In the next few months, Berry recorded some 15 sides, 5 of which destined for A-sides ('Nadine', 'You never can tell', 'Promised land', 'No particular place to go', 'Little Marie'). Great stuff that got collected in album form on november 1964's From St Louis To Liverpool LP, but first Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley met up for a one-night-only studio jam session, released on that year's Two Great Guitars LP.
The heart of the record are two long (10 min +) jams they recorded together, helpfully titled 'Chuck's beat' and 'Bo's beat'. I won't make a great case for the record, but it's worth a listen if you think the Rolling Stones and Love were headed for unknown territory with those long side B tracks 'Goin' home' and 'Revelations'. Like hell they were, they just got a copy of this album. It sounds remarkably similar. Chuck and Bo just filled both sides of their record with it.
'Chuck's beat' 's got some jetplane guitar sound around the 5-minute mark (by Bo, I'm pretty sure - Chuck never seemed all that into noise guitar). Otherwise, more of an interesting idea than a good record.
St Louis To Liverpool - the great comeback album. It's usually singled out as (one of) his best album(s). Still, I think they botched it.
That may be a little strong, it's hard to criticize a record that has 'You never can tell', 'Promised land' and 'No particular place to go' of course. But... it's a compromised record.
On The Complete Recordings-set you get the first 14 sides recorded after his release, in sequence. It's an amazing collection - those 4 singles I've mentioned several times already, a rocking 'Sweet little 16' update called 'The little girl from Central', blues in 'The things I used to do' and the unreleased 'I'm in the danger zone', but also more pop blues 'Fraulein' and even a C&W ballad 'Lonely all the time (Crazy arms)', another rocking update for 'School days', 'Big Ben (blues)' and two carefree instrumentals 'Liverpool drive' and 'O Rangutang'.
Only half of these tracks were included on the album. Just the fact that 'Nadine' was overlooked alone! The 3 throwbacks (a 1960 b-side, a 50s instrumental 'Night beat' and a seasonal ballad) don't add much. Neither do the two sides of Berry's 5th comeback single - an ok 'Memphis Tennessee' update 'Little Marie' and a passable 'Johnny B Goode' update 'Go, Bobby Soxer'. An album of just those first 14 sides would've been heaven. Oh well, I'll just listen to the box set.
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