Mailbag

Re: More Chuck Berry
Back in the 80s my high school competed in a band competition in Montreal. The organizers hired a DJ for the hotel ballroom afterparty, who was spinning the latest New Wave pop pablum. The American contingent listened politely through a few songs, but soon grew restless, chanting “Rock and Roll” until the DJ gave up the mic to a small group of kids, who kicked into an a capella version of Johnny B Goode, then Maybelline. The crowd went crazy - and the teachers, many of whom remembered when that music was still fresh, were over the moon.
Later, in 1989, I was in Madras, India (now Chennai) at the Taj Hotel celebrating my 21st birthday. The house band was great, playing the latest pop tunes, but the crowd was subdued. My friends pushed me up to the stage to sit in on guitar and vox, and we kicked into Johnny B Goode - of course they all knew it, even in India. Again, everyone got up and danced with abandon - mostly locals. When the song ended and the band went back to “Don’t Worry Be Happy”, the party died again.
Chuck’s music is truly a global language, and the full throated expression of the joy of music, youth and love. It will live forever.
Richard Himes
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Subject: Chuck Berry (R.I.P.)
It was two weeks before Altamont and we played a big venue in San Francisco right on the ocean. We were playing, The Grass Roots, Santana, The Beau Brummels .. so many great bands from that era. Chuck was in his Mercury parked right at the stage entrance. He was stretched out in the front seat and every once in awhile, when we were talking to him he would open up his bullet proof attache case and flash the thousands of dollars he had in it. The only other person we'd seen do anything like that was James Brown. Chuck was right up there with the greatest performers of our time. He said, "You boys are getting ripped off." He was sitting there with his 20 Grand in that airline case. Looking at us as if to say, "I got paid. Are you getting paid?" There were thousands of people there to see me play too but at that moment, I realized this guy knows exactly what he's doing more than anyone else up there. He was trying show us the ropes and teach us a thing or two. We were so lucky to have had the experience of his music and his face to face wisdom, too.
Ralph Scala
The Blues Magoos
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Re: More Chuck Berry
Hi Bob,
It seems all of us who have been around in the music biz since "back in the day" have a few precious Chuck Berry Stories to share. My Spanish promoter told me of the time they sent a limo to pick up Chuck at the Madrid airport and after the driver finished putting the luggage in the trunk Chuck jumped into the drivers seat and drove away leaving the bewildered driver standing there. I myself have the rare distinction of being able to say Chuck Berry opened for me. Well ... not really of course, but I was playing a festival in Buffalo in the early 80's and Chuck was the headliner but when he arrived backstage he informed the promoter that he going to take an earlier flight back to St. Louis and insisted the playing order be switched and he go on right away. I remember he turned to me, "All right with you son if Chuck Berry opens for you tonight?" I said "Yes sir, Mr. Berry!" and so Chuck went on before me. My drummer was a Chuck Berry fanatic and had brought all his vintage Chess albums with him for Chuck to sign but Chuck declined saying, "I have a policy - no autographs before the show" to which my drummer explained that since we were now going on after him there would be no time later to which Chuck slammed his fist down on the table and exclaimed, "I have a policy!" And he never stopped smiling the whole time. The DNA of rock 'n roll surely made it's first genetic appearance in that man. What a musician! What a poet! What a privilege to have briefly shared a few unforgettable moments in his presence.
From Paris,
Elliott Murphy
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Re: More Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry played The Ritz in NYC quite frequently. I was working on the tech crew there in 86 or 87 and he was scheduled to play. He pulled up in his limo and would not get out until the night manager handed him a check for the full fee. I was a 20 year-old kid and Pat, the stage manager told me to go up to the headliner dressing room stage right and wait for Chuck. In fear of him bolting from the gig, Pat told me under no circumstances to let him leave the dressing room other than to go on stage for his set. So, there I sat terrified, waiting for him. The guy walks in, larger than life with just his guitar in hand. He greets me in a very kind and respectful manner, tuned his guitar, slicked his hair and walked down those rickety narrow dressing room stairs and on to the stage. He was a real presence, to say the least. The set that followed was killer. I had the great fortune of seeing Chuck play a few more times while I worked at The Ritz. The last time I saw him play there, he left the building in handcuffs in the company of 8 NYC cops.
Phil Schuster
NYC
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Re: More Chuck Berry
From: Andrew Kastner
Hey Bob, It seems that everyone I know has a personal Chuck Berry story. It seems that man touched almost everyones life in one way or another. Around 1984 my band, Jack Mack and the Heart Attack was opening for Chuck at the Avalon Ballroom in Catalina. We were really looking forward to playing with one of our heroes. We went on stage and began our set but after 2 songs Chucks Road manager told the promoter to pull us off because Chuck wanted to play. We had the feeling he just didn’t want to follow a 9 piece band with a 4 piece horn section. Chuck went on with is pick up band and he was so hammered he barely made it through his set. That’s my only Chuck Berry story but all my musician friends in LA have one of their own. Chuck was hard to work with but he was probably the single most influential musician/songwriter in the history of music and every time I hear one of his records it puts a smile on my face. RIP Chuck
P.S. By the way someone in your last blog mentioned the Back To The Future Movie. That’s our lead singer, Mark Campbell singing Johnny B. Goode for Michael J. Fox.
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Re: More Chuck Berry
Hey Bob. I was with Marshall Chess when he related a story about Mr Berry that I shall never forget. The day Chuck was to be released from Cook County Jail after serving a year for being caught with a minor Marshall's father asked Marshall to make the short trip from Chess Studios to Cook county Jail to pick up Chuck. Marshall, in his fathers Cadillac picked up Chuck in his prisoner jump suit and took him right to Chess Studios. That day (in his jumpsuit) he recorded Mabeline. After the session Leonard gave money to Marshall and instructed him to go down to Wabash Ave and purchase Chuck some new clothes. PS: A interesting aside is that Willie Dixon played upright bass on almost every Chuck Berry single recorded at Chess Studios. There was certain magic and synergy at Chess in the late 50's and early 60's.
Timm Martin
Out The Box Records
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Re: More Chuck Berry
I was 20 years old. My band, Poppeye, was playing at a private hotel in Palm Springs called "Ashley's". We did three nights with Mr. Berry...that was 40 years ago. He was a joy. He was kind, thoughtful...and ran us youngsters into the ground with his energy. God bless Chuck Berry.
Michael K. Clifford
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Re: More Chuck Berry
Might be too late to get in on the fun. I’m a local player, for a long, long time. But one thing we know, when the night is rough, and the crowd doesn’t feel it, play Chuck Berry, any Chuck Berry, and it will all be alright.
David Petersen
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Re: More Chuck Berry
In grade 2 my teacher brought his guitar to class and played Johnny B Goode. I told my mom about it and she bought me Chuck Berry's Greatest Hits. This was 1982. I played the record repeatedly. Took me until grade 9 to pick up the guitar, but the first song I learned was.....
Steve Calhoun
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Re: More Chuck Berry
Here is my Chuck Berry memory- it was 1985 or 86- I was at a Dr John Show with my pal Dirk Keller we're at Biddy Mulligan's on Sheridan Road in Rogers Park, IL. Biddy's was a really small little place, ok it was a dump! We are there for Dr John. He's playing, and who walks in, and sits down right next to me and Dirk? Chuck Berry! And not just Chuck Berry, his entourage, which also just happened to include Keith Richards from the The Rolling Stones! So, Dr John, says, "Hey, let's get Keith to come up here and play," and he does! They tried to get Chuck Berry on stage too, If you know anything about Chuck, he didn't ever work for free, had to paid upfront and so on...He would not get up off his chair- another reason, he had a young good looking blonde girl, sitting on his lap. As I remember it, there was another girl in the group, who was the only black girl, and Dirk said to her, aren't you Chuck's daughter, and she said, "yes" and kind of rolled her eyes, in embarrassment by her father's behavior.
Jump ahead to New Years 2011- Me, Marty Zivin and Tom Gaines are at the Congress Theater in Chicago for a Chuck Berry Show- This is the show where he fell ill on stage- sat down behind the keyboards and passed out. Pretty Shocking to see- Tom said, you should call it into WBBM, I did, and was on WBBM Newsradio talking about, had no idea, that the CBS Radio Network, picked up my audio, and then I actually got paid for my report which aired on the network- the next day, I was on CH 2 telling the story! Instead of going to the hospital, Chuck jumped into his limo, with some young ladies in tow- and went back to St. Louis.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=138b-ZHA9yE
Bart Shore
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Re: More Chuck Berry
Dear Bob--
I went to Trinity College and my roommate my freshman year was this fellow named Bob Orenstein who was from some part of southern Connecticut. Bob was a very likeable fellow and also very smart he went on to become a doctor. Bob moved to Arizona where he now practices medicine. A few years ago, Bob had occasion to treat Chuck Berry for some ailment. Bob was concerned about Chuck's comfort in his hospital and Bob went to see Chuck at some point. He inquired of Chuck whether Chuck was comfortable and whether Chuck needed anything. Chuck responded, "Why yes, I do---bring me a Gibson guitar"...
File that one under "Love for music".
Regards,
Jeff Baker
class of Trinity College 1981
Long time reader, first time responder
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Re: More Chuck Berry
I booked Chuck Berry at the Old Waldorf in San Francisco for some now-forgotten amount. When it was time to pay him I had the cash ready and he said, where is the $1000 for my daughter Ingrid (who may or may not have been on stage at some point in the evening). I had to empty all the cash registers and the safe and pay the $1000 in quarters, 1s, 5s, 10s and 20s. Luckily, there was enough. That was the last time I booked him.
queenie taylor
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Subject: Re: Where Songs Come From
Dear Bob,
I signed on to represent Tom Waits in about 1977. My company, Athena Artists (don’t ask about the name) worked primarily with brilliant comedians (Steve Martin, George Carlin, Don Novello - AKA Father Guido Sarducci) and really talented singer song writers. Randy Newman, Jerry Jeff Walker, John Prine and a number of others who still are among my personal favorites. This roster caused Herb Cohen, Tom’s manager, to call me. I sat and listened to Herb wax elequently about Tom’s talent with Tom sitting right there. I was familiar Tom’s work from the Troubadour and other venues, but I had also heard stories of the nature that could cause nightmares for his representatives. I thanked Herb for his time and asked Tom if he would take a one on one meeting with me. I did not specify a time, but Tom jumped and said- “Absolutely. Step into my office”. With that he led me to the alley behind Herb’s office.
I was candid. “Tom, I have a lot of respect for your talent, but I have heard some horrible stories, can you tell me what the truth is?”
He then, in his deep, whiskey/smoke clouded voice, began to tell me, with great authority, that it was true that he drove an old car (might have been a cadillac, Buick, Olds, but I don’t remember) and that he had lot and lots and lots of junk in it and was once forced by the sheriff to unload all of it on Hollywood Boulevard while they searched his car. He further admitted a to a few less memorable sins, and wound up by telling me that it was true that he lived at the Tropicana motel, that his room was also full of stuff, including his grand piano, which blocked his entrance to the bathroom that he was forced to piss in the kitchen sink. Then proclaimed, “But most of the rest of that stuff you hear is bullshit. I took him on then and there.
After a while he came to me with the notion that he was getting burned out on clubs because people drank a lot and did not listen and wanted to know if I could book him into theaters. As you know a club is a few hundred people at most while theaters are generally in the high hundreds or low thousands and you must fill most if not all of the seats. I knew the market would not deliver sufficient numbers of ticket buyers to fill theaters so I took a different tack. I put another Athena client, Leon Redbone, as the opening act and went to theaters that had a subscription base that would nearly fill the theater with season ticket holders.
These theaters would not allow rock bands and I had to assure them with recordings and 8x10 glossies.
Again I do not recall what theater in L.A. we used, but when I visited Tom back stage and asked him how he liked playing the theater circuit he admitted it was an improvement over clubs, but he also raised an interesting point. “I know you had to send them my record and my picture and that was ok, but next time I would like them to send me pictures of their typical audience.”
Tom learned that the absence of alcohol did not guarantee a listening and cognizant audience.
Chet Hanson
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So I hear through the grapevine that there is a magic algorithm that penetrates the apparent paper curtain in social media.
It is based around authenticity and sincerity.
It has no agenda beyond the sincere expression of authentic expression.
Those dynamics are closely monitored by a "behind the curtain" technical god....basically censorship by the powers to be.....
Authenticity, the most powerful of all human forces is a numerical formula in the social / internet form centered around the "agenda free" form of expression in its purest form.
.....no different than real life except that artificial intelligence "a work in progress" is still working to, in synchrinocity, working to imitate the dying act of real life, on all platforms of mass communication
And outreach.
The kicker is that the algorithm is "hip"...
first and foremost to manipulation because it is a formulaic means to an end....the solicitation to advertising income by all mediums of social media.
If I blog I have to be coy and trick the apparent AGENDA card. Google is under hip to the game / procedure.
This very agenda driven social agenda is governed by an
numerically formula dictated and defined by an advertising (monetarily driven) mathematical
formulated agenda which exposes "big brother" ..."an all
for money" debunking the premise the free commerce foundation that the internet is based on.
So,
In layman terms....don't blatantly
sell or commit to commerce to the followers much of anything or you are de-
authinticated ( "pushed to the back of the line")...in the great scheme of critical outreach.
It is, to date an imperfect form of communication/ outreach because it tends to expose the hidden agenda of social platforms allocated to critical mass
outreach...Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram / Snapchat etc are all advertising (income) oriented.
......more later.
For you novice, non agenda followers focus on AUTHENTICITY... the single most powerful
tool in life !!!!!
Taylor Swift flawlessly mastered it. John Mayer staggered through it.
......more to come.
RDunn
P.S. Back in the day when I wrote songs, I kept a note pad beside my bed. If I woke up in the middle of the night I would jot down whatever idea popped into my head knowing that the next morning I would have to opportunity to properly edit my scratchings.
There was no "send button".....
That said, I apologize for my very poorly edited ramblings last night.
Sincerely,
Ronnie
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Subject: Re: Absolutely Final Skin
Bob,
Long time follower. I worked at Sony Music for 13 years.
I rarely had skin issues until last January - I noticed red bumps on my forearm, then the next day - they were all over my upper arms, then my legs, my belly, my back. It looked like I had razor burn EVERYWHERE. I went to Urgent Care and he said I had a bad case of eczema and dermatitis. and gave me PREDNISONE plus a cream. I didn't take the pills or the creams because I didn't believe it... I then went to a dermo who saw my arm for 3 seconds and said - eczema and prescribed me 2% hydrocortisone, told me to take 2 minute cool showers and slather my skin in vaseline, that was apparently "the best". I did that for 2 weeks. Do you know how hard it is to squeeze into jeans with vaseline smeared all over your body? I was living in stretchy yoga pants and sweatshirts. Easy because it was January in NYC.
I grew tired of this and went to my regular DR who is a doll.
She asked me a few questions about new clothing I may have been wearing. I said, well I bought this new bra from Amazon and I've been wearing it off / on for the last few weeks. She asked if I had washed it yet? I said no.. She said - I think it's the bra. Stop wearing it.
Sure enough. I threw it away. 2 weeks later, I was cured.
It's been a year and that weird rash hasn't come back. I treat my body well - eat good foods/use good creams etc.
My point - I wonder if you are allergic to something that you are using or wearing.
Good Luck. It's annoying to figure out.
Best Wishes,
Christine Hurst
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From: Paul Carbonara
Subject: Re: Absolutely Final Skin
Yes! Please raise tinnitus. 13 years of standing in front of Clem Burke have my ears ringing like a fire alarm. Debbie has it bad too.
Good luck with your skin
Paul Carbonara
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Subject: Park City
Dear Bob,
A friend just sent me your blog. I've been skiing in Utah since 1986. We've owned a vacation home there for the last eight years. I've never been hurt skiing. On Sunday I went through a wet patch at the bottom of PC and fractured my ankle. I'm having surgery on Monday. Consider yourself lucky.
Sincerely,
Ron Davis
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From: Bob Kranes
Subject: Re: Bad Judgment
This whole sceniero made me so anxious my eczema has returned.
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