Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Berry pickin' (Chuck Berry) (LP 481)

Chuck Berry
 
After School Session  (CD, Chess, 1957) ***** 

Genre: Rock'n'Roll 

Places I remember: Fives (Leigh on sea)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Wee Wee Hours (Chuck gets the blues)

Gear costume: No Money Down (car songs - this is one of Chuck's best, therefore one of the best of all time); School Days

Active compensatory factors: This was Chuck's debut album (and Chess Records' second) released in the year of my birth, which makes it 63 years old!

My CD edition is a 50th anniversary edition with three killer bonus tracks attached.

At the time Chess collected all the singles Chuck Berry ('our rock-a-billy troubadour') had released, adding two more tracks from the sessions that produced the singles and - there you have it - the first Chuck Berry album dressed in a suitably period cover shot of a hunched and pigeon toed Berry.

Given the liner notes seek to present the versatility of the star on show, there is a variety of approach on display but the whole package holds together remarkably well.

Where do they all belong? Still sounds like it was recorded yesterday! Timeless brilliance.

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