We're nearing Chuck's first Chess exit. After the great '64 singles run and the comeback album, it feels like Chuck was in a mood to relax a little and explore some musical avenues without really committing himself to a new direction.
I'm certainly not complaining about his first of 2 1965 albums, Chuck Berry In London. He lays it on thick for a searing, great, underappreciated single 'Dear dad' (should've continued his hit streak) and should've-been-a-single 'I want to be your driver' (that's how it's done, young Rolling Stones!).
But the album is high on laidback bluesy material, a bunch of instrumentals ('Night beat' that late '50s recording, repeated again, what is with that song?) and some experiments with folksy singalong 'My little love light', Carribean rhythm ('Jamaica farewell'), and most improbably Spanish ('The song of my love').
They've learned from From St Louie To Liverpool at least that the pick&mix track selection is not a good idea. Apart from 'Night beat' these are 13 new recordings (they could've replaced it with the great ballad b-side to 'Dead dad', 'Lonely school days' and made the album even better). It shows in a nice, sustained mood. The whole bathes in pleasantness. You might miss the edge, the bite of his '50s and early '60s work - it's not here. But you get a good time, not close to his best work but I wouldn't miss it.
You Never Can Tell ads a couple of bonus tracks: 'Spending Christmas', another unreleased seasonal ballad, the great b-side above 'Lonely school days (slow version)' and a clear attempt at recording some more rock'n'roll material 'Shake rattle and roll', 'Wee wee hours' and 'Honey hush' - nice enough attempts but his heart wasn't in it at this time.
In London was swiftly followed by Fresh Berry's (also 1965, 2 different covers apparently?). It's the same story but a little more extreme. This is loose music played by veterans out to amuse themselves with few serious aims at the hitparade. You get the usual rock'n'roll nuggets - but more good-natured than biting ('Everyday we rock'n'roll', 'Merrily we rock'n'roll'), next to blues stuff and some perplexing genre experiments. The Carribean flavor is even more to the fore (too much?) on 'Run Joe', but it's as nothing next to the R&B/R&R-reworking of 'One for my baby (and one more for the road)' - the arrangement is so incongruous I can't decide if it's any good. And then there's 'Vaya con dios'.
Again, not his best record by a long way (and some distance behind In London in my estimation), but a nice ragbag. And if you sometimes wonder what the Beatles meant when they said their new direction was comedy songs, they might've had stuff like this on their mind. Of course, Dylan may also have heard (or at least scanned past the title) of 'Ain't that just like a woman'.
'Girl happy''s title track is a semi-amusing pop ditty about a girl happy guy. 'Puppet on a string' is a sappy ballad.
In '65 Elvis didn't record any non-soundtrack material. 'Girl happy' and 'Harum scarum' weren't enough to make the yearly quota, so the corporation did some gravedigging. The result is 'Elvis for everyone' - Elvis's first outtakes album? (though it was billed simply as the new album)
I've read some reviews of this album trying to reinstate it as a modest buried treasure. It's remarkably easy to listen to considering the circumstances, but don't believe it.
The album is made up of 3 '50s outtakes (all sweetened up with drums, backing vocals and so on - 'Tomorrow night''s really taken too far with a sickly sweet 'downhome' harmonica solo), 4 tracks from the earlier '60s sessions (2 really good ones - 'Memphis Tennessee' and 'I met her today' - are the album's highlights) and 5 soundtrack outtakes which fascinate more through their oddness (mysterious 'Summer kisses, winter tears', acoustic 'In my way' and so on). They're all brief, none are awful, the album's over before your critical faculties kick in.
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.
So, 1964, 'Kissin' cousins' and 'Roustabout' then? Not quite, but we have to get revisionist. Elvis was changing. There's 3 songs on the box set from this year, stray tracks that somehow got put on tape. Thank God, and goddamn, why isn't there more of it. These 3 tracks foreshadow what was to come later in the decade.
'Memphis Tennessee' - a driving, fully contemporized monster version of Chuck Berry's classic. Elvis owns it. 'It hurts me' - country soul ballad before the genre was born. There's a chorus in there, 'He never loved your - he never will - and darling, he'll never change' - it tears me up in the best way. 'Ask me' - not as remarkable as the other two, okay but a little old hat.
So, of course, they released the old hat as a single - respectably reaching No. 12. They put the country soul classic on the b-side of 'Kissin' cousins' (cause that's what the public wants! acceptable rock'n'roll which sounds pretty old fashioned now). And they buried the driving rocker on 1965 odds and sods 'Elvis for everyone'. Some A&R.
The title track from 'Roustabout' is idiotic carefree pop.
1963's On Stage (which doesn't include 'Surfin' USA') is one more archival release, a fake live recording. I don't have the 'enhanced' mixes with audience sounds, but I faked my own playlist of the album. You can't fault the material: 'Memphis Tennessee', 'Maybellene', 'Let it rock', 'Sweet little sixteen', 'Jaguard & Thunderbird' - but it's a repeat too far. They're all just the versions you know, no alternates. It just sounds like a jumble.
It's a shame, cause some of the exclusive material - unreleased recordings from the 1960-61 sessions - is certainly worth the effort. I count 6 tracks (half the album): 'Surfin' steel' - a groovy instrumental with slide -, a new recording of 'Brown eyed handsome man' that rocks, 'Still got the blues - a nice melodic blues -, 'Trick or treat' - not quite single material, but damn catchy pop rock'n'roll -, 'The man and the donkey' - Clash fans know this as 'Junco partner', I prefer Chuck's version -, and finally 'All aboard' - an ok train song.
Not a bad haul at all, but kinda lost on this wasted album. Put it on a reel of 'lost' Chuck nuggets.
1963-64: the return
Berry and Chess were anxious for new product, I gather. The same month he was released, Berry and his band were in front of an audience at the Walled Lake Casino in Detroit, recording a ramshackle, good natured comeback concert. The tracks, mixed and sequenced for LP release, were eventually released on the Hip-O-Select Complete Recordings box.
I wouldn't go as far as saying it's essential, but it's damn good fun. Berry is in great mood (but gruff voice). It's great hearing what Berry and his band sounded like when they were playing the clubs, rather than nailing 2&1/2 minute single takes in the studio. The elastic band stretches way out. Chuck does his comedy skits, songs are played and a couple of minutes later picked up again as if they don't recall. There are a lot of stretched out instrumental sections, guitar and piano solos or sometimes no one jumps in and they just groove on. Singalongs on nearly every track (this is one dedicated audience, they know all the verses), impromptu instrumental jams, medleys. It brings home how much there is to love about this band, and that's worthwhile.
Still, just a few weeks later Berry was in the studio. When the first two songs recorded turned out to be 'Nadine (Is that you)' and 'You never can tell', the live LP was sensibly scrapped. For his return, Berry lead a string classic singles high into the charts.
Starting in 1963, Elvis's yearly soundtrack album-ratio was doubled. From now on, two soundtrack LPs a year. Other records optional. Nobody told Elvis cause he recorded a fine 12-song session on May 26-28. It was finally released as 'The Lost Album' around 1990. Clearly, priorities were changing in the organisation.
1. Echoes Of Love 2. Please Don't Drag That String Around 3. (You're The) Devil In Disguise 4. Never Ending 5. What Now, What Next, Where To 6. Witchcraft 7. Kinders Keepers, Losers Weepers 8. Love Me Tonight 9. (It's A )Long Lonely Highway 10. Western Union 11. Slowly But Surely 12. Blue River
In hindsight this is where he gave up the race. Compared to that year's 'With the Beatles', Elvis sounds...middle-aged. It's true the session's not without drawbacks. After his customary opening ballad, 'Echoes of love' and two made-for-radio confections, 'Please don't drag that string around' and '(You're the) Devil in disguise', the session loses itself in five back to back ballads, all limping towards the exit.
But it's got treasures too. Somebody must've slipped the band something at that point, cause the last 4 tracks are great uptempo rockers: '(It's a) Long lonely highway', 'Western union' (my favorite) 'Slowly but surely' and 90 seconds of mayhem 'Blue river'. Somebody was alive below the hairspray.
Session in limbo - in favor of soundtracks 'It happened at the world's fair' and 'Fun in Acapulco', and a serviceable best of for his early '60s singles, 'Elvis' Golden Records Vol 3' - and maybe nervous with all that young competition, in any case he shut down operations.
During the middle of the decade he was an everpresent ghost, surely the most important factor in his obsolete '60s reputation.
'They remind me too much of you' - quite nice piano ballad but unremarkable. 'One broken heart for sale' - a song?
Title track - inept tropical pop. 'Bossa nova baby' - moronic bossa nova pop.
'Viva Las Vegas' - no, I don't like it, kitsch revival be damned.
In february 1962, the same months Berry started his term, Chess released Twist. The album compiles 14 Chuck Berry classics. If there's a better distillation of the essence of his work, I've yet to hear it. The album was No. 4 on Christgau's best album ever list, and I see why. As a compilation it does everything right, not getting lost in completeness or chronology - but presenting the essence of the artist in the most entertaining sequence possible. Look at that tracklist:
Side One "Maybellene" "Roll Over Beethoven" "Oh Baby Doll" "Around and Around" "Come On" "Let It Rock" "Reelin' and Rockin'"
Side Two "School Days" "Almost Grown" "Sweet Little Sixteen" "Thirty Days" "Johnny B. Goode" "Rock and Roll Music" "Back in the U.S.A."
It's just a pure joy to listen to. You know all the songs, but the rush is still there. Maybe it's been a long time since you heard the originals. Man, to think one man wrote all of them.
Twist effectively puts a spotlight on the great guitar playing going on: wild, uncontrolled and raw when it needs to be, freewheeling, in the moment, but highly accomplished. It had never hit me quite this way before.
None of the songs sound anything like twist of course.
By the March 18-19 session everything' getting slick and suave (more suave!). The confidence bleeds from the tracks. Elvis is in the full flower of manhood and he knows it. His band is the best band money can buy and they know it too. But I'm not arguing. Not everything is top notch, but the highs are really high. 'Something blue' can melt the hardest of hearts, the piano 'fountains' make the track. 'Gonna get back home somehow' is a monumental sound, every nook and cranny filled with a big arrangement, it lifts off the ground. 'You'll be gone' is mock drama, a Spanish tinge. I don't know how Elvis pulls that stuff off, but it's delicious.
You can tell by the dates that most Elvis sessions are all-night affairs and halfway through they usually start to really cook. This time they pull off two of his best '60s singles - 'Just tell her Jim said hello' (featherlight country confectionery) and 'Suspicion' - again with the condensed TV movie screenplay fit into two and a half irresistible minutes of drama. 'Suspicion!' That piano bassline! 'Why torture me?' Oh Elvis, because we love to hear you tortured.
Parts of this session were combined with highlights of the two 1961 single sessions and released on 'Pot luck'. I haven't heard it, but it should be good. Still, you need it all!
Fine, so 1962 brought us a couple of movies as well. 'Return to sender' (from 'Girls! Girls! Girls!') is diggable, but the title track from that movie is wretched trumped up excitement.
'King of the whole wide world' (from 'Kid Galahad') is totally unremarkable.
