Local News

The Story Behind the Greatest Chuck Berry Bootleg You May Never Hear

Published

2 months ago

March 27, 2024

Thirty-eight years ago, the man who more than anyone else invented rock & roll left it all on a stage in Austin, Texas.

It was April 27, 1986, and Chuck Berry, then 59, was on the final night of a tour that had him headlining a bill of legacy acts that included Chubby Checker, Martha and the Vandellas, the Shirelles and others.

In this era, when Berry was on the road, his typical backing band consisted of “whatever underpaid local rockers the promoter rounded up,” as one biographer put it.

But that night in Austin, Berry was backed by Bo Diddley’s famed bassist Debby Hastings. On drums was St. Louis native Mike Mesey, now 66, who played with Berry everywhere around their shared hometown, from Busch Stadium to Blueberry Hill.

Mesey recalls the Austin crowd being “on fire,” and that instantly galvanized Berry. “It was a perfect storm. He was in the perfect mood. The crowd just set him off right. He looked back at me, smiled and kicked it in,” Mesey says.

Berry opened with “Roll Over Beethoven” and went right into “School Days.”

“It was like a freight train from song one,” Mesey says. By the end of the 14-song set, Berry was ad-libbing lyrics along with his guitar riffs.

“I love you!” he shouted to the crowd during “Johnny B. Goode,” the show’s penultimate number. “You’re all my rock children!”

The real gem of the night was the closer, a version of “Reelin’ and Rockin'” that went on for more than twelve minutes (the studio version runs about three minutes). The horn section from one of the night’s previous acts came up and started jamming. The brass players riffed over Berry’s guitar licks. Audience members got on stage and started dancing.

The technician working the mixing board that night recorded the show. He handed the tape over to the promoter who, about a month later, gave it to Mesey.

“I always say to myself, I think it’s like the greatest rock live version caught on tape of Chuck,” says Mesey.

And now, Mesey is determined to bring that show in Austin to Berry fans across the world — a quest for which he’s spared little effort or expense.

There’s just one problem.

Without the blessing of either Universal Music Group, which owns most of Berry’s recordings, or the Berry estate, it is unclear if Mesey has the right to release the bootleg he’s spent two years toiling over.
click to enlarge COURTESY OF MIKE MESEY Chuck Berry, left, with Mike Mesey. The two frequently played together during Berry’s St. Louis shows.

Mesey says that between 1986 and 2021, he occasionally retrieved the tape from his home safe to play it for others. Those impromptu audiences were always blown away.

During those decades Mesey enjoyed a robust touring and studio career working with bands such as REO Speedwagon and Head East. Then, at the end of 2021, with COVID causing a lull in Mesey’s schedule, he decided he wanted to do something with the Berry tape.

“I got to thinking, instead of calling somebody and saying, ‘Hey, I want to do this and I want to do that,’ I thought to myself, just get it all completed and get it perfect, then go to everybody and say, ‘It’s finished,'” Mesey says.

It’s a strategy that has yielded an immaculate recording … but one that few people may ever hear.

It took two years and Mesey spending, in his calculation, “six figures” out of his own pocket to bring the bootleg tape’s technical quality up to par with the performance it captures.

The live recording of the show was all captured on one single track on a shoddy cassette. The tempo of the recording started speeding up in places; the keys changed. All that had to be corrected. Working at first in St. Louis and then later at Abbey Road in London, Mesey was able to separate the vocals, guitar, bass and drums into three individual tracks. He then gave the product what he calls a more modern rock mix.

“Rock & roll lovers around the world will just get a blast out of hearing that,” Mesey says.

He has a point. Mesey made several clips of the would-be live album available to the RFT, and his work has clearly paid off. The treble of Berry’s guitar sounds as good as ever and, especially when listening with headphones, the rhythm section is absolutely ripping along behind it. The remixed recording is the embodiment of a whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

“Nobody knows it’s here,” Mesey says. “Nobody knows how good it is.”

Mesey titled the would-be live album Chuck Rocks Live: All My Rock Children and even designed cover art.

But after that, things got tricky, and Mesey needed an engineer of a different sort. He got in touch with Al Watkins, a St. Louis-based attorney with a knack for showing up anywhere that personality, controversy and the legal system collide.

“The thought process here was, ‘How do we get this music out there so it can’t not be heard?'” Watkins says. “Every now and then, the double negative is worthwhile.”
click to enlarge ZACHARY LINHARES Mike Mesey with the cassette case for the project he’s devoted countless hours to.

The majority of Berry’s catalog is owned by Universal Music Group, including most of his signature songs he originally recorded in the 1950s for what was then the Chicago-based Chess Records, which form the core of the April 1986 setlist. And that presents some big problems for someone with a bootleg of his music — even if that person himself is playing on the recording.

“He can release anything he wants,” says Michael Nepple, an attorney with Thompson Coburn with expertise in intellectual property law. “The risk is getting nailed on copyright infringement.”

Nepple stresses he isn’t familiar with the specifics of All My Rock Children. But after learning of the project in broad strokes, Nepple says, “The drummer is going to have a lot of problems if this goes out.”

And the damages could be staggering. Speaking generally, Nepple says individuals whose copyright has been infringed upon can sue for multiple types of damages. One type of legal action would be to recoup any money that someone made off another person’s intellectual property, what is called suing for actual damages.

Then there are statutory damages, which, according to Nepple, can run up to $150,000 per infringing work.

“So if Chuck Berry ripped out 15 songs, the guy could be on the hook for either actual damages or $150,000 times 15,” Nepple says.

For the past year, Mesey and Watkins have been working to get the bootleg album released. Watkins says that they approached Universal Music Group about the project and were told, essentially, thanks but no thanks.

One lever might be to get the Berry family on board. How could Universal sue if the Berrys were excited by the project — or even stood to benefit from it?

The exact arrangement, if any exists, between the Berry estate and Universal Music Group is not known. But Nepple says it is not unusual for the estate of legacy artists to have struck a deal with entities like Universal wherein the family can give input on what sort of uses the songs can be put to.

But when it comes to getting the blessing of the Berry family, Watkins says it’s unclear who the decision-maker for the Berry estate is.

“They heard the clips and they loved it,” Mesey says of the family. “They just couldn’t move. I don’t know all the details. But, basically, they just didn’t come back with any kind of [being] able to move forward.”

Gary Pierson, an attorney at Capes Sokol, says he represents Berry’s family and “the entity that controls all rights with respect to his music, likeness and all other intellectual property.” Pierson says the family has declined comment. However, that silence is a response in and of itself.

Berry’s career is replete with his work being pilfered by others. Perhaps most famously, in 1963 the Beach Boys wrote new lyrics to Berry’s song “Sweet Little Sixteen” and had a mega-hit with “Surfin’ U.S.A.” (Berry biographer RJ Smith wrote that Berry likely heard the pilfered smash hit while in prison in Jefferson City. He was later credited as the song’s writer.)

click to enlarge ZACHARY LINHARES Paul Berry III is Chuck Berry’s great-nephew — and a candidate for lieutenant governor of Missouri.

As for others making money off his music, “He didn’t tolerate that at all,” says Wayne Schoeneberg, Berry’s longtime attorney in St. Charles (Schoeneberg is not involved with the estate). “He was very protective of his own intellectual property.”

For 20 years, Schoeneberg helped Berry handle issues related to the rights and the licensing of his music. Schoeneberg says Berry had a good business sense, though at times he would turn down deals, even lucrative ones, if they didn’t feel right.

“He was just a unique individual and had his own way of addressing everything,” Schoeneberg says. “He and I would frequently disagree on approaches, but he was the boss.”

Paul Berry III is the rock & roll star’s great-nephew and also happens to be running for lieutenant governor. He makes clear that he does not represent the Berry estate, but, speaking directly to this issue, says he is alarmed — in more ways than one — by the idea that someone would spend at least $100,000 of their own money and travel to London to work on a record without getting approval from either of the two entities that own the underlying music.

“From what is being explained, I would really be concerned about whether he may have mental health issues,” Berry III says. “I would definitely want to pray for his health in that regard.”

He adds, “It’s a shame the godfather of rock & roll can’t rest in peace without people pillaging his grave.”
click to enlarge ZACHARY LINHARES Mike Mesey, left, and Sam Maul at Shock City Studios in St. Louis. The two worked for months pulling out and cleaning up the Berry tape.

Mesey is hardly the first creative person, musician or otherwise, to spend two years and $100,000 on a project that is hardly a sure thing — only to be called crazy.

And for the record, he says the effort wasn’t always as quixotic as it appears now. He doesn’t want to go into details, but says that for a while he and attorney Watkins were working with an intermediary to the Berry family, until, for reasons that remain opaque, things “hit a wall.”

Mesey is taking it all in stride. Despite the album not even being out in the world, he still says it’s one of the most special things he’s ever done.

The reason he’s talking to the RFT and sharing clips of the work is that he’s hoping that once people get a taste of it, they’ll clamor for more. And if that happens, maybe Berry fans from around the world can will the album into existence.

“I didn’t go into this to do anything else other than to honor Chuck Berry,” he says. “The world needs to hear this. This is a tape like no other ever recorded.”

Source link

Local News

St. Louis Bill to Raise Sales Tax for Childcare Programs Sparks Fierce Debate

Published

7 hours ago

May 14, 2024

Natural Bridge

A bill proposed at the St. Louis Board of Aldermen would ask voters to raise sales taxes to fund early childhood education programs. This bill has led to contentious debate and, yesterday, was unanimously opposed by the St. Louis Public Schools Board.

Board Bill 7, sponsored by Ward 10 Alderwoman Shameem Clark Hubbard, would add a question to the November 2024 ballot asking voters to approve a levy that would increase the city’s sales tax by 0.5 percent. The funding would be used to support early childhood education programs for children who are not yet in kindergarten.

If approved, the revenue generated from this tax would go into an “early childhood education fund,” to be administered by the City of St. Louis Mental Health Board of Trustees.

There was a public hearing for the bill before the Transportation and Commerce Committee on Monday. Public speakers were cut off after an hour during the hearing due to another aldermanic committee meeting beginning at 3 p.m. that could not be rescheduled due to STL TV’s ongoing budget problems.

Clark Hubbard said before the hearing that she wanted to answer the question of who could access the potential revenue from the bill.

“The funds may be used for early education and care for children ages 0 to 5 provided by public — as a proud SLPS parent I’m glad that’s first — public, private, not for profit, and for profit entities licensed, license exempt, or registered by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education,” Clark Hubbard says.

She says she wanted to share that information with the media and those present from the public because a “different narrative” was shared online.

WEPOWER, a nonprofit organization, previously acknowledged to the RFT that in order for public programs to receive any funding, state law would have to change. A spokesperson for the organization said, “The way the Community Children’s Services Fund currently exists creates limitations. As a result, there are efforts underway to amend the structure of the Community Children’s Services Fund. At the state level, a bill was voted out of the Select Committee on Empowering Missouri Parents & Children that would allow funds to also become available to public schools. Additionally, the bill would allow Children’s Services Funds to administer dollars to improve the quality, affordability, and access to early childhood development programs. This could include but not be limited to increasing educator wages and benefits.”

WEPOWER has not yet responded to requests to provide more information about the state bill they’re referring to. We will update this story when we hear back.

SLPS’ board passed a resolution opposing the bill 7-0 in a special meeting Monday morning. The resolution says, among other criticisms of the bill: “Board Bill 7 directs taxpayer dollars to non-public entities with no oversight or accountability measures in place.”

Matt Davis, vice president of the school board, spoke at the hearing, citing the board’s similar opposition to Proposition R, a property tax increase that city voters approved in 2020. He said it also included funds for early childhood education that would be distributed by the Mental Health Board. None of the money from Prop R has gone directly into services or to increase capacity and wages for childcare centers and instead it has gone to nonprofits, he said.

“It’s really unclear where that money has gone and most importantly, whether that’s been effective,” Davis said. “To increase the money by tenfold at this point seems to be a little premature. In addition we also do oppose the addition of a regressive sales tax.”

This sentiment was echoed by community members speaking in opposition to the bill, who alleged that WEPOWER, the organization that helped draft the bill, may not have the intention of supporting public programs.

Gloria Nolan, a former WEPOWER employee and the campaign coordinator for Prop R, says the nonprofit has failed to deliver on any of its promises regarding early childhood education. Nolan has been public about how she believes WEPOWER is being used by proponents of charter schools like the Opportunity Trust.

“WEPOWER and their affiliates have been working hard at requesting funding from every stream available starting with their funder the Opportunity Trust, then moving on to proposition R, they’ve asked for ARPA funding, now they’re asking for this regressive sales tax, they’re asking for Rams settlement funds, and they’re even rolling baby strollers through the halls of Congress asking for more funding to undermine democratically run public education,” Nolan says. “Everything that has been said sounds lovely but nothing has been proven, nothing has been shown and we have to stop this now.”

As Nolan spoke, a row of supporters for the bill laughed, smiled, whispered and shook their heads at her comments. One of these supporters was WEPOWER’s Director of Early Childhood Power Building, Paula-Breonne Vickers, who spoke after Nolan.

“I was actually that parent that pushed my stroller through Congress because there is a crisis at all levels, local, state and federal, where funding that existed before is coming to an end and without stabilization at all levels, it will be a crisis that harms us all,” she says.

Vickers shared her experiences as a mother living in north city, saying that she was on a two-year waitlist for childcare as of 2020. She says she was encouraged to move out of the city to position her family near more resources.

She stresses that she believes in SLPS but says spaces in its early childhood programs are not readily available to parents. She argues that Board Bill 7 would be a progressive opportunity to set young children up for success.

“I ask you to move this Board Bill 7 forward so that voters can decide if this is something we want for St. Louis City,” Vickers says.

Local public school advocacy group Solidarity with SLPS started a letter-writing campaign against the bill.

“This bill is a naked attempt by known proponents of education privatization to trick the public into funding their and their friends’ consulting operations under the guise of childcare or early childhood education,” Ben Conover, an activist with the group, said at the hearing. “Let’s be clear, the funds for this bill cannot go towards increasing the affordability or the accessibility of early childhood education. None of the state statutes that pertain to this bill allow for the funds to be spent towards either purpose.”

There will be additional public hearings before the committee in the future. No vote was taken Monday.

Source link

Local News

At Wash U, Some Boos for Chancellor, But Little Talk of Palestine

Published

23 hours ago

May 13, 2024

Natural Bridge

Loud booing and chanting punctuated some of the speakers at the commencement for Washington University this morning — most often Chancellor Andrew Martin, who has become the focal point of anger from activists after mass arrests on campus April 27.

Administrators had ordered a temporary encampment erected on campus that day to disperse, and when protestors refused to do so, 100 were arrested, including 23 students and at least four faculty members.

Martin later begged students not to protest at this year’s commencement and presided over fencing going up around campus. In recent weeks, anyone entering the Danforth Campus has had to produce university-issued ID.

As a result, protests were mostly limited to the streets around campus, although some students at commencement booed, others stood to protest and some even walked out, as St. Louis Public Radio reported:
Graduating students at @WUSTL protest and walk out of Chancellor Andrew Martin’s graduation remarks. The university has been under fire for its response to campus protests against the war in Gaza. Stay tuned for more from my colleagues and I at @stlpublicradio. pic.twitter.com/UV5cq5my4v— Brian Munoz (@brianmmunoz) May 13, 2024 And even beyond the boos that could be heard during the ceremony, there were also references to the recent unrest — some more direct than others.

Alejandro Ramirez, who was wearing a Keffiyeh, took the stage as the university’s undergraduate speaker and cheers erupted at the end of their speech as they expressed their support for the Palestinian people, and Pro-Palestine protestors beyond the fence, saying: “Today, I stand in solidarity with my peers, faculty, and community members who have experienced hardship during this last semester, who found their why and used it to express solidarity with the Palestinians around the world.”

As for the keynote speaker, actress Jennifer Coolidge, she danced around the topic of protests, saying she is proud of the young people for using their voices and rolling comments of “war and famine” into calls for action about climate change, women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights. She did not say the word “Palestine.”

Coolidge made jokes about her manager trashing parts of her speech before commencement. She read part of what they told her to delete saying:

“When I think about your generation and I see all the wonderful things you’re doing, and how passionate and vocal you are and engaged you are about your futures — our future actually — it makes me feel so happy, because this is progress. Seriously, in all seriousness, we need you. And we need your strength, we need your truth.”
click to enlarge KALLIE COX Police keep a close eye on protestors near Wash U’s campus on the morning of commencment, May 13, 2024.

Protesting Outside the Fence

Ironically, during the ceremony Martin welcomed the class of 1974 to commencement as they celebrated their 50th anniversary. The majority of these students would have been freshmen in 1970, when Washington University became a flashpoint in protesting the war in Vietnam after students burned its ROTC building on May 5. (That act led to felony charges — and one activist going on the lam for years.)

Protesters this morning relied on speech, not fire.Dozens gathered on the four corners of the intersection of Big Bend and Forsyth just outside Wash U’s campus on Monday morning. Hundreds of cars and pedestrians passed them as they made their way to the ceremonies.

The activists were on the outside of the temporary fence enclosing the campus, but that didn’t stop them from raising their signs high above the barricades and calling on the university to divest from Boeing and disclose its financial ties with the company.

The protestors chanted and handed out fliers to those walking past, using megaphones and speakers while they held homemade banners and posters.

“Kill yourselves,” one passerby shouted at them while laughing and shoving a phone in their faces while walking with a group of parents and other students. “Bomb Palestine,” one man screamed from the window of his car before peeling off. The activists ignored them.

A little over an hour into commencement, police threatened to arrest protestors using voice amplifiers as commencement began, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Reporter Monica Obradovic reported from the scene. One person who was driving by and honking was detained.

Sarah Nixon, one of the protestors, tells RFT that in addition to divesting from Boeing, Wash U needs to disclose where its investments are going, and drop the charges against all of the protestors who have been arrested.

“I think some are like, ‘Why can’t you let us enjoy our graduation?’” Nixon says. “To that I say, ‘We wish that this is a moment that everyone can celebrate but we know that all 12 of Gaza’s universities have been destroyed, over 6,000 university students killed, over 100 professors — these were future aid workers, doctors, artists, who had every hope of getting to celebrate […] like our Wash U community, but instead they’re fighting for their lives.”

Earlier today, Democracy Now reported that the death toll in Gaza has exceeded 35,000 people, including more than 14,500 children.

Local News

17-Year-Old Girl Charged in Fatal MetroLink Station Shooting

Published

2 days ago

May 13, 2024

Natural Bridge

St. Louis Police have arrested a teenage girl that they say shot a woman to death on a crowded MetroLink platform on Saturday afternoon.The shooting took place at the DeBaliviere Avenue MetroLink station on Saturday, May 11, around 3:30 p.m. The platform is near Forest Park and the Missouri History Museum. The victim has been identified only as a Black female and is believed to be in her 20s. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department described the suspect only as a 17-year-old Black female. They say she was taken to a Juvenile Detention facility in St. Louis County, where she is being held on charges of Murder 2nd Degree and Armed Criminal Action.”Investigators were able to quickly identify a suspect in this case, aided by the robust surveillance system of Metro and the quick assistance provided by Metro Public Safety,” police reported in a statement. Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to call the Homicide Division directly at 314-444-5371, or anyone with a tip who wants to remain anonymous and is interested in a reward can contact CrimeStoppers at 866-371-TIPS (8477).As the RFT recently reported, the number of youth accused of homicide has more than tripled in the past decade, but still comprises less than one percent of all juvenile charges. Like the student charged in a near-fatal beating outside Hazelwood East, the teenager in this case will likely face a hearing where a judge will determine whether she should be tried as an adult.

Source link