The Ritz’s sixth anniversary show had both the feeling of an Event and a sense of rock and roll history.
The second set, particularly, had an MTV-New Year’s Party air to it, with an audience loaded with industry types and occasional celebrities (among them, Charlie Watts, the Del Fuegos, Paul Schaeffer and Anita Pallenberg.)
The history, of course, came from Chuck Berry. From the very start of his staggeringly erratic career, Berry has defined rock and roll. Many performers like to think of themselves as living legends, but Berry really has a right to the title. He is rock music incarnate, deserving of a Hall of Fame all to himself. His guitar style has inspired thousands of artists, from Keith Richards to Hendrix to George Thorogood. This concert proved that and reinforced that there is no built in retirement age in rock and roll. Berry, pushing 60, can still get up there and crank it out in classic style.
With New York’s constantly changing club scene, six years qualifies the Ritz for classic status as well. Its one of the oldest surviving venues in town (but CBGBs remains the all-time champion.) It is ironic that this gig occurred in the same month as the closings of The World, Danceteria, Irving Place and the Dive. Rest in peace, y’all.
The first show this evening was more or less a rehearsal for the second. The latter began began with the TV screens flashing an impressive roll call of artists who have played the Ritz – among those who have gone on the arena-land were Culture Club, Tina Turner, Duran Duran, and Joan Jett. Those who haven’t, but who represent the best music has to offer these days were too numerous to mention.
The set opened with the Uptown Horns warming up the crowd with a few numbers, including a hot rendition of the Peter Gunn theme (recently revised by The Art of Noise with Duane Eddy on guitar). The Uptown Horns have their Stax/Volt style of instrumentals down pat, consummately tight and professional. They sounded as good here as in their recent gigs with Johnny Thunders; for once a perfect back up band for Berry (who often plays unrehearsed with any local band a promoter can rustle up, sometimes with terrible results.)
Ron Wood, no slouch in the classic rocker department himself, joined the horns for some uplifting material from his career, including “I Can Feel The Fire” from I’ve Got My Own Album To Do, and the Faces' gem, “I Wish I Knew What I Know Now.”
“We gotta get Chuck on, his car runs out of petrol at 12:35,” Wood announced. Berry promptly sauntered on stage – as always, sporting red pants and loud flowered shirt with his classic red Gibson ES-335 in hand – and launched into an effortless rendition of his “Roll Over Beethoven,” one of many Berry songs which have been covered by almost every group known to humankind, but always sounds best in the original version.
Chuck Berry has the aura of a survivor; his three-decade career has weathered all possible obstacles, including being imprisoned twice: one in the late 1950’s for illegal transportation of a female minor across state lines, and more recently in the 1970’s for income tax evasion. Many other performers would have packed it in long ago, but Berry has soldiered on, without apology, retaining his lecherous persona, his orneriness (like many great artists, he is difficult to work with), and his tremendous talent. His music has a life of its own, carrying Berry with it like an accomplice to a crime.
Berry took a turn on the piano for “School Days,” another rock and roll anthem like much of his compositions; an enthusiastic crowd sang along with the choruses without prompting, in contrast to the forced audience participation (“PLEASE sing!”) many bands now think is required.
“It Hurts Me Too” was a slower tune, a cool bluesy number evocative of Berry’s beginnings in the Blues/R&B circuit in Chicago. Of all the Chess Records performers in the genre – such as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, Elmore James – Berry was the first, and pretty much only one to really cross over, expanding his music’s themes so the white teenage audience could relate, and by just writing plain old excellent material. Bob Dylan once called Berry his favorite American poet. During this concert Berry gave a nod to these roots by covering B.B. King’s classic “Every Day I Have The Blues.”
Wood and Berry seemed to have a good time playing together, trading off guitar licks and kidding around. The set had a loose, playful quality, with an abundance of good spirits, and an easy brilliance in style; the kind that only comes from doing something exceptionally well for a very long time.
Most of the songs here, “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “Maybelline” and “Rock n’ Roll Music” among them, were were both exuberant and lighthearted. “Memphis” was about the darker side of Berry’s life, a touching song about the loss of his daughter to “a mommy who did not agree” and “tore apart our happy home…” As with much of Berry’s material, this song is best known by its cover versions (by the Faces and Johnny Rivers). Ditto for "Around and Around,” widely attributed to the Rolling Stones. The entire performance was an eye-opening reminder of the extent of Berry’s influence, like “Oh yeah, he wrote that one too.”
Berry and Wood’s high energy set was wound to a close with “Carol,” segueing into the classic-of-classics, “Johnny B. Goode.” Berry can still pull off his famous “duck walk” and retains his theatrical stage moves – yet another aspect of his performance that has been copied by generations of musicians. “Reeling and Rocking, still raunchy, sexual and generally terrific after all these years closed the gig. In celebration, balloons descended from the ceiling and bounced merrily on everyone’s heads.
Several audience members took a cue from punk / metal shows and jumped up on stage – and one rather straight woman who refused to leave had to be dragged off, providing an appropriately loony, chaotic ending to the extravaganza.
Berry inserted some new lyrics into “Reeling and Rocking” for the occasion. and exited signing “that’s the show, we gotta go, we gotta go.” There was, of course, no encore. Rumor has it that Berry is contractually obligated to play only 45 minutes. and that’s exactly what he does – but he’s entitled, as he’s entitled to all his quirks, and general grumpiness. Forty five minutes of Chuck Berry is worth more than hours of any lesser performer.
Abby Weissman, 1986
