Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll [Blu-ray]

This documentary-concert-behind-the-scenes look at Rock and Roll's original lyrical master is back. I have been waiting for its release to DVD for ten years and here it is with a four disc set! How good is that! I had the original movie when it was released in 1987 on VHS and have been playing it ever since.There are many, many highlights and you will see them all over and over when you get this show. Some of them are:1) Chuck talking about his meeting with Leonard Chess and his reluctance to play in front of him.2) How Chuck shows up at a gig alone and always used local bands to back him up. Bruce Springsteen tells the delightful story of his band doing backup when he opened for Chuck and Jerry Lee Lewis early in his career. Chuck comes to the show late out of nowhere ignores the band goes out onstage and starts playing. The band was in a panic, "What song is it?" "What key?", "What arrangement?"...Chuck just comes over and says "Play for that money boys" and Bruce says he didn't know we were doing it for free!! The whole story about going to the bass player for the key was priceless! I know its true-I've seen him do it! 1-2-3 go--that's Chuck Berry!3) How Chuck got paid in cash (had lots of IRS problems). Here in Australia I saw Chuck in 1975 and he was caught at Sydney Airport with $50000 AUD in an attache case. We still have currency restrictions due to this famous incident!!4) His reluctance to talk publically about his time in jail (it ruined his career-he was going to be much bigger but that stopped him until the British rediscovered him in 1964!!).5) His playing steel guitar at the end- a nice country touch, and rare, by himself in his Clubhouse at Berry Park.You can hear more of this on the rare track "Deep Feeling" released on his "Blues" CD.6) My highlight is his rehearsal with Keith Richards and the band doing "Carol" or "Oh, Carol" and Chuck correcting him even though the Stones had sold millions of this tune on their first LP. It is priceless I have watched that (and Keith's lovely 1960's Stratocaster) hundreds and hundreds of times and it's so fantastic! And a previous reviewer is right: the arrangements were different. Keith also plays the same solo he did in 1964!7) Great footage of the late, great Johnnie Johnson. His piano playing made Chuck Berry's records (just imagine "Sweet Little Sixteen" without it!"). Check out his great solo in "Wee Wee Hours", he was a great Blues Pianist in the style of Roosevelt Sykes and in the Kansas City tradition of Jay "Hootie" McShann.He added so much to Chuck's music and never got any credit, in fact, Chuck took over HIS band in the beginning. It's also telling that, unlike all other Rockers who play in guitar keys of E,A and D, because of Johnson's influence, all of Chuck's tunes are in Jazz and Piano keys like Bb, F, Eb and so on. I remember trying to play "Johnny B. Goode" on my first electric guitar about 1965-I couldn't understand why it wasn't in A!! (It's in Bb! And we had no books, DVD's or Tabs!! just records and sheet music). This is a further insight into why Jimi Hendrix tuned down his guitar a half step--lots of explanations have been given (helped singing, fuller sound for a power trio and so on!), but this gave him guitar key access to a jazzier sound! I am glad Johnnie got to play with Chuck again and get some of the recognition he deserved.8) The Opening of the concert in St Louis for Chuck's 60th birthday (I'm 60 in 3 years yikes!!!). We see Chuck doing "Roll Over Beethoven" and going to Keith and saying "Let's change the key to Bb from C". Keith says "no" and what follows is classic. Chuck is the original "wing it" musician!9) Highlights of the actual concert are Eric Clapton's version of "Wee Wee Hours". It's just about his best Blues playing on film, his phrasing is great and he uses both upper and lower registers. Compare this with his "Concert in Hyde Park" (5 Long Years) and the "Cream Reunion Concert" (Stormy Monday). This playing on a ES-350T Gibson (this guitar had been given to Chuck by Keith Richards, but he didn't want it, he liked his ES-355 as it was more "modern"-Eric still plays this guitar today, watch him do "Reptile" on the "One More Road" DVD)in the style of early Rock and Chuck Berry is fantastic!10) Other great tunes are "Almost Grown", "Little Queenie" (best ever version of this classic!)and "Too Much Monkey Business" which have Keith Richard's best solos. "Memphis, Tennessee", a great version very delicate and Chuck's best solo on the night. Also really good is "No Particular Place To Go" Chuck's big come back hit when he was rediscovered and started to record again in the mid-sixties. The interplay between Chuck and Keith is very good on this tune with them exchanging leads. There is plenty of great music in this concert! Robert Cray's version of "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" is also very good!The four disc set is definately the way to go unless you have only a casual interest in this topic. The extra three discs have hours and hours of very interesting items:Disc 2 has the rehearsal and we wish there was a lot more than the 50 odd minutes. The "guitar jam" is really great, however, the actual best playing are the organ and piano solos.The whole segment on Etta James("I sang backup on 3 or 4 of Chuck's tunes at Chess with Minnie Riperton!!") is very interesting and is the best (albeit casual) performance I have ever heard from her. You hear Johnnie Johnson's piano the whole time on this section and he is great! On the blues "Mean Old World" (T-Bone Walker) we hear Eric Clapton and others, but disappointingly, no Keith Richards blues solo!The whole mini-documentary on the making of the film is also fascinating. Chuck comes across as a money hungry tax cheat, but you still have a soft spot for him, especially after what he went through growing up and then being ripped off so much (but so was Dylan). Actually I believe he was probably a lot worse than the producers made him out!!!The big insight in this "making of" film is that he did a gig in Ohio before the big 60th concert to make a few bucks, blew his voice out and had to do the concert we see twice (also charged the producers twice!) and then had to overdub the vocals in LA (which he also charged extra for--I always suspected that the concert was "Too Good" to be live Chuck Berry in 1987!!). Very interesting!Disc 3 has three parts; The interview with Chuck, Bo Diddley and Little Richard is very good. It opens one's eye's to the racism and discrimination these artists had to go through in the early days. Bo's story of the Georgia State Police is shocking! Little Richard's description of R&B as "Real Black" music has them all in stitches! We also see Chuck playing boogie woogie piano with Little Richard, another insight! The other two parts deal with Robbie Robertson from the Band going through an old scrapbook, which had been in a fire, and bascially interviewing him. He touches gently on Berry's prison experience (which he had done 3 different stints)and the final section "Chuckisms" is, as previous reviews have said-very interesting and moving with Robertson's gentle guitar backround.Disc 4 has three-and-a-half hours of historical interviews with the founders of Rock and Roll, modern pop music and the recording industry. All fascinating and compelling viewing. The sound on all these discs is superb, the editing great and the colour is magnificent.This film was made by Taylor Hackford, who introduces each section of each disc in an interesting way that makes you want to view it, is a great documentary filmmaker. He goes back to the 1960s and many documentary specials on US TV. His latest film "Ray" of course got him the recognition he deserves. Get this DVD and get the 4 discs pay the little extra money and get hours more enjoyment from a film about an American institution. This is probably the music release of 2006!

I really enjoyed the feature documentary "Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Roch 'n' Roll". There was good background information and some great performances in the featured concert. What really made this a great purchase for me was the special features disc which contained hours of background interviews and some really great performances during the practice sessions for the concert. I feel that I understand Chuck Berry much better after watching all of the extras included. I now have a much greater appreciation for what Chuck Berry contributed to the Music Industry because of the people he inspired to continue keep Rock 'n' Roll alive throughout their own music careers which have spanned many decades by now. Some performances are definitely worth watching again, so I am really happy with this purchase.

Good for Chuck. In this production he got some money out of his fawning idol worshippers even if they literally threw part of it it on the floor. Watching a grown man with a gray beard pandering another adult while slipping the knife in his back is creepy. 'I really like Chuck, but....'. For you young people, don't take seriously much of the dates and info presented in this project. We're dealing here with musicians, not historians. They were paid to say nice things about Chuck Berry, and they sure did. Chuck is probably the most sensible one involved in this production. He shocked the yuppie filmakers by taking them to eat barbecue ribs. And even catfish!! Unbelievable!! His car ran out of gas!! They wanted to know about his criminal record so he sent them to a prison!! He made a pass at one of the producers!! Well, maybe more than a pass. The producers evidently thought they were dealing with Mary Poppins instead of a famous rock star. They wanted to see his old stomping grounds. So he sent them to East St. Louis!! Maybe there are pimps here!! He went to perform at a State Fair instead of keeping with their precious 5-day shooting schedule!! Chuck wanted as much money as he could squeeze out of them and was often late. This never happens in Hollywood does it?Chuck had many good songs, but he didn't invent rock 'n' roll. As he honestly admits in the interview 'There is nothing new under the Sun'. His records arrived rather late in fact, in 1955. Hack evidently discovered him in the mid-1960's after Chuck had motivated over the hill. Chuck was one of the greatest early rock performers. But my God, didn't the producers ever hear the bedrock influences in recordings by Louis Jordan, Ella Mae Morse, Hank Williams and others? Elvis and his guitar player Scotty Moore recorded rock music over a year before Chuck. Fats Domino and Little Richard were even earlier. How about Bill Haley's guitar player? Some are mentioned briefly by the musicians but ignored by the filmakers. Elvis is faulted for not being a writer. Les Paul not only wrote songs and played guitar, but made his own guitars. Could Chuck do that? What's the point? It's the performance and the final product that counts.The people interviewed are some of the very best of the early rock pioneers, but Hack's dumb questions rarely get beyond "How did it feel?", or " Did you think this song would last forever?". Jerry Lee Lewis had some really good songs, but the interview is an embarrsaament. About as interesting as what you'd hear in the drunk tank down at the local jail. The Everly Bros., who's harmonies the early Beatles stole, appear here well preserved and eager to please. They recorded Lucille by Little Richard, which nobody mentioned is basically the same tune as Chuck's Nadine, which came much later. Little Richard, a great singer, is as usual, is over the top. If anyone besides Elvis could be called the King of Rock 'n' Roll it would be him. But he only had a few important songs. The rest all sound the same. Ditto for Bo Diddley.When he was good he was very good, but limited. Willie Dixon only speaks for 20 minutes, but imagine the stories he could tell if given the time. Sam Phillips gives his usual sermon. Some consider his production of "Rocket 88" by Ike Tunner's band in 1951 to be the break-through rock song which led the rest of the pack. I would love to have heard a good interview with Sam back in the early days before he left the real world. Atlantic's Ertegen seems to have developed amnesia when it comes to Joe Turner and Jesse Stone. "Shake Rattle 'n' Roll" in 1954 was the most influencial and probably the best record 'Omlet' ever produced.To me, the most surprising part of this project (except for the revelations about Johnny Johnson) was how Chuck memorized hundreds of lines of poetry while in jail. He's very good at reciting it too. Hack, clueless as usual, says it was by Wordsworth. Actually, the Pass Away poem was by Theodore Tilton and the Vagabond's Home poem was by Don Blanding.The little 4-line ditty was by Longfellow, not Wordsworth. Poor Robbie Robertson evidently thinks Chuck wrote the lines himself and urges him to get back in the recording studio.If you are really interested in music history, read "What Was the First Rock 'n' Roll Record" by Jim Dawson and Steve Propes. It is currently out of print but is available used on Amazon, sometimes at very high prices. The lead author evidently lost his mind and started writing books about flatulence, which for some reason sell for much less. Maybe the rock book will be published again some day.Anyway, I bought the 4-DVD package at the pre-release price and got my money's worth. I'll give it 3 Stars just for the chance to see the rockers. When the price goes down as people unload their set it'll be worth 5 Stars. I hope Chuck collects something from this re-release, since he was a "producer". I'll bet the sly old fox does.

Great insight into Chuck Berry as a musician and as a person. If you know Chuck you'll love thisdocumentary and if you don't ,then its a very entertaining education . Chuck Berry is one of the true Kings of Rock and Roll and this film only makes that more apparent.

The dvds,are in region A or 1 and won't play on my player,and i,ve left it too late to return it.unless a nice man or woman reads this and will accept it back?

I was expecting a typical bio type DVD on one of Rock and Roll's founders,but actually this film lets you see a little of the 'real' Chuck Berry. He appears as a man who is much embittered by the race segregation of his youth, and who would blame him, but its interesting that he is clearly still bitter 50 years on, despite being heralded as a great performer by both black and white audiences. Driven by money - to the extent that he pretty much ruined his celebration concert by accepting a cash gig just prior to the event and had to perform with a shot voice!! Excellent production and very well filmed, not a typical bio by any means, but a very revealing documentary about the man himself. Highly recommended and entertaining.

I know this is an incredible documentary. Very disappointed that it was sold into a region where it wasn’t compatible

Amazing insight into Chuck Berry and how much patience everybody had to have with him.Keith Richards truly deserved credit for trying to do the right thing when others might have given up and given in.

This is just BRILLIANT !!!Great music and interviews with major musicians celebrating Chuck's gift to our world. Two discs of pure joy.Buy it now even if you've never heard of Chuck Berry.