Chuck Berry in the '60s: 1966

1966 brought one more Chess recording session for single 'Ramona say yes'. That single and an outtake from the session (in 1972 released on The London Sessions) 'Viva viva rock'n'roll' are such a pleasant surprise. The bite that had loosened itself into a grin in 1965, was back.

A couple more tracks (b-side 'Lonely school days [fast version]' and the unreleased 'His daughter Caroline [fast version]') are included on You Never Can Tell - they show Chuck recycling old material, zoning in on the old flame of inspiration. No matter, the two best tracks show it was the right strategy at the time.

And so ends Chuck Berry's first period at Ches. For the next three years, at Mercury, he'd try any trick in the book to gain a younger audience, but he wouldn't succeed (though unfortunately, the very song he'd succeed with, was firmly locked in his repertoire already).

1966-69: Catching up with the times at Mercury

From this remove, Chuck's futile attempts at Mercury to get hip with the times seem at best misguided, at worst faintly ridiculous. But they're pretty fascinating. Well, the parts I could hear anyway, these records aren't easy to find.

Late in 1966, for his first record at the new label, Chuck re-recorded his old hits in new arrangements. These re-recordings were released in early 1967 as Chuck Berry's Golden Hits

It's a fun record that has a tall order standing next to, say, 1962's Twist compilation, and it doesn't get there. I have no qualms with '50s artists re-recording their material in the '60 or '70s - new production possibilities can yield exciting results. Often performances get a little wilder, artists taking advantage of the new era's exagerated expectations of rock'n'roll. (Of course once you get into the '80s and beyond it becomes a more troublesome idea.)

Chuck gives it a good try. There are some nice updates for 'Memphis, Tennessee', 'Maybellene', 'Carol' and a couple of others. But the track selection is pretty one-dimensional - tellingly he doesn't even attempt the elasticity of 'Jaguar & Thunderbird' or 'Come on'. No 'I'm talking about you' or 'Too pooped to pop' either. Just your basic Chuck Berry formula classics. You get the impression he's just going along with it really. He's certainly not challenging himself, his band or his audience, not pushing himself the way he did even during his final year at Chess.

A curio. The one new track 'Club nitty gritty' has the most elaborate rhythm of any of the tracks here, and sounds fresher than most of them.