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| Mel Belli |
It's only rock'n'roll;
Put Keith Richards and Chuck Berry together on the same stage? It seemed a good idea at the time, says TAYLOR HACKFORD
BYLINE: TAYLOR HACKFORD
SECTION: ARTS & BOOKS REVIEW; Pg. 12
LENGTH: 1567 words
I did Hail! Hail! Rock-'n'Roll quite some years ago now, and I had some of the best reviews of my career. But the documentary was an extraordinary experience from behind the camera as well. When I did the original film, the concept was to do a concert, a celebration of Chuck Berry's 60th birthday. I thought that here was an opportunity to deal with probably the greatest force, the greatest artist in rock'n'roll, certainly in the early years, the original singer-songwriter, the originator of an art form. Without Chuck Berry, there would be no Beatles, no Rolling Stones, no Bob Dylan. Each of them said this.
Keith Richards was the musical director, very supportive, and I was the filmmaker. We did the film together. Throughout the documentary, I did give hints to the thorny nature of Mr Berry, but the film didn't portray at all what we went through to do it, which was a struggle, absolutely fascinating. We were going to capture Chuck, to get him to do original songs, to go out and do this concert??? kind of predictable. But I knew, in my heart of hearts that, if we turned the camera on Chuck Berry, all would not go well.
Chuck had, for so many years, travelled around, not caring about how he sounded, paying with pick-up bands. Occasionally, he'd get lucky. He worked with Bruce Springsteen and his band when they were fledglings, nobodies - that's in the film - but most of the time he just winged it. He's a consummate entertainer and he can usually get standing ovations, even though the music sounds absolutely dreadful. Keith wanted to serve him up a good band. That was the idea. I think it was even in Keith's mind that by giving him a perfect band, with people like Eric Clapton, and refocusing - because Chuck is always talking about writing new songs - he would come out of this with a couple of original songs. Well, that did-n't happen, but at least there was a pretty wonderful band.
At rehearsals, there was a famous moment, the guitar lesson with Chuck taking Keith back to school, showing him how to play "Oh Carol". That was really just a pissing contest between the master and the pupil. Keith had become a master in his own right and Chuck was just rubbing his nose in it. I was there to capture it. The subtext of this was that Keith was much more famous than Chuck. Chuck is the man who originated rock'n'roll but the Rolling Stones are the most famous band in the world. In that moment, where Keith is trying to take charge and get Chuck to focus, Chuck was like a child, fighting back and going: "Oh yeah? You think you can play my music? Let me show you this." Keith plays confidently, and of course he was playing in his own style. It was just one of those moments and I thought, well, maybe this is the end of the show. Maybe Keith will just get enough of this and say "fuck you" and just walk off. But he didn't. This confrontation de-fined my film because, even though I couldn't really reveal until the DVD what was going on behind the scenes, you did see in that moment a very, very disagreeable and an incredibly uncomfortable situation that was indicative of what was happening, and how Keith responded.
I realised that this film was going to be about these two men. In the larger context, it is about Chuck Berry and his music. But it's also about Keith Richards, this pupil coming to pay homage to his mentor and getting crapped on every step of the way.
Chuck was maddening. He went off, took a gig in the middle of rehearsals, got the flu and lost his voice. On "Too Much Monkey Business", I didn't loop his voice so you truly hear what it was like. Chuck didn't want Etta James to be on the show but Keith stood up to him. The first concert was supposed to begin at 8pm and started at 11pm, the second show began at 1.30am, 5,000 people waited around. As irresponsible as Chuck was, jeopardising the whole project, he still had to stand and deliver before his home-town crowd that he really cares about, and it was extraordinary to see.
After an absolutely incredible, outrageous, almost disastrous evening, Keith sat down, exhausted, with a bottle of Jack Daniels in that funky dressing room and did that great interview at 4.30am. At the time, the Rolling Stones had broken up; Mick Jagger was going solo. This was a very important film for Keith because he stood his ground with Chuck. Doing that interview also meant people discovered, instead of this junkie zombie, a very intelligent, extremely strong individual.
One of the brilliant things Keith did was that he found Johnnie Johnson. He was the incredible piano player on those Chuck Berry records, and he was driving a bus. He came in and he was the heart of the band, infused it with authenticity, brilliance and generosity. Chuck was there as he had inspired us all but, through the process, Chuck was thorny at best, and a nightmare at worst, while Johnnie was a saint. Keith had come to the realisation that, unlike most guitar rock-'n'rollers, Chuck Berry 's music was different; it was in piano keys, not in guitar keys. When Keith saw how Johnnie worked, he realised that, probably, Johnnie had been part of most of the songwriting that Chuck Berry did. Like a musicologist, a lifelong aficionado and student of Chuck Berry's, Keith was just talking about what he had heard. He made a discovery which was in the film. Johnnie responded and then Chuck responded. Not necessarily denying. Of course, an enterprising lawyer found Johnnie had not profited from these recordings, and there was a quite widely pub-licised lawsuit. All of a sudden, Chuck Berry realised his true god, the dollar sign, was being threatened, and was absolutely incensed at Keith - Keith was called as a witness to the trial. The trial never happened, but it was a nightmare, and subsequent to Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll, their relationship deteriorated. Chuck said ugly things about Keith and Keith was very hurt.
When it came to the DVD, anything that we had shot for the film was fair game. To put Chuck in the greater context, I'd done all those interviews with the founders of rock-'n'roll, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, the Everly Brothers. But any new Chuck Berry music, he had control over. In fact, there were six songs, terrific pieces - like "Jo Jo Gunne" - that we hadn't used. I called Chuck and said: "I'll pay you $10,000 a song." He laughed and said: "You ain't getting those songs." A lot of black artists were ripped off. Chuck was given half a cent per record as royalty but, though he was ripped off on his first single, "Maybellene", he was never ripped off again. He has his songwriter shares. This is a man of great wealth.
By the way, I really like Chuck Berry. He did allow me into his life and we did have a good relationship, up to a certain point. But you don't change a leopard's spots. He seduced me into the project. "Oh yes, I'll give you access. Oh yes, we'll do this." In addition to the music, we were going to do his family, go to the prison he'd been in, all these things. He was never negative. Then, when it was too late, he started taking things away, not showing up; the behaviour was absolutely outrageous. I had his video camera and I captured an outrageous event at the prison, where we almost had a riot. Chuck took his camera away and I never saw that footage.
Chuck went to jail when he was 18 years old. He was caught stealing a car with some friends, and they were going to drive to California. If a white teenager had been caught, he'd have had his hands slapped, but Chuck got three years in a state prison in Missouri. It was the defining moment of who he is. It was in prison that he joined a gospel group, started playing the guitar, and it became the beginning of his musical career. He went to the prison library, read poetry, aspired to write poetry, wrote in his own style and adapted that to song. Talk about a revelation!
Chuck Berry deserves the rock'n'roll outlaw label, considering that he's been to prison three times. Eighteen to 21, that's pretty defining. While everybody else - Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran - was quite young, he was 29 when he broke through. He was writing "School Days", as a smart interpreter of pop culture trying to hit the white audience. He really understood how to write songs for them.
I spoke to him about the three years he did in the Sixties for taking a minor across state lines. He said: "She was anything but innocent."
And then, finally, the thing that I thought was incredibly fascinating was the tour that he did of England in 1973, and the fact that he insisted on being paid in pounds. In the end he had something like £250,000, which disappeared, and then inevitably the American tax service caught him, and instead of just coming clean - I mean, the man had the money - and paying the fine, he went to jail. And took an accounting class.
In the process of making this film, my wife, who is English [she is Dame Helen Mirren] was along with us. One time, Chuck asked her: "If you have a lot of pounds, and you want to get them back to the US, how would you do that?" She said: "Well, Chuck, I think what I would do is buy Victorian antiques and bring them in and then sell them because there's a big market for that". And he said: "Oh, very interesting." I need say no more.
'Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll' is released on DVD by Warner Music Vision on 19 March. Taylor Hackford was talking to Pierre Perrone
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| egon |
nice read, thanks! |
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| Saint Sway |
thanks Mr Belli!!!
what a fascinating read. Unbelievable!!! What an experience for Keith & Hackford
I remember Johnnie Johnson getting choked up at the R&R HOF induction a few years ago and thanking Keith for saving his life and finding him when no one cared about him when he was just working as a bus driver. Very touching. |
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| mac_daddy |
thanks, m_b.
i cant wait for this thing and all the extras  |
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| glencar |
He's a very talented scumbag! |
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| Nellcote |
The dvd with the all the extras is well worth getting.
The detail Hackford notes in this article (thanks, btw)
describes what the trials were to deal with one Mr. Berry.
On film, you get all of the facial, tonal inflections which places the face on the matter, which really shows how Mr. Berry wants to be the one in charge, and succeeds in doing so. It is hilarious to see what he puts everyone through, yet sad to how he treated consummate professionals, such as Johnnie Johnson, his longtime keyboard player, who Keith found driving a bus during the process of this. I think the root cause of his ways are the fact that one of his first recordings had him as a minority writer, with others ahead of him who had zero involvement in the cut. Not uncommon in the industry, however, Mr. Berry takes this to a higher art form, with everything he encounters. Screw everybody, they are all out to get me, probably is Berry's underlying theme. This is one set which is a must own. |
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| fireontheplatter |
great read for sure.
i wonder if net flix has this? |
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| Kilroy |
Great Post, Thank you. |
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