By R&B (138.238.41.128) on Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 10:14 am:

I READ RECENTLY THAT IN THE EARLY 60'S,THE GREAT CHUCK BERRY WHILE PERFORMING IN FLINT DID SOME RECORDINGS WITH THE FUNK BROS.ANYONE KNOW IF IT'S TRUE?

By Davie Gordon (193.122.21.42) on Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 10:16 am:

First I've ever heard of it - I'm pretty dubious
about the claim

By Steve LItos (209.100.86.4) on Thursday, April 24, 2003 - 01:56 pm:

Bob Babbitt & Lynn Bruce backed him up in the mid-60's at a few club gigs, but then again Chuck Berry used to (still does) come into a town with just himself and his guitar. The rest of the band was provided by the promoter.

There's a good chance that some of the other Funk Brothers backed him up from time to time at the clubs, but I doubt there were any recordings.

In the Chuck Berry movie "Hail Hail Rock N' Roll", Bruce Springsteen tells a funny story (much like Lynn Bruce's) about having to back up Chuck Berry at a club one night in the late 60's/early 70's. Bruce had to look to the bass player (Gary Tallent ??) to figure out what key Chuck was playing in.

By Lynn Bruce (65.60.202.214) on Saturday, April 26, 2003 - 01:10 pm:

The problem with Chuck deciding to go the solo route was that for the next 40 (and still counting) years he has to keep playing the same songs of his over and over.
If he would have kept some side men with him at least they could try to work up something new once in a while.
He decided to go the extremly boring way.
It then gets like the assembly line,the same thing, day after day after day.

By douglasm (68.113.13.31) on Saturday, April 26, 2003 - 01:17 pm:

If I remember correctly, Chuck used The Wollies ("Who Do You Love")as his backing band in the mid-west, and they played with him enough that they generally got to know his material and did a pretty good job, unlike some other backing groups.
Correct?

By LTLFTC (12.210.76.205) on Saturday, April 26, 2003 - 03:07 pm:

Yeah, the Woolies played with Chuck for years. In fact their keyboardist Bob Baldori still plays with Chuck to this day; I think he's pretty much Chuck's regular piano player at this point - Bob was with him at the White House (CLinton-era) etc. I ran into Bob about a year ago and he told me he was trying to get Chuck up to his studio to do one more album , at least. Woolies guitarist Jeff Baldori falls into the "plays Chuck-style better than Chuck" category for sure.

Steve K