Chuck Berry - St. Louis to Liverpool

"Riding Along In My Automobile...My Baby Beside Me At The Wheel...I Stole A Kiss At The Turn Of A Mile..."

This 2004 Universal CD reissue gives us all 12-tracks of Chuck Berry's November 1964 stereo album "St. Louis To Liverpool" issued on Chess LP 1488 in the USA - bolstered up with 3 bonus tracks (40:23 minutes). Erick Labson of Universal has digitally remastered all 15 songs from the 1st generation Stereo and Mono master tapes - and a wonderfully warm job has been done.

The 16-page booklet exactly reproduces the lovely full-colour front sleeve on Page 1 with its rear sleeve on the last page of the inlay - in between is a new essay on the album by noted reviewer BUD SCOPPA with the original liner notes also reproduced on Page 8 and 9. There's session details, reissue credits and even the blue and white Chess label of the original LP is pictured under the see-through tray - all nice touches and great attention to detail.

But the real good stuff starts with the songs and the SOUND. Unlike the rough and ready debut "After School Session" from 1957 (also in this series), this album has the muscle of STEREO and what a punch it packs! "No Particular Place To Go" is simply fantastic - fun, in your face and rockin' - packing all the wallop you'd expect from a truly great Chuck Berry song but with that great extra muscle in the reproduction.

As with "After School Session" - it's also wonderful to hear Berry's songs again in their original inspiring form and realise what an astonishing influence for good Chuck and his music has been. When you think of every garage band, every bedroom poser, every guitar maestro on the planet and how they all cut their teeth on Chuck Berry songs at some point in their careers - his influence has been little short of World changing. The brevity, the wit and cleverness of the lyrics, the infectiousness of the beat - its all here! Catch a snippet of "You Never Can Tell" with its irresistible piano and brass fills - fabulous stuff!

A fantastic listen then and an important and timely reissue. Start your journey to the dark side here children - and remember - best not tell your parents the reason for said joy - ROCK 'n' ROLL!!

PS: It should also be noted that this issue is part of the "ROCK 'N' ROLL 50th ANNIVERSARY EDITION" Series issued in 2004 by Universal in the USA. 'Rock 'N' Roll 50th Anniversary Edition' is a secondary series title and is displayed vertically on the side inlay beneath the see-through tray of each release, but unfortunately, if you try to search databases for ANY titles under this moniker, it doesn't recognize the 'name' at all. For those interested - the series includes:

1. "After School Session" by CHUCK BERRY (1958 debut LP on Chess, see REVIEW)
2. "St. Louis To Liverpool" by CHUCK BERRY (1964 STEREO LP on Chess, see REVIEW)
3. "The Chirping Crickets" by THE CRICKETS (their 1957 debut LP featuring BUDDY HOLLY, see REVIEW)
4. "Bo Diddley Is A Gunslinger" by BO DIDDLEY (1960 STEREO LP on Checker, see REVIEW)
5. "Rock Around The Clock" by BILL HALEY & HIS COMETS (ground-breaking 1955 LP on Decca, see REVIEW)
6. "Buddy Holly" by BUDDY HOLLY (1958 1st solo LP on Coral, see REVIEW)
7. "Rock, Rock, Rock! - From The Motion Picture" by THE MOONGLOWS, CHUCK BERRY and THE FLAMINGOS (1956 1st Chess LP - a Rock'n'Roll Soundtrack - see REVIEW)
There is also a pictorial display of all 7 in LISTMANIA (in Amazon)

I bought all 7 of these titles and I can't recommend them enough - each album remastered, colour artwork lovingly restored and each bolstered up with 3 to 5 relevant releases from the time (many previously unreleased). Fans of Haley, Holly, The Crickets, Berry, Diddley and Rock'n'Roll in general should quickly acquire all of these exemplary CDs. They make for the best basis of a collection in a minefield of lesser compilations. September 9, 2008

Chuck rocks on into the 60s

This may be rock's first great comeback album. Released in 1964, in the early ecstasy of the British Invasion, St. Louis To Liverpool captures the middle-aged Chuck Berry doing what he did best: pounding out song after song of relentless rock 'n' roll brilliance without much regard for anything else. The fact that Chuck had just been released from prison when he recorded this music seems to add to the urgency, the sense of release that you can feel on every one of these tracks. His guitar playing is unbelievably athletic, an exhilerating string of notes that ties together blues, country, and R&B to form that beautiful package called rock 'n' roll (okay, that was cheesy. But you get the point). The disc also benefits from a crisp, clear production that lets you hear every gorgeous nuance of Berry's playing and singing, as well as the delicious contours of Johnnie Johnson's barroom piano.

The songs are some of the best in the entire Chuck Berry catalogue: Opener "Little Marie" sets the pace brilliantly, with its churning guitars, a strutting rhythm section, and a nearly hypnotic vocal. That song was also one of the album's three hit singles. The other two are just as good: "No Particular Place To Go" recycles the stop-start melody of Berry's earlier "School Days," throwing in some hilarious lyrics for good measure. "You Never Can Tell" (which was used quite mrmorably in Pulp Fiction) proves that Chuck was one of rock 'n' roll's greatest storytellers, and includes some smokin' guitars and pianos for those of you who don't speak English (how would you even be reading this review?!). The album tracks are marvelous as well- "Our Little Rendezvous" is an endearingly greasy rocker with a hillbilly backbeat and lyrics that grow progressivly more bizarre as the song goes on. "The Promised Land" is every bit as joyous and exuberant as "Johnny B. Goode," and "You Two" is a delicious, swingin' number with an incredible guitar solo. Covers of "Things I Used To Do" and "Merry Christmas Baby" show how adept Chuck was at playing the blues- he attacks the songs with some stinging guitar acrobatics and soulful vocals. "Liverpool Drive" is a high-speed instrumental pounder with a great burger-joint atmosphere. The album's other instrumental, "Night Beat," is a slow-burning blues rocker that really burns. "Brenda Lee," with its sumptuous guitar fills and thundering drums, is icing on the cake.

So, what the heck are ya waitin' for! This album rocks! Buy! Buy! Buy! July 24, 2007

From St. Louis To Liverpool With Rock-n-Roll.

This is a different sounding Chuck Berry mixed in with some American versions of his standards and also a semi-country western type song that he started out playing when he was with the Johnny Johnston Trio in E. St. Louis, Illinois. Buy this album for the shear fact that no existing Chuck Berry cd sounds like this one. Little Marie is a version of Memphis, Tennesse but better. Our Little Rendezvous is a cooker and more like the Everly Brothers singing with Little Richard. No Particular Place To Go and You Never Can Tell are just Americanized Chuck songs but hey they are the best. PROMISED LAND WOULD GET HANK WILLIAMS SR. TO DO ROCK-N-ROLL...THIS IS THE TOPS. You Two is sort of a Big Band ballad sound that Chuck does once in awhile..he can be very versatile. Go Bobby Soxer is a straight cover of Johnny B. Goode but with new lyrics...I got off on it as Johnny B. Goode is the Rock-n-Roll national anthem according to George Thoroughgood. The Things That I Used To Do, Night Beat and Merry Christmas Baby are Chuck getting down and dirty in the Delta Mud...that cat can sing jazz, ballads, blues, rock and lawrd who knows what else...probably gospel also. Liverpool Drive show cases the band musical side and is a great jitterbug song. Brenda Lee is o.k. but not for me. I wish Chuck would let Ray Charles sing Country and Western and left off Fraulein...left me cold. THE ABSOLUTE BEST SONG ON THIS CD IS ONE THAT I HAD NEVER HEARD BEFORE...O'RANGUTANG....it starts off with the famous Elmore James riff and never lets, up. Add some sax and piano and you have a true Chicago Blues Style song....IT PUT ME INTO ROCK-N-ROLL HEAVEN. The last song "The Little Girl From Central" is a straight cover of the more famous "Sweet Little Sixteen." How about that, Chuck steals from himself and makes more hits. BUY THIS CD BECAUSE YOU WILL NEVER HEAR A COMPILATION LIKE THIS ONE AGAIN...A BIG 5 STARS FROM JOLIET JAYKE THE BLUZE BROTHER. April 29, 2007

Very good. It rocks.

A good selection of Chuck Berry stuff to listen to. It will have you dancing. November 7, 2006

Classic Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry spent much of 1962 and all of 1963 in jail after being convicted on a Mann Act charge. When he emerged in January of 1964, the popular music landscape had been forever changed by the British Invasion. Fortunately artists like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones worshipped the founding father of rock 'n' roll. [The stones included "Carol" on their 1964 debut, and the Beatles included a cover of "Roll Over Beethoven" the same year on their second U.S. album.] Berry used this momentum to go into the studio to cut one of the strongest albums of his career. In addition to the hits "No Particular Place to Go" (No. 10), "You Never Can Tell" (No. 14), and "Little Marie" (a sequel to "Memphis" that went to No. 54), it also includes the standard "Promised Land." To some extent, this is Berry's final hurrah. A year after the album's release, he turns forty, and the elder statesman of rock seems to have lost much of his drive. He has one final hit (the double entendre novelty song "My Ding-A Ling" goes No. 1 in 1972), but by then Berry seems content to spend the remainder of his career on the oldies circuit. But ST. LOUIS TO LIVERPOOL is classic Berry, and it's made even better with the addition of three bonus tracks: "Fraulein," "The Little Girl From Central" and "O'Rangutang." If you need proof that Berry was still a vital artist after the British Invasion, this album proves it beyond a doubt. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
August 16, 2004

More reviews at Amazon.com ...