Chuck Berry "Have Mercy" His Complete Chess Recordings 1969-1974

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 Elephant's 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. (Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Allmusic)

trax disc 1:

01 Tulane 02 Have Mercy Judge 03 Untitled Instrumental 04 My Ding-A-Ling 05 Gun (instrumental, fast) 06 Gun (instrumental, slow) 07 Gun (instrumental) 08 That's None Of Your Business 09 Instrumental 10 Christmas 11 I'm A Rocker 12 Flyin' Home (instrumental) 13 Fish & Chips 14 Some People 15 My Pad (Poem) 16 Oh Louisiana 17 Festival 18 Let's Do Our Thing Together 19 Your Lick 20 Bound To Lose

trax disc 2:

01 Bordeaux In My Pirough 02 San Francisco Dues 03 My Dream (Poem) 04 Sweet Little Sixteen 05 Roll 'Em Pete 06 It Hurts Me Too 07 Around And Around 08 Promised Land 09 Reelin' And Rockin' 10 My Ding-A-Ling 11 Johnny B. Goode 12 Roll 'Em Pete (live single edit) 13 My Ding-A-Ling (live single edit) 14 Let's Boogie 15 Mean Old World

trax disc 3:

01 I Love You 02 I Will Not Let You Go 03 London Berry Blues 04 South Of The Border 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

trax disc 4:

01 Roll Away 02 I'm 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 Don't 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

…served by Gyro1966...