I'm trying to fight the blogger's feeling that you should comment on every death in rock 'n' roll and have something to say about it. Chuck Berry died over the weekend- he invented rock 'n' roll, he invented the riff and the lyrical concerns of the song. Mrs Swiss and myself danced to You Never Can Tell at our wedding back in 1995 (we were both in our mid 20s so it wasn't quite the teenage wedding of the song). Other than that there isn't much I have to say about Chuck Berry. He was by all accounts an appalling person but in music we often have to separate the artist from the art, as unpleasant as that can be.
1995 was also the year that Sabres Of Paradise put out a series of remixes by other artists of songs from Haunted Dancehall, released the previous year. Chemical Brothers, LFO, Nightmares On Wax, In The Nursery and Depth Charge all had goes at reworking the work of Weatherall, Kooner and Burns. This Depth Charge version sounds very 1995- dusty, wired and with a big beat.
Tow Truck (Depth Charge Mix)
4 comments:
"He was by all accounts an appalling person but in music we often have to separate the artist from the art, as unpleasant as that can be."
A sentiment fully understood by Moz fans.
I was deeply unmoved by the death of Chuck Berry. I'm not doing to argue against anyone who points out his significant part in the evolution of rock'n'roll but his music, and indeed that of his peers from the 50s and much of the 60s, just doesn't connect to me.
Also I'll have to dig out 9 Deadly Venoms when I get home.
Saw Chuck Berry twice - both time he held up the concert to hold the promoters hostage for more cash to go onstage. The second time was a New Year's Eve concert at The Limelight Club, where I was working and although I never saw it, I was informed that Berry had locked himself in his dressing room with a gun and refused to come out until a large sum of cash was obtained to do the show.
Favorite Chuch Berry song - My Ding A Ling... says just about everything about him...
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