JOHNNY B GOODE
(Chuck Berry)
Shadows: October 1970 LP Shades Of Rock (UK No.30)
Ventures: 1981 Cassette (Japan) Hollywood Metal Dinamic Sound 3000
Surely even those who dismiss the Shades Of Rock album out of hand (cf. on [13]) would have to admit that this track is rather special, with Hank in red-hot form and committing to record one of his most expressive and flowing solo breaks in an altogether exhilarating workout.
Nokie Edwards too whizzed through this Chuck Berry gem with his customary awesome dexterity in a busy arrangement. There is effective brass on this one, intense as its contribution is in the closing bars: the number has the muscle to withstand the determined assault! It goes back, as Gerry Woodage explains in the notes to the See For Miles issue of the album, to backing tracks concocted for a Japanese male vocalist. It’s very slick, maybe unacceptably slick for rock purists of the 60s, but pretty breathtaking with the volume cranked up to neighbour-tormenting levels. “Just brilliant!” Dave Burke, Pipeline 31 [1996] 41. There’s surely no arguing with that.
Listen to The Ventures track on:
1996 CD Underground Fire/ Hollywood Metal Dinamic Sound 3000
