Chuck Berry in the '60s: 1960

Elvis seemed as old as his fans, going through the emotions he sang about as he sang them. Chuck Berry was like a really cool, streetwise uncle. He knew whatever there was to know before you even thought of it. And he sent you these snapshots of experience. When he sang 'Maybellene, why can't you be true', he knows why she can't stay true. He's been there. But what did he get up to in the '60s when the need for streetwise uncles was at a low?

I've taken as my starting point the 15 songs with a '60s recording date on 'The Anthology'.

"I Got to Find My Baby"
"Don't You Lie to Me"
"Bye Bye Johnny"
"Jaguar & Thunderbird"
"Down the Road a Piece"
"Confessin' the Blues"
"I'm Talking About You"
"Come On"
"Nadine (Is It You?)"
"You Never Can Tell"
"Promised Land"
"No Particular Place to Go"
"Dear Dad"
"I Want to Be Your Driver"
"Tulane"

Great variations on his own '50s rock'n'roll template from 1960 and 1961: 'I got to find my baby', 'Don't you lie to me', 'I'm talking about you'. Some elastic grooves pointing the way towards the looser grooves later artists would develop, like 'Jaguar & Thunderbird' and 'Come on'. And some pleasant blues 'Down the road apiece', 'Confessin' the blues'.

1964 brought his last brace of great singles: 'Nadine', 'You never can tell', 'Promised land', 'No particular place to go' and one I personally like a lot: 'I want to be your driver'.

Then nothing until 1970 single 'Tulane' (recorded dec 22, 1969) - an updated beefed-up rock'n'roll sound for the late '60s.

Good stuff, not as epochal as his '50s stuff (but what is?). There's 6 from 1960, 2 from 1961, 6 from 1964 and the one from 1969.

It barely scratches the surface.
Let's dig a little deeper.

1960-61: pre-incarceration

1960's Rockin' At The Hops is bluesy, capped by 2 variations on the 'Johnny B. Goode' riff. The first, 'Bye bye Johnny', is all about Johnny B. Goode saying goodbye to his mother. He's off to Hollywood! If you take Johnny to be Chuck's alter ego in song, the goodbyes take on another meaning. A jailterm hanging over him, he's not going to Hollywood.

The next few songs, 'Worried life blues' (Someday baby, I ain't gonna worry my life no more), 'Down the road apiece', 'Confessin' the blues', enforce this impression of a forced goodbye.

The record combines mostly 1959 and 1960 recordings. There are some great rock'n'roll moments scattered, like my two favorite tracks off the album, 'Too pooped to pop' and 'I got to find my baby'.

On side two-tracks, like 'Betty Jean' and 'Broken arrow' (I'm never doing that again), the backing vocals by the Ecuadors, Chuck's own Jordanaires, bring in a doowop flavor, but it's the blues material that sets the tone.

Of course, Chuck's a rock'n'roll artist, but if he hadn't been that, he would've surely been a blues artist. Unlike Elvis who really did seem to spring from all those traditions (blues, C&W, R&B, church, Italian crooners) equally, Chuck's a far more able musician who knows his way around an idiom or ten ('Ida Red''s C&W, Carribean rhythms...) but his link with the blues is deep and strong. It's the root.

Rockin' At The Hops is a fine, fine album. Among the highlights I haven't mentioned yet: 'Mad lad' is a great moodpiece, an instrumental with eerie slide, closing side A perfectly. 'Let it rock', that second 'Johnny B. Goode' variation closes the record with committed drive .

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Not included on the album was the great october 1960 single 'Jaguar & the Thunderbird' / 'Our little rendezvous'. The A-side is the best song Chuck released that year. 'Our little rendezvous' is a great little rocker, with excellent piano and lead guitar battling to be heard.