Inside Chuck Berry's first new album in 38 years
Chuck Berry played his final concert on October 15, 2014 -- three days shy of his 88th birthday, at St. Louis' Blueberry Hill. But like many of his recent performances, it was rough. Berry had trouble hearing, causing him to play off-key, and he forgot lyrics. “The audience was with him the whole way,” says Joe Edwards, owner of Blueberry Hill, where Berry appeared once a month for 21 years. “But sometimes he'd come off and say, 'Oh, man. I could've done a little better.'” Berry, who always drove himself to shows, told Edwards he wanted to take the winter off, so he wouldn't have to drive in the snow.
It was Berry's last public appearance, but he was still making musical plans. With the help of his family, he finished “Chuck”, his first new album since 1979's “Rock It”. (The album is set for release on June 16, though the estate released first single “Big Boys”, featuring Tom Morello and Nathaniel Rateliff, on Wednesday.) Made up of material recorded between 1991 and 2014, the set is full of the music he invented in the Fifties: sped-up blues, double-stringed-guitar breaks and heavy wordplay. “Lady B. Goode” is a sequel to “Johnny B. Goode”, and “Jamaica Moon” is a rewrite of “Havana Moon”.
But the album is also uncharacteristically reflective for Berry. In a statement last year, he dedicated “Chuck” to Themetta 'Toddy' Berry, his wife of 68 years: “My darlin', I'm growing old! I've worked on this record for a long time. Now I can hang up my shoes!” He sings about her on the rollicking “Wonderful Woman”. The gospel-steeped “Darlin”, meanwhile, is a love letter to his daughter Ingrid about what to expect from old age. In “Dutchman”, Berry wanders into a bar and tells the patrons his story.
Some of these songs date back to the '80s. After releasing “Rock It”, Berry turned his attention to touring the oldies circuit. “He always had a pad and a pencil with him,” says Jimmy Marsala, his frequent bass player since the early'70. “On the airplanes, when we'd be flying somewhere, he'd be writing. And he was changing the words constantly.” Berry recorded at his Berry Park compound outside St. Louis, but a fire in 1989 destroyed the tapes. “The studio burned to the ground – he lost 20 years worth of music,” says Charles Jr. “My dad was determined to re-create as much of it as he could.”
Chuck later learned to use Pro Tools, and often invited his band over to play the parts he'd written on piano. At the end of the day, Chuck would play the recordings for Themetta: “My mom would give a thumbs-up or a thumbs down,” says Charles Jr. “Thumbs up, he was done. Thumbs down, 'I've got more work to do.'”
Berry discussed the material in 2012: “I have six songs that have been ready for 16 years now,” he told journalists. “It's the same type of music I've been playing. As soon as I can get someone to guide me in that, I'm gonna come back and push 'em out, if you know what I mean.”
But touring always came first. Charles Jr. tells a story about a 2007 European tour when they played 17 shows in 18 days, with the 82-year-old Berry driving himself to gigs. “It would wear on him,” he says. “But when it was time to do that show, he was rolling. At that point he was eighty-something years old, and he had the energy of a 10-year-old. It was inspirational.”
After retiring, Berry spent his days at his Berry Park compound watching TV on two giant side-by-side screens: news on one, baseball on the other. Before his death, he was fighting pneumonia that was difficult to bounce back from. Edwards described a conversation with Berry a year and a half ago, when Edwards brought up the album: “You could tell he was really happy it was finally done. He said, 'Joe, this might be my last album.' And he got a look on his face. Not the whimsical, joking Chuck Berry – real serious.”
Source: Rolling Stone
Comments