I seem to remember at one time seeing footage of Keith doing session work with Chuck. They were cutting a demo of Carol and Chuck kept admonishing Keith for screwing up the guitar.
Does anyone know the name (if on exists) of this? I think it might be “Heros of Rock and Roll” but I can’t find a definte answer.
fanks
This sounds like Hail! Hail! Rock ‘N’ Roll from 1987. It’s a documentary/concert film of Chuck’s 60th birthday. Good film.
Hail Hail Rock n Roll it is. The scene you’re talking about was filmed at Berry’s nightclub/tourist park in Missouri.
great film. Editing was iffy, though. If you watch the bottle of Jack in the sink behind Keith, the level goes up and down during scenes.
Are we sure it’s the same bottle of Jack 
?
Lemme join the ranks of those who praise the film, BTW.
Chuck got on Keith’s ass because Chuck didn’t really give a damn whether his guitar was tuned or not, which upset Keith, and keith said something to the effect of, “That’s a fuckin’ unprofessional way to go about it, in’it!”
To which Chuck REALLY got steamed and said," That guitar is set the way that I want it. If I wanted it tuned it would be tuned."
Sadly, Chuck’s attitude is why seeing him in concert is a very big letdown. He doesn’t take a traveling band with him, but many times simply sues the opening act as his backing band, which wouldn’t be so bad except that he never tells them which songs they are going to play.
Bruce Springsteen tells the story about how he was in Chuck’s backing band and he asked Chuck what song’s they were going to play. Chuck said, “We’re going to play some Chuck Berry songs,” and then away he went.
Thanks for giving me that bit of info, but would you mind telling me exactly WHICH Chuck Berry songs?
Aren’t they all pretty much the same anyway?
Side note: I served Chuck breakfast one late night in a casino restraunt about 20 years ago. He really looked pretty horrible even back then. I’m surprised (and glad) he’s still going today.
There is nothing “secret” or “special” about 1,000 Island dressing.
Well, yea, a lot of his songs do follow the same formula but they are nonetheless different. To suggest that a backup band could competently do the job without knowing, at least, what the songlist was, does the music an injustice. By the same token, I think CB does his own music, and every backup band he attempts to draft, a worse injustice by doing what he does.
Incidentally I saw him perform a couple of times, about 20 years ago. The music in general sounded pretty good, so I assume he was still using a semi-regular band back then.
According to the film, Chuck Berry charges (or charged at the time) $10,000 per show. The promoter provided everything except his guitar. Before the show the promoter gives CB $11,000. If everything (including the backing band) is to CB’s satsifaction, he gives $1,000 back.
And the “Carol” incident didn’t involve the tuning, it involved the way KR was playing the slur at the beginning at the song.
No way for me to prove this, but didn’t he also charge per-duckwalk? That is, $10,000 got you a certain number of duckwalks per show, and you had to pay extra for more.
I have “Rock 'n Roll Rarities,” a collection of lesser-known cuts of Chuck’s better-known songs. One of them includes an exchange in which Chuck accuses the pianist of playing the wrong song. “Hey was makin’ ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ on the piano,” he explains to the producer (I assume). I can’t remember which song it is, and none of the free samples at cdnow.com seem to start at the beginning of the tracks.
Punch line: the piano part, as I recall, is completely inaudible on this song. If it hadn’t been for the dispute, I never even would have known there was a piano part. And I doubt that I’m the only one.
Much of chucks songs are 12 bar, which most good musicians can fake thier way through.
Keith Richards points out in the movie that many of Berry’s songs are written in piano keys, not commonly used guitar keys (G, C, D, other majors). That’s because, as Richards points out, Johnny Johnson (Berry’s keyboard player) was the musician of the group. I believe that Johnson actually sued Berry recently over songwriting credits to many of Berry’s hits.
KR is asked what CB said to him on stage during the performance, after which KR gave a “no way, Jose” head shake.
IIRC, KR said that CB came over and said they were going to change keys mid song to another of those piano keys and KR didn’t want to (but CB did it anyway).