Chuck Berry - Have Mercy - His Complete Chess Recordings 1969 - 1974 '2010

Tracks list

Tracklist

CD1
01. Tulane
02. Have Mercy Judge
03. Untitled Instrumental
04. My Ding-A-Ling (Live)
05. Gun (Instrumental - Fast)
06. Gun (Instrumental - Slow)
07. Gun (Instrumental)
08. Thats None Of Your Business
09. Instrumental
10. Christmas
11. Im A Rocker
12. Flyin Home (Instrumental)
13. Fish & Chips (Instrumental)
14. Some People
15. My Pad (Poem)
16. Oh Louisiana
17. Festival
18. Lets Do Our Thing Together
19. Your Lick
20. Bound To Lose

CD2
01. Bordeaux In My Pirough
02. San Francisco Dues
03. My Dream
04. Sweet Little Sixteen (Live at Lanchester Arts Festival)
05. Roll Em Pete (Live at Lanchester Arts Festival)
06. It Hurts Me Too (Live at Lanchester Arts Festival)
07. Around And Around (Live at Lanchester Arts Festival)
08. Promised Land (Live)
09. Reelin And Rockin (Live)
10. My Ding-A-Ling (Live)
11. Johnny B. Goode (Live)
12. Roll Em Pete (Live)
13. My Ding-A-Ling (Live At Lanchester Arts Festival)
14. Lets Boogie
15. Mean Old World

CD3
01. I Love You
02. I Will Not Let You Go
03. London Berry Blues
04. South Of The Border (Live at BBC)
05. Blues #1
06. Annie Lou
07. Rain Eyes
08. Me And My Country
09. Sue Answer
10. Got It And Gone
11. A Deuce
12. Talkin About My Buddy
13. Hello Little Girl, Goodbye
14. One Sixty Nine AM
15. Aimlessly Driftin
16. Woodpecker
17. Bio

CD4
01. Roll Away
02. Im Just A Name
03. Too Late
04. Turn On The Houselights
05. Hi Heel Sneakers
06. Jambalaya
07. The Song Of My Love
08. South Of The Border
09. Swanee River
10. You Are My Sunshine
11. Johnny B. Blues
12. Dust My Broom
13. Dont You Lie To Me
14. My Babe
15. Here Today
16. I Just Want To Make Love To You
17. Rockin
18. Shake, Rattle And Roll
19. Baby What You Want Me To Do

Following an unsatisfying three-year stint at Mercury Records, Chuck Berry
returned home to Chess in 1969, just like Phil Chess predicted. Heading home
didn’t necessarily mean retreating, as the four-disc Have Mercy: His
Complete Chess Recordings 1969-1974 illustrates. During his time at Mercury,
Chuck followed the kids wherever they went, aligning himself with the
psychedelic ‘60s in a way none of his peers did. This shift is immediately
apparent on “Tulane,” the very first song he cut upon his return to
Chess. An ode to a couple of kids who dealt dope underneath the counter of a
novelty shop, “Tulane” puts Chuck on the side of the counterculture,
and over the next five years, he never strayed back to the other side of the
fence, often singing about getting stoned, dabbling with a wah-wah pedal,
rhapsodizing about rock festivals, cheerfully telling smutty jokes. All these
elements, along with his propensity for playing with pickup bands -- he cut
1971’s San Francisco Dues with amiable garage rockers the Woolies outside
of Lansing, MI, and roped Elephants Memory into the studio to knock out much of
1973’s Bio -- defined the last act of Chuck’s career. But the big
difference between the five years documented here and what came afterward is
that Berry was still active as a writer and record-maker during the first years
of the ‘70s, conscious of his legacy but not encumbered by it, still
attempting to graft new fads onto his three-chord boogie while spending more and
more time playing the blues and ballads of his youth. Have Mercy chronicles all
of this and more, putting his final Chess recordings into CD circulation for the
first time, and adding 22 unreleased cuts to the mix. If there are no major
revelations among this unheard material there are at least minor ones in the
form of a studio version of “My Ding-A-Ling,” which is lighter in
touch and marginally more charming than the live hit, and the preponderance of
loose, instrumental blues jams culminating in an extended studio version of
“Turn on the Houselights,” the song he used to play toward the end
of concerts. All these blues -- and there are many with vocals, too, including a
very good take on Elmore James’ “Dust My Broom” and a ripping
live version of Big Joe Turner’s “Roll ‘Em Pete” --
find Berry coasting somewhat, preferring to rework standards instead of write
new ones, which is a sentiment that also applies to how “My
Ding-A-Ling” re-jiggers Dave Bartholomew’s song, but Chuck always
did turn blues tropes into something of his own, so what’s new is how
infrequently Berry was writing during this final stretch. The originals may not
have flowed freely, but he did pen a handful of classics: “Tulane,”
its slow sequel “Have Mercy Judge,” the dreamy spoken poem “My
Dream,” and the cracking autobiography “Bio” all belong in his
canon. But the thing about Have Mercy is that it proves that an artist as great
as Chuck Berry has pleasures that lay outside the canon, that his sly touch
invigorates classics from “Jambalaya” to “Swanee River
Rock”; that it’s good to hear him just lay back and riff, that
there’s a delight in hearing him affect an absurd Mexican accent on
“South of a Border.” Sure, these are pleasures only for the
committed, but in light of the lack of new recordings following this -- just
1979’s Rock It, which did produce the minor classic “Oh What a
Thrill” -- it’s easier to cherish this music for the minor, yet
lasting, pleasures it provides.

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