CREEM ONLINE: Pervert's Ball

Little Richard
Get Down With It: The Okeh Sessions
1977/2004 Epic/Legacy

Buddy Holly & the Crickets
The Chirpin' Crickets
1957/2004 MCA

Chuck Berry
After School Session
1957/2004 Chess

"Buddy Holly and I were good friends. One time we were playing at the Paramount Theatre and Buddy came into my dressing room while I was jacking off with Angel sucking my titty. Well, she was doing that to me and Buddy took out his thing. He was ready, so she opened up her legs and he put it in her. He was having sex with Angel, I was jacking off, and Angel was sucking me when they introduced his name on stage! He finished and went to the stage still fastening himself up. I’ll never forget that. He came and he went!"

—Little Richard, 1984

"An undetermined number of women have filed a class action suit against Chuck Berry, charging that he made videotapes of them when they were undressing and using bathrooms on his property at Berry Park. The suit alleges that Berry used secretly placed cameras to videotape these women as they undressed, used the toilet, dressing rooms, and a bedroom in his home and restaurant."

—St. Louis Post-Dispatch July 30 1990

"I'll spare you the details about Chuck Berry's 'toilet tapes,' as revealed by Spy magazine, but suffice it to say that no rock writer will now use lightly the words 'shit eating grin' to describe his legendary on-stage ebullience; nor could anyone listen to Chuck's once popular B-side, "The Wee Wee Hours," and kid themselves that it's a song about insomnia."

—Time Out November 1998

Yeah, that Chuck Berry sure has written some funny songs—especially the one where Chuck gets some on his finger and then wipes it on the wall, huh?

But seriously, I remember reading that article in Spy and thinking: gee, they’re sure dumping on Chuck. Then I saw the accompanying color video stills and realized that Chuck Berry was used to being dumped on. And here I always thought that it was Eddie Van Halen who originated the famous ‘brown sound.’

As for the pancaked Mr. Penniman, don’t go thinking that the all-time living queen of rock ’n’ roll was somehow misquoted or disingenuously taken out of context because that little slice of immoral oral history appears in Richard’s own authorized biography The Life And Times Of Little Richard, The Quasar Of Rock.

Magnanimous of him, I know. But from such humble beginnings as these we’ve finally arrived at this singular point in time. So consider yourself warmly welcomed not only to the 35th anniversary of CREEM, America’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll Magazine, but to the 50th anniversary of rock ‘n’ roll itself.

This month’s festivities begin with the reissue of these three albums; two of them the very first records made by Bud and Chas, with the third being a seminal release from the little Dick.

Of course, it goes without saying that all three albums are indispensable additions to your collection. But if you’re pressed for money or space, here’s how I handicap the three, starting in order of least critical importance.

Despite having a surfeit of famous songs like "Oh Boy," "Not Fade Away," "Maybe Baby" and "That’ll Be The Day," Holly’s debut Brunswick album of 1957 sounds the most dated. Mainly it’s because the Picks’ saccharine barbershop backing vocals threaten to turn The Chirpin’ Crickets into a Sing Along With Mitch album. Which is why you’d be much better off trying to find a copy of the original tracks without the overdubbed backups. Besides, there’s really nothing special here that you can’t get on any number of greatest hits collections. And since you’re going to be giving your hard-earned cash to Holly publisher Paul McCartney either way, you might as well spring for something a little more comprehensive.

Chuck Berry anthologies are also a dime as dozen, but they usually tend to omit Berry’s more obscure instrumentals. His first album, also originally released in 1957, contains three such selections which are almost worth the price of admission alone: "Deep Feeling," "Roly Poly," and "Berry Picking."

I say "almost" because you also get the following overabundance of archetypal rock songs: "School Days," "Too Much Monkey Business," "No Money Down," "Brown Eyed Handsome Man," the aforementioned "Wee Wee Hours," plus bonus tracks "Maybellene" and "You Can’t Catch Me."

All that’s missing are "Roll Over Beethoven," "No Particular Place To Go," "Bye Bye Johnny," "Sweet Little Sixteen," "Carol," "Run Rudolph Run," "Little Queenie," "Reeling And Rocking," "Memphis Tennessee"… On second thought, maybe you’d be better off with a greatest hits album after all.

Which leaves us with the expanded reissue of Little Richard’s Get Down With It: The Okeh Sessions. Of the three, this is the one album that you can’t get parts of anywhere else, seeing as it how it contains just about everything that Richard recorded for the Okeh record label during a four month period between February and December of 1976. And don’t let the late date fool you: this soulful album of screamin’ standards and originals—along with its companion piece, the equally hard rocking Little Richard’s Greatest Hits which was waxed for Okeh live in the studio shortly thereafter on January 25, 1977—is Little Richard’s finest final moment to date.

Along with Ace’s definitive six disc box set of his early Specialty sessions and outtakes, these two Okeh discs serve as perfect bookending latter day platters to be played anytime anyone should ever wonder what the big deal is about Little Richard.

On Get Down With It, you’ll hear a deep warmth and mature vitality in the man’s voice that was lacking during his strident early years with the Upsetters. Artful editing and sequencing has transformed a random series of recording sessions into a fully functioning album that doesn’t have a bad take on it.

But rather than have me waste your time by tediously running down the track listing, better you should just go out and get it and then get down and get with it. If you’ll pardon the expression.

And speaking of pardons, how about that Chuck Berry, huh? Boy, I wanna tell ya: ain’t he somethin’?