FROM ST. LOUIE TO FRISCO
by CHUCK BERRY

One of Berry's better late 60's efforts (and the low-down on "Oh Captain")

By Rick Hines, Apr. 28, 2017

A pretty good late 60's Berry album, and one of his strongest Mercury efforts.

He was going through a period where he was playing the blues a lot, and it really didn't suit him well. As a bluesman, he was a great rock and roller. Here, he pulls out some good rockers, keeps the blues short and sweet, throws in some well-placed horns, and even blows 60's kids' minds with the psychedelic "Oh Captain."

It's pretty standard to ridicule Berry's Mercury years, and it was easy to believe that when his music was out-of-print. This album shows that even during his darkest creative years, he still made vital music. This is more original than his "Golden Hits" remake album, the quality more consistent than his horn-soul experiment "In Memphis," less blues-drenched than the half-baked "Fillmore," and more varied than his next album, "Concerto in B Goode."

As for "Oh Captain," I did a little work on it. The song was created by taking a song and extremely offsetting the left and right channels. If you have a good audio editor, you can break the track into separate left and right channels, then realign them until they are synchronized. The bass is mainly on the left, Berry's guitar on the right. It's easy to do, and well worth the effort: it turns out to be a really good song about football! The titular "Captain" is the quarterback taking the team downfield play by play until they score a touchdown. The bassist is funky as hell, the pianist spins effortless cascades of notes, and Berry delivers a truly inspired solo. I'm not sure why someone decided to fudge it up until the original song was obscured. Almost the definition of a "lost" Berry song right under our noses!