Awesome rehearsals and revealing “making of documentary” fill Disk 2 of 4- DVD Ultimate Collectors Edition of “Hail Hail Rock and Roll”
(Updated to fix H.264 videos and some links)
The documentary “Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock N’ Roll” comes as Chuck Berry – Hail! Hail! Rock N’ Roll 2 disk DVD
If you want to get the 4-DVD set, try Amazon.ca which has the 4-DVD set at a lower price than the US.
The jam sessions on disk 2 are both entertaining and give you a glimpse into the musical genius of Chuck Berry. The making of video “The Reluctant Star” reveals more of Berry as a person and artist.
It also unwittingly pulls back the veil to show the condescension and racial bigotry of the producers and to a lesser extent the director. The collection is worth owning if you like blues and Chuck Berry.
This is Part 2 of the article starting with – Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock N’ Roll
Taylor Hackford’s biopic of rock and roll legend Chuck Berry gets more interesting as we moved past the movie into the “extras.” Unlike many “deluxe” editions, these extras are worth watching and owning.
Rehearsals and jam
The rehearsals for the movie took place at Chuck Berry’s home which is part of his aging theme park called “Berryland”. The place was a centre for concerts and entertainment during the 1970s but had fallen into disrepair by 1986. The club setting looks like a seedy, run-down nightclub.
The first half of the 2nd disk has 54 minutes of rehearsal sessions, some of them movie grade or better. Keith Richards wanted a top band for Chuck’s movie. He put together Steve Jordan, Johnnie Johnston who started with Berry, Eric Clapton, and himself.
The first cut is a guitar jam of with multiple camera angles which is an annoying feature to avoid. The jam is an medley of “Roll Over Beethoven”, “Sweet Little Sixteen” and “Johnny B. Goode”. Everybody gets to strut their stuff.
It’s powerful music with Berry, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Steve Jordan on drums, Johnnie Johnston Berry’s original pianists and collaborator, Joey Spampinato on bass. and Chuck Leavell on organ. The guys cook as they play off each other. You can see the band begin to come together. The jam is 9 minutes of hot blues. Chuck Berry sings a blues lyric with parts of “Back in the USA” that closes the jam on a high note.
“Mean Old World” is a low blues from Johnnie Johnston on piano that starts quietly during a break. Clapton and Richards join him in some pretty mean blues playing. The groove is infections and Chuck Berry gets off his chair to sing an improvised blues sitting on the edge of the stage.
“Understand Each Other” has Chuck and Eric dueling over who will control this country blues song. There is great interplay between the two men as Berry teaches Clapton how to sing the flat harmony line in the chorus while Berry can’t remember the lyrics.
Etta James came in later belting out a wild “Hoochie Coochie Gal” based on “Hoochie Coochie Man”. Boy that girl can sing. (updated with the video)
Chuck Berry and Johnnie Johnston end the rehearsal with a quiet medley of 40s standards. They two compliment each other. It’s a joy to see how Berry handles his early influences.
Steve Jordan was an important part of the band. Jordan is all about laying down the beat just like they did in Chicago at Chess Records, the home of Chicago R&B. The style is muscular and elemental, no fancy frills and rolls to distract from the beat. His commentary throughout is interesting since he represents another generation from Keith, Berry and Clapton.
Keith Richards
The rehearsals show the push and pull between Chuck Berry, the man and the legend, and Keith Richards who is the musical director for the film. Richards gets ticked off at Berry quite often. It’s a battle between the mentor and the student.
Name 5 songs that Keith Richards wrote or sang. Right, there are none. Richards was one of the best rock guitars in a great band, The Rolling Stones. However, Keith Richards made a career based on Chuck Berry’s guitar licks.
Chuck Berry wrote and made hits with “Roll Over Beethoven”, “Maybelline”, “Nadine”, “Johnny B. Goode”, “Sweet Little Sixteen”, “Rock and Roll Music”, “Hail Hail Rock and Roll”, “Memphis Tennessee”, “Brown Eyes Handsome Man” and on and on. (Chuck Berry discography).
Chuck Berry knows that he is the man people will remember and the real star. Imagine being the band leader for one of the greatest rock musicians. Richards did it and hats off to him. The expressions on his face during rehearsals are priceless.
The Reluctant Movie Star
Director Hackford put together a one hour “making of” feature called the Reluctant Movie Star. It documents the background tension on the movie set that kept the producer, director and cast on their toes.
It’s already been reported that Chuck Berry asked for a bag of cash each morning of the shoot. Producer Stephanie Bennett portrays that as blackmail. Berry called it getting paid for working.
You can see her point. Universal thought they had a contract for Chuck Berry in a movie at $150,000, working 5 days on the shoot. Berry considered that the starting price. He got more than $800,000 out of producer Bennett in the end. Not bad for a star who was used to getting ripped off by white promoters and record company owners all his working life.
The producers job is to get the movie done under budget. They certainly underestimated Chuck Berry; however, I’ll venture a guess Chuck knew it was money now or never.
Berry was used to being ripped off. Chess Records made Chuck split his royalty three ways with two other people who never laid a word or note in the muslc.
This documentary cost $3 million plus to make and only grossed $719,000 in theatrical release. VHS, DVD and this box sets have been more popular. On Amazon.com the box set is # 9 in Music videos and concerts, # 24 in Eric Clapton videos, and # 67 in Blues.
The condescending attitude of Stephanie Bennett would be annoying if it wasn’t so amusing. It’s a clash in race and culture.
Bennett is the uptight, white female not even on the same planet with the Chuck Berry, the black rock and roll man from East St. Louis.
I warn you this is my reaction to the film after two viewings. My gal who watched it thought Chuck Berry was rude to Bennett. Ah that’s just the eternal clash of the sexes.
Even Hackford shows bigotry. When a phone booth phone rings outside the Cosmo Club in East St. Louis on a Sunday morning, Hackford gets all squeamish. What if it’s a pimp looking for his hooker or a drug deal going down, he asks. Turns out it was Chuck Berry looking for Hackford. Is it possible for white people to treat blacks as equals without judging them?
OldStonesFan
I think you are doing Keef something of an injustice. The guy did pen the riffs and music to such trifles as Satisfaction, Brown Sugar, Jumping Jack Flash, Sister Morphine and a couple of hundred others. Not a bad back catalogue.
For those who say he borrowed Berry riffs, Berry himself borrowed old blues riffs and transposed them from piano to guitar. The blues are a mulch and we are merely gardeners…but some have greener thumbs than others
Russ Broom
Did you see what Joni Mitchell has said about Bob Dylan?
Russ Broom
And when you say
–Keith Richards made a career based on Chuck Berry’s guitar licks–you’re forgetting T Bone Walker, who Chuck Berry(and every blues rock guitar player)ripped off explicitly.
Especially Chuck Berry.
Stephen Pate
Definitely starved for media attention. Joni taught Dylan those cool open chords he used on Blood on the Tracks. He hired her as a opener when he came through the Maritimes in the late 90s.
As for fakers, all artists put on a mask. Art=artifice. Who wants to see the real anybody. John Prine’s I’m an alcoholic routine wears thin on me. Plagiarism is the secret to great blues.
Russ Broom
Joni is a master of alternate tunings and textural guitar playing.
And while we all borrow, Chuck Berry has received alot of accolades for innovation when he doesn’t deserve it. And T-Bone Walker is infinitely better.
Stephen Pate
Well you can diss Chuck Berry all you like but he was one of the great R&B and rock and roll guitar players, performers and song writers. He was strongly influenced by T Bone Walker, who hardly anyone remembers because he wasn’t that popular. That’s the story of the blues, one man building on the man before him.
Keith Richards and every good guitarist from the early days of rock and roll slavishly copied his stuff. The innovation of Chuck Berry was cross over lyrics for the white audience. Berry was never banned on white radio like BB King or Muddy Waters.
Second, his guitar phrasing is based to a great extent on Johnnie Johnston’s boogie woogie piano. Sure he learned from other guitarists but added unique touches like the double string bend and slide.
The Beach Boys, Stone, Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Eric Clapton all respected and stole from Chuck Berry.
Johnnie Johnston was a St Louis blues pianist in the great tradition of the area. He played in Bobbie Troup’s band. Think of the circle: Bobby Troup composes Route 66, which is popularized by Nat King Cole as a bland 50s swing hit. Johnston goes on to mentor the young Chuck Berry who fades off the scene by the early 60s due to his run-in with the law and changing tastes.
Then the Rolling Stones learn those great R&B songs including Chuck’s double string bends and come roaring out with Route 66 like no one has ever hear before. That El Macombo version is good but for unlicensed mayhem you have to get the original Stone lp which is totally over the top.
Look at Maybelline that Chuck Berry based on the old song Ida Red, a popular Texas Swing song in the early 50s. You’d hardly recognize the transition. Fun topic.
Russ Broom
That was a long walk to get to agreeing with me.
Thanks!
T Bone isn’t as “unknown” as you’d think. He might not be as “popular” as Berry, but Walker has influenced as many, if not more guitar players. Jimi Hendrix, for example. I don’t need a dissertation on the Alberts King and Collins and others’ influence on Hendrix. Just pointing out that in a real way, it all flows from T Bone Walker.
In the blues repertoire, if you were to sit in at Bearly’s say, on a Sunday night, you would be welcomed more for T Bone requests than Chuck Berry ones.
Stephen Pate
You have the advantage over me there, my days of regular visits to Bearly’s are a decade old since I live on PEI not Halifax.
MzKiKi
I don’t blame Chuck Berry one bit for asking for cash upfront daily. As stated, he and other Black (and some white ones too, i suppose) artists of his time have been ripped off from the day one. Chuck Berry is a living legend, and his impact will live long after he’s gone. He’s worth every penny of the $800,000.
As for Stephanie Bennett, I’ve never heard of her before this article, and will probably never hear about her again. People will be talking about Chuck Berry until the end of time. She should feel privileged to have been able to work with him as closely as she did.
MzKiKi
As for Taylor Hackford…that’s nothing less than a shame. It would be funny if it wasn’t so sadly stupid.
Stephen Pate
Ya gotta thank them for doing the movie and the 4 DVD special edition. It’s awesome even if they do act stiff and bigoted at times.
Russ Broom
This is from Wikipedia, so consider your source, but this is common info on Berry, MzKiki, speaking of getting paid cash:
—Berry’s type of touring style, traveling the “oldies” circuit in the 1970s — where he was often paid in cash by local promoters — added ammunition to the Internal Revenue Service’s accusations that Berry was a chronic income tax evader. Facing criminal sanction for the third time, Berry pleaded guilty to tax evasion and was sentenced to four months imprisonment and 1,000 hours of community service — doing benefit concerts — in 1979.—–
Know why musicians like getting paid cash?
They don’t have to claim it. Berry demanding “bags of cash” was his effort to shake as much tax-free money out of the producers.
Even if the producer was “stiff”(huh?), this little story sounds like a man, color irrelevant, trying to get out of paying taxes.
Stephen Pate
All that is discussed on the DVD and is no secret. Chuck Berry like most rock and roll stars is no saint. So who’s a saint. You can put that spin on it but you don’t have all the facts. His manager discusses it quite openly – Chuck Berry likes to get paid in cash. He travels with only a guitar and expects the pick-up band to know his stuff. He did that when Bruce Springsteen backed him. It’s hard to plumb another person’s motivation for what they do. The IRS charges related to European touring. They say he was too cheap to pay the fine so took the jail time to learn bookkeeping. Getting paid in cash by people who are filming your words is a poor way to evade taxes but you are entitled to your opinion. The movie and documentary speak for themselves.
Russ Broom
—–You can put that spin on it but you don’t have all the facts.—–
Not spinning anything. Just stating the fact he did time for income tax evasion, which makes this look all the more suspicious.
And there was something about filming women using the toilet in his club, for which video was found at his residence.
“Not a saint”
No foolin’? lols
And just because the producer was white doesn’t make any issues they have the product of bigotry. If you check the producer’s credits the vast majority of her work involves black music and musicians. Sound like someone who doesn’t want to be around blacks?
Stephen Pate
You would benefit from watching the DVD and learning the rest of the story. I don’t know much about Stephanie Bennett except she is pretty uptight about black people in the video. My comments are based on that. Her biography says 25% of her films are about black musicians.
This thread is way off the topic – that being Chuck Berry and his influence in Rock and Roll. The comments about Hackford and Bennett are counterpoint to their on camera commentary. If you see it you may or may not agree with them.
Rock and roll artists are generally expected to be bad boys. They play and live hard and some die young. There is a vicarious thrill in the audience having someone act as your surrogate bad boy or girl.
Bill
You’re a Scumbag Russ.