LDI Sessionography - Updates

Fred Rothwell's Long Distance Information: Chuck Berry's Recorded Legacy (Music Mentor Books, 2001) is the ultimate book for any serious Chuck Berry record collector: All Berry sessions, all the songs, all the session musicians, where to find which song if ever released, and tons of additional stuff.
First published in 2001 the book consists mainly of a 240 page commented "sessionography", a list of 93 recording sessions Chuck participated in between 1954 and 2000. For each session Fred lists the musicians and the songs recorded, whether released or not. For every song he shows a few main records containing it. He also fully describes and critizises every recording.
Chuck Berry's recorded legacy is not complete yet, though. After publication of Fred Rothwell's book thanks to Dale Gischer, who played drums on this session, we now know that the session took place in January 1969. The exact date he does not remember. Dale would also like to see his last name's spelling corrected as shown.
Dale was so kind to provide us with this photo taken during the session, which shows from left to right:

Dale Gischer - Drums, Billy Peek - Guitar and Keyboards, Chuck Berry, Kermit Eugene Cooley - Bass Guitar.
Many thanks, Dale!

Addition: April 18th, 2010 - Reader J. Young informed me:

I'm sorry to announce that Kermit Eugene Cooley passed away yesterday afternoon around 6 pm. He played bass for Chuck Berry in Concerto in B. Goode. He was a good man and a great friend. We will all miss u bud

[This blog only cites the reader's comment and did not verify its correctness.]

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.

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!

Today I received a CD containing a previously unreleased Chuck Berry recording!
In 1999 Bob Costas of St. Louis local radio station KMOX 1120 presented a series of Evening Specials. One of these specials was dedicated to Rock&Roll and during this special Chuck Berry gave one of his rare interviews.
This interview has now been released on a CD called KMOX Classics Volume 2 - Classical Conversations. Along with the Berry interview there are various other classical conversations as the KMOX staff talks to Bill Clinton, to Cassius Clay, and many more.
Chuck Berry talks about his dislikes of interviews (blaming Rolling Stone Magazine), about his life and early performances in St. Louis, about his influences (Old Blue Eyes), about him first hearing Maybellene on the radio, and about writing Roll Over Beethoven (his sister playing Bach, but that didn't rhyme).
This five minute interview is very well hidden on this CD which has no track listing, no year of release, not even a company label or copyright.

Fred Rothwell's Long Distance Information: Chuck Berry's Recorded Legacy (Music Mentor Books, 2001) is the ultimate book for any serious Chuck Berry record collector: All Berry sessions, all the songs, all the session musicians, where to find which song if ever released, and tons of additional stuff.
First published in 2001 the book consists mainly of a 240 page commented "sessionography", a list of 93 recording sessions Chuck participated in between 1954 and 2000. For each session Fred lists the musicians and the songs recorded, whether released or not. For every song he shows a few main records containing it. He also fully describes and critizises every recording.
Chuck Berry's recorded legacy is not complete yet, though.

Due to the availability of additional bootleg recordings, audience tapes, and multiple commercial DVDs there have surfaced many new details about the sessions which made the Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll! film. A complete discussion can be found in the section on Chuck's 60th Birthday Celebrations.

Fred Rothwell's Long Distance Information: Chuck Berry's Recorded Legacy (Music Mentor Books, 2001) is the ultimate book for any serious Chuck Berry record collector: All Berry sessions, all the songs, all the session musicians, where to find which song if ever released, and tons of additional stuff.
First published in 2001 the book consists mainly of a 240 page commented "sessionography", a list of 93 recording sessions Chuck participated in between 1954 and 2000. For each session Fred lists the musicians and the songs recorded, whether released or not. For every song he shows a few main records containing it. He also fully describes and critizises every recording.
Chuck Berry's recorded legacy is not complete yet, though. After publication of Fred Rothwell's book we found out about an additional recording session which took place in early 1972:

During the same tour through Europe which resulted in the BBC session of March 1972, German TV station "Radio Bremen" recorded a live version of Johnny B. Goode for their Beat Club TV show. This recording can be seen on the DVD Beat Club - The Best of '72. While in the studio at Bremen, Berry was interviewed. A decade later, Radio Bremen used this interview in issue 15 of their radio series Roll over Beethoven - Zur Geschichte der populären Musik, a series covering the history of rock from the mid 1940s to the late 1970s. And another decade later, the German record label Bear Family re-issued the complete radio series as a box set containing 52 CDs and a 300+ page book. As such the interview or at least four segments of it ended on a commercially available CD and therefore in this description of Berry recordings. The box set is called Geschichte der Popmusik (Bear Family BCD16300).

Fred Rothwell's Long Distance Information: Chuck Berry's Recorded Legacy (Music Mentor Books, 2001) is the ultimate book for any serious Chuck Berry record collector: All Berry sessions, all the songs, all the session musicians, where to find which song if ever released, and tons of additional stuff.
First published in 2001 the book consists mainly of a 240 page commented "sessionography", a list of 93 recording sessions Chuck participated in between 1954 and 2000. For each session Fred lists the musicians and the songs recorded, whether released or not. For every song he shows a few main records containing it. He also fully describes and critizises every recording.
Chuck Berry's recorded legacy is not complete yet, though. After publication of Fred Rothwell's book we found the following additions regarding Session 26:

• An undubbed version of All Aboard was finally released by MCA Records on a CD called Blues (MCA B0000530-02) in 2003.


• The previously unreleased recording of Adulteen surfaced in 2004 on a not-for-sale promotional CD The ARC Classics (ARC Music ARC CB 0402) created by the song's publisher.

Fred Rothwell's Long Distance Information: Chuck Berry's Recorded Legacy (Music Mentor Books, 2001) is the ultimate book for any serious Chuck Berry record collector: All Berry sessions, all the songs, all the session musicians, where to find which song if ever released, and tons of additional stuff.
First published in 2001 the book consists mainly of a 240 page commented "sessionography", a list of 93 recording sessions Chuck participated in between 1954 and 2000. For each session Fred lists the musicians and the songs recorded, whether released or not. For every song he shows a few main records containing it. He also fully describes and critizises every recording.
Chuck Berry's recorded legacy is not complete yet, though. After publication of Fred Rothwell's book we found the following addition regarding Session 27:
I'm in the Twilight Zone can finally be heard by listening to the ARC Music promotional CD The ARC Classics (ARC Music ARC CB 0402). The song is incorrectly titled I'm in the Danger Zone, though.

Fred Rothwell's Long Distance Information: Chuck Berry's Recorded Legacy (Music Mentor Books, 2001) is the ultimate book for any serious Chuck Berry record collector: All Berry sessions, all the songs, all the session musicians, where to find which song if ever released, and tons of additional stuff.
First published in 2001 the book consists mainly of a 240 page commented "sessionography", a list of 93 recording sessions Chuck participated in between 1954 and 2000. For each session Fred lists the musicians and the songs recorded, whether released or not. For every song he shows a few main records containing it. He also fully describes and critizises every recording.
Chuck Berry's recorded legacy is not complete yet, though. After publication of Fred Rothwell's book we found out about an additional recording session which took place prior to or in early 1975:

Prior to 1975 Chuck Berry must have recorded a 30 seconds radio spot telling to get off hard drugs. The recording was made available as part of the National Association of Progressive Radio Announcers' (NAPRA) "Hard drugs awareness movement - Get Off". The radio spot was distributed to radio stations on an album called Get Off II (NAPRA-2, 1975). For details see the section on Radio Show and Promotional Records.

Fred Rothwell's Long Distance Information: Chuck Berry's Recorded Legacy (Music Mentor Books, 2001) is the ultimate book for any serious Chuck Berry record collector: All Berry sessions, all the songs, all the session musicians, where to find which song if ever released, and tons of additional stuff.
First published in 2001 the book consists mainly of a 240 page commented "sessionography", a list of 93 recording sessions Chuck participated in between 1954 and 2000. For each session Fred lists the musicians and the songs recorded, whether released or not. For every song he shows a few main records containing it. He also fully describes and critizises every recording.
Chuck Berry's recorded legacy is not complete yet, though. After publication of Fred Rothwell's book we found out about an additional recording session, if you want to call it that:

Around October 2001, Dan Aykroyd (a.k.a. Elwood Blues) interviewed Chuck by telephone for his weekly House of Blues radio show. The interview appeared on two radio station CDs to be broadcast in January and March 2002. See the chapter on Radio Show and Promotional Records for details.

Fred Rothwell's Long Distance Information: Chuck Berry's Recorded Legacy (Music Mentor Books, 2001) is the ultimate book for any serious Chuck Berry record collector: All Berry sessions, all the songs, all the session musicians, where to find which song if ever released, and tons of additional stuff.
First published in 2001 the book consists mainly of a 240 page commented "sessionography", a list of 93 recording sessions Chuck participated in between 1954 and 2000. For each session Fred lists the musicians and the songs recorded, whether released or not. For every song he shows a few main records containing it. He also fully describes and critizises every recording.
Chuck Berry's recorded legacy is not complete yet, though. After publication of Fred Rothwell's book we received the following addition regarding Session 78:

The concert recorded for radio station broadcast was recorded at Wolf & Rissmiller's Country Club (note spelling) on January 17th, 1981.

Fred Rothwell's Long Distance Information: Chuck Berry's Recorded Legacy (Music Mentor Books, 2001) is the ultimate book for any serious Chuck Berry record collector: All Berry sessions, all the songs, all the session musicians, where to find which song if ever released, and tons of additional stuff.
First published in 2001 the book consists mainly of a 240 page commented "sessionography", a list of 93 recording sessions Chuck participated in between 1954 and 2000. For each session Fred lists the musicians and the songs recorded, whether released or not. For every song he shows a few main records containing it. He also fully describes and critizises every recording.
Chuck Berry's recorded legacy is not complete yet, though. After publication of Fred Rothwell's book we found the following additions regarding Session 90:

Some more radio station albums have surfaced and show that the interview was (probably) first used on October 17th, 1988 during A Chuck Berry Birthday Bash (Solid Gold Scrapbook) and on November 5-6, 1988 during show #352 of Dick Clark's Rock, Roll & Remember (Unistar Programming Network). Therefore the recording of this interview must have taken place before October 1988.

Fred Rothwell's Long Distance Information: Chuck Berry's Recorded Legacy (Music Mentor Books, 2001) is the ultimate book for any serious Chuck Berry record collector: All Berry sessions, all the songs, all the session musicians, where to find which song if ever released, and tons of additional stuff.
First published in 2001 the book consists mainly of a 240 page commented "sessionography", a list of 93 recording sessions Chuck participated in between 1954 and 2000. For each session Fred lists the musicians and the songs recorded, whether released or not. For every song he shows a few main records containing it. He also fully describes and critizises every recording.
Chuck Berry's recorded legacy is not complete yet, though. After publication of Fred Rothwell's book we found out about an additional recording session which took place in September 1995:

On September 2nd, 1995 the Cleveland Municipal Stadium housed the Concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During more than seven hours top artists of the 1990s performed along with rock and roll legends. The whole show was broadcast live on TV. Chuck Berry performed two songs: He started the show with Johnny B. Goode backed by Bruce Springsteen and his reformed E-Street Band. And he closed the show with a special version of Rock and Roll Music. This version was special in three different ways: It was special because Chuck sang new lyrics fitting to a Rock and Roll Museum. It was special because he was backed by an All-Star Band with Bruce Springsteen, Nils Lofgren, Melissa Etheridge, Booker T & the MGs and others. And this performance was special because it was probably the worst recording of this song ever.
During a concert break in addition a short Backstage Interview with Chuck was recorded and broadcast. In 1996 SONY published a 2 CD set called Concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This CD contains highlights from the show and therefore does not contain the Berry parts.
However, other segments from the show can be found on various bootleg CDs. A complete recording of the show was released as The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Moonraker 014-19, 1995). This 6 CD set includes both performances and the backstage interview. Due to Springsteen performing with Chuck, the two songs can also be found on several Springsteen/Dylan bootlegs like Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Synergy HOF 001) or Forever Young (Goblin BSGR 1CD).

Fred Rothwell's Long Distance Information: Chuck Berry's Recorded Legacy (Music Mentor Books, 2001) is the ultimate book for any serious Chuck Berry record collector: All Berry sessions, all the songs, all the session musicians, where to find which song if ever released, and tons of additional stuff.
First published in 2001 the book consists mainly of a 240 page commented "sessionography", a list of 93 recording sessions Chuck participated in between 1954 and 2000. For each session Fred lists the musicians and the songs recorded, whether released or not. For every song he shows a few main records containing it. He also fully describes and critizises every recording.
Chuck Berry's recorded legacy is not complete yet, though. After publication of Fred Rothwell's book we found the following addition regarding Session 84:

The bootleg record says Chuck Berry and Keith Richards and Chuck introduced the guest guitarist as "Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones". Nevertheless within the Stones collectors community it is for sure that the guest guitarist performing on this session was not Keith Richards but Ron Wood instead. According to Nico Zentgraf's Complete Works of the Rolling Stones the concert took place February 21st, 1982.