james played this last night on the tv: just listen. JUST LISTEN! listen to chuck's badass interstellar solos and how he messes & messes w the hippie backup band & they hang in there. how many horrible backup bands did chuck berry have to play with, ones who didn't even know the canon of rockandroll america, "chuck berry songs"? (remember bruce springsteen in hail hail rock and roll doc, excitedly talking about the wild ride of trying to back chuck berry... a band shouldn't've ever done it unless they at least knew the keys, songs, & were smart enough to FOLLOW THE BANDLEADER!!!) james commented, about playing w sh*tty backup musicians, we've all had to do it; even chuck. look at him!, as the hippie musicians flail along, grinning like christmas, god bless em, they do it.
chuck is gigantically tough cool cool cool in this, & intense, & smooth, & monstrously awesome, & even if he was a total a**hole, like so many of the greats, man, just LISTEN TO THAT GUITAR!! this is rockandroll. this is america. this is eccentricity, not giving in to the norm, not giving a damn, knowing oneself & displaying that to everybody, genius. chuck berry in toronto 1969
ps, again, anyone who says, at all disparagingly, or dismissively, "oh, i know that chuck berry stuff," then goes on to play it w any iota of hippie or metal... GO DIE!!!!!!
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