry, and Jeff for helping to sort out these recordings.
Posted by Dietmar Rudolph
in Chuck Berry Live Tapes
at
12:23
| Comments (0)
| Add Comment
| Contact Webmaster
Monday, September 11. 2017Chuck Berry live at KBCO-FM, early 1990s?
All the fuss about the CHUCK album should not let us overlook the many other Chuck Berry releases from the last months.
When Fred informed me about the CD The Palladium New York '88 I wasn't too impressed. The Palladium show had been on the Smashing Pumpkin CD The Sheik of Chicago already which we wrote about last year. And as you know it's a high-quality but low-performance recording. Or as Fred wrote: "When you listen to it you can understand why [it has never had a legitimate release]. Chuck is renowned for performing unrehearsed and with a waywardly untuned guitar but on this particular night his fingers were also unrehearsed and untuned. While energy levels are high, the duff notes come thick and fast, falling in such infectious clusters that the pianist is tempted to join the discordance too. Add to this the thud, thud, thud of a tub thumping drummer and it's all rather disheartening." So why should we care? Then I learned that this new release of the Palladium show is also available on Vinyl. The CD is ROXVOX RVCD2106, the Vinyl is LIVE ON VINYL LOV 2019LP. As expected, the CD contains the same recording as last year's Smashing Pumpkin CD. It includes the radio station MC's announcement, though. And it has two bonus tracks! The first bonus track is a very nice live recording of Bio said to be recorded for KBCO-FM of Boulder, Colorado and broadcast in the early 1990s. Recordings of this broadcast had been floating around as private tapes for long. The second bonus track called Riding Along is said to stem from the same broadcast and is also on the audience tapes noted. However, if you listen closely, this is just the plain old studio recording of No Particular Place To Go. The previously unreleased version of Bio is also on the Vinyl version which however misses four songs from the Palladium concert. The Palladium New York '88 comes with a strange cover, as you see. In addition the track listing has many songs incorrectly named. The CD booklet does include some nicer Berry photos, though, and a reprint of both an 1987 L.A. Times interview and an 1985 biography from Associated Press which starts with "Born Charles Edward Anderson Berry in San Jose, California on January 15th 1926" ... Hey, at least they had the name right! As said, the most interesting thing with this CD is the KBCO bonus track. I tried to research a bit about the origins of this recording but didn't succeed. So here's a summary of what I have been able to find out: The surviving tape of the KBCO broadcast consists of five live tracks: 1: Louisiana Blues (Muddy Waters) 2: Bio (Chuck Berry) 3: Nadine (Chuck Berry) 4: Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry) 5: Reelin' and Rockin' (Chuck Berry) / House Lights (Chuck Berry) Of interest is the first track as no Berry recording of this Muddy Waters tune has been released yet. The remaining are pretty standard for his 1990s concerts. Nadine comes with a lyrics change when Berry sings "I shouted to the driver: Hey conductor, you must - take me to Atlanta, Atlanta on a bus." Since Berry often changed lyrics according to the location of the concert, Atlanta might be a good guess. However, on Bio Berry claims "I'll be back here in Hollywood." This would point to an L.A. venue. Who known? During the closing routine of Reelin' and Rockin', Berry in the "It wasn't me" segment typically talks about the drummer, the piano player or the bass man, all anonymously as he usually doesn't know their names. Here, however, Berry refers to the drummer, the bass man, and a "Johnny" the crowd cheers to. I had originally assumed this to be Berry's long-time pianist Johnnie Johnson, as there is a piano player on stage. Johnson toured with Berry in the late 1980s. But further listening reveals that the piano player is not good enough to be Johnnie Johnson. Instead it seems to be the second guitarist who is Johnny. All five tracks, especially Bio include a second lead guitar which exchanges licks with Berry. And a good one! One source claims that this second guitar is played by Johnny Rivers, though no proof is given. It's possible, though. Rivers and Berry had several common performances, e.g. in various TV shows. Thus Berry would known him by name. I searched around to find a concert where Berry and Rivers shared the same bill. And found one. In Colorado. In the late 1990s. And broadcast on radio. As far as I was able to find out, the only 1990s concert these two appeared on was the 1997 KOOL concert at Mile High Stadium, Denver, Colorado, on Saturday, June 14th, 1997. It seems that all KOOL concerts were recorded and broadcast by KXKL-FM (a.k.a. KOOL-105) at that time. Now, Denver is not that far from Boulder, 1997 is not that far from 'early 1990s' and KXKL-FM is not that far from KBCO-FM. So maybe this recording wasn't "broadcast by KCBO of Boulder, Colorado in the early 1990s" but by KXKL of Denver, Colorado in 1997 instead. But Denver would neither explain the Atlanta nor the Hollywood text change. Therefore we have to stick with the KCBO bit in our discography database until we learn better. If you know more, let me know! Many thanks to Frank Wilmot of the Denver Public Library and to Tyler Fey of Feyline Events Management for their help researching the Colorado concert and lineup.
Posted by Dietmar Rudolph
in Chuck Berry Live Tapes
at
15:14
| Comments (0)
| Add Comment
| Contact Webmaster
Friday, July 21. 2017Eyes Of Man photobook review
You have been asking about the so-called photobook offered by Dualtone in combination with the CHUCK album.
There was absolutely no information about this book available from Dualtone except for the black cover. No Contents, no page numbers, nothing. So I finally bit the bullet and ordered one. (Note that Dualtone constantly changes the descriptions on their site. Since I ordered they included a small video of a hand browsing through the book.) Here's my review for you to decide by yourself if you want one of not. It is awfully expensive to get this photobook. In contrast to the early offers they at least allow ordering from outside the U.S. now. Dualtone's list price is $35 plus shipping. The cheapest shipping they offer is $23.38 to Europe. It took ten days to get me the package. Faster shipping is available at even higher costs. Shipping to your location might vary. A European buyer should thus expect at least $60 payment to Dualtone plus customs fees and taxes if they apply. What you get is the size of an LP and has 40 sheets of paper, i.e. 80 pages. Most pages have a single image or document reproduction. The images are often taken from Berry's own photo collection. But there are also lots of well-known images from PR shots or concerts. The quality of the photos vary a lot. While this is no surprise for seventy years old wedding photos, also newer photos have been scanned poorly or reprinted from magazines. The selection and quality of the scanned documents vary even more. We'll see excerpts from Berry's correspondence files, some internal accounting, telegrams (wired messages) but also copies of newspaper articles or even sheet music. Many of this is damaged and seems to be taken from the burnt scrapbook Berry shows to Robbie Robertson on the Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll! DVD (four DVD set only, Image Entertainment ID3156THDVD, 2006). Again there are some documents which we have seen before, but there's also some I haven't seen before. And this includes interesting stuff such as a 1957 inquiry by Elvis Presley Music, Inc. asking for Chuck to write material for Elvis. The creators of this book were very keen to point out Berry's honors. So you'll see letters regarding Grammy and BMI awards, messages from Dick Clark, Carl Sagan, and Etta James. And you'll see thank-you letters from President Carter, from President Reagan, from Hillary and from Bill Clinton, and another from Bill, and another from the White House's Social Secretary, and ... You'll get the picture. All in all you'll get a couple of interesting photos and documents, you'll get a lot you already know or which you don't care about. And what you don't get at all is any information on image source or contents. Except for a few sentences in a non-signed foreword there is absolutely no text in this book. It would have been extremely helpful if not necessary to tell where a certain photo has been taken, or when, or who is shown next to Berry. Nothing. And where every book, magazine or CD booklet tries to give correct credit to the owner of a photo, here all is "from the Berry Family Archives". This is disappointing. In summary you have to be a very enthusiastic Berry fan to enjoy the segments of the book which you don't already know. Take your time and wait until it gets cheaper - or at least sold in your country for less shipping.
Posted by Dietmar Rudolph
in Buy and Sell Berrys
at
14:22
| Comments (0)
| Add Comment
| Contact Webmaster
Thursday, July 20. 2017A big Thank You to the Bee Gees Experts
Chuck Berry's performance at the NBC Midnight Special show of October 12th, 1973 is well known. You can even view it using YouTube at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5NwvAiRmvw (Reelin' And Rockin') https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1oaf2hEXwY (Johnny B. Goode) Since Berry is backed by the Brothers Gibb, i.e. the Bee Gees, on this performance, audio copies of these segments were available in the Bee Gees collectors community on CDs. It wasn't clear, though, whether these CDs qualify for inclusion in our Chuck Berry sessionography database. We only include albums which have been commercially available and produced in quantities. This means we have all the official releases and the factory-produced bootlegs. It took a looong time to find out, but in the end we can now tell that these Chuck Berry recordings have been made available on what seems to be true, pressed CDs. One example is Down The Road (Drifter CD 022, 2009). While I haven't seen a copy yet, at least I have seen photos of the CDs. Many thanks to the Bee Gees experts Göran Gustafsson of the Bee Gees Collection, Detlef Wange of the Private Bee Gees Archive and SÞren Forup of the Bee Gees Rarity Site
Posted by Dietmar Rudolph
in Chuck Berry Live Tapes
at
17:53
| Comments (0)
| Add Comment
| Contact Webmaster
« previous page
(Page 7 of 22, totaling 326 entries)
» next page
|
Main PageThis weblog is an addition to my Chuck Berry fansite called "A Collector's Guide to the Music of Chuck Berry" which describes all books and records of interest to everyone enjoying Chuck Berry's music. CategoriesWhat You MissedSome earlier but important entries:
Recent Entries
SearchCopyright and DisclaimerThe complete contents of this weblog is
© Dietmar Rudolph No part of this document may be used or published without written consent by the author. Impressum/Haftungsausschluss/Datenschutz/Disclaimer To contact the authors, email to cbguide@crlf.de. Blog AdministrationPowered by |