A staggering amount of work has gone into this whole project and Morten Reff is to be congratulated in his dogged determination to catalogue it all.
Trevor Cajiao, Now Dig This (October 2013)
The story so far.
Ultimate Berryphile Morten Reff issued the first three volumes of his epic Directory, starting five years ago, with a mission statement to present 'the ultimate reference guide to all aspects of Chuck Berry's career and legacy'. The nineteen chapters of Volumes One and Two augmented Fred Rothwell's 'Long Distance Information' on Berry's recordings, by chronicling their worldwide issues (and those of Johnnie Johnson and Eddy Clearwater), plus Chuck's films, television and radio appearances and tours. Book the Third simply started the single Chapter 20, a listing of all cover-versions of Chuck Berry's songs ('A to Z, by title'). So, that's over 1600 continuously numbered pages to date, already taking us well beyond the browsings of your average fan. Now read on.
This fourth and final Volume completes Chapter 20's listing of Berry-covers ('A to Z, by artist') and then plunges ever-deeper into anorak-territory with eight chapters listing such delights as covers that were on hit singles or albums; 850 sound-alikes; Berry songs and sound-alikes in films, sung on television, used in video games and even in karaoke discs. He includes summarised lists of his own favourite covers and a 'Hall of Shame' of the worst (though as he includes the chronic 'Schoolday' by Bob Cort in the first list and I happily bought three of those in the second, I'll quickly leave all that in the 'personal taste' bin!). He even throws in a helpful chapter of song and album titles with Berry titles but musically unrelated (lest we perhaps buy Petula Clark's "Memphis' album under a misapprehension – though, as we've all bought something by mistake, I'll charitably stifle the cheap disbelieving giggle!) – and even some 'with Berry-like titles'... some are actually fair enough, even if "Roll Over Beatles', 'Red-Eyed Handsome Man' and 'Ghoul Days' were probably always safely beyond peradventure.
Whilst these final lists were always going to stray into nerdiness, there actually still remains a large chunk of the book that takes us back to 'where we came in', in the shape of a hundred pages of additions to the first three volumes, with yet more worldwide issues (even new countries) and goodness knows what else. (Reff also selflessly includes twenty pages of 'Corrections' to those volumes, though to be fair to him most of these seem to be more clarifications and expansions than factual errors).
There are the usual welcome masses of album and label shots and the whole is topped-off by a bibliography and a couple of hefty indexes (Berry releases by title and label), making even this most esoteric of volumes useful to readers of the first three. Even so, whether you buy just the first two parts or the full-set may ultimately depend on whether, for example, your reaction to the fact (in 'Oddities') that one issue of 'Runaround' by the Fleetwoods was wrongly credited to Berry is 'That's interesting' or 'AAARRRGGGHHH'.
All chuckling apart, though, the work is one of monumental scope, painstaking research and execution and as a lover of all lists and reference-books like this (with neither the knowledge nor application to embark on them myself) I yield to no one in my admiration – and, with the scale of additions here, I would not bet against further update volumes either, so his life's work may not yet be complete.
Brian Smith, Blues & Rhythm (November 2013)
Its not difficult to imagine that there are a lot of Chuck Berry record cotlectors in the world, and some of them must be completlsts. Some folks like a really BIG challenge! It is a bit mind boggling that there would be a large enough audience to justify 4 volumes of really fat books about collectible music related items. But here's Volume 4, and I've gotten more enjoyment out of this volume even than the first 3, because of the large selection of soundalike recordings. It's entirely impossible for this section to be anywhere near complete. but I really enjoyed looking for friends' recordngs listed (and my own, which aren't, except for the title song by Jerry Lee Merritt on our "Jukebox Fever" collection), and for tracks I remember that sound like Chuck Berry's style of music. Not all of them I could think of were there, for example "James Dean" by the Eagles is not listed, though they are in here with "Get Over It."
The book starts with cover versions, continued from the last volume, and also includes Chuck Berry karaoke, and his music in video games as well as additions to the previous volumes, a bibliography and index. Chuck Berry's legacy as "the father of Rock'n'Roll" (his own term, not mine) does indeed call for extensive coverage in books. and this may be the most effective way to delineate his influence after all. Whether there will be a follow up to include many more soundalikes remains to be seen, though perhaps a website/blog would be the best place for such an ongoing project. Actually, it would also be a great idea for an ongoing series of CDs. I agree with John Lennon when he said that if you want another name tor Rock'n'Roll, you can call it Chuck Berry. He is that central to the concept, even if he didn't invent it, or ever claim to. For anyone thinking of becoming a Chuck Berry collector, these books are the place to start! Well, presumably you've already collected some Chuck if you'd be thinking that way.
Marc Bristol, Blue Suede News (January 2014)
