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Friday, May 06, 2005


The Rolling Stones kickin' live album (London NPS-5) recorded in 1969 and released in 1970. my personal favorite live album, besides the hilarious picture of drummer charlie watts on the cover, the lp's ten cuts include two racous chuck berry covers: "Carol" and "Little Queenie." I've seen many pressings of this LP over the years. My latest is on noticeably heavier vinyl than the usual ones you see floating around and has "9-23-70" engraved in the A side matrix and "9-10-70" on the B side matrix. The dates the early "stampers" for the LP pressings were made? US album release was September 26, 1970 so its definetly close..will have to keep an eye out...

Continuing with the Chuck Berry jive: its interesting that Chuck Berry was an opening act for the Rolling Stones on their 1969 US fall tour (Ike and Tina Turner were too..)..the anchorage press has a stellar piece on johnnie "johnny b goode" johnson, chuck berry's pianist on his great sides and some argue co-writer, on their site this week and i urge you to check it out...it includes the following with reference to the subject at hand (please go here for the entire article):

A few years after Richards heard “Maybellene,” his band, the Rolling Stones, launched their recording career with a cover of Chuck Berry's “Come On.” It took the Stones years to work off the influence and darken their palette, building on Berry's sound. When at last they were bona fide stars, they sought Berry out and he snubbed them. Of course, this just made them respect Berry more. The Stones finally hired him to open on their 1969 U.S. tour, when the Stones were at the peak of their popularity and Berry was washed up - but Berry could only be purchased on his terms: He demanded his $3,000 fee in cash each night before he'd go on. When he did take the stage, it was with a young band that could scarcely keep up. Where, Richards wondered, was that goddamn piano player?

if you want to find out about johnnie johnson and some more about chuck berry read the anchorage press piece! its a good one!

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