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March 17, 2008
CHUCK BERRY
The Complete '50s Chess Recordings
(Hip-O Select)
by RICH KIENZLE
(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- Ernest Tubb's son Justin was a 20-year-old country singer in 1955, and unimpressed by the nascent sounds of rock 'n' roll. Even so, as a songwriter he had an ear for a great lyric no matter the style. Hearing one current rock song that seemed perfect, he brought it to his father. It took time to work it into his own distinctive style but in late 1955 and early 1956, Ernest Tubb, the "Texas Troubadour" and pillar of the honky tonk style, had a Top Ten country single with Chuck Berry's "Thirty Days", the first hit cover of a Berry song in another genre.
Berry's work has been assembled on LP and CD collections for decades, and a long-ago MCA CD box set, some compilations well done, others woefully scattershot. Finally, Hip-O Select has produced a limited edition four-disc, 103-song package comprehensively surveying Berry's first four years (1955-59) at Chess Records, beginning in 1955 with "Maybelline" and ending with his July, 1959 session with the vocal group The Ecuadors. Arranged chronologically, rarities abound in the form of alternate takes, false starts, unreleased tunes and a couple rare live recordings. It's an embarrassment of riches, providing insights into his creativity and breadth of influences, and revealing his range and depth as both lyricist and instrumentalist.
The signature tunes -- "Maybelline", "Roll Over Beethoven", "Brown Eyed Handsome Man", "Too Much Monkey Business" and "Rock And Roll Music" -- still feel fresh and invigorating, enhanced by superb remastering. The collection also ratifies the well-known and pivotal role played by Johnnie Johnson, whose masterful boogie-woogie piano made him a major component of Berry's sound, his swirling flurries of notes a free-floating foil to Berry's solid, relentless rhythm.
In several cases, demos and alternate takes allow a fly on the wall glimpse into Berry's in-studio creative process as he refines "Sweet Little Sixteen", "Reelin' And Rockin'", "Johnny B. Goode", and "Almost Grown". Aware of Berry's maturity (he turned 29 in 1955), Chess occasionally sped up the tapes while mastering his singles, altering them to make him sound younger. Here, one hears both the doctored versions and original untouched masters side by side. Other alternates are spirited despite obvious tuning problems or, in one case, a brief burst of feedback.
The songs themselves remain transcendent. Some are raw and elemental, others rocking hard but awash in stylish sophistication and wit, echoing Berry's lifelong love of both poetry (his memory for verse is remarkable) and comedy. While the lyrics of Carl Perkins mainly went for the gut, Berry could do that and amuse, satirize and make one think, as he did while spoofing life's everyday travails "Too Much Monkey Business".
Sharing with Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael a flair for flowing, conversational lyrics Berry's songs like "School Days", that timeless narrative about the utter banality of secondary education, and "No Money Down", spoofing Americans' ongoing desire for flashy cars, ring as true today as in 1955. Only the gadgetry has changed.
The collection illuminates Berry's diverse musical roots, proving beyond question that, like Bill Monroe or Bob Wills, Berry was a master synthesizer with influences and inspirations far more complex than many realize.
"Everything I did came from somewhere else," he told Robbie Robertson in a surprisingly candid interview included on the deluxe DVD edition of Taylor Hackford's 1986 Berry documentary Hail! Hail! Rock And Roll. Obviously he was conversant with both blues and country. "Maybelline", after all, reworked the hillbilly and western swing tune "Ida Red". At his 1955 Chess Records audition, his goal was clearly a blues career like his hero Muddy Waters, skills apparent on "Low Feeling" and "You've Changed".
That's not the end of it. A rough, heartfelt cover of Frankie Laine's 1940s pop hit "That's My Desire" takes him well into lounge territory. His reach even extended to folk tunes. In his autobiography, Berry explained that his deeply religious father inspired "Down Bound Train", a surrealistic tale of a nightmare rail trip to Hell. It's actually his take on the traditional folk song "Hell Bound Train". The Latin-flavored rocker "Broken Arrow" adds bits of "Old McDonald".
Blues and country are rock's main ingredients, but it's easy to ignore the impact of the Big Band Era of 1935-45. In Berry's case, it can't be overlooked. He told Robertson how Nat "King" Cole's flawless diction inspired the striking vocal clarity that remains a constant on his records. His affinity for Kansas City swing comes forth in a scintillating outtake of Count Basie's "One O'Clock Jump". Basie's "Lester Leaps In" undeniably inspired Berry's "Rockin' At The Philharmonic". "Blues For Hawaiians", a pedal steel workout, has roots in "Floyd's Guitar Blues", a 1939 steel instrumental Floyd Smith recorded with another legendary K.C. big band, Andy Kirk's Clouds of Joy. Two tracks from a 1956 Alan Freed stage show even feature him performing "Maybelline" (with noticeably different lyrics) and "Roll Over Beethoven" with Basie band members.
Guitarists, of course, owe Berry an immeasurable debt since his chugging rhythms, inspired by boogie-woogie piano, and double-stop licks remain keystones of the genre. Keith Richards couldn't have played a lick without Berry, just as the Rolling Stones have never quit dipping into or invoking his work. Jeff Beck's Yardbirds-era favorite "Jeff's Boogie", created from Berry's "Guitar Boogie", is part of that same continuum. Berry, after all, grabbed ideas from the guitar heroes of his day, among them T-Bone Walker (whose style dominates Berry's instrumental "Ingo"), Charlie Christian and Louis Jordan sideman Carl Hogan, whose playing had a profound influence on Berry.
It's a given that Chuck Berry merits his place in the same heady company with Hank Williams, Carmichael, Mercer, Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, Smokey Robinson, Bob Dylan, Cindy Walker and Lennon-McCartney. The transcendent music of rock's first great poet still slices through time like a Ginsu through rice pudding, its ability to amuse and energize undiminished. Hopefully, a Volume 2 will materialize and explain the rest.
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Rich Kienzle
PhotoIllustration by Shocko Grafix
Posted by Grant at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
March 10, 2008
PETER HOLSAPPLE & CHRIS STAMEY
Mavericks
(Collectors' Choice)
(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- When dB's founders Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple reunited to record again eight years after Stamey had left the band, fans got excited to hear the cult outfit's jangly, jagged college rock again. Their 1991-released record, however, delivered something slightly different: acoustic-based, harmony-heavy folk-pop, more Everly Brothers than Big Star.
But what initially seemed overly subdued now sounds quite exquisite. Both Holsapple and Stamey, then in their mid-30s, convey a sense of worldly experience in these songs, which predominantly deal with love. Holsapple contributes some of his most starkly heartfelt songs (notably "Taken" and "She Was The One"), while Stamey takes a more sardonic look at relationships on "Lovers' Rock" and "I Want To Break Your Heart".
This crisply remastered reissue boosts several bonus tracks (including the previously unreleased "Hollywood Waltz"), but most importantly it functions as a reminder of Holsapple and Stamey's sublime songwriting skills -- perhaps serving, too, as a harbinger for the duo's long-rumored follow-up disc.
-- MICHAEL BERICK
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Michael Berick
Posted by Grant at 8:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
March 4, 2008
Recording Black Culture
(Springfed)
(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- That this varied, various-artists release is named for the Fisk University folklorist who collected a great variety of African-American music with and without Alan Lomax says much for the new esteem in which Work is held. Should be held. It is the slightly overdue companion piece to Robert Gordon and Bruce Nemerov's Lost Delta Found, published in 2005.
It is also proof of Work's work, of the variety of vernacular musical styles afoot in black music at the edge of WWII. Some of Work's discs were donated to the Library of Congress (part of the transaction which brought him to Lomax's attention); these fourteen tracks came from the collection he held back, whether as educational tools or private pleasures cannot be said.
Included are examples of black sacred harp singing, of blues, of work songs, of gospel quartets, etc. The Fairfield Four and a brief interview with Muddy Waters provide tentative handholds for contemporary listeners, but it is necessary to remember, no matter modern restorations, that these sides were recorded on modest equipment and well-used.
The pity is that Work's efforts went poorly funded, and that there aren't hundreds of these sides, cut on much better gear. And that Work himself is such an obscure footnote.
-- GRANT ALDEN
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Grant Alden
Posted by Grant at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
March 3, 2008
I Wanna Go Backwards
(Yep Roc)
(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- If Robyn Hitchcock had flipped out like Syd Barrett, dropped out like Captain Beefheart or broken down like Nick Drake, he would be immortalized as a visionary genius. Instead, Hitchcock has proven maddeningly sane and durably prolific, so the boxed reissue of these early solo albums by the former Soft Boy (plus a wealth of demos, B-sides and rarities) isn't likely to extend his renown beyond his devoted following, though it does provide occasion to celebrate the uniqueness of his artistic achievement.
As a lyricist, Hitchcock is able to make what initially sounds like whimsy coalesce into a deeper, darker wisdom. As a musician, he puts the influence of so many profound inspirations -- Beatles, Byrds, Beefheart, Dylan, etc. -- through a psychedelic blender. As a singer, he can be simultaneously acerbic and warm, threatening and intimate. He gets under your skin.
I envy anyone who comes to this set as a Hitchcock virgin, as I all but was when I became obsessed with 1984's I Often Dream Of Trains. I was then the pop music critic at the Chicago Sun-Times, and Hitchcock was coming to town with his Egyptians to promote the album he'd recorded as a one-man band. So I listened to the release more attentively than I might have otherwise. And after the knockout concert, I listened to little else but Hitchcock, pulling out whatever I'd filed away without paying enough attention, seeking out whatever I'd never received.
I Often Dream Of Trains is the centerpiece here, sounding nothing like anything else anyone (including Hitchcock) has ever recorded, before or since. His solo debut, 1981's Black Snake Diamond Role, is more of a transitional effort from his days with the Soft Boys, using the same musicians and more. 1990's Eye is the most stripped-down of his solo releases, the naked "I."
Each is also available individually, with a generous selection of bonus cuts highlighting all of the reissues. Yet the lure for fans is the double-disc While Thatcher Mauled Britain: Demos '81-'90, available only in the box. I'd begun thinking of this treasure trove of 39 cuts, Robyn unvarnished, as Hitchcock's Basement Tapes, before noting that his notes evoke the same comparison. Not only does Hitchcock have more of an encyclopedic appreciation for rock than most critics, he's a more incisive critic as well.
(The label has promised a second Hitchcock box, and has made 1982's Groovy Decay available as a digital download.)
-- DON MCLEESE
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Don McLeese
Posted by Grant at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)